Format and Methods
Hot Springs resident Nathaniel Robinson leads a tour of the Woodmen of Union Building, Hot Springs, Arkansas, 2000.
Credit: Jeff Tully
Preservation Leadership Training is built around a combination of lecture, discussion and practical application. Trainers are nationally recognized experts in the fields of economics, law, design, resources development, strategic planning, and financial management, among others -- all with a focus on building both individual and institutional leadership.
PLT is Preservation Boot Camp but that is a good thing. Many of us need the broad scale training the Trust is providing. While many of us have had experience in the various training program areas, we haven't always had the training. You all provided a rather unforgettable week-the place, the people attending, the program, the speakers and the team projects. It was quite a package, and I am taking home very usable materials.
Jan Devereaux, Board Chair
Cleveland Restoration Society
Cleveland, Ohio
Team Project
Participants learn best by "doing." Consequently, in addition to daytime classroom sessions, PLT includes a team project which uses the host community as a living laboratory for preservation issues, with participants working in teams during the course of the week on a specific preservation problem in the host community. The week culminates with a public presentation of their recommendations on the final day of the program.
The team project, assigned at the start of the week is designed to:
- Provide a vehicle for participants to apply the lessons learned during the week to solving real problems;
- Provide a teamwork exercise and an opportunity to practice public presentation skills for participants;
- Contribute to preservation activity in the host community by focusing the attention and perspective of Preservation Leadership Training participants on local issues.
PLT team projects have actually helped save buildings in several communities. In Fort Collins, Colorado, the team project dealt with the long-vacant downtown Linden Hotel, subject of more than 20 years of dubious development efforts. The attention the PLT team project brought to the hotel rallied the community and today the hotel is rehabilitated and back in business as a multi-use commercial operation.
The Woodmen of Union building in Hot Springs, Arkansas (see photo above), was named for the black fraternal order that constructed it. It had once been the heart of the local black community, featuring a hotel, hospital, bath house, nurses training program and 2,500-seat theater. The PLT team project in 2000 drew attention to the building which had been vacant since 1981. The new owners plan to restore the historic interior spaces, including the bathhouse and auditorium, and create apartments for the elderly.
