FEB. 12-18, 2024 SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL · 9 NEWS Leadership Marshfield program kicks off this month by Mike Cullinan · mcullinan@sbj.net This week marks the beginning of a new program in Marshfield that officials hope can enhance leadership skills of participants while also educating them on opportunities and challenges in their community. Feb. 12 is orientation day for the first cohort of Leadership Marshfield, an initiative organized by local business leaders and the University of Missouri Extension office in Marshfield. The program runs over seven dates through October, with participants meeting monthly – except for July and August. The last session will include a graduation ceremony and banquet. Each session will be planned as a full day of learning, said Blair Gann, one of the initiative’s organizers, who also is assistant vice president of commercial lending at Central Bank in Marshfield. She said the class sizes are intentionally small to foster group interaction and create the best learning environment possible. “We were originally going to take 10, but we decided that we really couldn’t cut anyone out, so we just went ahead and let all 12 in,” she said, noting all participants must fill out an application and commit to attend at least five of the sessions, including those in February and October. The inaugural class comprises Mallory Barnes, Al Berry, Aubren Dudley, Rebecca Lawrence, James McConnell, Kathryn McConnell, Melissa Mall, Kelsey Ragsdale, Deborah Reece, Julie Rideeoutte, Leah Shelby and Jennifer Steen. This first year’s tuition is waived for participants due to sponsors covering the costs, Gann said. Organizers sought out companies over the past few months with several providing either $1,000 or $500 for gold and silver memberships, respectively. Gold memberships are Central Bank, city of Marshfield, Donco 3 Construction LLC, Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce, The Seymour Bank and Tyler Pipe Co. Southern Bank and Webster Electric Cooperative are silver members. Monies collected cover class materials, logo gear, field trips, continental breakfasts, lunches associated with each session and the graduation banquet in October. “Other communities charge, but we didn’t want to create a barrier for people who couldn’t afford a $500 tuition cost,” Gann said. “We asked businesses to front that at least this first year. Then, we will see how it goes after this year.” Gann said the memberships also give the businesses representation on the Leadership Marshfield advisory board. “We’re using them to help us program the days too, so it’s not just like they’re telling us what to do, but they’re actively participating,” she said. “We are leaning heavily on our advisory members to help us do what they think is important. We want them to be involved so we can best benefit these students.” Finding inspiration Gann said she visited with officials in Lebanon and Camdenton about their leadership programs and studied information from Leadership Springfield’s website for inspiration. “We just kind of put it together from there, how we thought that it fit into our community,” she said, noting like those other programs, Leadership Marshfield lasts nine months. “We need a program where people can go around and meet all the leaders of Marshfield so that they feel more comfortable just networking with them and providing solutions if they have them.” While specifics about each session are still under development, Gann said attention will be paid to areas such as health, education, finance, community service and natural resources. The March session will focus on city and county government, an effort being spearheaded by Marshfield City Administrator Sam Rost. The city official said he’s working on a PowerPoint presentation he calls an introduction to Marshfield municipal government that will include an organizational chart with all the departments and how they function. “It’s going to be this 100,000-foot view,” he said, noting the session also will include visits to facilities such as the Police Department and a water tower. “People want to know what the inside of a water tower looks like. They often think the whole thing is just full of water.” For Rost, he hopes Leadership Marshfield spurs participants to get more engaged in the growing community. Marshfield’s population was 7,686 in 2022, up 3.1% from 2020, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data. “We’ll also show them how they can get involved, whether it’s simply coming to the meetings, following meeting information on our website, or if they want to put their name in a hat to volunteer on a committee or commission,” he said. “We want people to get as involved as they want to be. Get involved in person and not just on social media.” See MARSHFIELD on page 32 Oracle discloses Springfield layoffs in state filing by Geoff Pickle · gpickle@sbj.net Austin, Texas-based technology services provider Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) has informed the state of Missouri of planned layoffs at a CoxHealth facility in Springfield, but the jobs may not be lost. The Feb. 1 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing by Oracle indicates 124 employees were notified Feb. 1 of the layoffs that become effective April 1. They work at 1115 E. Primrose St., a CoxHealth-owned building. “Client is transitioning the health information technology operations that have been provided by Oracle back to the client,” the WARN notice reads. “The Springfield client location is not shutting down, but Oracle’s ITWorks operations at the Springfield client location are shutting down as part of this reduction in force. “It is our understanding that the client has already made offers of employment to all of the affected employees.” Cary Nabors, manager of public relations for CoxHealth, confirmed via email that the health system is looking to hire the impacted employees. “CoxHealth has made offers of employment to all affected employees, and given how integrated they are into our system, it will not impact the employees’ day-today work,” Nabors said. “Oracle decided to make a staffing change that impacted employment of more than 100 staff members in Springfield and Branson.” CoxHealth late last year announced it was switching to Verona, Wisconsin-based health care software firm Epic Systems Corp. for electronic health records from Oracle, according to past reporting. Nabors said the Oracle WARN notice is unrelated to that change. • Blair Gann: Program’s first-year tuition for participants is being waived. Inaugural class tops out at 12 for first cohort Sam Rost: Residents should get involved in community beyond social media.
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