Learners and Leaders
Program Cultivates Human Resource for Community Service

Enriching skills and knowledge of more than 250 participants during the past 18 years, the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program (WRLP) has groomed a corps of leaders who are helping their communities meet a variety of social, economic, and cultural challenges.
“It’s amazing to me to watch their growth and to know that they take this all back to their local communities,” said JoAnn Stormer, WRLP executive director. “Maybe it’s cliché, but they truly do make the world a better place to live in.”
She explained that the program, coordinated by University of Wisconsin–Cooperative Extension, takes each “class” of 32 individuals through a two-year curriculum of practical seminars, exposing participants to people, practices, and issues ranging from local to international in scope. The seminars involve eight sessions at various Wisconsin locations, a regional program elsewhere in the U.S., a seminar on national issues in Washington, D.C., and a trip abroad to experience international problem solving.
“They get to see all parts and sides of many issues,” said Stormer. “The group itself becomes a community of learners, gaining from their shared experiences and perspectives.”

Leadership Lacking

Stormer said the program’s genesis dates to 1980 when Wisconsin university and agricultural leaders began looking at leadership programs in five other states that had been funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “It was recognized that there was a lack of leadership training in Wisconsin,” said Stormer, noting that there was an assumption that urban areas had more resources for such training, so the focus of the program model was initially rural leadership.
Armed with a curriculum proposal and plan of operation developed by university leaders and a provisional board of directors, Cooperative Extension secured a $250,000 Kellogg grant in 1983 and fielded its first group of rural leadership participants the following spring.
“In the years since the program began, the scope of ‘rural’ has expanded and the lines of rural and urban have blurred,” Stormer explained. While there doesn’t seem to be an inclination to drop ‘rural’ from the program name, she said topics and issues studied by the groups during their two-year training cycles increasingly apply to both rural and urban areas. As word of the program and its content spread, more applications come from cities and suburbs.

Co-op Case

An accountant by training, Lynn Thompson serves as manager of finance for Eau Claire Energy Cooperative, supervising office and accounting staff and overseeing customer services. He’s also board president of a nonprofit training program for Eau Claire County senior citizens, vice chair of the West Central Wisconsin Workforce Development Program, and just the sort of community activist to take an interest in the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program.
But where most applicants to the WRLP need to seek their employers’ approval for the time commitment the seminars will take, Thompson said his boss, Eau Claire Energy CEO John Luehrsen, actually brought him the application.
“John’s wife had gone through the leadership program, and he thought my role in the co-op and community could be enhanced by my participation,” said Thompson, also relating that the co-op paid his $4,750 fee—the portion of the $15,000 program cost per individual that each enrollee is responsible for. He said many participants raise their share of the money through personal finances and fundraising from local businesses and civic organizations. The balance of the program cost is paid by foundation grants, other contributions, and through UW–Extension support.

Selection Scrutiny

One of several WRLP selection committees reviewed Thompson’s application and interviewed him to determine his suitability for the program.
“We look for people who can demonstrate ability to expand their role in the community,” Stormer explained, citing “open-mindedness” as a key quality eyed by interviewers.
In addition, leadership potential isn’t necessarily related to age, she said. Applicants should be at least 21 years old, but there’s no set upper limit. “People are living longer and are active into their retirement years,” said Stormer, disclosing that among the current group of program participants are two who have passed age 60. She also said a key concern of program administrators is that participants are able to clear their calendars to attend all seminars. “We’re tough on this; not very forgiving. It’s not your typical learning environment,” she commented.
Panels rank all applicants and submit the results to a larger committee for final selection.
Thompson became part of the ninth “class” to embark on the training regimen—a process that began with a three-day seminar on state government in Madison during July of 2000. The session puts participants in contact with legislative, agency, and other government officials in briefings on policy and decision-making processes, examining how specific issues get dealt with. For Thompson’s group, land-use matters were the focus. Stormer noted at least a half-dozen incumbent state legislators are graduates of the WRLP.
Other in-state seminars typically include a session in Milwaukee to explore urban issues; a three-day program on leadership skills; and programs keyed to natural resources, environmental issues, and global economics. Stormer explained that seminar topics have evolved since the first group in 1984, and current participants take part in programs on such topics as diversity and technology effects on society. She also told that each group takes part in at least one service project in the state—a hands-on exercise ties to study of community issues. Thompson’s group closed out its social issues seminar by working for a day to spruce up a domestic-abuse shelter in Appleton.

