President's Perspective

Leadership Retreat 2005

Doug McCloud
2005 President

During our Leadership Retreat last month, your CBR Officers, Directors and 2005 Committee Chairs gathered together at Cherry Valley Lodge to discuss plans for the coming year.

After addressing parliamentary procedure, meeting management and antitrust issues, we got down to our 2005 programming.

CBR currently has 29 committees. And each of the committee chairs presented their goals for the year. Then, the entire group provided input on their plans and/or suggestions for new programs or projects.

From the evaluations, this session was the most valuable. I think that's due to three reasons:

• It educates leadership on what is planned throughout the board for 2005
• It allows all leaders the opportunity to brainstorm board programming
• It allows committee chairs to gather input from other leaders outside their own committee.

During dinner that evening, we enjoyed a live troupe murder mystery show. Brian Kemp was the only one who figured out `who dunnit'.

The next morning, we ended the retreat with a fun and humorous presentation by John Petz. He used humor and a little magic to address communication skills and running effective meetings.

All in all, I think everyone left that day with a clearer plan for the year as well as a broader perspective of the board and all that it provides through its volunteers, staff and many, many extraordinary leaders.