Kathy Chandler-Henry: By the Numbers

[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Katie Kramer, President and CEO of The Betcher Foundation. Welcome to Colorado Leadership Stories. Where we talk to everyday courageous leaders who have made transformational impacts in their communities, and are building a better state for everyone. You'll hear from leaders and organizations and communities throughout the state,

[00:00:22] as we explore the idea that leadership is an activity that anyone can do. Today, we're excited to talk to Kathy Chandler-Henry, a highly respected leader and alum of The Betcher Foundation. She's made significant contributions during her tenure as a member of the Eagle County Board of County Commissioners.

[00:00:46] Notably, she facilitated the distribution of 1.5 million in age residents for rent and food cost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, Kathy played a key role in acquiring 1,500 acres of open space for agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and public education.

[00:01:03] She also championed the introduction of four new electric buses in Eagle County. Prior to a current position, Kathy served as the director of institutional research at Colorado Mountain College for 21 years. Her deep roots in Colorado make her insights extremely

[00:01:18] valuable. We will discuss all of these important topics and maybe a few more. Kathy, we are welcome to have... we are so excited to have you on the podcast today. Thanks, Katie. I'm excited to be here. Great. Something that we share,

[00:01:31] I'm an addition to being Betcher scholar, Alums. It's a is that we're both fourth generation color addons. And I know that you are from the Mountain Region. Is that correct? I am. I grew up in

[00:01:41] the small town of Eagle. Tell us a little bit about your family's story in history. Maybe what was things that were memorable about you're growing up in Eagle from your childhood in teenagers?

[00:01:53] Yeah. Well, my mom grew up on a ranch west of Eagle at the East Out Creek North of Newcastle. She met my dad at CU was a Kansas City boy but had spent his summers at the Forest Service in Colorado.

[00:02:07] So, they eventually found their way to Eagle. My dad was in the flight traffic, air traffic controller at this very small Eagle Airport. But they found it 24 hours a day and he guided

[00:02:21] planes in and did the weather and took care of the runway and everything. My mom was the registered nurse when I began the first class of family nurse practitioners because Eagle didn't have a doctor in

[00:02:34] those days. So, there were 800 people in Eagle when I graduated from high school. It was a great place to grow up. We could never figure out when Eagle was trying to get a doctor.

[00:02:48] They would come and they would say this looks great but there's nothing to do and we think could that possibly mean nothing to do because it seemed like there was everything to do outdoors.

[00:02:59] So, the folks who were there had to take care of themselves and take care of their medical care and everything else. It's a great place to grow up. Well, talk about how much change right from

[00:03:13] what is it like today compared to growing up? Right. So, 800 people there when I grew up about 10,000 there now. So, it's just topic here is leadership. I think being in that really small community gives you a good footing and leadership because you've got to take your turn.

[00:03:32] There aren't enough people. I had a class of 31. So, most people got to be a class officer or you know a club officer so you got practice. You didn't have a lot of competition for those positions.

[00:03:48] 10,000 people there now but when we moved back to Eagle it really felt like the same place. It's a small town atmosphere. It's the same love with the mountains and the outdoors and

[00:04:01] sort of being stewards of the land and taking care of your neighbors so it's I think people worry about growth and I worry about growth as a county commissioner and the one is too much and

[00:04:14] how do you stop people from coming can you even do that? The right way to call Rado. The old is a little bit too but I think those the values what people are afraid of isn't so much

[00:04:24] other people coming in it's losing those values and I don't think you have to lose those values when you get more neighbors around you. Well, great perspective on that. Love that. You know we this spring have just finished selecting our next class of better scholars. Oh, excited. And

[00:04:42] I'm sure that you probably have that memory of when you got your envelope from the better foundation. Yes, I'd love to hear that story of when you found out you were a better scholar and maybe

[00:04:53] if you have any memories from either this time of graduation where people are graduating from high school or college that come to mind during your time as a better scholar. Sure you know what

[00:05:05] an exciting memory and my older sister was a better scholar as well and my cousin's daughter and my daughter. Oh my goodness! Getting that better envelope is nothing, no feeling I could in the

[00:05:18] world but my first memory beyond the application and being nervous about it was getting selected to come to Denver for an interview that was such a big deal you know I sure better realize it's

