A Message From The Leadership South Dakota Directors
The third year of the Leadership South Dakota program is ending. We are now preparing for our fourth year and are in our recruitment phase.
While we have been happy with the progress of the Leadership SD program, we know that the program could be even stronger. In addition to program planning, we need help with a deep discussion about how to engage our growing group of alumni in the future. Last year, we held our first Leadership South Dakota Advisory Council meeting. The Council consisted of the following members: a representative from each of our Corporate Sponsors and Representatives from our past classes (2014-2015 & 2015-2016).
The plan would be to convene the Advisory Council again this year for a face to face meeting in Chamberlain. We will plan to add representatives from our 2016-2017 class. In addition to the meeting in June, we would communicate with the Council members on any specific program plans and would invite Council members to join us for our program weekends in their respective areas of the state.
Our Advisory Council meeting will be held in June. The proposed topics that will be discussed are below.
- Review the 2016-2017 program year
- Discuss program plans for 2017-2018
- Plan Alumni Event – September 7th
- Discuss orientation activities for the 2017-2018 class
- Review Leadership SD policies
- Discuss Sponsorship Program
- Discuss Alumni Activities
If you would be interested in serving as an Advisory Council member for the 2017-2018 year, please contact Roshal at leadershipsdalumni@gmail.com. We will attempt to include as many alumni as possible, but cannot guarantee that everyone who is interested will be included on the Council. Also, it is likely that many of our Corporate Sponsors will select Leadership SD alumni to be their representative on the Council. Thank you for your participation in Leadership South Dakota and for your support of this important work. We look forward to hearing from you!
Melmers & Osters
Leadership SD Directors
Leadership SD Class of 2017: Overview Of Recent Sessions
The program weekend in Kyle was originally scheduled for February 23-25, but had to be rescheduled to April 24-25 due to inclement weather. The Class of 2017 will meet in Sioux Falls on March 30-April 1. The graduation banquet will be held on March 31 at the Museum of Visual Arts and Governor Dennis Daugaard will be the guest speaker for the evening.
Leadership South Dakota Alumni Updates And Celebrations
Nikki Gronli (‘16) will be speaking at the NTCA Marketing Conference in San Diego, May 2. She will host two sessions on Your Cyber Team at Work in the Community.
Mary DeVany (’15) is now serving as the Director of Telehealth for Nebraska Medicine in Omaha.
Laura Schoen Carbonneau (‘16) celebrated her 10th anniversary as CEO of the Pierre Area Chamber of Commerce last August.
Jennifer Schmidtbauer (‘15) won a local election for Supervisor of Split Rock Township in March. There are over 6,000 people living in this township, and because it is located between Sioux Falls and Brandon, it is one of the fastest-growing in the state. It was a close race, with only a 6 vote margin, illustrating how every vote counts!
William Bushee (‘16) was re-elected President of the non-profit Health Connect of South Dakota. Code Bootcamp of SD and the Sioux Falls Diversity Council has received an $11k grant from AT&T to expand our Gaming Bootcamp program into Native American communities this summer.
Tom Schmidt (‘15) married Sherry Larson on March 10, 2017.
Mark Millage (‘15) was one of five people recently appointed by the Sioux Falls City Council to the 2017 Districting Commission. The Districting Commission is required by city charter due to the recently announced increase in the city’s population of over 15% since the last redistricting in 2011. The Districting Commission will begin meeting in April to review and revise boundaries of the city’s five Council districts.