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:

Meeting Schedule for 2011
January 18, 2011
February 15, 2011
March 15, 2011
April 19, 2011
May 17, 2011
June 14, 2011**
July 19, 2011
August 16, 2011
September 27, 2011**
October 18, 2011
November 15, 2011
December 20, 2011
**Please note date change**
No date change for December: meeting still scheduled for December 20.

And meanwhile, following the link marked Monthly Board Meeting Agendas:

Agenda
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
No agendas since October: None for their November or December meeting.

That’s how their website still looks, the day after their unannounced meeting.

-jsq

One thought on “Industrial Authority held unannounced meeting last night”

  1. Michael G. Noll

    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)

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