Conflict Management (Day 1)
Sunday, February 9, 2020
Submitted by Roy J Frey
KARL XV convened on February 9th, 2020 at Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue in Kansas City for the start of their Leavenworth Seminar and the beginning of a week of educational meetings and tours. Class member Allison Burenheide was the chairperson for the day.
The class learned of The Agriculture Business Council of Kansas City from their Executive Director Bob Peterson that also help sponsor the amazing barbecue dinner along with the Kansas Corn Commission and First State Bank & Trust. Bob reported The Agriculture Business Council has 350 local members and have an average of 70 members at their monthly lunches. The Agriculture Business Council of Kansas City advocates growth and awareness of food, fiber, agri-science and related industries. Bob reviewed the slate of monthly speakers which were very impressive. He also pointed out the importance of the Kansas City Area in relation to its central location within the Animal Health Corridor.
The class heard next from Merck Animal Health, Scott Bormann Senior Vice President, North America Operations. Scott also serves on the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor Board of Directors and previously as their president. The Corridor is a diamond from Wichita to Manhattan Kansas to St. Joe and Columbia Missouri with Kansas City being in the middle. The Corridor is home to 300 companies in the Animal Health Care Industry. The Corridor has 4 initiatives. That being work force development, help to shape policy issues, innovation and engagement of industry. The Animal Health Care is an eight-billion-dollar industry with 67% of that represented in Kansas City. Scott also discussed the importance of National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, KS that will become operational in 2021. In addition to national security, the facility offers resource and development to the Animal Health Care industry for the production of vaccines. Scott left the class with a parting acronym GROW; Goals, set them; Reality, honestly see the gap between where you are at and the goal you set; Opportunity, look for them to meet your goal and finally Way as a plan to move forward. The two speakers were followed by individual conversations and a night of rest to start of a week of meetings starting with Leavenworth, Washington D.C. and finally Gettysburg, PA.
Conflict Management (Day 2)
Monday, February 10, 2020
Submitted by Beth Weibert
Lansing Correctional Facility–Brett Peterson, Executive Assistant to the Warden greeted us and ushered us through the screening process to prepare to tour the facility.
For those of us who had never toured a correctional facility there was surprise at the “freedom” some of the inmates had to walk around the grounds without being escorted by guards.
We were escorted by Brett, Ryan and Jordan through a variety of inmate living areas including an area where inmates had dogs they were training and working with. This living area evoked a lot of emotions for many of us on the tour. We were surprised at the close quarters and the total lack of privacy inmates in the dog training area had. And many us found it quite messy and dirty. However, it was also the location that evoked the most joy and optimism as inmates were excited to show us tricks that they had taught the dogs. There was certainly a feeling of productivity and pride from many of the inmates that was absent from other living areas. We were sad to learn that the dog training program was being discontinued when the inmates moved to the new correctional facility.
The tour continued to an area of the jail that housed inmates individually. Many of these inmates were older and had physical disabilities and mental health issues. Brett explained that baby boomer inmates are incurring more medical issues and mobility challenges which complicate housing those inmates.
We also visited the laundry facilities and the mess hall. Jordan one of our guides who was wearing gear and was armed. He told our small group that the mess hall is one of the most dangerous areas in the facility and the area where he is most likely to see fights- just like in the movies.
We finished our visit to the Lansing Correctional Facility by touring the new center that will be opening soon. As expected, the new facility is much brighter and cleaner than the old facility and employs updated mechanisms for locking the doors etc. I think we were all startled to see just how small the four- person cells were.
Zephyr Products Inc–Our next stop was at the Zephyr Products manufacturing company- a full-service medal manufacturing company. According to Randy Reinhart, Zephyr president, they “are in the life changing business” as 98% of their workforce are inmates from Lansing Correctional Facility. Randy was an awesome source of knowledge and passionate about the difference Zephyr work release program makes in the lives of their employees. Nationwide, 2/3 of incarcerated people return to prison, but only 2% of people who go through the Zephyr program return to prison.
