Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 314
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We catch up with Jack Lindquist on how the Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program recruits and trains leaders who understand the whole region, not just one town. We talk through who qualifies, how the program is funded, and why class projects turn networking into real community change.
• recruiting for the 2026-27 class and why the program looks for motivated, growth-minded leaders
• eligibility across Geary, Riley, Pottawatomie, Wabaunsee, Morris and Fort Riley, including people who work in the area
• the value of a diverse cohort for better listening, decision-making and problem solving
• how Fort Riley strengthens the region through economic impact and long-term community ties
• program history and the shift toward regional thinking beyond city limits
• tuition, scholarships for small business and nonprofits, and the role of underwriters instead of tax dollars
• the online application, curriculum dates, and the short recorded intro that replaces an interview
• class projects and the Ogden youth center example of sweat equity unlocking faster progress
Go online at frlp.org and go into the apply menu link.
Sponsor And Segment Setup
SPEAKER_01Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode, we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on News Radio KMAN. We've returned with the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN. I fondly refer to him as Batman. Thanks, Robin. Yes, that's a career for somebody. That's a lifetime for somebody. Yeah. And that was back before they used the term cosplay. Back in we were when we were both uh beginning our careers in Abilene, Kansas. Jack Lindquist is the executive director of the Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program. And uh man, welcome back, dude. It's good to be back.
SPEAKER_00Good to do some updating on what's going on in this region.
SPEAKER_01By the way, I'm going to throw a little plug-in here. Um you were in here just, what, two, three weeks ago with your wife, Lindy. Right. And uh Kathy Dawes, former K-Man news director, has her own podcast called Aging Gratefully. Gracefully. Gratefully. Aging Gratefully. I should know how to do that. And you and Lindy's uh appearance just hit it. It's available on Spotify, just made its debut last week, and it's a delightful interview. It's a delightful interview. It was a lot of fun just to have a conversation. Yeah, yeah. So if you um you know you and Lindy both are very well connected in the community, so I want to make sure that if people didn't know that about you, that uh that um they had that opportunity to to check out that podcast wherever you get your podcast, Aging Gratefully, with
Recruiting The Next Leadership Class
SPEAKER_01Kathy Dawes. So, regional leadership program.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're right in the midst of recruitment of our next class, the 26-27 class. And so applications are coming in now, and uh we'll close that on July 15th.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Okay. What are you looking for?
SPEAKER_00We're looking for people that are um motivated uh to be maybe a little bit different in their leadership roles than what they've been accustomed to, uh, to gather some of the skills and techniques to be more involved, more engaged, more interactive with people that they don't know of uh yet or are aware of what they do, and just have more familiarity with this region.
Who Qualifies And Why Diversity Matters
SPEAKER_01What kind of qualifications does one need to have in order to apply?
SPEAKER_00Well, first and foremost, they need to either live in or work in the region that uh is Gary County, Riley County, Pottawatomie County, Well Bunsen County, Morris County, or Fort Riley. Okay. So we've had people that have participated in the program that live outside of that area, but they work within the area, they're qualified.
SPEAKER_01Now, I know that over the years you've had a number of participants from Fort Riley. Oh, yes. And many of them have, once they've retired from the post, have or from the service, have stayed in the community and continue to act in a leadership capacity.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell That's right. Uh the the economic impact of Fort Riley to this region is huge. It's the biggest economic contributor to the region. But uh most importantly, is a large percentage of the people that have served at or worked at Fort Riley uh choose to stay here. And they become part of the fabric of our uh area, and they've had, in many cases, global experiences that are very valuable to our decision-making in the area.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell You know, and I've been a part of a number of classes in one way or another. I've not been a participant into the program because of time factors, but I know that, you know, you get such a cross-section of people that are in, you know, mini municipal jobs, working for cities, uh county schools, other government agencies. You got people from the business community, you got people that are, you know, farmers, people that are just, you know, there really isn't a mainstream position. They just all kind of feel their way into that leadership world. And this is such a great avenue for them to build more relationships. And I think that's the key factor of anybody that wants to get in and out of one of these leadership programs. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_00That's what we describe as the diversity of the region, it is um gaining awareness of the fact that a lot of people from a lot of different perspectives, backgrounds, experiences, knowledge, um, race, creed, color doesn't matter. What they bring to this program is that diversity that's very important to being able to do a broad spectrum approach to decision-making and problem solving, and be a listener and be aware of what all of the issues are that uh impact everybody who lives here.
