Emerging Leaders Retreat 2025

Early-career staff identified by their organizations as future executive directors spent December 30 and 31, 2025, at the Rocky Mountain Chapter Lodge outside Denver, each paired for the full retreat with a sitting executive director.

Rocky Mountain chapter chair Tobias Kren opened the retreat and hosted the first evening's pairing dinner, where each participant met the executive director they would shadow for the two days. Hollis Greenleaf, who runs the two-person Rocky Mountain Outfitters and Guides Council in Cheyenne, led a session on what he wished he had known before his first year running an association, drawn from his own experience joining the Southeast shared-services model to stretch a small staff further.

Paloma Irigoyen, director of events at the Mountain States Ski Area Operators Council, taught a session on event budgeting basics — reading a contract, negotiating a room block, and knowing which costs are fixed versus variable.

The second day gave paired participants extended one-on-one time to work through a real problem from the participant's own organization, followed by a group debrief. Several pairs used the time to work through succession planning, budget cuts, or a board conflict the participant was facing back home. The retreat closed on December 31 with a new year's toast and each participant leaving with a written development plan for the year ahead.

Kestrel Travel & Housing managed lodging and the airport shuttle for the roughly two dozen participants and their paired executive directors, continuing a partnership that has covered the retreat's logistics since its first Denver edition.

The retreat met at the Rocky Mountain Chapter Lodge, with a complimentary shuttle from Denver International Airport. Registration was free for members; non-members paid $195.