What is the Colorado River Leadership Program?
As someone who is currently participating in the program, I would describe it as a series of monthly classes about how our community works, with an emphasis on developing leaders within the community. The program is sponsored by the Colorado River Women’s Council. From their website:
Each year we sponsor a program that requires participants to attend one day a month for nine months to learn about the many facets of this community. Each month a new topic is covered – from Education to History. Each topic involves several speakers, usually a trip to some relative site, snacks and lunch – as well as the fun and camaraderie of other participants! This program is highly sought after and the slots fill up fast. The program begins in September each year and culminates in a graduation dinner.
As I said, I am going through the program now, with only a couple classes left until graduation. I have to admit I’ve had a bit of a struggle setting the time aside to attend, even though it is only one day a month, but I think it’s just a great program. I’ve learned things about the community that I never would have been exposed to under “normal” circumstances. For example, we spent one day with local judges learning about the court system, complete with a mock trial featuring Bullhead City Mayor, Jack Hakim, as the “defendant.”
Another day was devoted to local tourism, which was really an eye-opening experience considering how important tourists are to our local economy and how much work is involved supporting that industry.
Finally, I have to mention the very first outing in our series which was spent at the challenge course on the Kingman campus of Mohave Community College. That was a really fun way to bond with the group and develop a true sense of teamwork from the start. In addition to working as a team, we also got a few chances to “grow” as individuals. See below.
How big is your comfort zone?
Our most recent session, Media Day, was held this past Thursday in Laughlin at the Tropicana Express. Unfortunately I had to make an early exit to take my daughter to the doctor (diagnosis: bronchitis, but that’s another story). I did manage to snap a few photos on a proper camera before I left (as opposed to the pic above taken with my Treo).
Bullhead City Fire Dept Public Information Officer, Larry Tunforss
Bullhead City Police Dept Public Information Officer, Emily Montague
Mohave County Sherrif's Dept Public Information Officer, Trish Carter
Cox Cable's Vonda Pierce receives a gift from Larry Tunforss on behalf of Colorado River Leadership Program
Administrative Assistant to Mohave County Supervisor Tom Sockwell, Bonnie Nickles
As you can see, we were lucky enough to hear from a variety of speakers about working with the Media – and this was just the first half of the day!
Class Project: Operation Desert Stage
Every good class deserves a good class project and ours is Operation Desert Stage, which is the purchase of a mobile stage which will be available for use by schools, community organizations, the City of Bullhead City, and other community entities for any special. This is no small task, but our group is committed to making it happen.
Wanna help make it happen? We are literally building the website to support the effort at www.OperationDesertStage.com as we speak, so information will be showing up there over the next few days. In the meanwhile, give me a call, drop me an email, or stop by and find out what you can do to help us bring this great resource to our community.
Stay tuned…
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