How The Program Started And Expanded
SPEAKER_01Yeah. This program's been a while around for a while. It goes back into the what late 80s?
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell formed in 92. Trevor Burrus, Jr. 93-94 was the first class. Don't say 93 again. That gives me flashbacks. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Flood year. Yeah. Um but uh thank you for that too. We we get flashbacks from that. And we're getting them every time we get a three-inch rain. Yes. Um what uh uh the program determined was that rather than having people that just lived here, we needed to have people that expanded their concept of what a community was, what their region was, and not just think about their own little neighborhood, but think about what's the impact of this entire market growth area. And so uh they came up with this idea, a task force that was made up predominantly of uh people at Fort Riley, the chambers of commerce of the cities in the area, uh, and also the city municipalities themselves uh came up with the task force that formed the organization. And it was from that organization that they put together the curriculum for the first class.
SPEAKER_01And due to the success of the program, it has been able to expand, as you said. You know, you got five different counties in, you know, Fort Riley is kind of like of its own anomaly over here, because Fort Riley is in what, three or four different counties?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, the the uh the program's concept was Riley County was the hub. And then the two neighboring counties contiguous to the east and west were the other two counties. Right. Fort Riley predominantly sits in Gary County and Riley County. And so um, even though we have people that have been in this program that live as far away as 75 miles uh from that core area, so we thought we need to expand this footprint beyond the original and uh open it up to people that uh commute into work on a regular basis and work either at Kansas State University or a business here in the uh immediate area or at Fort Riley and emphasize that they're part of this region too. And then from my personal perspective, growing up on a farm and having agricultural education background and being in the extension service, I knew that we weren't reaching out enough about uh what's going on in the Flint Hills. We call it the Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program, but we weren't talking about what the Flint Hills economic impact is and what that uh is means to the regional economy. So adding Walbuns County a few years ago uh with a county population of 7,000 people, comparing that to what we've got at uh the population that lives and works at Fort Riley uh in Manhattan, near 60,000, Wamigo, et cetera, um it's a small drop in the bucket, but it's a big economic contributor because of the agricultural industry. So that we work that into the curriculum.
unknownTrevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01And the same could be said for Morris.
unknownTrevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, adding them as well as part of the foot uh the footprint or foothills of uh the north central region of the uh the Flint Hills. Um it's very important to have them involved as well.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Yeah. Well, so many neat aspects about uh the Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program.
Tuition Scholarships And Underwriters
SPEAKER_01Let's talk a bit about uh an a key factor in its success, and that is financial support and underwriters. Because I don't recall you getting any kind of government money or you're not a taxing entity, you have to have some financial support to help make this happen. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_00Exactly right. The tuition has not changed in years. It's $600. Scholarships are available at uh up to 50% for small business and nonprofit applicants. Uh but beyond that, uh the program is sponsored by the founding organizations and underwriting businesses that want to be part of this growth network of emerging leaders. And so uh we have 18 contributors that support uh the financial side of the program. And as you said, there are no tax dollars involved in it, other than what might be generated from uh the county uh commission or whatever. Uh, but that's that's what they do with their budgetary responsibilities, and we don't have to be part of that process other than keeping them informed, engaged, and involved in the program.
SPEAKER_01Well, and you know, a lot of their staff, a lot of those municipality staff benefit greatly from the program, you know, and and here again, you build those relationships and it helps with the interactivity between the agencies.
