Realwomen of BC - Archives - March2008

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THE REAL NEWS The R.E.A.L WOMEN of BC Newsletter March 2008, P.O. Box 39068, Point Grey RPO, Vancouver, BC V6R 4P1, Tel/Fax: 604- 463-1611, website: http://www.realwomen.bc.ca
Leadership Institute During the last week of January, 2008, Laurie Geschke and Doris Darvasi had the privilege of attending an intense, six-day training at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia. The institute was founded over 25 years ago by Morton Blackwell for the purpose of training conservatives to be politically active by either involvement in a campaign, running for office, working for a non-profit organization or in any other capacity that would further the conservative cause. As Laurie and Doris had registered early, they were able to take advantage of the dormitories at the institute. The welcome was held on Sunday evening and the sessions started Monday morning at 8:30 am after breakfast. It was an incredible week. There were about 110 people attending the training. Laurie and Doris were the only two Canadians. There were three Americans, while the rest of the group was comprised of about 45 people representing almost all of the countries in Central- and South America and people from Europe, African countries and Jamaica. It was a very eclectic group; lawyers, doctors, politicians, clergy, pro-family and pro-life people, and individuals interested in learning about political activism or even planning to run for office. The training started at 8: 30 am and ended at 9 pm., with an hour in between for lunch and dinner each. Topics included the law, how to write and present a speech, how to fund raise and run a political campaign and how to present yourself in front of a camera. The speakers were excellent and included congressmen, senators, lawyers, journalists, and business people. The attendees also had an opportunity to see Capitol Hill, The Supreme Court, The National Archives (with the US Declaration of Independence), the Lincoln and Washington memorials and the White House. A March for Life around Capitol Hill took place during the same week and Doris and Laurie had an opportunity to be there as well. The Leadership Institute offers this type of training about three times a year and the cost is very inexpensive. There are also individual training seminars that deal with a specific topic. Laurie had an opportunity to attend four days of intense training in fund raising. Such training will be extremely beneficial to the work of REAL Women. During their week in Arlington, Doris and Laurie accumulated over 70 pages of typed notes and are planning to put this into a manual format. It will then be used to train others who are interested in becoming more involved in the political arena. If you are interested in further information and in having training in that regard, please contact Doris at 604-585-3068 or doris.d77@shaw.ca For further information on the Leadership Institute go to www.leadershipinstitute.org