Farther Afield

Because of his connection to electric co-ops, Thompson said he was pleased a major topic for the group’s week-long seminar in Washington, D.C., was energy—a topic discussed with congressional and other federal officials.
For the Group IX regional seminar, Thompson’s class boarded buses and traveled to Alabama and Georgia to study diversity in the communities that spawned the 1960s civil rights upheaval.
Before they graduate from the biennial program, all participants get to travel and study in a foreign country, learning about political and social issues as well as international trade and development. Korea and China were the stops for Thompson’s group this past spring—the second time a WRLP class traveled to China. Other groups have journeyed to Russia, Jamaica, Brazil, Poland, Mexico, Hungary, Turkey, Thailand, and Vietnam.
“It was an incredible experience,” said Thompson of the Asian trip. “We got a flavor of both rural and urban life—getting into individual homes, day-care centers, hospitals, large banks, and state-owned dairies. We learned how their markets are opening and about problems associated with having one-fifth of the world’s population, but only one-fifteenth of its farmable land,” he continued, commenting on how innovative and adaptable the Chinese were.
But the ability to creatively learn by example—which Thompson admired in the Chinese—was also a skill WRLP participants themselves clearly developed. “I think I’m better able to listen without prejudice and to reach for greater understanding than I was before,” he declared.
Graduating in July, Thompson joined the ranks of program alumni, many of whom remain active as directors, committee members, instructors, and participants in various WRLP activities. “The group I was in became very tightly knit; they’re like an extended family of mine,” said Thompson. They and the alumni from eight earlier groups form an amazing network I can draw on for professional, personal, and volunteer purposes.”
In the truest sense, it's a growing community of learners.

For more information about the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program, go to www.uwex.edu/ces/wrlp or call 608/263-0817.

Co-op Month: 72 Years of Celebrations

Cooperative businesses of all types—electric telephone, farm supply, dairy, financial, insurance, housing, consumer, and other—annually celebrate their unique business form during a month-long observance. October Co-op Month, now national in scope, provides cooperatives with an opportunity to trumpet their many services and products, while describing the distinct organization of member-owned corporations.
It was an annual “show and tell” of that type undertaken in the 1920s by one cooperative in Waukegan, Illinois, that has been credited with starting a trend that led to more widespread cooperative promotions.
The first declaration of “Co-op Month” came 72 years ago when the national Cooperative League set the observance to coincide with its biennial meeting—held that year (1930) in Superior, Wisconsin. In subsequent years, state and regional co-op organizations adopted the idea and cranked up public relations efforts each fall to emphasize the values of cooperative membership. Wisconsin co-ops, through the Wisconsin Association of Cooperatives, joined in the annual advertising campaigns and ceremonies that were the thrust of Co-op Month.
Beginning in the 1950s, a prime ingredient of the observance became a gubernatorial proclamation, formally designating October as Co-op Month in Wisconsin. Each governor since Walter Kohler has affixed the state seal to such a proclamation, giving the state’s co-ops a focus for kick-off celebrations.
Co-op Day—the key event signaling the start of the month-long statewide celebration—has been held in a variety of locations, evolving from the proclamation signings originally staged in the governor’s office. During the 1970s, governors began presenting the proclamations at open-house functions held on farms operated by staunch co-op members. Statewide kick-off events were also held at the State Capitol and other downtown Madison locations.
In recent years, Wisconsin Co-op Day has been hosted by individual cooperatives in connection with their local member-appreciation celebrations. Last year, for instance, presentation of the governor’s proclamation occurred at the Marquette–Adams Telephone Cooperative in Oxford, Wisconsin, during the co-op’s October Co-op Month event. In 2000, the scene was Dunn Electric Co-op in Menomonie; this year it will be October 3 at Riverland Energy Co-op’s festivities in Onalaska.
Co-op Month regained its national focus in 1964 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture began actively promoting co-op awareness as part of its campaign to boost the rural economy. In the years since, national co-op organizations have taken on a yearly public relations effort to showcase cooperatives, working with statewide co-op associations to get the word out on Co-op Month.