2.2.2010: The Retreat (Leadership Columbia part 3)

When I first heard about the Leadership Columbia Retreat I was very nervous. We would be staying in cabins at a Church camp. I have been to Church camps, and I pictured myself along with my cabin mates trucking up a mud road in our pajamas with no make-up or contact lenses to the communal bathhouse. This was not a pretty picture. I was very pleasantly surprised, we were all in one large building with sleeping rooms off of the main meeting room each with our own bathroom and plenty of heat.

The first thing we did was play a name game. With 30 of us we knew it would be a challenge to learn everyone's name. This did not sound fun to me. We went around the room, each of us putting an adjective in front of our name that began with the same letter as our name. Then we had to repeat everyone that had gone before us. I had 26 people in front of me. This really was going to be a challenge. It did help, I learned everyone's (first) name, and I will never be able to look at Jasen again without wondering how juicy he is, or bad boy Bill (or was that Bob?). Silent Scott, later in the evening, turned into spooning Scott. I am not sure how that happened, but he was receptive to it. And there was raunchy rapping Rich who couldn't spell and almost ended up as raunchy raping Rich (we promptly corrected him). I was bountiful Barb, but you really need the hand gestures to get the full effect. And who could forget supercalafredgalistic . . . you know the rest, Sarah.

Next we did presentations. At the orientation we had been divided into groups of three and given the assignment of interviewing someone in the community for each subject we would be studying as a group. I was with jumping Jason and supercalafredgalistic . . . you know the rest, Sarah. Our assignment was City/County Government. The first group to present was Social Services. It was very well put together. Everyone had notes and spoke and knew their subject well. I remember thinking, "That was an incredible presentation, do these people have real jobs?" The bar was set. Jumping Jason, supercalafredgalistic . . . you know the rest, Sarah and I looked at each other with slight panic in our eyes. Healthcare went next, good information, not as polished as Social Services. The bar was reset. Thank you healthcare. All the groups were pretty typical until it came to Growth & Economy, they had a Powerpoint. Seriously? A Powerpoint? Talk about over-achievers. I wasn't even sure we were going to have electricity at this place.

After presentations we socialized, played games and drank. I played Apples to Apples and drank some wine. Spooning Scott was my bartender, he knows his wine and likes it. I think I went to bed around 3:00 a.m. Did I mention that this was a Baptist Church camp? Leadership Columbia may have to find a new place for next year's retreat. We tried to be very careful with our empty alcohol containers, putting them in a separate trash bag that we would haul out ourselves, but alas, first thing in the morning the camp collected all the trash, including our open, big, black trash bag filled to the brim with empties.

We were up and eating breakfast by 7:30 a.m. Karen Taylor and Linda Baumgartner joined us. They wanted us to do some serious thinking about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Columbia and our community. Some of us were not really up for the challenge, but we all tried really hard, I think. From what I remember.

Lesson learned . . . some of these people can really hold their liquor . . . and some can't. But they are all very savvy and smart. A good group all around.