LEARN, TRANSFORM, INSPIRE

by Jacqueline M. Johnson
Facilities Manager
City of Norfolk Recreation, Parks and Open Space

VRPS 2016 Graduate

WOW!!!! LTI 2016 was the absolute best conference I’ve attended to date. It lived up to the hype – LEARN, TRANSFORM, INSPIRE! was the theme. The conference was rooted in the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator (shout out to all the ENFJ family – sorry…I digressed) which lead to so many light bulb moments. Being with so many different personalities within our profession helped me LEARN why we do what we do and how each person has an equally positive impact in the field (it also justified my quirkiness but who’s judging).

As the conference progressed, the sessions got more and more….relevant. Man, did the planning committee hit a home run!! We discussed everything from, how authenticity inspires action, cultivating teams, clarifying roles, investing in employees, dealing with organization change, shared leadership, TRANSFORMing organizations, nose jousting (yes…just like it sounds) and we even sang!

The bottom line is, VRPS recognizes the importance of offering high quality, professional development opportunities to help local municipalities grow, INSPIRE our patrons and help them become better people. If you are considering attending LTI in 2018…DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! (in my best peer pressure voice). You won’t regret it!!

What's New at Carowinds?

Everybody's Irish on March 17th

The VRPS Executive Committee is comprised of the President, Vice President, Treasurer, Lay Member, and Executive Director.  This subset of the VRPS Board of Directors meets three times each year (March, June, October), in between the four full Board meetings (January, April, July, November) in order to:

1. set the agenda for Board meetings,
2. make operational and management recommendations to the Board,
3. provide general supervision of Society affairs between Board meetings, and
4. serve as the Personnel Committee.

VRPS Members can view previous VRPS Board meeting minutes and packets on the VRPS website after logging-in.

Your VRPS Executive Committee held their first meeting of the year on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2016.  Without pre-planning, the entire crew showed up in green!

The 2016 Executive Committee members, from left-to-right in the photo, are:

• Treasurer Kirk Kincannon, CPRP (Fairfax County Park Authority)
• Guest and 2015 VRPS President Marcy Durrer, CPRP (Hanover County)
• President, Margaret Thorne (City of Portsmouth)
• Lay Member Rita Miller (Virginia Department of Health, Richmond)
• Executive Director Jim Stutts, CPRP, CAE (VRPS Central Office)
• Vice President, LaTanya Turner, CPRP (Isle of Wight County)

Wherever you go and whatever you do,
May the luck of the Irish be there with you!

Leadership Training Institute - It's All About You!

by Derek Stamey, CPRP

VRPS Board of Directors

Director, Goochland County Parks and Recreation

The famous Swiss psychologist Carl Jung said this about self-awareness, “everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”  He also added, “When an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.”

The recreation profession, LTI, self-awareness, and Carl Jung….what in the world does one have to do with the other? Actually, the overlap is significant!  Our personalities and how we view ourselves and interact with others greatly impacts how successful we are in our profession and in our daily lives.  Unfortunately, Carl Jung won’t be speaking at LTI in April of 2016.  He passed away in 1961.  Don’t be disappointed!  The LTI committee has been working at length to put together an amazing slate of speakers and experiences.  This year’s LTI will allow you to share, be shaped by others, and leave you with a great, career awakening experience…beginning and ending with you!

Your eye opening experience at Wintergreen will begin with a Myers-Briggs personality assessment and an opening session entitled, “That’s Just Who I Am!”  This opening session will help to equip you with a self-awareness that will constantly and consistently be revisited throughout your LTI experience.  As you learn effective leadership practices and how to manage change you will begin to understand how your personality traits impact your ability to communicate with others as well as how they affect the productive and non-productive interactions that you may experience in your day to day life. 

Capping the LTI experience will be a riveting send off by Zin White, a highly decorated civil servant and military veteran who will captivate us all and that “We Can Make a Difference and It Begins with Me!”

For those seeking to develop themselves professionally or further their careers, make your attendance at LTI a priority.  For supervisors, managers, and administrators, seek out those in your organization that strive to excel professionally and make a commitment in cultivating their talent and desires to shine in our field.  Your organization and your staff will benefit from it.  Our profession will benefit from it.  I challenge you all to learn today, lead tomorrow, and inspire forever!

2016 Leadership Training Institute