Image: Image for News Item: Bird Island, Buffalo Lake, Hector residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat
Bird Island, Buffalo Lake, Hector residents complete Blandin Community Leadership Program retreat
Grand Rapids, Minn. — Twenty-two residents of the Bird Island, Buffalo Lake and Hector areas returned February 1 from a five-day leadership retreat, the first segment of an intense eight-day training provided by the Blandin Community Leadership Program (BCLP). The team also will participate in follow-up workshops in May and July 2013.
A program of the Grand Rapids-based Blandin Foundation, BCLP has provided experiential leadership training for more than 6,000 community leaders from more than 425 rural Minnesota communities since it began in 1985. This is the first time local residents have participated in the BCLP leadership program.
Local residents participating in this training were:
Carrie Ahlbrecht, Garrett Backes, Brad Baumgardt, Jason Berg, Patrick Callahan, John Dotson, Doug Erickson, Shannon Hansen, Barbara Hoyhtya, Marc Iverson, Janine Kramer, Jon Koeberl, Diane Mitchell, Joyce Nyhus, Julie Osterfeld, Julie Pederson, Randy Pederson, Julie Sander, Kara Scharmer, Nate Scharmer, Trish Sheehan, Annie Tepfer
The goal of the Blandin Community Leadership Program is to develop and train a broad base of local leaders to build healthy communities. Topics covered during the retreat included: identifying and describing community issues and opportunities, effective interpersonal communication, building social capital, appreciating personality differences, managing interpersonal conflict, understanding community power, mobilizing community resources, and goal setting.
“A healthy community depends on leadership engagement of community members,” said Valerie Shangreaux, director of Blandin leadership programs. “The leadership demonstrated by these participants reflects their commitment to their community, as well as to the region and to rural Minnesota.”
BCLP training programs are funded entirely by the Blandin Foundation, whose mission is to strengthen rural Minnesota communities, especially the Grand Rapids area.
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Photo caption – Bird Island, Buffalo Lake, Hector
Participants in BCLP training January 28 – February 1 included:
Top row Left: Joyce Nyhus, Vic Klimoski (trainer), Randy Pederson, Nate Scharmer, Jon Koeberl
Middle Row Left: Carrie Ahlbrecht, Jason Berg, Garrett Backes, Patrick Callahan, Julie Osterfeld, Julie Pederson, Julie Sander, Brad Baumgardt, John Dotson, Roxanne DeLille (trainer)
Front Row Left: Annie Tepfer, Janine Kramer, Kara Scharmer, Shannon Hansen, Doug Erickson, Trish Sheehan, Marc Iverson, Barbara Hoyhtya, Diane Mitchell, Michele Rinne (observer)