SPEAKER_00That's right. Systems awareness and understanding of what it takes to make this region work is part of the curriculum, and have it them having a staff member go through the experience and getting exposure to the business side, uh, the governmental side, uh, the general public uh needs is very important for their development as a professional within their networks and organizations. So that's why they're so engaged and involved in not just promoting and encouraging participation programs, but actually having participants from their staffs come in. And many of those individuals have risen up the ranks in hierarchy of leadership within the uh the county or the city as well.
SPEAKER_01And you've had also a number that have gone on to serve in an elected capacity.
SPEAKER_00Many. And uh you you can throw out uh a lot of names of people that have been representatives or senators in the region uh that actually went through the program in the early years or some recently, uh, and also individuals that were part of the um uh sheriff's department or police force that rose up to the ranks of chief and and uh sheriff and things like that uh because of the
How The Application Works
SPEAKER_00program.
SPEAKER_01Let's talk about the uh process to apply. You got a few weeks to get this done.
SPEAKER_00That's right. The application process is uh a matter of going online at frlp.org and go into the apply menu link. Uh check out what the curriculum dates are, uh, make sure that those are clear and penciled on your calendar if you're going to be applying, and then uh pre-record a one to three minute introduction of yourself. Uh that can be saved then on your your iPad, iPhone, or laptop uh or or tablet, whatever the case is, save that. And then when it's time to complete the application, put the information into the uh the information that's requested throughout, answer two or three questions in the uh the recorded uh document. It's in lieu of a personal interview. And so they're basically answering the questions that the board members would ask, telling us about themselves, and then uh add that as an uh attachment and hit submit and that's it. Uh usually somebody can complete an application once they've recorded their information, pre-recorded their information, uh, they can have it done within five minutes.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Anything else?
SPEAKER_00We've covered a lot of uh a lot of territory here. Well, it's it's gonna be great. Uh this next class as it comes in is gonna kick us up likely over 700 participants to date.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00Uh we'll have 275 participants that have been in the last 11 years that I've been the director uh with this next class. So we're excited about those milestones. And also that uh we're just excited about uh a lot of changes going on now, and our program is part of the structure
Class Projects And Real Impact
SPEAKER_00of that change.
SPEAKER_01So one thing I want to ask you about, because every class, once they're you know going through the process, they have a project, a joint project that they have. And you and you have what, 25, 30 members to each group?
SPEAKER_00Generally 24 to 26 participants, yeah. Okay. But they put together a little project. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah, they go through a series of uh research opportunities as to what is needed in their the region and uh how can we kick start something if it just had some sweat equity put into it. And so uh just as an example, uh the house over in Ogden uh was in need of a youth center. And the class at that time chose that as their project. They gutted an old building that was right beside the the house tea shop. The house cafe. Yeah, cafe, yeah, right. And they they gutted that and got it ready for renovation. Because they did that, they took uh what would have been a three to four-year project. Clearing that building out allowed uh the uh organizers there in Ogden to take a look at that building, promote it to some underwriters, and within weeks they had somebody that was willing to pay for the renovation of the new building. Really? And within a year it was done. And so that's the the power of what those class projects can do. Wow.
SPEAKER_01You know, you don't just get a certificate, but you also get the satisfaction of accomplishing something really cool in a in a in a group effort.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And it it helps them understand that anybody can do this. All we have to do is organize our groups and organizations and friends and get involved in improving the quality of life in the area. Aaron Powell The website again? FHRLP.org for the Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program Organization. Good to have you in again, sir. Great to be here. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01Jack Linquist is his name, the Flint Hills Regional Leadership Program, the subject here on
Website Recap And Transition
SPEAKER_01this segment. Coming up next, Tom Roberts is going to transition over to the hot seat, and we're gonna talk about the Engineers Foundation of Kansas. Is this I I think this is the first time we've had you in, isn't it? Okay, we've got some education to embark upon here on the GMCF Community Hour. We do this every Monday morning in the nine o'clock hour because it's fun and it tells a lot of people a lot of things that are going on. And we do it here on News Radio K M A N.