CONYERS, GA-June 14, 2000-The Conyers-Rockdale Chamber of Commerce and Partners for Tomorrow, a public-private economic development organization have agreed to merge into a single organization. Larry McKinney, the current President of Partners for Tomorrow, will lead the new entity as President and CEO. Larry Miller, Chairman of Partners for Tomorrow said, "The community visioning process we’ve recently been through can serve as the foundation to make our community shine. In fact, one of the issues discussed by the 165-member Task Force was the formation of strategic alliances for community and economic development. This is the first attempt to realize the strategy established at those community meetings."

Nelson Toebbe, Chairman of the Chamber said, "The catalyst for the merger came from a series of meetings held over the past three months with the 165-member CRFuture Task Force. The group, representing various segments of the community, developed the first draft of Vision statements and a 10-year plan for the Conyers-Rockdale community." The new organization will provide a full time staff member to coordinate "CRFuture-Creating Our Tomorrow". The draft Vision document is in the public input phase that ends with a Town Hall meeting on June 29. The final Vision will be complete July 11, 2000 and Collaborative Implementation will continue for five years.

MINOT. ND-On June 13, the voters of Ward County approved a "Home Rule Charter" referendum by a 63% margin. This was a strategy of the Minot/Ward County Vision adopted in March 1999.

DALTON, GA-Vision Partners in the Dalton Vision process, TARGET TOMORROW, established a Strategic Alliance on June 14 to increase the graduation rate. Also the Dalton City and Whitfield County government departments began the process of adopting strategies that will lead to Strategy Benchmarks and Action Step development. The timing is set to coincide with the preparation for the 2001 budgets and completion of the Comprehensive Planning Update.

ASHEVILLE, NC- In a June 8, 2000 letter to the Asheville/Buncombe Vision Director, the County Manager, Wanda Greene said, "Enclosed is a copy of the Buncombe County’s strategic plan. As you can see, there is an approximate 70 percent overlap between the County’s goals and VISION benchmarks. We require each department to establish and measure performance to move us close to accomplishing these changes in our community. Those measures are reflected in our budget documents. The County’s commitment to the VISION and making critical improvements for our citizens remains very strong." The county was a sponsor of the Asheville/Buncombe Vision in 1995 and used this Vision as a base for the County Strategic Plan that was first adopted in the Spring, 1996.

ATLANTA, GA-The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce spent $1.8 million in advertising in the last 18 months and is planning to spend about $700,000 more in the next six months to lure technology workers to Atlanta. Austin, TX and Chicago, IL will also advertise for technology workers in the next year. According to the Information Technology Association of America, more than 1.6 million information technology jobs will be created in the US this year, but only half of these jobs will be filled. (Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 2000) How is your community reacting to this shortage of technology workers?

CURACAO, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES-Henry Luke was in Curacao on June 19-21 to help organize six new Strategic Alliances. They are now working on thirteen Alliances.