On the whole, Austinites aren’t ones to gush unduly, but we have yet to hear anything but high praise for Leadership Austin. Participants in their programs tend to view them as invaluable and invariably encourage the uninitiated to join in as soon as possible.

Falling somewhere between a think thank and a training center, the nonprofit has offered Austin citizens from a diverse array of backgrounds the opportunity to come together with community leaders to learn and collaborate with the goal of continuously improving our city.

Leadership Austin’s Engage Breakfast Series is a seasonal, monthly affair at which community leaders and affected citizens come together to learn about and discuss in depth issues that have a significant local impact.

The 2013-14 breakfast series starts tomorrow, October 2, at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, and will run through June. The first breakfast's topic is “Central Texas’ Historic Drought and Its Implications”; the panel includes H2O4Texas Coalition Founder and Executive Director Heather Harward, Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros, Lower Colorado River Authority General Manager Becky Motal and moderator Leslie Rhode, an anchor at KXAN news. The series is presented by the Austin Board of Realtors.

In partnership with Leadership Austin, CultureMap Austin will be running a series of columns from community leaders participating in the breakfast series. To introduce the series, Engage Advisory Committee member Chelsea McCullough outlines here some of the regional demographics that have a direct impact on the issues the series will tackle.

The Leadership Austin Engage Breakfast Series continues monthly through June 4 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. A series pass for all nine events costs $200. Tickets for single events cost $25 each. You can get more information and register for the events here.