[00:05:33] what a big deal that is for these rural kids and you come to the city and you stay at a hotel and have a nice dinner and all of that is sort of overwhelming and exciting and an introduced

[00:05:44] issue to a to a whole new world. My first memory of going to college with that scholarship is realizing oh my gosh everybody wants to be here. They're not just waiting to get out of school or

[00:05:57] hating going to class everybody was excited about learning and I think better being able to provide that opportunity and to that excitement of education is just really life altering. Tell us about your undergraduate years how did you select what college you attended and what did

[00:06:15] you study share some of that path? All right well I yeah was debating between CU for like medical research or and I ultimately decided to go to Fort Lewis College not as my sister was there and

[00:06:30] looked around looked at all the different things they had to offer and was really interested in political science. That's there you go. That's the field I went into. I graduated in three years at

[00:06:41] Fort Lewis just I took a lot of classes for some reason and I had a wonderful professor there who recommended that I applied a Duke University and applied for a scholarship there to

[00:06:55] get graduate degrees and I did that and was able to go from Fort Lewis College and Durango Colorado to Duke University and so it would be a big jump but that platform and that education that

[00:07:08] I got was served me well. That's wonderful and then you come back home and jump right back into leadership and I'm really curious about what it's like being a county commissioner. What's that job? Like how

[00:07:22] do you get started in that work? You know I think it's a best job in the world and it's the best level of government because you are at home you don't have to travel to Denver and live in an apartment

[00:07:35] during the week or travel to see you you're there with your friends and neighbors and constituents but you want to sew it it's a full-time job so you are doing the job every day not like

[00:07:46] town council where it's once every two weeks so you're immersed in it and when you go to the grocery store the post office people give you some instant feedback I bet they do how you're doing

[00:07:57] an idea for other things that might go on it really just seems like an opportunity to be nimble and do work that's important to people right where they live. I got I got started in the

[00:08:10] job sort of by accident I guess I had worked at Colorado Mountain College for many years as you mentioned when I left there I started my own company black diamond research did a lot of strategic planning

[00:08:23] data analysis community market research and surveys facilitation and I had done a lot of work with Eagle County and county commissioners there there was a vacancy one of the commissioners left six months into his second term I was active in the local political party which is who appoints

[00:08:44] the vacancies so I was on the vacancy committee and looking at the people who were applying and trying to sort through that my daughter happened to be home from college and I was telling

[00:08:55] her what I was doing and she said why are you on the vacancy committee and not running for the position? Ah huh. Good question. Leave it to our children to point something out Bobby S right?

[00:09:06] Yeah yeah so I thought you know what I'm I'm going to throw my happening and I did and that's so that was in 2013 okay I did that. Wow so coming up on well over ten years yeah

[00:09:20] that's done just hit 11 years well 11 years in June and I'll be term limited at the end of this year oh my goodness yes well I want to go back to what you it you had alluded to this and

[00:09:32] I think this is really an interesting thing relative to your background and research right so it CMC you you would let research there and so how has the county used research to inform decisions

[00:09:46] and leadership to advance things for the county? You know I was that it was a good background having that those years in research and analysis and being able to a lot one of the things I

[00:09:57] did at Colorado Mountain College was program reviews and look at all the different different factors that make a program successful we also looked at student success and that looks different at a community college and it does at someplace like the you and we realized that to measure

[00:10:15] student success you had to know what their goals were going in so if it took them 10 years to get a degree but they were also raising a family and working full-time that's a huge success so

[00:10:26] figuring out what the goals were and how to measure those goals right so that translates directly to the county interest to strategic planning and saying we want to we want to make

[00:10:39] you go county in better place to live for all that's our efficient statement so what does that mean and how are you going to measure that? It's been really helpful it's also helpful when you're reading

[00:10:50] reports or you're right land use files to be able to go through those and figure out the questions that weren't answered or the data that looks a little sketchy or somebody's made a pie chart

[00:11:01] and they aren't actually things that are connected to each other and add up to 100% of some of those really basic things you know data tells the story and you need both I had a college

[00:11:15] president once who said you know what I don't like about you research people is that you give us a data we want information we want to know what this means so that was sort of my introduction to the

