ALTUS - Two Great Plains Literacy Council students recently attended an exciting and interactive one day leadership conference designed for adult learners at the Oklahoma City Opportunities Industrialization Center. Bonnie Moss and Harold Wilson, both of Altus, attended the conference.

The theme of the conference was "Imagine the Possibilities of Literacy!" and the participants were able to attend six workshops. The keynote speaker was David Rendall, author of “The Four Factors of Leadership.”

He is an assistant professor of business at Mount Olive College in North Carolina. In his motivating presentation titled "Painting a Picture of Your Future," he challenged participants to make a clear picture of a future that will inspire and guide their daily life.

"Mr. Rendall had active presentations and involved the audience," Moss said. "He has been a public speaker and trainer across the United States as well as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom."

He had another workshop on "Writing Your Story." He taught participants how to use power and purpose to write and rewrite their life story.

"Write Now" was another topic taught by Rebecca Howard, Learning Disability Specialist with the Tulsa Community/City Library. In this workshop, they talked about putting thoughts on paper and being more confident. This workshop helped them in writing a story for the new book, “Imagine the Possibilities of Literacy.” Oklahoma adult learners are encouraged to submit writings by June 1 to be published in the fall of 2007.

The Great Plains Literacy Council at the Altus Public Library has the guidelines.

Another workshop, "PC Possibilities," was taught so the learners could learn basic computer skills, how to make an e-mail account and how to use the Internet.

The Great Plains Literacy Council delegates were interested in a workshop about the Oklahoma Centennial Project. They were taught to paint and etch their names on tiles that will be a part of the mosaic in Bricktown.

A grant from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries funded this leadership conference for adult learner in literacy programs. Kerri Miles, student leadership coordinator for the State Department of Libraries, arranged the conference. The Oklahoma Literacy Coalition Adult Learner representatives - Tom Morton, Del Kennedy, and Mary McLerran helped organize and facilitate the conference.