Waukee Leadership Institute to Hire Paid Staff Director

A part-time paid staffer is being sought to lead the Waukee Leadership Institute after voluntary president and director Randy Yontz steps down in May.

Money provided by the Waukee City Council to support local organizations will pay for the position, the Des Moines Register reports.

The Waukee Leadership Institute, founded in 2006, promotes leadership through educational and informational forums that assist dedicated individuals to learn, grow and lead, hopefully in the city of Waukee.

Each class participates in a final class project. Last year, the Institute helped establish the newly-formed Waukee Area Historical Society. The year prior, the group raised money for signs promoting the historic downtown Triangle.

The current Insitute class announced plans in late Novermber to build an amphitheater in Centennial Park. The estimated cost is $150,000. The group hopes to begin fundraising early in 2013.

Class representative Rick Peterson told the Waukee City Council in November that the bulk of the funding will come from private donations from both individuals and businesses. If fundraising goes as planned, construction on the amphitheater could begin by the summer of 2014.

Our Earlier Patch Story: Waukee Leadership Institute Pledges to Build Amphitheater in Centennial Park

Yontz is in his fifth year as volunteer director after graduating from the program in its early days.

“It’s time to start looking at it as a different entity within the city, because it has become stronger and more successful," Yontz told the Register. "For the seven years it has been around, we’ve had 100 people graduate from the institute. It’s been a strong influence, too, because we have a number of institute graduates serving on various committees with the city and the school, which is a primary purpose of the institute, to get people involved.”

The institute will be formally established as a nonprofit, the newspaper said, so it can receive part of the city money earmarked to support local groups.