~~During the summer, I was one of a few from District 1 chosen to attend a training on Empowering Local Leaders at UK. Our job was to take the training we received and train the rest of the District 1 agents so that all counties could present the training at their fall or winter meeting to their local CEC. The agent training was presented at the September District 1 staff meeting. I took the lead and organized an on-line meeting and a live meeting to help all involved identify the part they were to present and to actively go through he entire program. I also worked with two of my fellow agents in Boyd County to prepare for presenting this to our CEC. The purpose of the training was to empower and encourage our local leaders to communicate with elected officials, on all levels, about things that are important to them, whether they relate to Extension or not. It started with just identifying our state and national elected officials, which surprisingly, at least to me, many did not know, which just reinforced the need for such a program. It then followed with more about how to contact them, how to have a message and to keep it short and to the point, plus much more. I personally have had several CEC members thank me for doing this program as they feel they should have known much of what they now know before. They now feel better able to contact and discuss issues of importance to them with their elected officials. Overall, a highly successful and well received program. We will be doing a follow-up at a future meeting to see if any have used their newly gained knowledge.