History of GLC
Our Predecessor—Community Exchange
The Grassroots Leadership College owes its existence to Community Exchange and the Madison Area Quality Improvement Network (MAQIN)
In 1995 MAQIN hosted a series of meetings regarding how they might take action on their vision of “being a driving force behind positive economic and social change by promoting widespread application of customer-driven continuous improvement methods throughout the community, and developing world-class systems and resources for related learning and networking.” It was in these discussions that the idea to create our predecessor, Community Exchange, arose.
In January 1996 the planning committee that created Community Exchange began to meet. They built Community Exchange upon the foundation of several models including; John McKnight’s model of discovering and building on community assets, the Industrial Areas Foundation model for leadership development and change, and the Supervisory Academy a training and development program of the City of Madison.
The purpose of Community Exchange was to create a network and learning experience for grassroots community and associational leaders to learn and apply the core principles and practices of effective leadership in their community. Emphasis was placed on developing the practical skills necessary to build relationships and create networks fundamental to sustaining strong and vital communities.
It was Community Exchange that first adopted the logo “Everyone a Learner, Everyone a Teacher, Everyone a Leader.” Everyone a Learner reminds of the importance of listening to each others stories, reflecting on the lessons learned, and building on our common experiences in order to share of life’sdiversity and begin to connect to a larger community. Everyone a Teacher reminds us that everyone has a story to tell, in sharing our stories we enrich our own life as well as the lives of those who listen. Everyone a Leader reminds us that leadership is not an innate quality, but instead something developed through action and reflection.
Organizers sought to find participants who were in leadership roles in a grassroots community or volunteer organizations and sponsored by a member organization of MAQIN. They also needed to have the willingness, desire, and time to commit to the program, have a project. Community Exchange also sought a participant group that represented the diversity of the community economically, socially, racially, and organizationally.
Community Exchange learning sessions were run annually and met approximately once a month. Coaches and their developing leaders also met once a month outside of the classsession. All sessions found their base in the sustainable leadership model created by Community Exchange that continues to be used by the GLC today. Community Exchange also set the model of providing food, childcare, and when needed transportation.
Community Exchange held their first semester from March to December 1997 beginning with 15 pairs.
Community Exchange was a completely volunteer run program that was not incorporated and had no formal board of directors. By 2000, after completing three terms, the group found that being completely volunteer run was no longer sustainable. They, however, continued to believe that the work was important and should continue. They also agreed that they wanted to deepen the neighborhood/ grassroots focus of the program.
Becoming the Grassroots Leadership College
In 2000 members of the Community Exchange began to meet with Madison’s neighborhood planning councils; the Northside Planning Council (NPC), South Metropolitan Planning Council (SMPC), and East Isthmus Neighborhoods Planning Council (EINPC).
The groups agreed on the need for grassroots leadership development in the planning council areas and in the larger community. It took longer to agree on a name that would stick. The effort was known as the Neighborhood Leadership College and the Madison Neighborhood/Community Academy before settling on the Grassroots Leadership College.
The Grassroots Leadership College became a project of the three planning councils. NPC staff Jim Powell and Abha Thakkar, SMPC staff person Jean Nielsen, and EINPC staff person Rebecca Krantz all took up significant roles in defining the direction of the fledgling organization.
By 2002 we began to share an office space with our primary fiscal agent EINPC. NPC also provided fiscal agency for early grant applications.
On October 18, 2002 Brian Benford began as the first paid coordinator of the Grassroots Leadership College in a .75 FTE position. Not long after joining the College, Brian decided to run for city council ending a short tenure as staff with our program.
2003 brought a new coordinator, Amy S. Mondloch, who began work on February 3rd, as well as the first general semester of the fledgling GLC. Rebecca Krantz supervised the new staff until we began to split off into our own organization in late 2003 at which point the executive committee; Joe Sensenbrenner, Margaret Nellis, Jan Saiz, and David Boyd took over supervision.
Over 40 people attended our first informational meeting held at the Catholic Multicultural Center on March 6th 2003 to prepare for our first semester.
Thirty-seven individuals were accepted into the pilot semester that began on April 4th and ran through December 11th. Our first coaches were; Robert Howard, Mariama Kaisamba- Koroma, Renee Moe, John Peck, Maria Powell, Jan Saiz, LaVerne Shelton, PattiThompson, Stan Woodard, Andrea Potter, Jen Voichick, Abha Thakkar, Tracy Benson, Julie Andersen, and Jodi Wortsman. Developing leaders included; Tammy Bieberstein, Angie Cain, Miriam and Terry Briggs, Inessa Figueiredo, Rita Cairns, Isake Lockett, Annette Czarnecki, Laura England, Jennifer Halliday, Penny Adrian, Mona Fisher, Judy Kingsbury, Cynthia Johnson, Jessica Harlan, Chelle Boice, Christine Person, Angelina Crawford, James Horton, Joe Mischka, Vammeej Yang, and Leana Nakielski.
Our first semester was a learning experience as we tried out new faculty, dealt with significant attrition because of significant personal issues in the lives of our participants, and learned the ins and outs of providing all of the logistics it takes to create a learning community.
In December 2003 the organization adopted bylaws and for the first time elected a board of directors; Chair Joe Sensenbrenner, Vice-chair Jan Saiz, Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Nellis and members Alyssa Kenney, Bill Rizzo, Julie Andersen, Inessa Figueiredo, and David Boyd.
In 2004 we changed our calendar to include a Spring and Fall semester and an alumni support network that included support sessions and email listserve. Elimination of the summer break helped toward a decrease in attrition.
In 2005 we added an intensive workshop series. Avoiding Burnout and Compassion Fatigue, Fundraising 101, Attending to Learning and Communication Differences in Meetings, Conflict Transformation, and Cross Cultural Organizing were each taught in separate 2-part workshops of 4-5 hours total.
In June of 2005 we added our second staff person assistant coordinator, Jorge Mario Garcia Sierra, to act as our book keeper and lead the development of Spanish language programming. This brought the GLC staff to 1.5 full time paid positions.
In the Fall of 2006 we launched a seven workshop pilot of el Programa de Liderazgo Comunitario with 22 participants. The highly successful program was completed in November with a 100% graduation rate.
The GLC remains a primarily volunteer run program with 50-60 people serving as faculty, board, committee members, coaches, office support, and program volunteers each year.
Contact Grassroots Leadership College:
1321 E. Mifflin St., Suite 203, Madison, WI 53703 | Phone: (608) 441-0085
E-mail: coordinator@grassrootsleadershipcollege.org