[00:11:28] thought of you need to that data needs to tell a story because unless you're a number had it's like oh my gosh I don't care about this but you do care about the story that it's telling so being

[00:11:41] able to take the data and make it into a story if you have just a story with that data behind it that's an actual it can be used right kneading it loses its impact right absolutely well that

[00:11:53] that's good to marry both head and heart I think when you're making those types of decisions especially in the interest of advancing difficult issues in the community right and so going back we had talked

[00:12:06] about just the population growth from the time you grew up in Eagle County to now but I'm curious about other evolutions that are things some of the biggest issues that are facing the county whether

[00:12:18] it's water or affordable housing child care some of those things we always hear about things in Colorado so so share some of the things that you've been working on oh but that's a that's a great

[00:12:29] question and Eagle County looks a lot like high mountain resort communities right we had a mining background and agriculture background and right now we are an outdoor recreation and touristy economy so that comes with all sorts of benefits and challenges we're in all sorts of challenges so

[00:12:50] that's been the biggest evolution and I think present at some of the biggest challenges you mentioned a couple of them right housing child care it's taking care of our workforce is one of our strategic

[00:13:03] priorities and another one is protecting our mountain ecosystem and the third one is to do with with our economy and having a diverse economy but one of the things because we are a resort

[00:13:16] economy they'll and be for creek or in our county we have a lot of international pressures we have huge income disparities because the people who are coming in they may be have a third or

[00:13:28] fourth or fifth term right besides those that I can always unplay the people who work here are working in food service accommodations service type jobs the businesses in Eagle County pay well

[00:13:42] but those level of jobs don't pay enough to afford to compete with that wealth that is coming in from outside so there's a big gap and if you look at W2 wages in Eagle County folks make about

[00:13:57] $200 a week less than they do in the statewide average if they're living in these really high cost areas so trying to figure out how do we how do we address housing how do we keep people here

[00:14:10] a lose but garnered the state demographer we just have speaking and she always points out that we we have a whole in the mid 30 year olds because people come out as young folks they want to

[00:14:22] write it's exciting lifestyle in the mountains they stay there for a while they meet someone maybe and decide to partner up maybe they want to start a family and they can't afford to stay there

[00:14:35] and do that in the end up leaving it's not like the metro area where you can you have a lot of choice right you can go from maybe downtown down to them risk expensive so you go to one of the

[00:14:45] suburbs but still expensive in the mountains you have to drive a really long way out to be able to commute to work for someplace she can afford so trying to keep that fabric of the community

[00:14:57] and that those healthy homes and families people who can volunteer in the community all that takes takes time and you don't have time if you're working to win three jobs. Oh absolutely it's

[00:15:10] interesting we had Elizabeth Garner on the podcast just a couple weeks ago through the lady she is uh what a resource for our community but she was talking a lot about the shifting demographics

[00:15:20] of the state of Colorado and and so I wonder what those look like in in Eagle County relative to the Latino population specifically and also the aging population she talked about throughout

[00:15:33] the state what how does that show up for you we haven't about 50% of our school kids are Latino well so we have a large Spanish speaking population that's one of the things the county has really

[00:15:44] worked on and this idea of making this a better place for all is having things in dual language so wonder not just English it's later on translated to Spanish but they have in both languages up front

[00:15:57] so that's been an important thing for us we have a very large and growing aging population yes they want to be able to age in place we don't have enough resources for that we have

[00:16:10] 50 homes that are part of them are had homes and part of a mere tax credit homes that are for seniors and there's a waiting list of like 15 20 30 years to be able to get in to homes we

[00:16:24] sadly joke that right after you get your kids on the waiting list for a child care you need to kept them on the waiting list for seniors on Broadway so we do have now a care center,

[00:16:38] Casapet Care Center it's so that seniors who need more care can stay in the community don't have to leave their friends in their support systems but it's a huge need I'm meeting Friday

[00:16:50] with a woman who wants to talk about what I think is a great idea is connecting old people and older people and younger people in housing oh I am making that connection because older people

[00:17:03] often just need help getting the light switch plugged back in or buying our glasses they don't need a lot of help but they need someone and younger people maybe are out by themselves and need some mentorship and companionship and and seems like maybe there's some move there that

