U.S. presidents aren’t the only leaders to honor on Presidents Day

Monday is Presidents Day, the day when we remember Lincoln, Washington and other United States political giants after, if we’re lucky enough to get the day off, sleeping in for a few hours.

But you know who doesn’t get much press on Presidents Day? Closer-to-home presidents, those leaders of our civic groups, clubs and nonprofit organizations whose likenesses will never appear on a mountainside but who still volunteer their time and leadership skills to enrich our community.

We asked a few of Southern Nevada’s homegrown presidents about what it’s like to be president and for tips and strategies they might offer to other, perhaps aspiring, presidents.

SUSAN ZIOBRO, TOASTMASTERS

Ziobro rose through the ranks before becoming president of Las Vegas Toastmasters Club 1297007 (http://1297007.toastmastersclubs.org) in July.

Her leadership experience with the club includes stints as club treasurer and vice president of education. She’s now midway through a yearlong term as president.

It’s not her first leadership experience. While attending college in Washington, Ziobro served as student body treasurer. She says serving as a Toastmasters International president isn’t difficult because she spent time beforehand, as an officer, learning about the club and how it works.

“Every officer has a role that they have to perform,” she says, and, as president, “I just help them stay on task with all of their roles. They, in turn, keep themselves on task.”

Also, “Toastmasters is a great organization, and there isn’t anything in their 90 years of existence that they haven’t come across and haven’t found a solution for,” Ziobro says. “So it’s an organization that doesn’t need to be reinvented. It’s rolling along beautifully.”

Any advice for presidents-to-be? “I would say that you know you’re ready to take on a presidency before you take it on,” Ziobro says. “Prepare yourself before you take it on.

“I would say your biggest asset is to be patient and know what you’re getting into before you step into the shoes. And, at least at Toastmasters, if you’ve never worn the shoes before and aren’t quite ready for the shoes, there’s always somebody to help you down the path.”

BRENT ROSS, WOODTURNERS

Ross is in his second go-round as president of the Las Vegas Woodturners Association (702-481-5391), after serving his first term as president about 10 years ago.

“Primarily what we are concerned with is educating people how to turn wood on a wood lathe and how to do it safely with proper tools and techniques,” he says.

Ross began turning wood in junior high school but was off and on with the hobby for several years. Then, he says, “about 11 years ago, my father, who is a wood turner, got tired of me just sitting and watching him, and for Christmas he gave me a small minilathe and said, ‘Now your turn.’ ”

He began attending Las Vegas Woodturners meetings and, Ross says, “after five months of attending meetings, they decided I needed to be president.”

Ross has held leadership positions in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and estimates that he spends less than 10 hours a month on Woodturners club business.

“Primarily, it’s just organizing the next meeting and making sure the meetings are going to go right,” he says.

His tips for aspiring presidents? First, “I never go in without a printed (meeting) agenda,” Ross says. “I know what announcements (are to be made) and I have schedules for times and whatnot, so we can stay on schedule and get into the demonstration as fast as possible and still enjoy a quality meeting.”

Don’t be intimidated about leading meetings, he adds.

“What I always tell people is, ‘Know what? These are friends, and if you stand up and make a mistake, they don’t care.’ ”

Be willing to listen to criticism from members.

“Good leaders cannot die with criticism” Ross says. “We’re going to get criticized when we’re leaders, and it depends on how we use that criticism. Do we use it to improve ourselves? That’s a great use of criticism.”

Finally, Ross says, one of his most important responsibilities is “to make sure, as a president, that I’m nurturing future presidents.”

COLLEEN BRITOS, POODLE CLUB

Britos spent much of her nursing career in management positions. So, she says, leadership wasn’t completely foreign to her.

“But,” she says, “I never thought I’d grow up to be a poodle owner, let alone president of a poodle club.”

Britos, president of the Poodle Club of Las Vegas (www.poodlecluboflasvegas.org), always wanted a poodle and, after adopting a standard poodle, learned about the club.

She initially became the club’s rescue chairman, and when it was time for a new president to be elected, the members asked her if she’d run.

Britos has been re-elected three times.

Managing employees in the professional world and managing volunteer members of a club require different skills and different approaches. In the workplace, an employee’s performance is linked to the desire to keep a job, while members of a volunteer community group may be “very well-meaning but maybe aren’t going in the same direction the club is,” Britos says.

Managing volunteers in a club can require a bit of finesse and patience, she concludes.

Her advice to aspiring presidents? “You have to be careful what you say ‘yes’ to, because in your zeal, just starting out, you can end up volunteering to do more than you’re actually capable of fulfilling.”

NANCY SAMPSON, FABULOUS LAS VEGAS SCRIBES

Nancy Sampson belonged to a calligraphy club while she lived in Arizona. After returning to Las Vegas — she grew up here — Sampson and a friend decided to start a local club. Thus was born The Fabulous Las Vegas Scribes (http://fabulouslvscribes.weebly.com).

The club, founded in summer 2013, started meeting regularly last year and now has about 19 members, Sampson says, all of whom are practitioners and admirers of calligraphy and paper arts.

Sampson says she started doing calligraphy in 1973. In forming the club here, Sampson used as a template the Arizona club which, she says, was full of wonderful, creative people who were very helpful.

The Las Vegas club — the “fabulous” refers to the iconic Las Vegas sign takeoff on its logo — began with two members and ended its first year with six. Sampson says she became president mostly as a product of the work she put into founding it.

“That first year, I probably put in 20 hours a week. It was a part-time job,” she says. “It was a lot of detail, and last year it was pretty intensive, too.”

Key in making the club work, Sampson says, are fellow club officers and club members who pitched in when needed at crucial points along the way.

“You know, this group was meant to be. We have not had one glitch,” she says. “It’s been amazing. I was worried about that at the beginning, and everything fell into place from the wonderful, talented calligraphers that joined us.”

Her advice to prospective presidents — particularly those who are starting a new group, rather than stepping into an existing one — is “to be flexible and pay attention to what your members are telling you.”

LINDA SYMONDS, WOMEN’S CLUB OF SUMMERLIN

The Women’s Club of Summerlin (www.womensclubofsummerlin.org) is an independent women’s club that has more than 80 members and “works to benefit the women and children of the community,” President Linda Symonds says.

The club’s two signature events are a “Dare to Dream” program through which grants of as much as $3,000 are awarded to women who wish to improve their lives either personally (by, for example, returning to school) or professionally (by starting a business), and an annual charity event in which money is raised for a specific organization.

Symonds has been a club member for seven years.

“(I joined) to meet some ladies and to find a place that I could give of my time and help out,” she says, “and because of (its) mission of helping women and children, that really appealed to me.”

Symonds has experience serving in organizations as a committee chairwoman and officer, and her current term as president of the Women’s Club of Summerlin marks her second as its president. She says a primary part of her job is simply “to really listen to the people.

“The thing with our group of ladies is, they are extremely hard-working and dedicated, and a lot of them have full-time jobs and families and yet come out to do this volunteer work and to work on these events. They are very committed to helping others as well, and have a lot of ideas to share.”

And, Symonds says, “I think that, from my perspective, I wouldn’t want to have the responsibility to try to come up with all of the ideas. You really need to rely on people who have been in the club a long time and, even, new members.”

Symonds considers it another job duty to prospect for new members.

Members don’t have to live in Summerlin, she says.

“We’d like to expand our reach to the community,” she says, “so we can get more opportunities to kind of spread our wings and provide support for as many organizations as we can.”

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.