The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority’s Regular Monthly Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 21, 2012, 5:30 PM at the Industrial Authority Conference Room, 2110 N. Patterson Street.
Last meeting, VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer told me the results of the focus groups would be presented this month. Maybe she meant at this meeting. On the VLCIA facebook page, there’s this paragraph from 14 August 2012:
We are excited to present our final Target Business Analysis to the community at the end of August. We took at 360 degree approach to targeting economic development activity concentrating on employment, workforce skill, investment, and innovation to identify clusters of economic activity and developing targeted strategies for economic development.
It links to this (unembeddable) video of Andrea Schruijer talking about cluster analysis. It’s good they’re branching out to new ways of doing PR. It would be even better if they also published agendas and minutes with content.
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority's Regular Monthly Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 5:30 PM at the Industrial Authority Conference Room, 2110 N. Patterson Street.
The Industrial Authority board at their 19 June 2012 meeting decided to renominate the same officers for another term at the 19 June 2012 Industrial Authority meeting. All their business park projects are ahead of schedule and under budget, although it seems odd to be cutting down trees to detain water. They’re under budget for the entire year, and next year’s budget is less than that for the the fiscal year just being completed. They have hired a website contractor, and they’ve already made extensive changes to their Valdosta Prospector website. The 100% VSEB native grass landscaping project is underway.
Jerry Jennett said the proposed new budget included $31,000 less in general operations, clarified expenditures for example in business retention and expansion, and the total was about $906,000, down from $916,000 for the previous fiscal year. Maybe soon we the taxpayers will get to see this budget that they approved at that meeting a month ago.
S. Meghan Duke said they had selected Marketing Alliance to update their website and they’d be meeting in July for “a creative brief and a site map”. She said it would go fast, although once again she didn’t actually say when she expected it would be visible on the web. And they’d updated all their other websites, Georgia EMC, Select Georgia, Location Georgia, and Valdosta Prospector. Plus they were developing economic development presentations that officials throughout the county could use, on industrial sites, retail and restaurants, etc.
The nominating committee asked the entire current slate of officers to serve another term and they all said yes: Chairman Roy Copeland, Vice-Chairman Mary Gooding, and Secretary-Treasurer Norman Bennett. Roy Copeland proposed changing the official term length to two years. Attorney Gupton pointed out terms of board members were odd lengths, so one could roll off the board before a two year officer term was up. Jerry Jennett said he’d looked at the enabling legislation (presumably the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Act) and he thought it meant officers were elected every year. Copeland accepted that point, and they voted to accept that slate. They actually elect officers at their next meeting (today). (I’m glad they’re reading their own charter these days, and I no longer have to read it to them.)
Video Playlist Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA), Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett, Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton Attorney, Tom Davis CPA, Allan Ricketts Project ManagerS. Meghan Duke Public Relations & Marketing Manager, Lu Williams, Operations Manager, Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 June 2012.
Lots of interesting detail; room for improvement in marketing and high level presentation: Valdosta-Lowndes Prospector website.
S. Meghan Duke gave a lengthy presentation of the GIS website Valdosta-Lowndes Prospector, at the 19 June 2012 VLCIA meeting. Chairman Roy Copeland wanted to know (5:21) whether it showed at the top the industrial parks VLCIA has spent so much time and effort developing, maybe by age, size, in alphabetical order? She indicated you could do all those things, but they didn’t necessarily crop up without somebody selecting filters that caused them to crop up. However they are featured properties, and whenever they are updated, updates show up. Project Manager Allan Ricketts said he’d heard good reactions so far. Executive Director Andrea Schruijer said they could feature parks or whatever through facebook and twitter, too. And yes, they have a floodplain overlay, among many other overlays.
The first 100% VSEB contract, local industry expansion, new prospects,
a bank lost a bond, and new Georgia sunshine laws require attention.
Here are videos of the entire 22 May 2012 meeting
of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) board.
Here’s
the agenda.
Guests included
a camera crew from VSU, one of whom was Cameron Copeland,
Chairman Roy Copeland’s son.
CPA Tom Davis
said the county told him revenues were flat, so VLCIA would get about
the same amount as last year.
Tom Call asked if revenues would catch up over 6 months or 8 months.
Call said they would eventually.