[00:17:21] we could that seems like a great thing to explore yeah I think great well when you think about lots of the things in your you know 11 years here what are some of the things you're most proud of

[00:17:32] that you've been a part of and you think about transformation in Eagle County thanks for that question and I want you to like catch this me off guard because you know you don't go around thinking

[00:17:42] thinking about that question a lot and a lot of the lot of the things day to day issues I think like when I started I found out that many people say well what is the kind of commissioner even

[00:17:54] do we have public hearings on Tuesdays we'll meet on Monday something thankful that's a crochet job so we started at the beginning of every one of our public hearings with the commissioner update so E-tom has talked about what we've been doing the rest of the week and

[00:18:10] we've been going and we were testifying on legislation and that's been a and they're always positive story so it's been a good way to start that our meetings and it's been a good way for the

[00:18:22] public to say oh I now I see and and now I know where a resource is if I have something that I'm concerned about maybe I can get help from the county so there's things like that that

[00:18:33] transbearance we've tried to really instill a culture of innovation and kindness and collaboration so I'm proud of all of that sort of cultural peace beyond that the most recent things I'm really excited about both how to do with water and I'm on the Colorado River District

[00:18:54] Water Conservation Board and we just signed a purchase and sale agreement with Excel Energy to purchase the water rights in the Shoshone power plant going through the glowing canyon Wow that would keep water in the Colorado River. Great and it's it's just huge a

[00:19:10] huge for the Western slope for the whole state of Colorado to protect that resource and the woman vice president from Excel and the woman president from the river district sat down together and signed that agreement and I want to get a picture there's a picture when the

[00:19:28] Colorado big Thompson agreement was signed of a table full of man and suit signing that a great ride on it and it's just sort of that was sort of a love that big moment for

[00:19:39] the really great fighting it's really great and and at the other thing I'm done recently in the water world is chair the Colorado River drop task force and that was established in the 2023

[00:19:52] Legislative Session we as began work the end of July had to deliver report to the Legislature by December 15th so anybody who does anything in the water world talks about water time which is usually

[00:20:08] decades so we had about four and a half months to come up with some recommendations for legislation for the 2024 session so that was a big challenge all task you talked about Russell George he was

[00:20:23] sort of a mentor in that process people said either this is terrible ideas going to fall apart everybody's going to be yelling at each other it's it's going to be fighting nothing's going

[00:20:35] to happen or nothing's going to happen because the task is too big there's not enough time you're not going to be able to get anything done it's going to you're just going to get cotton a

[00:20:44] quite higher and we managed to avoid both of those things it was very civil people who were in the room had lots of experience and expertise and worked together respectfully and so I'm really proud of

[00:20:58] being part of that process that's great and that is so complicated water in Colorado yes and motion all totally yes and scarce I mean yes when you have scarcity right well wonderful a great story about collaboration impact so exciting good for you you know another

[00:21:19] thing that we talked about the introduction but I wanted to hear more about the story but I want to hear about the COVID-19 response in Eagle I know you were huge peace in that advocating for emergency funding to help the community to recover talk about that experience

[00:21:36] for the county yeah we were very early on with COVID because we had the burden games there and right that's right Lynn COVID hit there was a big county commissioner meeting in Denver and we were all going to dinner and the Summit County Commissioner is an Eagle County

[00:21:54] Commissioner started getting phone calls saying we've got a COVID case so we all rushed back home right you know it was so much unknown this trying to figure out what the procedure should be we

[00:22:08] had a brand new public health director it just gotten to the county couple of months before he tarman was just amazing and worked that he was able to do our team really came up with some

[00:22:21] innovative practices and it had to do with that transparency again we created this it was a Google cheat and I think it in data studio but you could look at that every day and see

[00:22:34] how many cases there were how many people were in the hospital what the ages were and just have a feel for what's going on it's it's surging is it dropping off that was that was really helpful again that data telling this story because so much unknown

[00:22:51] links to lots and rumors about right following people in the absence of information people make up stories right think that actually yeah so being able to have that that data dashboard was was our grounding we had an amazing epidemiologist Becky Larson who kept up to date that first

[00:23:11] case I think she and her team spent hours sort of tracking all of the contacts and how as things went on you weren't able to do that and instead had some of the prevention measures we had some of

