The Leadership Lamar County Class of 2014-2015 met Thursday, March 12th at Love Civic Center. The Class objective was to provide deeper understanding, as potential board members of nonprofit and community organizations, of the essential skills and understanding needed to positively and effectively govern an organization.
The first speaker Mr. Robert High spoke of the Robert’s Rules of Order. He explained the Parliamentary Procedure and how important it is to have rules to conduct a successful meeting. His knowledge and experience of serving on many boards was much appreciated by the class.
The next speaker was Stephen Gerrald, (pictured below right) Financial Advisor at Edward Jones and also a current board member of Leadership Lamar County. He spoke on the Responsibilities and duties of a board member. He talked about the Importance of Good Governance. The essentials are risk management, governmental focus, making sure the organization is meeting its mission and vision and enjoyable experience. The class was told the secret of an engaged board is knowledge and impact.
Sarah Kaminar from Moore Law Firm conducted a session focused on Ethics and Accountability for non-profit organizations. She discussed with the class several case studies to show various situations and how they could be handled. The conclusion was, having a clearly written policy can help to avoid many of the ethical dilemmas facing non-profit organization.
The afternoon session was based on getting familiar with organizations in Lamar County. The class was involved in a speed networking session with numerous organizations where they could meet with each class member and tell them about their organization and their mission. The networking was a great way for class members to understand ways they could get involved with organizations and see which ones they may have a passion to support. This opened the door for them to take the next step with the education and training from the Leadership Lamar Co Class and use it in our community.
The Leadership Lamar County Class of 2014-15 would like to extend our appreciation to Lamar County Chamber of Commerce and to all the corporate partners of Leadership Lamar County for providing venues, consultants and other means of support. The 2014-2015 Leadership Lamar County sponsors include Campbell’s Soup, Century 21 Harvey Properties, Paris Regional Medical Center, Guaranty Bank & Trust, Harrison Walker & Harper, Peoples Bank, Norment & Landers Insurance, First Federal Community Bank, Edward Jones- Stephen Gerrald, and Lone Star Ag Credit.
For more information please contact the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce.