Category Archives: VLCIA 2011-12-06

I only got the answering machine —Michael G. Noll

Received today on

Industrial Authority held unannounced meeting last night
. -jsq

Unfortunately I missed this meeting as well, and not by choice.

I vaguely remembered that Roy Copeland mentioned after the October


meeting that the December date might be changed to December 6. Thus,
I called Tuesday shortly after 5pm to verify if a meeting was indeed
scheduled. I only got the answering machine (indicating to me that the
office was closed) and the IA website (as so often) was no help.

Thus I, too, was assuming the meeting would be later this month … only
to find out the next day in the VDT that there had been a meeting
after all.

Our community has gone through so much these past couple of months,


highlighting more than ever the need to communicate and cooperate.

I was hoping after all this that we could finally start working together,

despite any differences we might have. That would, however, not only
require a certain amount of transparency but also communication of
such simple matters as meeting agendas and calendars. How difficult can
that be?

Communication is, and always will be, the key to success. Whether this
is about your children’s education, such matters as energy efficiency
and energy conservation, or a Strategic Planning Process which can only
benefit the community … if that very community (not just the same old
status quo) is actually included in the process.

Michael G. Noll, President

Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE)

VLCIA pleads technical glitches on web page

Here’s something from the Industrial Authority that never happened before.

The first person I saw going into the

State Legislative Luncheon

yesterday was Andrea Schruijer,


Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).
She spotted me inside, and said “I want to apologize”.
Surprised, I asked for what?
She said for

the date of VLCIA’s Tuesday meeting being unclear.

She said she had read about that in this blog that same morning.

She said they had recently changed the way they were handling their
web pages and hadn’t yet figured out how to update it correctly.
Since I was never very impressed with how it was handled before,
I readily accepted that as a good excuse.
I look forward to the updates.
I’m guessing the new PR and marketing person they’re hiring will take care of this.

She also volunteered that they did inform the VDT and it was in the
VDT’s calendar.
I agreed that that was so; we had checked, and it appears the meeting
was legal because of those notices.

She also said she thought she had said Monday evening, “see you tomorrow.”
I allowed as how if she did, I missed it.



In any case, I have to say that her predecessor would never have made
that much effort to make amends to a mere blogger.
Once again,

tiny LAKE is flattered by mighty VLCIA
,
although in a more positive way this time.

Congratulations on the new industries announced at VLCIA’s Tuesday meeting.

Maybe more about those later.

Here’s looking forward to the Strategic Planning Process announced at that
same meeting as coming up early next year.

-jsq

Industrial Authority held unannounced meeting last night

The VDT has a story this morning about an Industrial Authority meeting
last night,

Two new industries announced

by Kay Harris.
That’s a bit of a surprise, since they didn’t have that date on their


own web page and they didn’t post an agenda.
Also, I saw both VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer
and their Chairman Roy Copeland speak Monday night, and neither
of them said a word about their meeting date being changed to the
next night.

Here’s some irony in the VDT’s story:

Schruijer also discussed the Authority’s plans to move ahead with the


Strategic Planning Process right after the first of the year. Following
the Community Assessment which was conducted over the summer, the next
phase is a full fledged commitment to begin the planning process.

The intention, according to Schruijer and Copeland, is to include
community partners in the process as the assessment showed that many
in the community think that the various entities work at odds with
each other, rather than on the same page, when it comes to economic
development.

Why ever would people think that?

According to

VLCIA’s website:

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