RLTC Testimonials

" (Because of RLTC) I am confident that I can hold an effective meeting, organize a trail project, host a convention, speak at land use meetings and write letters to bureaucrats." (Read more).

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FROM KEITH RATZBURG, President, Four Dice Four Wheel Drive Club:

"At first I did not know what to expect of the course, but have found that it is of great value in my personal life, let alone in volunteer situations. I think that you can sell the course as more then a management course for volunteers, but as a course that can be applied in your club relationships, as well as in your real life relationships.

I thought that the section talking about how to run a meeting was the most important one for me to date. Since reading it and trying to follow the steps to the best of my ability I have noticed that our meetings have improved by 100%. I have found that if you lay down the ground rules of the meeting as the first topic of discussion, it is really effective in keeping everyone on topic.

The RLTC has helped my club tremendously in preparing for our annual cleanup. The forms that Del provided helped us formulate a plan with ease. When we ran our cleanup last year it was a select group of few who tried to do everything, but by using the RICS it helped us to delegate jobs to everyone in our group. It helps you to formulate a role for everyone involved in the project, and allows them to see how their role fits in with the big picture.

One thing that may draw people into taking the course is the fact that it is not just a standard "management" type course. I think many leaders in our community forget that they are dealing with volunteers who require a totally different management style then your subordinates at work.

We need new leaders to step up to the plate and lead our community, and I think it would be of some value to let people know that these "new leaders" could be them. 2 years ago I was just another wheeler. I had never been in a club. Never read about the issues facing our community, I was totally blind to it all. I was the guy saying "wow, wonder why they put up a bridge here". Now I am the president of a growing new club. I represent our club at Cal4wheel meetings. Have drug others into volunteering at Cal4 events, fotr events, etc. and yet I am consistently the only person under 30 at every meeting I go to.....where is everyone else????"

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FROM ANDREA LYMAN, Wisconsin 4WD Association (First woman graduate)

"I am certain that it makes a difference that I had no leadership skills before I started the course. All I had was a desire to do something, but I wasn't sure how to go about it in a way that would be effective. I was also scared to death of public speaking.

Although I'm still just a little nervous about the speaking thing, I am confident that I can hold an effective meeting, organize a trail project, host a convention, speak at land use meetings and write letters to bureaucrats.

My abilities, I feel, have increased 100%. My first meeting is the Region A Meeting on 12/13/03 I suppose that will be a better indicator of how I am doing after taking RLTC.

I have had 3 very positive e-mails this past week, commending me on my efforts. I must be doing something right.

My hope is that Del's RLTC course will catch on in a big way. It would do so much for the hobby that we love. It's definitely worthwhile."

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FROM DAN STRA, President & Founder, JonFund, Inc.:

I am now on module three of Del Albright's Recreational Leadership Training Course (RLTC) and I have to recommend this to every club in the NorthEast Association (NEA).

What I have learned in reading and applying this program to our club is overwhelming. I learned a lot.

As a result of this program our club is now making changes that we feel will help us be poised for the kind of growth that we have been getting in the last 12 months. We almost doubled in 03 and, at the current rate of growth, we may well add another 50 members in 2004.

We are currently applying this by completely revamping the way that we organize trail runs. Our new way is going to allow for more leadership development, more volunteerism, and more work to get done for our members.

This is a program that helps build LEADERS. If you think about we, the NEA BOD, are leaders, right? And I know that in the last year I could see signs of some of these leaders getting worn out. Even further, those of us who do get worn out don't know what to do. We have this responsibility but find it hard to see who would replace us, don't we? The RLTC could be the answer to this issue.

If you get the program make sure that you do it with the backing of your club leadership so that they can know that it may mean changes for your club. From there, go through the modules but don't make too many changes until you have done most of the modules. I am saying this because we did NOT do that. We jumped right in. After speaking with Del I have learned that, while we are doing well, we might have made a little more work for ourselves than is necessary.

Once you have gone through it all then start rolling it out. If you are an NEA club and you don't do this program you are missing out. This is something that will give your club a competitive advantage over what other clubs are doing. Trust me! If you start putting this into place you might be torn about telling non NEA clubs about it for fear that they move up to your level.

One of the goals of the RLTC is that there be a consistency from one club to another. To me, that is a great idea

MORE FROM DAN STRA, President & Founder, JonFund, Inc. (after implementing the course):

Dear Del,

Since taking the Recreational Leadership Course our club has been working to implement as many of the techniques found in it as possible. All I can say is, "WOW!" This thing works great.

We were already on tracking with spreading the workload but we ratcheted it up quite a bit since the course. We have completely modified the way we arrange club runs now. It went from one person doing all of the work to several people sharing different jobs. Each job was made smaller so that people could learn it more easily. Some are harder than others but each job is a small step up from the last so that the skills learned during performance of the former job as leveraged in the next one.

At the beginning of 04 our Board was in the throws of deciding whether or not we should cap membership. There were just too many people showing up for club runs and we found ourselves floundering under the weight. Now that the techniques we learned from your course have been implements virtually all talk of capping membership has subsided. We are at the point now where our club can change the number of different trails runs we do on a given day, ON THE FLY. That means that if we get 24 trucks for a given trail we can roll in a second set of leaders for that group, give them a separate start time and let them go on their way. If we get 36 we just roll in a third set, and so on.

But now we are seeing an unexpected benefit to this. We have made it so that this group of leaders is able to talk privately on our BBS about trail related club issues. Without intending it we have built this committee of people that seems to be very results oriented and progressive. Another very nice thing that has happened is that, in their "committee" roles they are making decisions about trail related issues from a club oriented point of view verses the more self centered point of view that we see so often in leisure sports.

I wanted to take the time to thank you for the training that you provided. I feel more confident now, more-so than I ever have before, about our club having quality people to lead it into the future. It is interesting, really, because I have less control over the club than ever but because people know what the ideals and goals of the club are I really have more control than ever.,,, and a lot more is getting done.

Thanks

Dan Stra

	Recreational Leadership Training Course (RLTC) and the hands-on classroom workshop Volunteer Leader & Land Stewardship (VLLS)
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