IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers LEADERSHIP AND PATRIOTISM—South Coast Youth Leadership Conference president, Col. Jerry Knotts, addresses friends and family of the Thousand Oaks Youth Leadership Conference Class of 2009 during an awards banquet at California Lutheran University last Thursday night. The four-day conference, part of the Patriotic Education program of the Military Order of the World Wars, promotes leadership, patriotism and free enterprise. See related photo on page 16.