Leading in Austin

Published 6:00 am Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Commencement came last week for the 22 graduates of the third annual Leadership Austin experience.

Today, the participants in the educational venture by the Austin Area Chamber of Commerce and Riverland Community College are making a difference in the work place and the community.

From “A” for Marijo Alexander to “Z” for Miguel Zarate, the women and men spent nine months honing skills and absorbing knowledge that will improve the qualify of life in Austin.

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Doug Parr, a Riverland business development specialist, led the first Leadership Austin session in August 2008 and the last at Austin Country Club April 9.

“The program is getting stronger each year,” Parr said of Leadership Austin. “I wouldn’t say the participant group is particularly different, but they’re getting more out of it.”

“We’re finding ways of making it work better,” Parr said.

“One of the things we’ve done year is we have included more and more focus on ‘leadership’ itself as a topic,” Parr said. “In the program participants study both leadership as a topic and various systems in the community to demonstrate that.”

The age range of the 2009-09 participants was broad: 24 to 50.

Parr said the last day of the program was the “most powerful.”

“That’s when the participants begin to synthesize their thoughts and feelings about the program and bring it all together and make presentations where you discover how much has been gained,” Parr said.

Eight months long, more than 100 individual presentations from community leaders on specific topics and the regular class sessions tested the participants.

Aimee Sheehan, who works at Cooperative Response Center in Austin, successfully completed the program.

“I definitely think it was a good experience,” Sheehan said. “I’m fairly new to the community so its nice to have doors opened and backgrounds addressed to help me.”

“I like that it focused on your leadership strengths and I learned that all leadership styles are good styles. That’s what I will take back to my work,” Sheehan said.

Another Leadership Austin, Alma Cotter, is a Spanish interpreter for the Mower County public health and human services department.

“I have lived in Austin for about 15 years and just when I thought I knew everything about Austin, going to Leadership Austin has opened the door to so much more. A wealth of information, in fact.”

Cotter is a volunteer for the Mower County chapter of the American Red Cross. She expects her Leadership Austin experience to help her implement Spanish-language CPR training classes.

According to Sandy Forstner, executive director of the Austin Area Chamber of Commerce, 65 people have not completed the course-work in the program’s three-year existence.

The 2008-09 Leadership Austin graduates included: Marijo Alexander, Andrea Barrera, Jason Baskin, Alma Cotter, Roberta Czaplewski, Gary Gavin, Todd Hepler, Daniel Hirst, Sarah L. Iverson, Brian Lillis, David McKichan, Shelly K. Metcalf, Marisa Nagele, Ruth Neil, Brian Pickavance, Claude Pulliam, Aimee Sheehan, Kari S. Swigerd, Eric Vaughn, John Wiedenhef and Miguel Zarate.

According to Forstner, the Chamber has applications available for potential 2009-10 participants.

The partnership between the Chamber and Riverland will continue, he also indicated.

For more information, about Leadership Auction contact the Chamber at 507 437-4561.