Randy was incredibly transparent and gave extensive employee statistics. Zephyr also runs an operation in the correctional facility. Some challenges that Randy identified are people missing work due to lockdowns, challenges getting parts into the prison, restrictions on where inmate produced products could be sold. State work release workers start at minimum wage, but January 1 they started a new compensation package. Enrollees are eligible for 401k and year end bonuses. Randy explained that an additional societal benefit of the program is that child support, court costs, restitution and taxes are being paid while individuals are on work release.
Most convicts leave jail without a savings account or any new skills so they can’t rent a house or buy a vehicle to get to work. When work release individuals get done at Zephyr they have a personal savings account which tremendously changes their success rates. Additionally, Zephyr provides financial education and holds inmates responsible for their actions for its employees so when they are released, they are much more able to integrate back into society successfully. One really great example was a 3-D scanner that a work release employee demonstrated for us. It was really cool to see his pride and the expertise that he demonstrated -after feeling so discouraged from being in the prison his demonstration gave us optimism.
Randy talked to us about training and how for Zephyr training is constant because they have constant turnover. Even though the prison population is growing they don’t have enough good people. He went into some of the challenges of the bureaucracy of the prison system and how Zephyr tries to recruit from other correctional facilities.
Many of the work release employees continue to work for Zephyr after they get out of prison. Of the 30 management positions 12 were work release employees. Zephyr also helps employees find jobs after there are released from prison.
Optimism and a sense of hope were my two biggest take-aways from visiting Zephyr. The values that inmates learn from financial literacy to machinist skills to accountability have proven to serve them and society well in the extremely low rate recidivism.
Fort Leavenworth, Lewis & Clark Center, Command and General Staff College–Colonel Roderick M Cox, retired US Army and President/CEO of the CGSC Foundation shared with us what the CGSC does and gave us a bus tour of Fort Leavenworth. The three missions of the CGSC is to 1. Enhance educational opportunities, 2. Improve Quality of Life for those on post, 3. Conduct outreach to the general public.
Colonel Cox shared a lot of history and facts about Fort Leavenworth including that it is the 3rd oldest active military post in the US, 6,000 people reside on the fort and over 10,000 work on fort. 30,000 people utilize the Fort for services, it has its own school district, health center and dental clinic.
Some notable mentions on the bus tour include the Buffalo Soldier Memorial that commemorates black Americans who served- we were reminded of the time Colin Powell was stationed at Fort Leavenworth. Fort Leavenworth was the start of the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails and there are impressive remains of the wagon wheel ruts going up the bank that were left by settlers traveling west. He pointed out where General McArthur resided as well as the oldest brick house in Kansas built in 1840.
Our next stop was the United States Army Command and General Staff College. This has to be one of the most impressive institutions that most of us had never heard of or knew little about. The CGSC was designed for leader development. My group was able to go into a classroom and interact with the instructor Professor Im and some of the participants. The classrooms are designed for 16 students and the goal is for the students to represent a variety of perspectives. They go through simulations and leadership training and engage in dialogue. Professor Im talked a lot about the cybersecurity and the number of attempted attacks that occur on a daily basis, 316 billion attempts globally each day. He indicated that there were 8,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs available in the KC area alone.
There is also an important international contingency- over 7,000 international students have studied at the CGSC from 155 countries. The impact of this international study can’t be underestimated. International students have sponsor families at Ft. Leavenworth, in Leavenworth County and in Kansas City. They get grounded in American commerce and culture and this manifests into valuable relationships that are incredibly beneficial for the US- specifically he mentioned a story about the Rwandan President having attended CGSC and that personal relationship that he had developed with Americans being one of the main reasons the US was allowed into Rwanda during their civil war.
Russ Tuttle- Be Alert–Russ Tuttle is the president of Stop Trafficking project and runs the BeAlert- See something- Say Something. Russ started this campaign in 2015 and since that time has spoken to over 110,000 people. His goals are to educate and empower students and to guide adult awareness of the dangers of sex trafficking. Russ had a staggering number of statistics and referenced many very well know apps and games that have been used to entice kids into sex trafficking. In 2018 there were over 33.5 billion visits to pornography sites- Porn Hub- and the US leads the world in accessing this site. One year later there were over 42 billion visits to that same pornography site. 32% of porn users are women, 76% of porn visits are using a cell phone and kids are being exposed to pornography at 8 years old. 60% of middle and high schoolers say they interact with pornography. Russ explained how pornography is an addiction and releases dopamine in the brain.
