Origin of MSLBD

The Midwest Symposium for Leadership in Behavioral Disorders (MSLBD) had its origin in a statewide conference on behavioral disorders which began in Kansas in about 1979. Three Kansas statewide conferences were organized although they attracted participants from several other states including Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. These spawned the creation of a regional planning group for a larger regional/national conference to be held in Kansas City. That first Midwest Symposium conference was held in Kansas City at the Radisson-Muehlebach Hotel in February, 1983. About 200 people attended that first meeting. The second MSLBD conference was held at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Kansas City where about 400 people attended, and the conference has been held each year since that time at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City with attendance in 1993 reaching about 1,400. The average attendance is over 1000.

Seed money from the previous three years of the original Kansas conferences was used in part to establish MSLBD, and after several years those funds were eventually repaid in full to Kansas. In addition, sponsorship of the conference originally included financial support from all four state departments of education in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri & Nebraska and a variety of other outside sources including Planning Committee member's Universities and employers. Several of the State Departments of Education have continued to provide in-kind support to the Symposium on and off through the years!