MOBILE, AL-In March 1999, more than 600 Mobilians gathered for the "State of the County/City Luncheon". Mayor Mike Dow said, " In 1998, area volunteers began turning the regional community's strategic plan, Envision Mobile-Baldwin, into action. To date, more than 348 business and organization have adopted strategies and are coordinating efforts to achieve them. The City of Mobile's strategic plan was realigned in 1998 to support the regional Vision defined by over 1,000 Mobile and Baldwin county citizens." County Commissioner, Sam Jones said, " During our last State of the County address, I said our future direction would be dictated by the Vision. One of the most disastrous tragedies among human beings is the tragedy of a closed mind. A closed mind shrinks the soul; withers ambition; hardens the heart; binds the will; chills faith and destroy hope. The Envision process has opened closed minds, removed barriers to cooperation, promoted partnerships, and established friendship in our region."

MOBILE, AL-The Mobile School-to-Work Partnership received a #300,000 grant to expand existing job-training programs and pay for equipment and curriculum development. The Partnership is a Strategic Alliance of the Mobile Chamber of Commerce, Mobile County Public School System and Bishop State Community College. A 30-person team operating under the auspices of Envision Mobile-Baldwin has also generated a workforce development plan for Mobile and Baldwin County.

HARRISBURG, PA-Envision Capital region welcomed the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission as Vision Partner # 323. Dauphin County Commission, Anthony Petrucci stated that "a visible public sector leadership and energy should be joining with that of the private sector. A regional partnership of all stakeholders is required to strategically enhance our global competitiveness and the cost-effective provision of services. I am proud the Tri-County Planning professionals will be sharing in the Envision process." Within the three counties, there are 103 municipalities, 27 school districts and around 600 elected officials.

TYLER, TX-On September 10, the Tyler 2000+ Vision will review its progress over the last 5 years. One of the reports will be about high-tech growth. The Milken Institutes recently recognized Tyler as ranking 14^th among communities under 350,00 population for their high technology growth from 1990 to 1998.

JACKSONVILLE, FL-Construction will begin in January 2000 Jacksonville's Mayo Clinic $22 million cancer research building. About 300 people will work in the new building including at least 50 researchers with Doctoral Degrees. The new building will open in the summer of 2001 with 10 laboratories.

MINOT, ND-Minot received national attention on August 16, 1999 from David Broder, the Washington Post syndicated writer. He reported the announcement of Minneapolis-based Northwest Airlines opening a travel agency bookings office with 60 jobs in Minot. This follows the announcement in December 1998 by Reliastar, a Minneapolis insurance company of its plans to open a 450-job call center in Minot. This continues the trend of companies moving operations to smaller communities in search of a skilled workforce.

JACKSONVILLE, FL-Brothers-Sisters Program of Northeast Florida, run Mike Hancock, is in the midst of dramatic expansion. From 480 mentor matches for the year ending in June 1998 to 728 in 1999 which and a plan for 5000 before 2004. Jacksonville is also the home for the 25-year old Youth Crisis Center (YCC) which is run by Tom Patania. YCC's ultimate goal is to re-unite families. Since 1974, YCC has served more than 20,000 children, reuniting 87% with their families. Of these children, 93% were still in their homes and attending school one-year later. YCC has an annual budget of $42.8 million and will serve 7,100 children this year, a cost of less than $400 per child.

VISION PARTNERS-Mobile, AL; Harrisburg, PA; and Lakeland, FL and Harrisburg, PA now have over 300 Vision Partners. Minot, ND; Gillette, WY; and Schuylkill, PA have less that 500 population per Vision Partner. The approach of Vision Partners endorsing the Vision and then adopting Strategies for development of Approach Steps and Strategy Benchmarks is proving to be very successful.

SCHUYLKILL, PA-Kutztown University volunteered to update Schuylkill Vision's four Key Benchmarks. On July 9, 1999, the Vision Partners….Schuylkill County Commissioners and SEDCO and Schuylkill Vision announced that for the last 18 months, the 2000 net new job Benchmark had been surpassed with 2330 net new jobs. This is a dramatic change because from 1970 to 1995, Schuykill had a gain of 10 net new jobs per year. had a population of 230,000 which has now declined to 150,000. The Vision Chair said, "Vision doesn't take any credit for this. What Vision does is get Partners together to achieve these Benchmarks". Schuylkill has 67 municipalities, 12 school districts and 424 elected officials.

CLAYTON, GA-On August 3, 1999, Gateway Village, a $28 million office-hotel-conference center was approved as an expansion of Clayton College and State University. Gateway Village will combine the academic resources of the University with high-tech business conferences on a site located just south of the Atlanta Airport.

RECENT EVENTS

August 5th-Union NC Stakeholders Summit-250 present

August 17^th-Curacao N.A. Town Hall meeting-223 present

Thank you

Henry Luke

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“America's Leading Community VISION Facilitator”