2004 Leadership Award

The award is given to the person whose activities have done the most to further the mission of the Chautauqua Leadership Network.

Congratulations! R. Bard Schaack, Esq.

Bard Schaack exemplifies the best qualities of a leader. He uses his considerable talents for the betterment of his community without expecting reward or recognition. Bard is a long-standing Rotarian and is a member of the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation Board of Drectors. While on the NCCF Board. he led a strategic planning process, introduced a new data management system and standards for community foundations. He also led the development of the Community Donor Advised Funds model which has resulted in funds in outlying communities such as Ripley and Westfield. Bard is very supportive of SUNY Fredonia, currently serving on the Rockefeller Arts Center Advisory Committee. His leadership with that group has helped expand their thinking, particularly in the realm of planned giving.

2004 Leadership Award winner - R. Bard Schaack

In the early 1990s, Bard led the effort to create the Chautauqua Leadership Network. From his perspective as a volunteer in such organizations as the Northern Chautauqua Chamber of Commerce (later to become Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce), Rotary and the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation, he could see the value of working together as a cooperative whole in Chautauqua County and the lost opportunities and barriers that resulted when cooperation didn't exist. Bard also noticed that the same relatively small group of people served on most of the boards in which he participated. He was concerned that a new generation of trained leaders was not being developed who could step in and take over for the current group as they aged out of their leadership roles. For Bard, the Chautauqua Leadership Network represented the way to solve both these problems and he put tremendous time and energy into ensuring that such an organization came into being. He researched leadership efforts in other areas and brought back the best of what he saw. He organized a core group of people from key county organizations and helped them put the meat on the bones of a county leadership organization. To this day, Bard lends his quiet support behind the scenes and makes himself available whenever CLN needs his assistance.

Bard is a forward looking community leader, never satisfied with the status quo and always looking for ways to help his community improve and grow. Without Bard's original vision and unflagging support, the Chautauqua Leadership Network would not exist. When we look at the vision and mission of CLN, we are seeing the realization of a dream that Bard had as he helped us all create a county-wide organization of trained, informed leaders who can lead our county into the future. I can think of no person more deserving of this honor than the man whose own vision for the future of Chautauqua County led to the formation of the Chautauqua Leadership Network.

Bard is a partner with the law firm of Schaack, Whipple, Clark, Nelson, PC and lives in Dewittville, NY with his wife, Debbie. They have two grown children.

This nomination was authored by Sylvia Stenander - with the input of Karen West and Diane Hannum. Bard was nominated by several CLN members!

Leadership Awards:

2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006| 2007