Unity Leadership Tampa Bay held its Spring Conference on April 19th at the Doubletree Westshore Hotel in Tampa. The vision of Unity Leadership Conferences is to establish a unified local community by building the framework to create positive change for our friends, our families, and us. All local GLBTQ and supportive organizations are welcome participants. Some of the organizations represented at this spring¹s conference were Dignity Tampa, Florida AIDS Action, Log Cabin Republicans, MCC Tampa, FORGE, The Green Party, ACLU, Prime Timers, GLSEN and Watermark.

The leadership development training aspects of the conference included three workshops that focused on networking, team building and gaining strength in diversity:

Andrew Sanderbeck of the People Connect Institute conducted the first two exercises. Sanderbeck overcame his fears and self-imposed limitations as a shy teenager, and excelled as a sales representative and corporate trainer for Fortune 500 companies including Continental Airlines. He is a team development and customer service specialist for organizations that want more effective teams.

Said Sanderbeck, "People see you not as you are, but as they are." His exercises were thought provoking, revealing and insightful. Networking, which Sanderbeck referred to as people connecting, offered an opportunity for the participants to learn the tools and tricks for effectively making people connections in both personal and professional settings. The Team Building workshop forced the group to work together and think outside the box. According to Sanderbeck, "Putting people together doesn¹t make a team." The participants recognized the importance of constructive communication and as people began to find their roles in the team, progress was made.

The afternoon session was dedicated to building Strength Through Diversity with Dr. Roy Kaplan of The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ). Founded in 1927 as The National Conference for Christians and Jews, NCCJ is a human relations organization dedicated to fighting bias, bigotry and racism in America. NCCJ promotes understanding and respect among all races, religions and cultures through advocacy, conflict resolution and education. "Despite the fact that we may come from varying ethnic backgrounds, we belong to the only global race, homo-sapien, " said Kaplan. Given that racial stereotypes are learned behaviors, we were reminded that with the biological facts in mind, we share more similarities than differences. Therein lies our strength.

The keynote speaker for this event was newly elected Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio. She commented on how much she loves being Mayor. Iorio now sees how much she can effect the community in a positive way, to shape her administration to drive Tampa in a particular direction. One of her goals is to make Tampa a more progressive city. Her intent is to welcome people with creative energies to help revitalize downtown, enhance art in public schools and bring art to the neighborhoods. Mayor Iorio also announced that she plans to initiate domestic partner benefits to all city employees and will be drawing up a plan within the next 30 days. "This is a time of absolute, significant cultural change. We need to be known nationally as a progressive city. The city¹s residents are clearly more progressive than their representative government," said Iorio. The Mayor¹s remarks were followed by a standing ovation from the conference attendees. There was a definitely a sense that the future of the City of Tampa is brighter than ever. The Unity Leadership Support Team was proud to have been part of this historic moment in Tampa history will soon begin planning for their fall conference to be held late in October.

For information on Unity Leadership Conferences of Tampa Bay, contact Bill Carpenter at 727-866-1955.