Tom Call reported for the budget committee and said
expenses were projected to be down for the coming year,
plus the budget would be more specific about where revenues
were being spent.
Meghan Duke
reported
they had gotten an article in the newspaper,
and they had held an OSHA training meeting at Wiregrass Tech.
They plan to hold further courses and will send out a survey about that.
She also
expected updates to the land-searching
Valdosta Prospector website
to be ready in a few weeks.
She and Andrea Schruijer had
selected 3 finalists
out of 10 proposals to redo the VLCIA website.
Her only stated criterion for picking one was
New Georgia sunshine laws explained by VLCIA lawyer
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager, Tom Davis, CPA, Lu Williams, Operations Manager, S. Meghan Duke, Public Relations & Marketing Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 May 2012.
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
VLCIA is even posting notices of committee meetings now!
According to their
website,
the Industrial Authority has two meetings today:
Committee Meeting Notice The Nominating Committee for the Valdosta
Lowndes County Industrial Authority will meet Tuesday, June 19,
2012, 1:00 PM at the Industrial Authority Conference Room, 2110 N.
Patterson Street.
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority’s Regular Monthly
Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 5:30 PM at the
Industrial Authority Conference Room, 2110 N. Patterson Street.
The nominating committee is for officers; they elect new ones annually.
Here’s
the agenda.
It has no content, but at least they post one.
Unlike their minutes.
-jsq
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Market study advisory panel forming up! Chairman Roy Copeland asked whether “Industrial” in VLCIA’s name is positive or negative for PR? Executive Director Andrea Schruijer made sure to announce a date change for a board meeting a month in advance. All that and much more!
Here are videos of the entire 17 April 2012 regular meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA). Here’s the agenda.
VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer said they had shown contractor Market Street Services the area so they could go back and start working up data for a market study. In May an advisory panel of 10-13 individuals plus focus groups will meet with Market Street.
I’ll answer: as long as VLCIA includes as “industry” boondoggles like a health-threatening biomass plant and a job-destroying private prison, why yes, “industrial” reflects negatively on VLCIA. But a mere name change through a D.B.A. won’t fix that problem. Only a change in behavior will fix that problem. Changes such as doing some due diligence so they know when a private prison company is playing them along by saying they’re the primary site. Changes such as weighing the community’s health when considering potential jobs. And especially changes such as listening to people outside the VLCIA and Chamber bubble when others do useful and important research. The community can be an asset for VLCIA, providing research and contacts VLCIA either does not have the resources to do or might not think of to do, if VLCIA will listen to the community.
Videos Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA), Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett, Tom Davis CPA, Allan Ricketts Project Manager, S. Meghan Duke Public Relations & Marketing Manager, Lu Williams Operations Manager, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 April 2012. Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
Notice: The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Regular Meeting has been rescheduled for the month of May. The meeting date will be Tuesday, May 22, 2011, 5:30 P.M. in the Industrial Authority Conference Room.
That’s at 2110 N. Patterson Street, Valdosta, GA.
Their facebook page has a new logo on it (shown on the right above). Also this snazzy cover image:
Both the new logo and the cover image are legible (unlike their old swoosh logo, still on their website, and seen to the right here). And the cover image has useful information, like what VLCIA is about and how to reach them!
However, I note that of those
3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT VALDOSTA BUSINESS
Major Transportation Network
Competitive Incentives
Pro-Business Attitude
none of them is clean solar energy or fast Internet access. (Also, why are they SHOUTING?)
Here’s the agenda, which is back to their old content-free style. They don’t even say what the executive session is for. (Is it legal for them not to say?)
-jsq
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Agenda Tuesday, May 22, 2012 5:30 p.m. Industrial Authority Conference Room 2110 N. Patterson Street
Did you know they had two executive sessions on 23 February 2012, at 10AM and 2:25 PM in addition to their retreat and regular meeting of that same day? If they’re having all these executive sessions, presumably all the material about personnel and real estate that needs to be kept confidential is in there, and the minutes of the regular meetings shouldn’t contain anything the public should not see.
It links to this (unembeddable) video of Andrea Schruijer talking about cluster analysis. It’s good they’re branching out to new ways of doing PR. It would be even better if they also published agendas and minutes with content.
