Abby Conley, James Gephart, Jonathan Honaker and Melissa Place received certificates for completing the Board Leadership 101 Seminar series through the Allen County Board of DD on Tuesday evening.
Courtesy of Sierra Weltmer
LIMA — The Allen County Board of DD created a program for individuals to learn and potentially become board members. Superintendent Theresa Schnipke said the organization designed a curriculum called the Board Leadership 101 Series for those interested. Schnipke also said upon completion of the program, participants would be eligible not only for the Allen County Board of DD but any community board.
Among the participants were Abby Conley, James Gephart, Jonathan Honaker, Melissa Place and Anthony Simpson who was unable to attend the meeting Tuesday evening.
“For the last three months, they had us come in once every month to teach us how the board meeting works, what they look at and how we would pick up the role if chosen,” award recipient Jonathan Honaker said.
Schnipke also said the participants learned the time commitment of being a board member, the decisions members make and the different committees. The participants received a certificate of completion after attending several board meetings.
The program was created following a change in the state of Ohio.
“The Ohio Revised Code now states that a County Board of Developmental Disabilities has to have a person that receives services or is eligible for services to be on our board,” Schnipke said. “Our board is already made up of three family members. In the future, one person would have to be a person who is eligible for services.”
The change to the Ohio Revised Code came at the perfect time. Schnipke said board member Linda Lehman is set to retire at the end of the year after 12 years of service. The judge will soon appoint one of the participants as a new board member.
“I will meet with the judge and the candidates in November,” Schnipke said. “We will do a recognition for Mrs. Lehman in our December board meeting and the person would have a resolution in December but sworn in January for the new year.”
Honaker said the offer to participate in the program was intimidating at first but he was grateful he said yes.
“It was eye-opening,” Honaker said. “There are a lot of things I did not know about and it kind of surprised me — the board wants to make sure everybody gets all the help they can.”
Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.
