Today I finished up my last session of the Midwest Regional Leadership Forum (RLF)!  We had a wonderful session and had great speakers and book discussions.  I can’t believe I read 35 books like that in 9 months!  I won’t miss that much reading, but the friends I have made and the experiences I had are invaluable and something I will never forget.  I always know that I have 39 other people that I can reach out to when I have leadership questions, problems I am trying to overcome at work, or anything like that.  It’s amazing how close-knit you become.

At the end of the session, we all had a group hug, a group picture, and said our good-byes until November when we will all meet together again in Seattle for SIMposium (the Society for Information Management’s annual conference) where we will officially “graduate” and have our last official meeting together.  We have a “giveback” presentation we are working on for the conference and it should be GREAT!  I am in charge of compiling a slide video with music highlighting lessons learned, quotes, and outstanding thoughts we collected over the last 9 months.  It’s turning out quite well.

Many of us that live in the immediate area (Chicagoland and Southern Wisconsin) are going to get back together every other month or so to discuss a book, have an activity or something like that.  This will keep us together and communicating.  We also have our LinkedIn and Facebook groups as well.  I would recommend this leadership program to ANYONE!  It’s one of the best work- and life-related experiences I have ever had!