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Western Roundup

Oregon's CLA Janet Weidman held several workshops for Leader Applicants last fall. Janet reported that it helped speed up accreditation for several new Leaders.  Patchwork Pages, the Area Leader Letter has been published and distributed on a regular basis (quarterly). The Jan-Mar 08 issue included a survey that asked Leaders

1. to help identify needs they see in the area

2. to volunteer to fill Area positions and

3. for their input on a proposed decision-making body

4. for their input on decision-making method suggestions for the Area.

The proposed decision-making body, and methods for making decisions is this: final Area decisions will be made by the Area Decision Circle, which shall consist of seven Leaders. The Area Decision Circle will consult with the other Leaders in the Area and hold open meetings and online discussions. Decisions made by the Area Decision Circle will be made by consensus.

Leaders were asked for their comments on this idea, who should serve in the Decision Circle, and how these Leaders should be chosen. The Area hopes to schedule some Leader workshops this year.

Idaho is proud to be a small and very independent Area.  A Leader Day is scheduled for June. Five new Leaders were accredited in the last six months, and for Idaho, this is a HUGE number. Several Leaders also retired recently.

Montana held an Area Workshop in November of 2007, and they brought in Deirdre Knowles, Communication Skills Instructor, to facilitate Communication Skills (CS) Sessions.

“The sessions were superb,” reports LeeAnn Swain, Area Coordinator of Leaders (ACL)!  Lee Ann also wants you to know that Deirdre is willing to travel and may be available to teach CS sessions in your Area.

Many Montana Leaders had not had access to Communication Skills training and most had never had Session 3. CS 1, CS 2, and CS 3 sessions were offered over the weekend. Leaders who live long distances from the training location especially enjoyed the "sleep- over" aspect of the weekend, and being with other Leaders.  In fact, they enjoyed it so much that they requested another "slumber party" for the Spring Workshop.

The LLL of Montana Spring Workshop took place April 19 & 20 at a Leader's ranch in western Montana. The day focused on LLL and technology, as the Area includes a number of Leaders who don’t currently have Internet access in their homes and want more information before deciding to connect their home computers to the Internet.  Other sessions highlighted the LLLI website, the Community Network (CN), and the 50th Anniversary LLLI Conference in Chicago.

Other good news from Montana is that a new Group has recently started in Helena, the state capital!

Colorado/Wyoming has completely restructured the Leader Department and the District Advisor (DA) system. DAs are now Associate Area Coordinators of Leaders (AACLs) and they support Leaders based on the Leader's preferred form of communication rather than on their location. The Leader chooses an AACL based on whether she prefers email support, telephone support, traditional mail support, etc. With the implementation of this new structure, the chapter and district designations will fall away. This is a huge geographical Area and the Leader Department wants the Leaders from northern Wyoming to receive the same kind of support given to the Leaders in metro Denver..

Another addition to the Leader Department is the new Sister Support System which matches an incoming Leader (newly accredited or move-in) with a more experienced Leader. In an ideal situation, the new Leader will receive this buddy support for two years. The goal is to connect Leaders across this very large Area; retaining Leaders who may feel like they are tired of Group work but aren't ready to retire; retain Leaders that the Area doesn’t want to lose to retirement; and help new Leaders acclimate as they gain experience.

A very successful Health Care Professional Seminar was held in October, 2007. In fact, it was so successful that the Area plans to host a similar event every October. A Parenting Conference is scheduled for Mother's Day Weekend in Estes Park, CO and will feature Dr. Bob Sears as one of the speakers.

CO/WY held a Leader Enrichment "Pamper the Leader" Day on Feb 3rd in Denver and it was well attended with over 30 Leaders present.  

Utah held an April 12 Workshop at the home of ACL Kathy Grossman. For this small Area, holding an all-Area workshop is a huge deal. The goals of the Area are to continue to be active in the Utah Breastfeeding Coalition and continue to hold workshops in the Area.

Kansas held a Leader Day in April of this year.  The event included the debut of a newly designed Area web page.  A Leader’s husband, who does freelance web design, was hired to create the new site.  An Area Conference is planned for October, 2008, featuring Dr. Bob Sears. A Continuing Education day for Health Care Providers, followed by a Leader day with the same speaker, will be held in spring, 2009.

Their Area Agreements are in the final stages and Leaders are talking about ratifying the agreements and creating procedures to implement them.

The Area gave $200 "grants" to any Group with 100% reporting for a 6-month period in 2008 to encourage Leaders to fulfill this requirement of leadership. Several Leader Days held in 2007 included Communication Skills (CS) sessions and Leader Applicant Workshops, which allowed Applicants to concentrate on a variety of their work with many different Leaders helping for a large block of time. These went well and will be incorporated in future Leader Days.

Indiana will hold a CE day in May and the Area is considering holding another small Area Conference sometime in the Fall. Three successful Area Workshops were held in the Fall of 2007.  

Southern California/Nevada has revised the District Workshops (DW) for this year. Given that this Area is skipping their annual Area Conference this year, they are trying to have a vamped up DW.  There will be four workshops, rather than one in each of the eight Districts, with the aim that Leaders will cross those invisible District boundaries to meet with each other. The PLD has worked really hard to put together one presentation, which should take most off the day. And will be focus on how to help mothers right out of the hospital with breastfeeding problems.

Arizona held a Leader Day early in 2008. With a title of "Back to Basics," the focus was on Communication Skills, New Meeting Ideas, Medical and Technical questions and phone helping skills. Leaders also learned about the LLLI Informational Database, the Area website, Tiered memberships and USWD Team08 (in Phoenix) and the Area Conference in August featuring Dr. Bob Sears! Two Chapters in the Area have started to use the Breastfeeding Cafe (featured in LEAVEN) as a new meeting format.
 
Texas: Late in January the ADCs met. Prior to the meeting all members of the team read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lenconi, and they each took the quiz at the end of the book to determine where the team is and where it needs to go. Some of this was difficult because three ADCs are new to the team, but they did look at the strengths and skills or areas to "work on" for their ADC Team. The ADCs also took a modified version of the Myers-Briggs personality test. Using the book Type Talk, they addressed how people with different personality types approach projects differently and how each type brings different strengths to a team. These exercises took much of the morning together and, yet, started them off on the afternoon's work with a firm foundation. In the afternoon, they looked at their Area's financial situation, developed an Area mission statement, and set both short and long term goals for the Area. It was a very busy day.