At the September 17, 2002 Council meeting, Council directed City staff to work with Sunnyvale Leadership Development Institute (SLDI) to jointly develop and present to Council a recommendation on further developing leadership capacity in the Sunnyvale community through leadership training. This report provides Council with progress to date on that effort.

A leadership training committee was formed composed of SLDI representatives and City staff. The committee developed a matrix identifying a list of leadership training topics, delivery methods, and potential providers (Attachment A).

Policy Making and Program Planning -- 7.2C.1b -- Encourage a diverse pool of applicants for membership on boards, commissions and task forces to reflect the appropriate cross-section of the community.

Community Involvement -- Community Organization -- Policy 7.2B.3 -- Encourage grass-roots efforts to identify and develop solutions for community problems.

A leadership training committee was formed composed of SLDI representatives and City staff. The committee members included four SLDI representatives: David Simons, Board Chair; Jim Telfer, Executive Director; Jeanine Stanek and Grace Witt, SLDI Board Members; and two City staff representatives: Amy Chan, Assistant City Manager, and Coryn Campbell, Neighborhood and Community Services Manager.

Process and Results to Date
Meetings have been held approximately twice per month beginning in late September.

Working from a transcript of the September 17 Council meeting, the committee developed the following desired outcome: [Develop and present] a recommendation to City Council for future leadership training in Sunnyvale.

With the agreed upon outcome in hand, the committee proceeded to define the project scope and developed a work plan which included developing a list of leadership training topics, subjects and programs; identifying delivery methods; and identifying potential providers. As the committee worked through the elements of the work plan, a Topics/Delivery Method/Provider matrix was developed (Attachment A).

Beginning in April, the committee will conduct informal market research about leadership training demand by facilitating up to three community focus groups. The focus groups will be made up of a diverse cross section of the community and will be used to gather feedback about the work the committee has done to date, as well as to determine the community members' interests and preferences, including: amount of time they are willing to commit to training, best times of day or week, cost sensitivity, obstacles to participation, and benefits of participation.

The focus groups will help the committee to determine the level of interest in leadership training from community members, and ensure that training is tailored appropriately to community members' needs and interests. To conserve resources, the committee will become very much a "working committee," working together to identify and recruit potential focus group members, facilitate the focus groups, and write up the results. It is expected that the process will take up to two months, with a projected completion date of June 2003. Following the focus groups, costs will be determined for each training component. A final recommendation for leadership training is tentatively scheduled for presentation to Council in July.