[00:23:25] the early COVID clinics we had them at the fairgrounds people could drive through and get shots and talk about that well disparity again we had second homeowners from Mexico fly into Eagle County

[00:23:40] get in a rented car drive through the COVID clinic and fly back oh my goodness isn't we thought while we we want as many people to be healthy as they can so come on in we did we did lots of

[00:23:53] vaccinations and then like you brought up we got very concerned about people being able to stay in business and right very very hard for small businesses and we had done and the towns had done all of the

[00:24:06] things like have let restaurants open up to the outside when it was warm enough to do that try and help as much as we could with the social distancing but it was still really tough we made

[00:24:18] money available for small businesses I up to 15 000 dollars to make payroll like loud or self-men and we made it easy to get it was in December sort of right before Christmas people drove

[00:24:32] up but it that made a huge difference for them and we did the same thing with families if you needed money for food or for rent you could come and get a visa card preloaded with that money so

[00:24:45] if you didn't have to fill out a lot of forms or proof you're income or anything we just wanted people to be able to get the help that they needed we got some some help from that from Vail

[00:24:56] Valley Foundation which was out of their daily work a little bit they do a lot with the downhill championships and go pro mountain games and the big they'll dance and big cultural activities but

[00:25:10] helping sort of on the social services front isn't something they had done before but it was such a community need and we were able to to talk to them about that need and so they helped provide a lot of

[00:25:22] the funding and the then that the county was able to distribute that's that's a great story just hearing about the response people coming together and again you're using your data to drive good decision

[00:25:36] making and we're hiring that up with good communication and transparency it makes me think about at the better foundation we've talked a lot about leadership we help you're familiar with the better scholarship program but we have this doers and different speakers fellowship for rural

[00:25:49] leaders and and such and so we've been developing this leadership framework and the stories you're telling are like yes that's what it's all about but we emphasize competency and trying to intervene skillfully at the right time speaking from heart to heart taking experimental actions right where you

[00:26:08] you're an uncharted territory you're gonna try somewhere and adjust and and then also working across factions and divisions not everybody's going to agree right and talking like yeah but I'm

[00:26:24] certain that that probably speaks to a lot of the things a lot of the ways that your leadership had to show up as a as a county commissioner right I think you know listening to those different

[00:26:38] ideas is is critical and one that that you mentioned was being experimental right we've tried to really embrace that as a county this idea of failing forward you know I love that if you see a need

[00:26:52] and you're trying to meet it just just try something and we really put our money where our mouth is with you know something called the bowl housing moves oh or housing department came up with

[00:27:03] it and they said could you invest ten million dollars in this tile program and what we want to do is they had an array of things to try and keep either get locals into housing or keep housing

[00:27:18] available for locals so things like down payment assistance which has been around for a long time but we've learned that people were losing out to cash buyers especially during covid sometimes cash

[00:27:30] buyers were buying sight and seen wow so we said the county will go in as a cash buyer well by the house when you get your loans together and everything ready will sell it back to you at

[00:27:41] no cost that turned out to be very successful we will do first and last months rent so that you would do just have the security deposit as if you're paying three thousand dollars a month

[00:27:55] and where are you going to come up with wealth thousand dollars so we tried to intervene to get rental folks in and depending on your income that was either grant or loan that you could pay back over time

[00:28:07] need restrictions where if there's a six hundred thousand dollar house but four hundred thousand is what's affordable the county will pay that two hundred thousand in exchange for a deed restriction saying only locals can live there those things have all been successful

[00:28:23] where we've struggled is trying to keep people get people to rent to long-term locals rather than short-term right because it's more lucrative to do short-term and so that's we've been trying to figure out how to do that and we've just after several tries we are

[00:28:45] now trying a sort of a bonus payment if you'll either keep your home in long-term rental or convert it to long-term rental you can get four thousand dollars a bedroom so if you have a four bedroom house

[00:28:57] you can get a cash payment of sixteen thousand dollars to say I will continue to rent to local so we're going to see if that works and it might not but it's that failing for a very experimental idea

[00:29:10] and I think it really gives people the agency to be innovative and creating the week can remove that fear of what's going to happen if I if I blow this right look at for you. That's right you tried something to work learn some stuff let's do something else

