Adventures in Community Leadership Training:
Early Efforts, New Initiatives
By Chris Sramek, OC Board Member, Atwood, Kansas
Back in 2006, Rawlins County, Kansas initiated a Community Leadership Training Program, through assistance and training from Ogallala Commons. Those efforts built a foundation for a stronger leadership training initiative in the fall 2008, with consultation Rawlins County leaders and our local HTC - KHP Leadership Team, The group began planning a Community Leadership Program which included content from S. Covey’s book, Speed ofTrust, and integrated portions of the adaptive leadership framework from the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC). The program’s design was to link community youth linked to adult members, to provide relationship building and mentoring opportunities between generations, and provide a more challenging extension of previous community leadership programs. The program would engage participation and cross generational dialog with others in the community through an interview process. The original goal was to start the new Leadership Program in the fall of 2009, with a $1,000 grant obtained from Atwood Second Century, but scheduling to the school calendar and planning challenges delayed the start until the fall of 2010.
Here are the main goals of our Speed of Trust Community Leadership Program:
- 1. Work on community trust building: Based on J. Williams’s surveys in 2007, trust was identified as a central issue in the community slowing development progress.
- 2. Connect older and younger community members: Based on the HTC - KHP youth assessment
completed in 2008, youth engagement and involvement was identified to be a significant concern.
- 3. Build leadership capacity: Building stronger, more competent leaders is a key factor in being an even more successful community in the future.
- 4. Engage more leaders: Major community challenges require more ideas, input and assistance
from a broader segment of our community than ever before.
Program invitations were mailed to 20 high school youth leaders and 40 adult community leaders with the intent of having an equal representation of youth and adults of varying ages in the program. The first Speed of Trust class had 16 enrolled in session 1 in September 2010 and 14 graduated in session 4 in November. The program consisted of (4) two hour working sessions held in the new RCHS band – concessions addition and homework assigned was to conduct 2 to 3 community interviews and various readings from S. Covey’s book and KLC curriculum.
In session 1, the class was paired into youth and adult partners based on outcomes of a Color’s personality mapping exercise, and then partners chose community members of various ages with whom to conduct an interview. Ten community assessment questions were assigned to be used in the interviews. In session 2, the class discussed and analyzed the responses from 36 interviews, and then prioritized the issues and outcomes to importance to them. In session 3, the class dug deeper into the core issues from the interviews using KLC technical vs. adaptive diagnoses and S Covey’s 13 Trust Competencies. Then they choose the key youth leadership issue of “Getting youth opinions and involvement in community decision making” and diagnosed it deeper. In session 4, class partners made interpretations and observations from another community stakeholder’s perspective on the youth leadership dilemma, using KLC technical vs. adaptive diagnoses and S Covey’s 13 Trust Competencies. The community stakeholders considered where government, school, business, health, families, youth, middle age, elders, ag community and rural County residents north and south. When diagnosis was completed the class discussed several experiments or interventions they could do as a class to fix the dilemma. They also discussed the choice to do nothing, because the issue was too big to make change. To conclude, the class evaluated likes, dislikes and the effectiveness of the program meeting original goals and had a graduation pizza party.
The course had three main outcomes:
- 1. The class wants to participate in two more sessions this spring to: 1. Work on including
leadership curriculum in the class room and 2. Include more KLC and SOT content.
- 2. The program should be repeated next Fall and Spring with a more diverse group.
- 3. Individual interest in KLC training in Wichita and the Ogallala Commons Summer Internship program.
Regional Meetings Bolster Internships
By Darryl Birkenfeld
Ogallala Commons recently conducted three regional meetings with partners in our Community Internship Program. On Nov. 16th, Darryl Birkenfeld traveled to Atwood, KS to meet with partners from Western Kansas and Nebraska. Similar meetings were conducted by OC Education Coordinator Julie Hodges and Darryl at Clarendon Community College in Clarendon, TX on Nov. 28th and at Abernathy City Hall in Abernathy, TX on Dec. 2nd. Those who attended these meetings included: County Judges, business owners, high school teachers, Community College faculty, community leaders, and personnel from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Texas AgriLife Extension Service.
