History, Government and Politics

Today's session was very interesting, focused on Charlottesville's history, government and politics.

But I think I should back up a bit before I share.

Some people have asked what this is all about, what I get out of it and why I'm involved. Leadership Charlottesville's Purpose and Mission sum it up: "To serve our member enterprises' efforts to help build an active corps of engaged and dedicated civic leaders" and, "Leadership Charlottesville enables a diverse group of emerging and existing community leaders to enhance their community knowledge, expand their networks, and cultivate their leadership potential to effect positive community change."

It's about getting involved, learning to be better leaders, developing skills that will help us work together and make an impact on the community. I'm getting out of it a chance to learn about my community, find opportunities where I can be involved and make a difference (this is very important to me) and to network, developing relationships that can last a lifetime.

Those of us in the program will spend 11 weeks learning and developing those relationships. After that, we choose civic programs to develop/join and work toward improving our community. We graduate in June, but it's an ongoing commitment to the community, and to our team.

Back to today. We enjoyed a video that covered the history of Charlottesville; probably review for long time residents, but educational for the newcomers. The class before us had developed the video and did a fantastic job. We then were treated to a panel discussion that included Mayor David Brown, Leonard Sandridge, UVA Executive VP and COO and Dennis Rooker, chairman of the board, County Board of Supervisors. It was moderated by Bob Gibson of the Daily Progress.

From there, in small groups, we discussed issues facing the city and Albemarle County. These issues were passed to our next panel for discussion. This group included former and current city council members and delegates Rob Bell (R) 58th district and David Toscano (D) 57th district.

Following that was a panel discussion on getting involved, including a selection of commission and committee members. Finally, our city registrar talked to us about voting and the process used in Charlottesville.

I learned a bit but more importantly it got me thinking about ways to be involved and what I might do with the knowledge gained in this program.