Several years ago, District 5110 was having great difficulty finding individuals who were willing to take on the challenge of being District Governor or to serve in other District leadership positions.   Sometimes we had only one or two candidates each year seek the office and even though all did a fine job serving as club president, we knew that we had many qualified Rotarians in the District who were not showing any interest in the DG's position or any other District level office.  We knew we had to do something to change this. Then DGE David Horn came up with the idea based on a discussion with PDG Jim Andrews from District 6780 in Tennessee, a "Leadership Academy" program.  David obtained their curriculum and got as much information as he could about their program and began to put together a plan to implement a similar program in District 5110 during his year as District Governor (1998-99).

A committee was established to work on the development of the program, its format, its content, and recommend who the "faculty" members would be.  PDG Gary Campbell, a member of the Greater Corvallis Rotary Club, agreed to be the first Dean of the Academy. The program that was finally decided upon was as follows:

1.     There would be one Leadership Academy class per year beginning with the 1998-1999 Rotary year.

2.     The Academy Program would be year-long  (beginning in October and ending in May)

3.     The curriculum would consist of six separate courses:

a.     Electronic Communications for the District and the Clubs

b.     Rotary International and District Organization

c.     Club Service and Membership

d.     Vocational and Community Service

e.     International Service:  The Programs of  The Rotary Foundation

f.      International Service:  World Community Service and Humanitarian Grants

4.     All courses would be taught on a "correspondence" basis, there would be no actual "classroom time".

5.     There would be one course per month (beginning on October 1) and ending with the final Course being delivered on April 1 (with no course work during December)

6.     Each course would be "taught" by a separate faculty member and the students would have one month in which to complete each course.

7.     Initially, faculty members would be drawn from PDG's with the exception of the courses on Electronic Communications and International Service: World Community Service and Humanitarian Grants which would be taught by the two individuals considered to be the District's "experts" in these two subjects

8.     Each course would have an exam that must be completed and returned to the Instructor by the end of the month.

9.     In order to graduate, all students would initially be required to attend the following District events:

a.     The District TRF and WCS Seminar (MANDATORY)

b.     The District Assembly (now Mandatory)

c.     The Annual mid-year Advisory Committee Meeting (Now Mandatory)

d.     The District Conference including a half-day "Seminar and  Wrap-up" session to be held the day before the start of the District Conference (MANDATORY)

e.     The Graduation Banquet and Ceremony

10.           Each student would be provided with a complete set

        of printed Rotary materials to be used for all of the above courses (with the exception of the Electronic Communications course, which had no "official RI" materials. The curriculum for Electronic Communications would be completely developed by the Instructor).

11.           In order to be eligible for the Academy students must be either a current or past president of a Rotary Club.  (This was changed the second year.  Eligibility is now limited to Past Presidents only.)

12.           Individuals could be nominated for participation in the Academy by their club, the DG, or a PDG (This was changed the second year. Students may now be nominated by a Club President, the DG, a PDG, or other District Officer / Leader).

Initially, it was decided to limit the class to a maximum of 20 participants. With the above program outline in place, the Faculty was selected and given initial materials based on the Tennessee program which they then adapted and expanded to fit the needs of the District 5110 Leadership Academy.  We began talking about the Leadership Academy at our Pre-PETS meeting in January 1998 and did so in the District Newsletter and all major meetings through the end of the Rotary year.  On July 1, when David Horn took office as District Governor, a formal letter was sent to all of the clubs once more outlining the Leadership Academy and requesting nominations for the inaugural class. That first year, we received exactly 20 nominations.  PDG Gary Campbell was the Academy's first dean and held the position for three years.

On July 1, 2001 PDG David Horn took over as Dean of the Leadership Academy. In August, he and the LA Faculty held a planning meeting for the 2002 Academy year.  It was agreed that the mid-year Annual Governor’s Advisory Committee Meeting weekend would be an excellent time to hold the additional meeting that the students of previous years had asked for.  However, we did not want it to be like the final seminar meeting which is a discussion of the various areas of the curriculum.  Instead, we wanted this meeting to add to the overall experience and give them even more leadership training beyond the “book learning.”

In 2002 there was an additional requirement added to the "qualifications" for nomination.  All students must have personal email and must be connected to the Internet.  The reason for this is that this year, with the exception of the Rotary International printed materials that will be provided to the students, all of the other course work and materials will be available only on the District 5110 Leadership Academy web site. District 5110 was the first district to go fully "electronic" in terms of communications and publishing almost six years ago and it's been that way since. We feel that any of our students (future district leaders) who is not fully "connected" will miss out on a great deal and not be effective in his/her leadership position

 It was the success that we experienced in this district with the use of the Internet and Electronic Communications that captured PRIP Frank Devlyn’s attention and was one of the reasons he asked Harriett Schloer (our Leadership Academy Webmaster) to work for him during the year before and after his presidency. 

Our Annual Governor’s Advisory Committee meeting is a 2-day event, held in January. The students attend the Friday evening banquet and then on Saturday morning right after the breakfast and business meeting, a 2-hour Leadership Academy training workshop is held.  The Workshop is designed to provide a program that will be of interest and useful to the students as they become district leaders.

Each year, at the final half-day seminar and wrap-up session prior to our District Conference, we have asked the students to critique the overall Academy and the final seminar event.  Without exception everyone felt the experience had been extremely worthwhile and only wished they had had the opportunity for something similar BEFORE they became President.  And, they all agreed that the best part of the LA had been the final day wrap up session and wished that they could have had at least one other face-to-face meeting about half way through the year.

At the May 2003 District Conference, a Resolution was adopted establishing the Leadership Academy as a Standing Committee. See Attachment #1.

Presently: On 1 July 2003, PDG Will Snyder assumed the position as Dean of the Leadership Academy. There were also three new faculty members as others had “retired” from their positions. An introductory program was added and took place after the annual TRF/WCS meeting. Interest was so high the program will be continued for 2004-2005. Basically the program has been the same with a few upgrade changes and ends with an Essay (second year) on 30 April each year.

Over the past six years, we have graduated 96 students.  From these 96 graduates we now have the following District Leaders :

Governor

Governor Elect

Governor Nominee

Secretary

All 10 Assistant Governors

Rotary International Foundation Chair

Annual Giving Committee Chair

Membership Chair

Permanent Fund Committee Co-Chair

World Community Service Chair

District Trainer

PolioPlus / Partners Committee Chair

Rotaract Committee Chair

Youth Exchange Committee Chair

Friendship Exchange Chair

And others

The Program has been extremely  successful.  The first year we had no dropouts.   Since then we have had some students drop out, however, most request that they be allowed to return and complete the program the following year. Dropout reasons are stated as:

                Personal Problems

                Moving to another Area

                Not enough time

                Etc.

There has been tremendous interest in this program from Districts around the Rotary World.  We've shared our program with several districts who are now modifying our program to meet their needs and have been or will be implementing their program in the future.  The Rotary International Education and Training Task Force was interested in our program and included one of our Academy Curriculum binders in their booth at the Rotary International San Antonio Convention.

There is no cost to the students as the District covers all of the costs (except lodging at required District meetings). The annual Leadership Academy Budget, which is part of our District Budget, is around  $3000/year. Each year the budget must be reviewed based upon the number of students enrolled, cost of materials, etc.