He went on to explain that there are 27 categories of Human Trafficking, but that Human Trafficking is ALWAYS an Exploitation of Vulnerability. This was a very helpful lens for us to view this crisis through. He challenged us to become trusted adults and help identify vulnerability in kids- be that societal, environmental or individual vulnerabilities. If we think this isn’t happening in Kansas, we are kidding ourselves. Children’s Mercy Hospital in KC is ranked in the top 5% of US in the volume of sexual assault victims and sees 1-2 cases a day.
Russ walked us through a number of games and apps that have been used to exploit kids including Fortnite, SnapChat, TikTok as well as others. Russ warned that kids have fake account’s so their parents don’t know what they are doing, saying and posting. In the last 7 years depression is up 40% and suicide is up 20%. Many suicides have been linked to teens posting nude pictures- and Russ stated that sexting is the new flirting. Porn is the engine driving sex trafficking.
Russ talked about Half Brains and this was a really helpful illustrations to take us into the mind of a teen. We are dealing with Half Brains- human’s frontal vortex is where you make good decisions. But the frontal vortex isn’t developed until 25. When you consider that 70% of 2nd-5th graders have cell phones and much of their online time is unsupervised its easy to recognize how vulnerable our pre-teens are to sex trafficking.
This presentation was a huge eyeopener to all of us who have kids or nieces and nephews and Russ did a great job of creating a sense of urgency. I can almost guarantee that important conversations were had at many home and security features were double checked.
Dr. Barry Flinchbaugh Kings and King Makers–Dr. Flinchbaugh is a legend at Kansas State. Since starting there in 1971 he has taught ag policy to over 4,000 students. Dr. Flinchbaugh and is highly regarded for his Ag Policy and Ag Economics knowledge and influence. His Kings and King Makers Speech has been a highlight for many students and KARL graduates.
Dr. Flinchbaugh started with some more general examples of the difference leadership makes to viability and health of towns. “if you don’t get the problem defined accurately, you’re not going to solve it”.
He walked us through how public decision are made- what’s the problem, who’s choice is it and the real issue- who should make the decision. To really get to the problem you must ask the question- what’s the proper role for government. What to do when facts are difficult to determine- myths are treated the same as facts. A leader’s job is to destroy myths and establish facts. There is no way to make a public decision with out establishing values- which requires value judgments and answers the question “what should be”. Often the order is me first, party second, country third. “All are welcome to our own values but there’s only one set of facts”. Dr. Flinchbaugh reminded us that your values as a leader are not superior or inferior to anyone else in a democracy.
Dr. Flinchbaugh gave an illustration using two bugs that looked to be the same size and asked what’s the myth- which one is the longest- we all agreed on the measuring stick as the method to separate myth from fact.
King Makers, according to Dr. Flinchbaugh possess two sets of resources, 1. Intellectual and 2. Financial. He further expounded that although he has know kingmakers with average net worths, he had never met a dumb king maker, and added they have high listening IQ’s. King makers have experience, its very hard to be a king maker if you are under 30, you can climb the ladder if you have experience. King Makers are hard to identify- if they tell you they are a king maker- they aren’t. He concluded that king makers are not set in their ways, they don’t go after self interest and they don’t show up to meetings.
Kings, are people that hold public office and officially make decisions. Behind every king there is a group of king makers and the kings report to the king makers.
Actives, are people who belong to service clubs.
Interested Citizens, are people who read newspapers, watch the news and vote sometimes.
Apathetic Citizens, are people who don’t give a damn.
Dr. Flinchbaugh continued stating that Kings and Kingmakers is how we are organized. All are created equal but don’t perform that way. Every time the US has been in real trouble a leader has emerged. Dr. Flinchbaugh continued that we didn’t know about TR or Harry Truman or Abe Lincoln but this thing works.
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