by Amani Channel #nlc @newleaderscncl

If I told you how busy I am, that still might be an understatement. On top of being a dad, husband, grad student, full-time employee, and business owner, I’m also involved with a nonprofit called the New Leaders Council.

The NLC launched a chapter in Atlanta this year, becoming the first in the Southeast.

I could go into the story of how one of my colleagues contacted me about a year ago to share the idea; everything that was involved with getting it off the ground; the guerilla social media marketing tactics I used to spread the word; hours of meetings, conference calls, coordinating… yadda yadda yadda.

The long and short of it is that the idea became reality this past weekend. The New Leaders Council Atlanta Institute launched with 17 Fellows who will spend five months learning the ins and outs of progressive political entrepreneurship.

The organization is non-partisan, and is quickly expanding. There are a total of ten chapters nationwide which include: NY, LA, DC, SF, Boston, Chicago, Louisiana, Sacramento, San Diego and Boston.

The weekend was amazing. The two-day session focused on life entrepreneurship.

NLC Atlanta’s Honorary Advisory Board Member Kwanza Hall took time out of his busy schedule to share some of his trials and achievements in Atlanta politics.

The retreat ended with Milano Harden from The Genius Group speaking to the class about progressive entrepreneurship.

Of course I was all over the social media. I posted about 250 photos to Flickr; was using my iPhone to instantly publish videos to the net, and my Twitter stream was on fire (I manage the @NLC_Atlanta account as well).

I used PitchEngine to create a free social media press release (it expires in 30 days). To date it has received more than 500 hits.

This is an organization to keep an eye on. There is great leadership, it’s recruiting top young progressives, and there isn’t a program like it.

Congrats to the inaugural class of NLC Fellows: Fana Abay, Matthew Arnold, Kyle Bailey, Shemariah Butts, Carlissa Carson, Stacey Chavis, Howard Franklin, Kevin Grimes, Lauren B. Jarvis, Casey Lamb, Dwayne Marshall, Daniel Moskowitz, Darius Pattillo, J.Shakir Ramsey, Menyuan Smith, Jahnisa Tate and Travis Townsend.

I’m looking forward to the February session.