Important Workshop Change

PERSONAL NOTE from TIM LAUTZENHEISER:

We were planning to bring the student leadership workshops to end either in 2006 or 2007. After a wonderful tour that started last August, combined with many great conversations with countless directors, we have decided to try a different format rather than simply bringing 25 years of workshops to a halt. This new blueprint will require a bit more involvement from YOU in the selection of those who will be participating.

THE NEW PARAMETERS...and WHY:

The maximum number of students each program can enroll in each workshop will be 10. This will afford the presented curriculum to embrace more engaging hands-on experiences with the participants. Each participant will receive a copy of the new student leadership workbook and this will be a crucial part of the seminar's agenda. Each workshop site will have a maximum capacity for total enrollment and registration will be on a first come, first serve basis.

Simply put, a smaller group of SELECT STUDENT LEADERS creates more possibilities of developing a collective synergy that will have a lasting imprint on their own future and those they will be working with along the way. This is not about CONVINCING PEOPLE TO BECOME LEADERS, but rather SERIOUS TRAINING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY CHOSEN TO BE LEADERS. This is going to be incredibly fast moving and it will require complete "buy-in" from the get-go.

Primarily 11th and 12th graders should be the make-up of the workshop. These should be students who already demonstrate a high degree of positive participation, proactive role models, and those who exemplify a healthy open-minded attitude. We are going to DIG MUCH DEEPER than we have in the past, and there will not be any room for those who might be timid or ambivalent.

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE DIRECTOR/TEACHER/SPONSOR:

In most cases a school would have 8 - 10 (maximum) individuals who fit into group of student leaders. We are asking the directors/teachers/sponsors to select the candidates with this consideration, "WHO IS REALLY READY TO TAKE ON THIS IMPORTANT TASK?" It would be unfair to a student to be in the group if they did not bring to the table a sense of personal maturity and the desire to serve others as the foundation to their leadership spirit.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I have witnessed certain signs about the possibilities of collective energy throughout the years; it is extraordinary when it happens, and those students involved go back to their schools with creative new insights about the possibilities within their own environments.

So rather than simply shut down the workshop series, we are going to give this new format a try. Honestly I think this could open a new landscape of opportunities for those students who are ready to take a bold step forward along their chosen pathway-of-leadership-excellence.

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