A key outcome of the morning meetings was to obtain feedback from partners regarding the benefits of Community Internships, and the challenges that need to be dealt with and improved upon to build successful internships. Another main outcome was to provide information and new tools to partners, in order to help them recruit capable candidates and build realistic work plans to engage the interns. After a lunch break, the afternoon session was spent reviewing the OC Community Internship Guidebook, so that partners would have a more comprehensive understanding of the main elements of the program.
In the aftermath of these meetings, OC received helpful comments and some new pathways for recruiting new partners to support Community Internships. Besides giving information, the meetings allowed partners to meet and interact with one another, re-igniting the enthusiasm it takes to build and sustain internships. Above all, the gatherings were about making sure that our partners are equipped to work with us to support the 40 Community Internships that we expect in 2011!
Community Internship Partners from Texas share ideas at the meeting in Abernathy (l to r): Morgan Dezendorf, High Plains Food Bank, Amarillo; Clay Wimmer, 2010 Community Intern from Abernathy; David Graf, Texas AgriLife Extension Agent from Tulia; Lydia Villanueva, Director of CASA del Llano in Hereford; Mark Castillo, Spanish Teacher from Hart High School; and Fr. Ken Keller, pastor of Holy Family Church in Nazareth.2010—Ogallala Commons Best Year Ever!
By Darryl Birkenfeld
Starting a nonprofit with a mission targeting parts of 8 states is an ambitious undertaking. Can it truly be done? In the years 2003-2008, Ogallala Commons had to work through building an identity and overcoming limitations. Now we are finding our niche, and 2010 can be remembered as the pivotal year when OC really turned a corner. Here is a list of several highlights of our banner year:
First, OC was greatly aided and dramatically improved by the work of Julie Hodges. During her 6 month internship from January to July, Julie designed a new OC website, helped conduct 5 Conservation Education Days, while working on the Southern Plains Conference and 2 Local Food Field Days. Julie also completed the materials and interpretative panel for the opening of the Playa Classroom. Just as important, Julie created our Community Interns Blog, a year-round, real-time resource for our interns spread across five states. During her succeeding 6 months as OC Education Coordinator, she coordinated 14 Playa Festivals in Texas and New Mexico (check out the Playa Festival blog:http://playafestival.blogspot.com/ ), in addition to designing guidebooks, brochures, and flyers.
Second, OC established a significant education outreach in 2010. After years with only a few annual events, OC now offers monthly education events that included Youth Engagement Days, teacher trainings, youth entrepreneur fairs, conservation education for landowners, intern orientations, tours, and Playa Festivals at school sites—all told, 30 educational events that instructed over 2,500 attendees in one year, the most ever!
Third, OC grew another vital part of its mission: fostering a sense of place. Our commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of Black Sunday and the Dust Bowl at the Southern Plains Conference was certainly a highlight for the 150 who attended. Our illustration of 12 Key Assets of Commonwealth of Ogallala Commons resonated with hundreds of people who viewed it on our website or saw it as part of our “Treatise on the Commons” that was published on the website: On The Commons (to read the treatise, link on this link:http://www.onthecommons.org/content.php?id=2749). A growing number of communities are learning about the commonwealth embedded in the unique landscapes, cultures, and stories that form their sense of place.
Fourth, through our evolving Community Internship Program, OC is actually building resilient communities. In 2010, OC and its community and institution partners created 33 internships in Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska. These interns added tremendous value to their communities and institutions, while developing their skills and gaining work experience. These interns also learned much more about their hometowns, and were able to explore career options that can bring them back in the future. In 2010 alone, OC interns earned $65,000 in stipends from their work experiences, contributed 330 hours of community service, earned 27 hours of college and graduate credit, and submitted over 200 blog entries and 600 photos through the OC Community Intern Blog (www.ogallalaintern.blogspot.com). By year’s end, OC community building work of engaging youth and creating community internships was recognized in the December newsletter of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship.
