Plug In
Minorities in Business Opportunity
Are you interested in learning more about the Springfield area and how businesses can impact addressing critical needs in the community? Leadership Springfield invites you to partner with local business leaders to learn how business owners and leaders can connect with business prospects, learn more about the community and build greater awareness of potential business opportunities. Leadership Springfield understands that businesses have challenges securing capital and wants to give local leaders and business owners an opportunity to attend a two-day course at no cost.
The Leadership Springfield Access Class is a crash course in the community and is designed for local businesses looking to expand their professional connections, build business prospects and get face time with business leads. This program is also ideal for those who are new to the area to connect to other businesses and leaders sooner rather than later! The agenda includes sessions, speakers and tours of area businesses and industries. Transportation, meals, speakers and materials are included. This unique professional and personal development opportunity includes a family reception. Participants will spend two days exploring Springfield, fostering connections with other businesses and learning collaborations in the community that can support local business growth.
Participants in the program receive one-year free alumni membership in Leadership Springfield, which provides increased opportunities to build business prospects with a greater alumni network spanning three decades and many industries locally. Leadership Springfield has Access classes in May 2020 and November 2020.
Leadership Springfield is implementing the Inclusive Excellence Model that MSU has been successfully implementing over the past five years. Through the model, Leadership Springfield recognized that the community benefits when it is more diverse and inclusive. Leadership Springfield received a grant from Community Foundation of the Ozarks with a focus on engaging more business owners through Minorities in Business. Please complete the form at the link below if you are interested in attending an upcoming Access Class. We do have a limited number of seats so please apply early. You will be notified if the class is full.
Alumni
Are you an alumni member? If not, you’re missing out! As promised, we are offering more ways for alumni members to be inspired, developed and connected, whether you graduated one of our programs last month or 35 years ago.
If you would prefer an invoice to pay by check, click here or email [email protected].
Podcast
SGF Insider is a cooperative project between the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and Leadership Springfield. We hope it will give you a look at the people and programs that help make the Springfield, Missouri community a great place to live, work and play.
We’ll publish two episodes a month:
- One is “SGF Business Insider,” featuring Chamber interviews with business and community leaders about the programs and initiatives that help our economy and community grow. It’s a look at how things happen in our area, from new economic development projects to workforce development, efforts to encourage diversity, development of future leaders and more.
- The other is “Plugged In,” where Leadership Springfield looks at how people and places are connected to community. It’s an insider’s look at how community leaders of every age and stage make a local impact by diving deep into community red flags and blue ribbons and putting their leadership talents and strengths into action. You’ll hear stories of people stepping up and plugging in to make a difference.
We hope you’re as excited as we are about learning more from these stories over the coming months. You can listen to episodes below, but be sure to subscribe to SGF Insider wherever you get your podcasts!
A special thank you to Shaun Munday for composing our opening and closing theme music!
Candidate Interviews
- Greene County Sheriff
- Missouri State Senate District 29
- Christian County Commissioner – East
- Christian County Commissioner – West
The nonpartisan coalition was launched in 2019 with the shared goal of educating voters and engaging candidates with citizens. The organizations are:
• Be Civil Be Heard
• Drury University’s L.E. Meador Center for Politics & Citizenship
• Junior League of Springfield
• KSMU Ozarks Public Radio
• Leadership Springfield
• League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri
• Missouri State University’s Office of Public Affairs
• NAACP Springfield
• Ozarks Technical Community College’s Social Sciences Department
• Springfield News-Leader
Springfield Think Tank
The purpose of Springfield Think Tank is to engage stakeholders around key issues facing our community, identify opportunities to address the issue, prioritize those opportunities, then engage additional stakeholders to design and implement improvements. Springfield Think Tanks will help our community anticipate trends and proactively shape our responses to them. Going beyond a community conversation of local experts, this model is a practical application of the community leadership framework curriculum used in the Leadership Springfield Signature Class. Each Think Tank is designed to exist for no more than a year, kicking off with an Idea Retreat followed by one 60-minute meeting per month.
graduate-level college credit
Graduates of Leadership Springfield’s Signature Class will now be able to claim graduate-level college credit for their experiences in the intensive nine-month program – at no additional cost.
Drury University is offering Signature Class graduates (beginning with Signature Class 29) up to six hours of academic credit toward the Master of Nonprofit and Civic Leadership degree, which is a 30 credit-hour program. This offer is retroactive to Class 29, which graduated in 2014. Three of the credits will count toward the MNCL 701 Social Impact and Assessment course. Three additional credit hours may be earned by submitting a written request along with documentation of professional accomplishments and academic credentials.
The courses will appear on a participant’s transcript after all degree requirements have been met. There is no tuition cost and Drury will waive the $25 application fee for all Leadership Springfield applicants.
For more information and the waiver code, contact the College of Graduate Studies at (417) 873-7530 or [email protected].
Impact Springfield
Leadership Springfield loves when alumni apply their strengths and knowledge of the community to make an impact by serving the needs of Springfield. We were proud to be able to facilitate this through Impact Springfield from 2016-2018. Thank you to our alumni who participated in the following Impact Springfield projects! Stay tuned for future Impact Springfield opportunities in years to come.
