Mayor Seitz pumped on new strategic training program

Jasper Mayor Terry Seitz is pumped. When he won the election he broke the news that a sizable donation to fund leadership training had been made by a corporate sponsor. Following through with his plan Seitz announced the program for the department heads and leadership of the City of Jasper will begin in about a month.

Seitz notified the Utility Service Board of the upcoming training at the Tuesday evening USB meeting and on Wednesday he announced the same to the Common Council. Additionally Seitz was excited to announce the program allowed for enough participants that he would be able to invite ten members from the community to take part as well.

“I have a couple of community leaders in mind as well as some city workers.” Seitz explained. “I will probably be reaching out to some of the individuals in the community that have been involved in the HTC (Jasper Hometown Competitiveness) or chamber. Really my goal is to try to pick some random people that would never expect to be asked.”

Seitz comes from a background in coaching and leadership training and is familiar with the program from Chorus.  He explained that the incentive to develop the program came as he was meeting department heads during the election. “The questions that we have to ask are ‘Why are you a department head?’ and ‘How do you know you are doing well?’.”

The city program has been officially named the City of Jasper Leadership Development and Strategic Plan Initiative. The company that Seitz is working with is Chorus Inc. (http://www.chorusinc.com/). Chorus has served as a strategic advisor and execution partner to executives, executive teams and boards throughout the United States for Fortune 500 companies, universities, and government entities.

The first phase of the leadership training has been paid for through corporate sponsorship. “I am letting those entities that have contributed to making this possible make their own announcements, but I can say that German American Bank has been a great partner in this.” Seitz explained.

The cost of the program is set to not exceed $70,000 and at this point $20,000 has been covered by corporate donors. The companies that have helped fund the first phase of the program for Jasper have even opened their own doors to allowing members of the city to attend leadership programs they have for their own leadership.

“The private donors haven’t asked for any recognition or advertising, it’s just an investment in the city because I asked.” Seitz said. “It’s a blessing to work with these businesses that our committed to our community.”