[00:29:27] that's right staying on the top of a leadership I've heard you say you believe in calm leadership and I want you to expand on what you mean by that and why it's important for leaders to

[00:29:37] embody that all it is that's I think yeah that's an interesting question I think that's what I bring to the table which sometimes is I think maybe could be more effective if you were

[00:29:50] jumping up and down kind of later I mean there's also sorts of all sorts of things but that's that's not me I tend to be more of a calm approach and I think realizing that you don't have to

[00:30:03] have an answer right away and that you can listen to people and that you can try if you can try to get to calm and ground then you can move forward and what I've found with the you know you

[00:30:17] mentioned factions and there's long-term locals who are really upset about why isn't it like it used to be you know I feel like we've lost there's a sense of I've lost something in this and

[00:30:30] they have you know it's not it's not like it used to be there's newcomers who want all these things that in salt there can be a clash the the bike riders and the people who would like it to stay

[00:30:43] pristine for the wildlife town availed us had a big controversy about big corn sheep versus affordable housing so there there are all those conflicts and if you sort of jump in quickly at the

[00:30:56] conflict level things just ramp up but if you can slow down and think about what are the shared values and I've found that everyone I've met so far wants the same thing they want

[00:31:10] clean air and water they want their family to be healthy they they want some security that they can their family can grow up in they want to be able to have an uptime to get out into the mountains

[00:31:24] to recreate or just to look at them yeah you know everybody wants those things so if you can get to what is it that we want together okay now there's lots of different ways to get there and how

[00:31:37] can we how can we work together to try and figure that out so I think you find that by the I mean yeah yeah and and I think you can trust the group I think sometimes leaders are

[00:31:53] fearful of you know I have this idea and we have to go this way and for somebody saying this and it's you know you don't really want to trust that you want to get them over here and

[00:32:03] hey the drought task force was a good example of that I think trusting the people in the group because there was some woman there from Aurora water that was somebody from the river district there were conservation groups so we're egg folks they were irrigators so lots of expertise

[00:32:21] but lots of competing interests yeah and demands on the water but they you know really it the base I wanted the same thing they want a lot of security they want Colorado to thrive

[00:32:34] they want to be able to drive through green fields they want to eat a palacid peach and so it's like alright how can we do some things that help us get there a little bit at

[00:32:45] in time and trusting the group to you know to struggle it takes a while it does you know when you're getting goose together it takes a while and you struggle and have disagreements but

[00:32:56] I community groups political group right I think if you trust the process trust the people and try and stay calm yourself you can make sure you can get there yeah for at least my progress

[00:33:09] absolutely well and the other two things that I heard in that answer are the importance of listening right just not pausing while the other person is talking just so you can figure out what

[00:33:20] you're gonna say right but it's so hard yeah it's just it's so important I think it's amazing what you have been able to tackle and the impact you've had over the years I'm sure you've

[00:33:37] learned a lot and you continue to learn every day oh every day I started part of the you ask about what's the job like it's it's like being an ingredient to it's someone or every

[00:33:47] lecture so many things and there's so many amazing stuff yeah accounting has an airport we have a road and bridge department you have materials recycling facility at the landfill all of it is just fascinating and interesting and important yeah so it's every day learning something I bet well

[00:34:07] I'm worried about Eagle County if you're term limited so but I am curious what's next for you what do you think I'm sure you're not gonna take your leadership hat off well I am really trying to

[00:34:20] focus on best job until the end of the year and then I figure I'll have a little bit of time but I do have my name in for the water quality control commission which is a governor appointed

[00:34:32] position I'll have one more year in my term on the river district so I'll stay involved in some some water things and I'll continue to volunteer in the community when we move back to Eagle

[00:34:44] when our kids were small I looked around and I had been involved in starting a United Way in Garfield County and found somebody else in Eagle County who would come from the mile height United Way

[00:34:56] and living in Eagle and we got together and started a United Way there so community I'll always have needs and always interest to be able to jump in and help. Yes you you suffer from do

[00:35:10] gooding I think and you just like all better scholars I think that but just a heart for the community and a service ethic and answering that called a leadership even when it's hard

[00:35:22] so thank you I'm so grateful that you've done that and before we get to the end I just have to ask this question because we love it when scholars go into public service and would love to see

