1. The document invites the recipient to participate in a 4-day community service program called Executive Service IMPACT (ESI) taking place in War, West Virginia from April 24-28, 2016. 2. The program aims to provide executives an opportunity for renewal and stress management through mindful service learning activities like home renovation projects to help local families in need. 3. Participants will stay in a hotel with limited internet, work in teams on construction projects, and reflect daily to translate lessons learned into improved leadership back at their organizations.

1. Greetings:
I am writing to personally invite you to consider enlisting in The Executive Service
IMPACT (ESI) Program to be held in War, West Virginia from April 24-28, 2016. Yes, you
are invited to go to War!
Why? Because I think you will really enjoy this experience. Like me, you live in a world
increasingly dominated by speed, technology, metrics, multitasking, and complexity, as well
as needing to be constantly available to everyone we serve. As these pressures mount, it is
increasingly challenging to be fully present in relationships, which can create more stress as
internal relationships become strained and an organization’s effectiveness ultimately can be
impacted. We simply don’t intentionally make time for ourselves and unplug. Renewal is
essential.
We recognized a need and saw the opportunity to provide executives with insight into their
personal and leadership effectiveness, and tools to mindfully manage stress while engaging in
relationship-based service learning.
Program Objectives
1. Provide a mindful, service-oriented learning experience for executives to better know
themselves as the basis of ongoing professional and personal growth and self-care.
2. To motivate and empower participants to continue to model new mindset and
leadership behaviors to connect with others.
3. Enable participants to apply lessons learned towards action plans to reconnect with
customers and employees as a servant leader.
4. To add value to the health and local economy in the hard hit areas where ESI
connects.
Program Description
ESI offers something special that will provide you with a rewarding community service
experience by convening like-minded executives and equipping all to better connect with
communities and the individuals they serve. This is an experience that will allow you to
unplug, reset, and restart. You will get to know more about yourself though working and
interacting with others in a way that takes you out of the somewhat cocooned comfort of
your office.
An easy way to begin the process of unplugging and hitting the reset button is by deeply
engaging in a challenging experience. My grandmother taught me that and I have never
forgotten it. Providing community service is an activity that will enable you to better
understand the needs of others and to help those in need. These activities often refocus us
on both the challenges that others face and the good fortune that they currently experience.
This type of re-grounding provides a reflection in the mirror that you as an overbooked
executive may rarely see. This is unfortunate, yet so real.

2. The ESI experience will be different than other community service programs because it’s
more than just community service. It’s a unique voluntary service and personal development
experience combined with programmed discussion and learning. This isn’t like a typical
executive conference or educational program with just a little bit of community service. The
challenges will be real, as will the interactions with participants and people in the community.
The ESI staff will provide a curated and safe environment to create good for all, have fun
and learn. You will be serving a community by using you hands, you heart, and you mind.
What you and your team members build will change the lives of others, and yourself.
Yes, the idea may be scary to some. But isn’t that the idea? Whenever you look back to when
you have learned the most, it was always at times when you took on something new and
maybe scary. Yet, you found a way to survive, and even thrive. Challenges, particularly when
you are completed supported, will create the opportunity to learn. Not only will you be
traveling to a rural part of the United States and helping one of the poorest communities in
our nation, you will also be required to do individual work before the program begins.
We will convene at Charleston airport and drive to War, West Virginia in vans where the
experience will begin. Two daily meals will be provided and we will make our own lunches
each day before work at the job sites begins.
Pre-Travel Assignments
1. Completion of self-assessments regarding thinking, decision-making and leadership
preferences. This will inform your personal learning plan.
2. Selected readings on the community being served as well as mindfulness research
and benefits.
3. Declaration of preferences for service work projects and hopes and fears for this
experience.
The In-Community Experience
1. Please, no private jet travel to Charleston, as that just seems over the top and a bit of
a contradiction.
2. Internet will only be available in the evenings at the hotel. Cell service is very spotty,
yet the hotel does have phones in the rooms.
1. Our pilot experience will be held in War, West Virginia, in in McDowell County,
which is the 6th poorest county in America. We will work in collaboration with Big
Creek People in Action (BCPA), an organization that has been actively supporting
community development in West Virginia coal country for years.
2. Introductory session where the diversity of the group is discussed and techniques to
leverage the differences are discussed and practiced.
3. 2 teams of five executives with experience four days on-site with time devoted to
specific home renovation project work, social time within the community, daily
reflection on experiences and lessons learned, as well as unstructured free time.
Project work will be focused on small construction/home improvement projects that
families do not have the resources to complete. Households often include, the ill,
the disabled, and the elderly as their offspring have increasingly left the town for
greater opportunities outside of the Appalachian areas.

3. 4. Work session to translate lessons learned during the ESI experience into high-
performing teams back at one’s business.
5. Wrap up that will include individual development planning and commitments to
apply and sustain continued learning.
Due to extremely limited hotel accommodations ESI is open to only 10 executives in April
2016. We will offer another program later in the year.
The program fee is $3,900.00, which includes your participation in the experience, lodging,
meals and transportation to and from Charleston WV airport. Transportation to and from
you home to Charleston is not included.
As a 501(c)(3) we are committed to serving the communities that host us. As such, we plan
to do more to improve social, health, environmental and economic infrastructure that is
lacking in War and other communities that we will serve in the future.
As I have come to know you, I sincerely believe you will contribute to and gain much from
this experience and encourage you to consider enlisting to go to War. So, when was the last
time you had 4 days just for you? I promise you will not regret your decision to participate.
For more information please visit our website, www.executiveserviceimpact.org.
After an initial conversation, I would be happy to provide you with a registration form,
payment information and additional details regarding the pre-program work.
In the meantime, please feel free to contact me directly at 708-369-1718 or send me an email
to ddowling@executiveserviceimpact.org
I hope to see you at Charleston airport on April 24, 2016!
Sincerely,