Thanks to all our partners for making the vision of reinvigorating the commonwealth grow into reality. Finally, OC would not have had a banner year without the committed work and insights of our Board of Directors and Advisory Council. With your continued involvement and support, we look forward to 2011!
My First Official Year with Ogallala Commons
By Julie Hodges
When it came time for me to find a place to do my internship, Ogallala Commons seemed a natural fit. First of all, it operates in my home - a place with landscapes, history, culture and other “heritagey” things that I am passionate about preserving. Second, the people associated with OC are interesting, talented and inspiring. And to top things off, it was a place where I could use my skill, training and talents to do something good and not be trapped in a windowless basement in the process!!
I was honored and excited in June when Darryl asked me to stay on with Ogallala Commons not as an intern, but as the Education Coordinator.
Throughout my internship and as OC’s Education Coordinator, I have worked harder, more passionately, with earlier and later hours, and on the most diverse set of projects than I have ever encountered at any other job in my life. I have done much of this from my home office. However, I have also traveled a total of 7,683 miles to 19 communities in 4 states, given my “how to id birds” talk over 50 times, introduced 1,500 students to the idea of nature journaling, read over, reviewed, graded or logged in over 3500 assessments, surveys, evaluations and questionnaires, given 5 big presentations (“big” means presentations to large groups of grownups at meetings where jeans were not appropriate), helped to coordinate 31 community internships in 6 states, managed 3 blogs, overhauled one website, completed an outdoor classroom, written one grant and a couple of grant reports, attended countless meetings, upgraded my cell phone to the “unlimited plan”, etc.
Julie Hodges and Jason Hodges in Taos, NM after the wedding!
Stewarding Natural Resources,
A letter from the Education Coordinator…
2010 was an exceptional year for Playa Festivals and other Ogallala Commons (OC) environmental education efforts. Here are a few highlights:
We conducted a total of 5 Conservation Education Days throughout the panhandle of Texas during the early spring of 2010. These events were similar to past events where we train teachers and educators before they host a Playa Festival. The 2010 twist was to invite landowners to learn alongside and network with educators over a meal. We offered a delicious lunch, intriguing presentations on playas, the Ogallala Aquifer and federal programs for playa conservation as well as a unique opportunity to mingle. Through all 5 of these Conservation Education Days, Ogallala Commons educated a total of 68 teachers and landowners. The events were a great success, reaching a new group and continuing to energize area educators.
On June 8th of this year, OC opened the world’s first Playa Classroom, an outdoor education center with interpretive panels, classroom space, rainwater harvesting, a xeric garden--- all set along the edge of a 20-acre playa in Nazareth, Texas. Dubbed as “A place to see, touch and experience a prairie wetland,” the Playa Classroom was visited by an estimated 400 people of all ages.
The Playa Classroom was the site for Ogallala Commons’ first-ever Playa Management Field Day on August 20th. The Field Day was attended by 45 people—NRCS staff, OC interns, and 17 landowners! Of those 17 landowners, 14 reported one or more playas on their properties, and based on the acreage estimate that they wrote down in the surveys, our Field Day education presentations can potentially impact the management of 445 acres of playa basins.
September and October 2010 were busy months for Ogallala Commons and the wonderful folks that help us put on Playa Festivals. This past fall we bravely dove head first into 7 weeks of full calendars, logging hundreds of miles on pavement and dirt roads, criss-crossing the Southern High Plains with binoculars and journals in hand. All in all, over 1,500 5th graders, their teachers and communities were engaged in hands-on learning through 14 Festivals. We also created the Playa Festival Blog – check it out - http://playafestival.blogspot.com/ and a Playa Festival Web Page!! – check it out too! - http://www.ogallalacommons.org/playafestival.html
Coming in 2011…
We have a few things up our sleeves for 2011 including:
- 1. A Playa Trunk full of resources for educators
- 2. A Video about Playa Festivals that will make you smile
- 3. Even more Playa Festivals than last year!!!!!
- 4. Playa Classroom expansion and additions
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