Thirty Five Years of Leadership equals Thirty Five Summers of Fun
James H. Amos Jr. CEO, Mail Boxes Etc. says that Patrick Lencioni’ s book“ The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” is a must read for any leader that has come to grips with the fact that no one makes progress— much less succeeds— alone. This is a perfect way to begin my discussion on the leadership of the Gilroy Garlic Festival. The Festival founders, Rudy Melone and Don Christopher, had the vision and commitment while Val Filice had the culinary expertise. But the three of them knew from the beginning that they could not do it alone.
One can ask:“ How can the vision of the founders be sustained and new ideas be fostered over the years?” Rudy’ s prophesy was the need to change the leadership( term limits) on an ongoing basis. It was felt that it would bring new energy and new ideas to the board leadership.
By Sam Bozzo
Photos provided by the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association Bill Strange
How does a person get to the
To answer that questions, I started with this year’ s President Dr. Dennis
Harrigan. He first became involved in the Festival in 1989 with Rod Kelley Principal Gene Sakahara; their assignment was to hand out free water. Dennis refers to himself as a fungus because since 1989 he worked in signs for four years, served on the advisory committee, worked in Gourmet Alley and ultimately was recruited by Eleanore Workman to the Cook-Off Stage in 1992. He was then elected to the board of directors, where he served as vice president and now president. Starting last November Dennis led the board of directors in setting goals while working with the previous board of directors to insure good communications. He and his wife, Renee, also a dedicated volunteer, are avid outdoor folks.
In 1979, the year of the first Festival, Garlic
Festival Vice President Vito
Mercado was a courtesy clerk at Nob Hill Foods. In 1990, he was promoted to store director. In 2000, Mike Davis, a friend, recruited him to work in Gourmet Alley. They went on to become co-chairs of Gourmet Alley where they led the Gourmet Alley team in one of the highest grossing years in history of the Festival. Vito’ s wife, Debbie, has been the chair of the demo stage in Gourmet Alley for the last 6 years. Vito uses his vacation time to work for the Festival, which takes at least the week of the Festival and the week following. Vito gets a great amount of gratification for viewing the accomplishments of the Festival. He is proud of the fact that the organization is volunteer driven and acknowledges it is that dynamic that is crucial to the Festival’ s sustained success.
Vito, in referring to Patrick Lencioni’ s book, says that the team of 100 that he directs at Nob Hill is really no different than what occurs with the Garlic Festival. Both succeed because they are human and work at putting an emphasis on trust, working through conflict, having commitment and accountability which are key to building ownership in the organization.
Steve Padilla Chairperson of the Garlic Festival Advisory Board, began his involvement with the Festival in 1984 when he sold beer and collected trash. Steve is very clear about his involvement in the Festival“ when called he will serve” and that he has done; beer, trash, signs, Cook-Off Stage, advisory board( twice) and now the board of directors. He says he will always find something to do. Steve brings great expertise to the Festival. He was the fire captain assigned to special events with the City of San Jose— Tapestry n Talent( 80,000-90,000), Jazz Festival( 90,000), and Heritage Festival( 110,000)— were under his jurisdiction. Steve says those events are commercially driven as opposed to the Garlic Festival which is volunteer driven. He gets a great sense of satisfaction out of his involvement and he is not even a resident of Gilroy. He feels that the board setup is great for meaningful dialog even when there is disagreement. He notes that he wants to pass on what he has learned to the next set of volunteers.
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