CAPACITY BUILDING

• Danny Bivins, Paul Hardy, Langford Holbrook, Skip Teaster, Tyson Young, and Jim Youngquist, developed and delivered SERDI’s 20th Annual Development Conference. Hosted by the Georgia Regional Development Council’s State Association on St. Simons Island, over 90 attendees participated in sessions including a mobile brownfield tour and panel discussion conducted by Courtney Tobin.
• More than 375 people attended CLA’s Annual Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Six keynote presentations and fifty professional development sessions addressed the role of community leadership in creating community sustainability. Keynoters included Ray Anderson of Interface in Atlanta, discussing his firm’s work to reduce its environmental impact, and Max De Pree, Chairman-Emeritus of Herman Miller, who offered his response to four critical questions he wished had been posed to him earlier in his career. Chuck Underwood, an authority on intergenerational relationships, spoke on how leadership programs could address the generational transfer of leadership responsibility from the Boomers to the GenX and Millenials. In addition to CLA Executive Director Jim Maloney, a dozen Fanning staff and faculty were involved in some capacity, including Jamie Clark, Debra Gates, Linda Hobbs, Melanie Lee, Diane Little, Louise Hill, Jessica Garris Miller, Joe Whorton, Jessica Garris Miller, and Tyson Young.
• Rob Williams was part of a leadership development team assembled by the Packard Foundation and International Health Programs to work with reproductive health and family planning leaders from Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines. The team will also work with 30 health care leaders and Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health to improve local health care services and address health issues such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, pre-natal and neo-natal screening, and access to maternity care.

EXPLORATION

• Courtney Tobin facilitated one of five “Envisioning Sessions” for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Coastal States Organization. The meetings, in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, and San Francisco, solicited ideas about better coastal management to help inform upcoming Congressional legislation regarding the Coastal Zone Management Act.

IMPLEMENTATION

• Leigh Askew, Danny Bivins, Mac Brown, Bill Russell, Mike Sutton, and Courtney Tobin have begun developing a new brownfield tool called “Snapshot.” Snapshot, which will help communities visualize potential reuses of abandoned brownfield sites, is being piloted in Rome.
• Matt Bishop completed the Research Report for the Governor’s Communities of Opportunity Initiative, which concludes that rural investment strategies have had marginal impacts in community economic development efforts and recommends that the Georgia Rural Development Council and Department of Community Affairs continue to pilot the Communities of Opportunity Initiative in the rural counties in State Service Delivery Region 7. Governor Perdue’s Executive Order authorized DCA to continue the Region 7 pilot project, implementation of which Fanning will play an instrumental role. The report can be accessed at http://www.fanning.uga.edu/communitiesofopportunityreport/.
• Langford D. Holbrook oversaw the final draft of the State Outdoor Comprehensive Recreation Plan (SCORP), which was presented to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Board and released for a 30-day public comment period. The draft will be updated to reflect public input and sent to the layout/graphics team for finalization. To read and comment on the draft, go to http://www.georgiastateparks.org/scorp