The Awareness Washington County Class of 2019 is off and running! The class is comprised of 23 diversified members, all of whom are connected to Washington County. We have had a great start to our servant leadership venture. The class first came together at the Spring Mill Inn for an overnight retreat September 13th and 14th. The class began learning about each other through a variety of gathering and team building exercises. The retreat also allowed the group to learn and share things about the wonderful community of Washington County. Each participant received a binder full of tools to help them on their servant leadership journey. One of the tools used at the retreat, the timeline, helped the group understand the history of our county and how local as well as national events shaped Washington County into the community it is today. Another tool used at the opening retreat was Learning, Thinking, Working Styles. This helped the class members start to understand themselves, how they take in information and what they do with it. More importantly, the class members reported it helped them to better understand co-workers, family members and members of boards on which they serve.
On the evening of October 4th the class met at City Hall for a scavenger hunt of Salem history. After the group completed the scavenger hunt the convened at City Hall for a discussion led by Anne Terrell and supper sponsored by Cheddar Depot. The class then met for a full day on October 25th at the Awareness building and started the day with discussion about how they had used tools learned at the opening retreat in their personal and work life. Then the class loaded onto a bus for a history tour of Washington County led by Drew Wright. Drew is a local attorney with a passion for history. Class members learned surprising facts about Washington County and some even learned new things about their own ancestors. It is very powerful to stand at a location a learn about events which happened there many decades prior.
The November class meeting will focus on learning more of the servant leadership capacities. It will also include an open discussion with an economic panel consisting of community members representing, county government, real estate, industry, small business, and agriculture.
The Awareness Washington County Board of Directors are excited to watch as this class develop there servant leadership skills and help to make Washington County a better place for generations to come.