[00:35:31] more of them continue to do that. What advice would you give someone who's thinking about that or encouragement just go for it. You know one of the things that had helped me back when I thought

[00:35:41] about it before is the idea of campaigning yes and being a good campaigner and being a good elected official aren't always the same characteristics as I an introverted sort of person in the

[00:35:54] idea of going out and campaigning felt hard it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I think just go for it you know to start with your local homeowners board or planning commission is always

[00:36:09] towns and counties are always looking for help and it's so I think having that the many better scholars that are out there and anybody who's looking at in being in community leadership it's really rewarding so you're you're giving but as all volunteer things are you get more

[00:36:30] back than way more and get them for right that's a good point I think that sometimes people forget there's so much more to civic engagement and leadership versus what you think of for an

[00:36:42] elected office right the boards and commissions the I know the governor's office is always looking for people that want to raise their hand and get it you know involved in something and I'm sure

[00:36:52] that's the same way I know in our vada where I live I see things where people can get involved in the industry it's like the candy parks and absolutely and the other thing is that I would tell

[00:37:03] to people who are in leadership positions since you often hear the folks saying no one's stepping up so hard to get people to help well you have you have to invite them and make them welcome

[00:37:15] because you were you just said how can you get involved in taking it's hard it's hard to right go into a group that's been together you don't know if you're going to be welcome you don't

[00:37:26] know what the rules are so if you're somebody who's looking for help try and be a little more welcoming go with somebody and fight them especially women need to be invited and reminded that

[00:37:40] yeah you've got the skills like my daughter did for me right like come on mom yeah no I think that is so true just being asked right right right I see the opportunity that you may have interest here

[00:37:54] to contribute and and here's a way and that's how I got involved in water things uh woman who was on the egg over for watershed council her husband had been on the United Boy Board with me and

[00:38:07] he reached out and said Max said that you do good work would you be interested in being on the watershed council I saw I don't know anything about it she said y'all there so it was that invitation

[00:38:19] and that that sort of you have the skills we would like to we would like you to come so I think both sides have to really absolutely come together and a learner's mind too right the intellectual

[00:38:31] curiosity like and admit that maybe I don't know but I'm willing to learn right this is you know that's your salty all right absolutely yeah oh that's great well this has been so much fun talking

[00:38:42] to you about this and the time is flown but I know we're at the lightning round so you have at least four more questions before we wrap and so I'm curious what's your favorite Colorado hobby

[00:38:53] oh guys skiing I have to say skiing but of course all of them hiking camping by writing just being outdoors and you live in the pretty pretty part of the state in order to do some of those

[00:39:03] things that's great wonderful okay favorite Colorado landmark uh Mount of the Holy Cross I think you can see it from the top of bail and rice places that is just it's the 14er the only 14er

[00:39:17] that we have in the accounting and it's just sort of imposing and comforting at the same time and it's it's beautiful and home for you that's wonderful okay what action hero do you most identify with humcash I'd say the action heroes admire are the suffragettes you know

[00:39:37] and those are actually heroes in my mind and just the thought of what they did is inspiring and incredible and we stand in their shoulders yeah grateful for that courage she ride that time right

[00:39:50] I wonder if that very poppins movie had the suffragettes yes and they said our daughters daughters will adore us yep and we do don't we that's great okay final question what are you currently

[00:40:04] binging is there a show that you're loving or a book or a podcast that you can't get enough of oh cash um we've been binge watching shutland which is a detective series in the gentleman

[00:40:15] dylons okay it's just gorgeous barren scenery you know like good story and and I love the Louise penny books also detective I guess I you like like I like the detective stories so those are

[00:40:28] good those are great me and the wilds of Canada for those are well wonderful well thank you Kathy for coming in this has just been so much fun it's been great and I'll look forward to seeing you

[00:40:39] the next time I'm through Eagle County all right thanks you thank you for joining Colorado leadership stories where we hope to inspire the next generation of Colorado community builders doers and difference makers Colorado leadership stories is presented by the better foundation

[00:40:58] the better foundation supports Colorado by empowering leaders and communities with tools to tackle challenges and pursue opportunities building a better state for everyone but in 85 plus year legacy of giving back we're committed to amplifying our impact for future generations that's the spirit of better