President
Spring is around the corner and for Leadership Pinellas, our recruitment season, elections, and planning for next year are in full bloom.
Please be thinking about who you know that would be a great member of the 2020 class of both Youth Leadership Pinellas and Leadership Pinellas. There are several socials and information sessions planned so we’d love to see you there. Please bring a guest and invite qualified candidates to attend. Both applications are currently live on our website so you can send people there as well. Also, we have the ReferLP.com link to submit a potential candidate’s information so we can reach out to them.
Do you know a high school student who is interested in participating in Youth Leadership Pinellas? We are currently recruiting rising 10th, 11th and 12th graders to participate in the YLP Class of 2020. Brian Siracusa ’14 and his team have done an amazing job with informational meetings being held in February and the interview dates will be April 8th, 11th, 16th and 18th from 3 to 7 P.M. tentatively. Any questions please reach out to Brian.
Thank you to Darrin Johnson ’14 for leading our LP recruitment efforts this year. We will be having our Recruitment breakfast social at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on March 13th and an evening social on April 1st in St. Petersburg at All Children’s Hospital’s new building. Watch for more details.
The LP Class of 2019 is going well. A big thanks to all the LP alumni who have been delivering one backstage pass after another for the program days. Speaking of Leadership Pinellas classes, one of this year’s class projects will be putting on the Inaugural Leadership Pinellas Recognition Breakfast for our 2019 LP sponsors and their class mentors at the Pinellas Realtor Organization on March 1, 2019. If you or your company is interested in learning more about becoming a 2020 sponsor, please reach out to Jennifer McGrail ’99 at [email protected]. We couldn’t put on our programs, socials and events without our sponsors and alumni support, and this is just one small way to show our appreciation!
Save the date for this year’s Annual Meeting and LP Class Graduation for Saturday, May 11th at the Fenway in Dunedin. Look for details coming soon and thanks to Karen Skiratko ’07 for chairing this year’s committee.
One of our more popular socials and well-attended events, the LP Pub Crawl Social, was moved to March 22nd. More details will be coming from Matt Campbell ’15. You won’t want to miss this event. For those excited for the LP Fish Fry Matt has planned, it’s in the works and has been pushed out to after daylight savings and the new date will be coming soon.
Thank you to all our members who stepped up and are willing to serve our organization on the LP Board or as an officer. Look for the ballot to come out March 15th. Voting will be open until April 15th.
Now is the time to be thinking about which Leadership Pinellas Alumni is worthy of being awarded our coveted Deborah Vincent Award. This award recognizes an outstanding graduate who’s demonstrated exemplary community service and leadership. Please watch for an email requesting nominations which will come out this March.
And, I’ll leave you with this thought by Jim John as we move into our season of recruiting new leaders, elevating current leaders, and thanking our servant leaders – “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.”
In your service,
Cyndee Haydon ‘08
Leadership Pinellas President