HAMLET — Former graduates of Leadership Richmond met Wednesday at the Richmond County Cole Auditorium for a planning session to go over programming for this year’s Leadership Richmond participants.
Created by the Richmond County Chamber in 1994, Leadership Richmond aims to mold business and industry professionals into strong local leaders. Through the program, participants gain confidence, knowledge, professionalism and strong leadership skills they can bring back to their place of employment, according to the Chamber of Commerce website.
Registration for Leadership Richmond is currently open. Emily Tucker, president of the Chamber, said there are full and half scholarship opportunities available with a limited amount of half scholarships for deserving non-profits. To sign up for the 2019-2020 session, email Kayla Fesperman at kayla@RichmondCountyChamber.com or call the Chamber at 910-895-9058. There is also information available on the chamber website for registration.
Tucker said the leadership program is a great way to expose residents of Richmond County to things within their community that they might not have known about. LR has a goal of reaching 25 participants this year, she said.
“We go into industries to do site tours … we do agricultural tours to tour farming industries and educational tours,” said Tucker adding that the participants are also exposed them to the “political process” and how to serve on a board, which some employers may want them to do.
During Wednesday’s meeting, co-chairs of the planning board Samantha King and Taylor Satterfield, recent graduates of LR who were nominated to head this year’s programming, helped assign others to different sessions they would be in charge of.
“I’m looking forward to sharing what we learned from everyone else to the new participants,” said Satterfield.
Last year, participants took several tours in areas including economic development, education, classroom/industry, government and public policy, healthcare and agriculture. Previous companies the groups have toured include Perdue, Duke Energy, the Cooperative Extension and many other places.
Satterfield, a native to Richmond County and an account manager in corporate communications with First Health, said the tours exposed her to companies and places that she didn’t know about growing up. She said she applies what she learned through the program to her job.
“I gained a better appreciation for things,” she said.
“It’s a better appreciation for the area and learning how (industries) connect and work together,” added King.
