Leadership Merced- Apply Now

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Leadership Merced Shows Future Leaders Diversity of Merced County’s Economy

 

Do you wonder what you could be doing to better network with local businesses?

Or how can you make sure the new manager you hired has the leadership skills to represent your organization when the stakes are high?

There’s a way to tackle both of these issues while giving employees a better understanding of the community they work and live in.

The Leadership Merced program, run by the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce, is a year-long class that highlights different aspects of our local economy – from law enforcement and agriculture to business and education – the Leadership Merced program gives its members a thorough understanding of the major parts of Merced County’s economy.

The class meets once a month during the year with one 3-day retreat and a variety of field trips throughout Merced County.

Recruitment for Leadership Merced runs from April through August.

 

 

 

 

Class 23- Law & Justice Day

Our first guest speaker was Russ Thomas, the Chief of Police for the Merced Police Department  Chief Thomas talked on two subjects:  ComVIP and Model-Netics.  ComVIP is an acronym for Merced Community Violence, Intervention and Prevention, and is a program involving a multi-agency approach to attack the gang structure in an effort to reduce Gang Membership and Violence.

The class then broke out into two groups for a class “Prosecutorial Exercise” where 10 scenarios were presented to the two groups, and each had to decide how to proceed with the cases from the eyes of a prosecuting attorney: what charges to file, what pleading to accept, which people should go to jail verses getting off on probation or programs. 

Our second speaker was Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse.  Mr. Morse stated that he has a staff of 26 Deputy District Attorneys (DDA).  He further revealed that his agency filed over 13,000 misdemeanor and felony cases in 2007, which per capita, is the highest caseload of any DDA in the state. Our third speaker was Merced County Superior Court Judge Mark Garcia. 

The second half of Law Enforcement day started off with lunch provided by Merced County Sheriff Department. During lunch, Under Sheriff Blake gave a brief history regarding the jail. We were given a tour of the housing facility to see how the inmates live.

The final stop for the day was a demonstration from the Merced Police Department S.W.A.T. team. The day ended with classmates being able to fire the semi-automatic weapons carried by the team. The weapons included a MP-5 submachine gun, colt commander 223 rifle, automatic shotgun and a 45 caliber handgun.

EDUCATION DAY- CLASS 23

By Tony Salas & Brian Gudgel- Education Day for Leadership Merced Class 23 started off at Valley Community School and then to the Merced College Child Development Center.

     The Assistant Director guided us through some of the issues, challenges and opportunities involved in running a center with 130 infants and toddlers, 50% of which are under the age of three.  We observed as the lead teachers, assisted by several student workers, led the children in the Earth Room, Sun Room and the Moon Room.

     We then headed to UC Merced, where we had a short tour of the campus and walked us through the UC’s very impressive Kolligian Library.  The UC is now up to over 1800 students, and features new dorms and a full workout center.

 

     Following our UC Merced tour, we visited ‘Wired’ a full service coffee and juice café on 16^th Street in Merced.  All proceeds from the café go to the special education program at MCOE which serves over 2000 children in the county.  Through the special education program, kids are placed in real world jobs at various businesses and have the opportunity to work in environments where they are accepted and appreciated. 

   We returned to Valley Community School.  During lunch, we heard from eight students from the school, each describing why they were attending this school and not a traditional school.  Reasons ranged from missing too many credits to graduate to getting into too many fights. They liked the teachers and particularly the one-on-one interaction they had with their teachers.

     In the afternoon, we had a round table discussion with seven influential leaders of education in Merced County and had two presentations.  One presentation from the Assitant Superintendent of Early Care and Eduation for MCOE and one about R.O.P.

 

GOVERNMENT DAY- CLASS 23

February 15, 2008 — Government and Media Day

By Leslie Lawson and Mike McLaughlin

   On Friday February 15^th the Leadership Merced and Junior Leadership Merced programs joined together for Government and Media Day. The meeting was facilitated by Kory Billings of Gonella Realty in Atwater, and by Rosa Winzer of the Support Services Department with the City of Merced.

   The day began by bringing both classes together to review and summarize the homework assignments: attend a meeting of an elected body, take an elected official to coffee, or write a letter to the editor. The brief synopsis from each class member provided a unique perspective and insight on the current issues facing the greater Merced area and the State of California.

      The morning session concluded with the election of a simulated City Council where the members were charged to debate contemporary issues and to take appropriate action.

      Once lunch was over we continued our afternoon completing our mock City Council meeting with the discussion of a Wal-Mart Distribution Center and annexing UC Merced into the city limits….and yes, our mock City Council members did vote. 

   We continued with an over-view of the One Voice Program offered by Bill Spriggs and Sylvia Smith who just recently returned from a trip to Sacramento.  As the day progressed Adam Cox with the Merced County Times gave the class a brief overview of the paper, its philosophy and history.

   Our Leadership Day ended with a walking tour to the Merced County Administration Building where we were met by Mark Hendrickson and Supervisor Mike Nelson.  Mark did a great job of presenting the State of the County with many highlights.

   Finally, our class ended its day of learning with a quick tour of the Tax Collector office. 

New Blogmaster

Hello to All!

I, Emily Christensen, am now working on customizing and managing our blog! This will assist us in meeting our needs for more timely and convenient communications and access to more information about Leadership Merced.

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You can look at the blog for information about upcoming events, the current Leadership Merced’s class schedule, the Leadership Merced Application and other information. In the Blogroll you can find links to other Leadership programs and ideas.

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