The decision was made to keep the conference in the “institute-based” format that it had in 2005. Throughout the weekend, students actively engaged in a variety of large group immersion exercises and small team meetings in which they built a sense of team and participated in dialogues. To conclude the conference, a final group project required each small team to take a practical approach towards social change by selecting 1-2 current campus issues that they would like to see change, creating a plan of action for change, and presenting this plan to the entire conference community. Upon our return to campus, a summary of each of the group's "Inspired Annoyance" project was presented to the entire Division of Student Affairs.

This year's conference goals continued to be as follows:

To engage students in a values-based, experiential curriculum that would foster personal leadership development, build a diverse community, and establish meaningful student relationships.

The theme for the conference was “Lead with Direction: Know Where You Go.” This theme was reflective of the conference’s focus on working with others to achieve a common vision. The text selected for this year’s conference was The Student Leadership Guide (Brendon Burchard, 2003). The text focused on the following concepts:

Three Principles of Leadership

• Leadership is a collective, not a singular activity
• Leadership is not the same thing as management
• Leadership is rooted in service

The Six Es

• Envision – Create a vision for positive change
• Enlist – Enlist the support of collaborators
• Embody – Live the values, principles and behaviors you wish to role model
• Empower – Provide collaborators with what they need to succeed
• Evaluate – Evaluate your vision, ethics, performance and progress
• Encourage – Encourage collaborators to grow

Based upon participant evaluations, the Winter Leadership Conference 2006 proved to be quite a success.

• 96% of conference participants believed that they were able to gain a respect for diverse perspectives of others, as well as felt more comfortable moving across cultural, racial, and ethnic boundaries.
• 95% of conference participants agreed that the values/qualities identified for the conference are important to their development as a leader.
• 95% of students felt that their facilitators established good relationships between team members and encouraged group participation; and 94% believed that the facilitators created a positive learning environment during their individual team sessions.
• 89% of students felt that their experience with the conference would increase their desire to further engage in leadership involvement at DePaul.

One hundred and twenty four student leaders participated in the weekend leadership conference. Eighty-eight of our participants were new to the experience.

A special thank you must go out to all of the departments that helped out with this year's leadership conference: Student Life, Residential Education, Campus Recreation, Office of Academic Enhancement, and Multicultural Student Affairs and Student Affairs. Also, a HUGE thank you must go out to our Peer Facilitators and student planning committee!