Welcome - Catawba County Chamber of Commerce President Danny Hearn started out the meeting by giving a general overview of what the structure of this meeting would entail. Danny addressed that Lenoir-Rhyne wants to be the site for a Master Capacity Builder Series.
Danny spoke to the fact that he feels he has done his job and we are organized and understand the gist of what this (the FEC) is about. We are functioning and have things in place. He made the recommendation that Terry Bledsoe be the Chairman of the FEC. The Council enthusiastically supported this decision.
Special Guest: Jim Hyder, Davidson, NC Creating a Diaspora for Catawba County - Mr. Hyder spoke to the issue of Diaspora. He spoke of his friendship with Rick Smyre. Mr. Hyder was born in Hickory. He spoke of his connections to Hickory. Mr. Hyder stated that he is interested in Hickory.
Mr. Hyder said he has kept up with Hickory issues and wants to help. He addressed the issue of people who have connections to Hickory that might also want to help get Hickory back on track. We need to reach out to these connections and see if they might be interested in helping. He doesn't know what he is to do. This is a work in progress. Maybe we could get School Principals to point to former successful students that might have a connection and want to help.
Rick Smyre stated that as we evolve this concept that there are people who may be interested in helping. He talked about Twitter and the impact it has had over the last few days (Iran). The connections of people throughout the world that may have an interest and empathy, in Hickory, is a wonderful opportunity to give us support. This can open up resources by creating ping pong effects. He said that where local people might not buy into what we are trying to accomplish, that a person from outside of the community may be able to bring a new perspective to the discussion and may change those people's minds that are stuck in the old ways of thinking.
Terry Bledsoe talked about Catawba County's utilization of Facebook. The idea was to gain participation from locals to get (county government) messages out. Unintentionally it was discovered that people all over the world have signed up for the page, because they want a connection with Catawba County.
Chuck Adair addressed the historical context of what the original Diaspora was about. The original diaspora was the displacement of the Jews from Jerusalem by the Romans.
Photo by Pat Appleson StudiosSpecial Guest: Gene Anderson, Entrepreneur from Gastonia Master Capacity Builder Trainee - He stated that his whole life he has been growing into the person he is now. He grew up poor in Globe, Arizona, because the city died during his formative years. He obtained 83 merit badges, while being in the Boy Scouts. This helped broaden the context from which he made decisions. This helped him in school, because he had information (context) that was broader than what the school offered. He loved to learn. This made decision making much easier.
He spent 11 years in the Army. The military understands that culture and sociology matter. He moved to Gastonia about 13 years ago. In 2001, he put his four children in a charter school and he joined the board of that school. That is where he met Rick Smyre and a discussion took place about preparing the children (of the school) for the future. Gene stated that he wanted to prepare the children for their future, not for "our" future, because I was prepared for my future and I found that preparation to be lacking.
The assumption that the board knew what the children's future would be was thrown out real fast. With the help of Rick, it was decided that they needed to help the children develop a capacity to handle the future, whatever that future might be. The real core issue became development of the capacity to help operate and thrive in a constantly changing environment. Over a five year period they worked with the board of directors and teacher's groups and started putting the techniques into the classroom, beginning in kindergarten. There are 12 to 15 core philosophies. One is and/both thinking. Another is listening for value in what the student is saying. This allows the teacher to take disparate ideas and focus them back into the direction that the class needs to be going.
The traditional problem solving function is too limited to carry people into the future. Master Capacity Builders have techniques that can expand the capacity of others. Capacities can be developed a little bit at a time. Developing it too fast can cause one to lose the access point into an organization or individual. Developing capacity is gradual, from several different directions, and often done obliquely. The goal is to help people deal with more complex issues in the future.
In the question answer phase, Gene stated, "We model how to connect disparate ideas and once those thought patterns are activated and one begins connecting disparate ideas, then one increases the capacity to increase disparate ideas." Followership is as important as leadership. Their are techniques that help achieve those capacities and help to teach that everyone has value and everyone should have input.
Thomas Jefferson Quote (about the University of Virginia) - "This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."
Photo by Pat Appleson StudiosFutures Institute/Master Capacity Builder Training (Brzorad/Mauney) - A Lenoir-Rhyne University Partnership Effort - Dr. Brzorad and Bill Mauney have both met with Danny and Rick a couple of times. They have a couple of professors that seem like they would be interested in doing this. They want people to self-select for this. This will build up speed in the next month or so. There are a lot of implications in this pertaining to energy and the environment. This fall we should see some action taken on this.
Foundation Grant Project Updates:
1. Future Trends Dialogue Groups: Hickory Library- 7/9/2009 from 7:00 – 8:30 PM - Catawba County Library SW Branch in Mountain View, 7/10/2009 from 10:00 – 11:30 AM (Sizemore/Foss) - Council Members are encouraged to participate and an editorial will be in the paper on Sunday.
Photo by Pat Appleson Studios2. Broadband Video Conference in August with Wilson, NC (Bledsoe) - This hasn't been confirmed, but Terry expects it to work. The City Manager or Technology Director will speak with us. Terry stated that one of the good things about the FEC, is that just having the discussions have moved things through the community. Some of the providers have come to Terry about Broadband concerns in our community. That is a good thing.
Baker's mountain now has better coverage. A company is looking at expanding options by using some 0f the (federal) stimulus money. Gaffney, South Carolina is looking to have fiber to the home in the next couple of years. The U.S. has fallen from 16th to 22nd in Broadband speed. Australia has a plan to get 100mb/sec connection to 90% of the country's homes. Finally, In Isse, France they have fiber in most homes and Wi-Fi throughout the city. 57% of their business is Telecom.
Photo by Pat Appleson Studios3. FEC Web Site (Shell) - Project 3P - the Progressive Productive Proton Project - is the name of the blog that I have created. It is a play off of the Idea of the Creative Molecular Economy.
The words have a lot of meaning when it comes to what we are trying to achieve here:
1) Progressive – I’m not thinking politically here. I am thinking of the ideal definition. Favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are. The status quo.
2) Productive – having the power to produce, generate and/or create. Folks, we have to make things happen or we can choose to be roadkill on the highway of life. My choice is to leave a lasting positive legacy for the future generations of people who inhabit this area: whether I enjoy the fruits of this labor or not. This is the big picture.
3) Proton - a positively charged elementary particle that is a fundamental constituent of all atomic nuclei. The people in this room have voluntarily chosen to be part of this project. We are the bright lights in this community. We are going to be those positively charged molecules that bring the positive force that will lead to the ingenuity and innovation that will turn things around in this community.
The first step was to create the Blog and the address is http://project3p.blogspot.com
I have also purchased the domain www.project3p.net. Project3p.com isn’t available. It seems to be an underutilized home design blogging webpage.
I want to turn the website into a php message board in the near future. The idea being an accessible, user friendly forum that will take on an organic life of its own and evolve in whatever path it chooses to take. I honestly believe that open source contributions will be where innovation and development will come from. Ramo calls it mash-up - the collision of separate, distinguishable entities into something unpredictably new. And isn’t that what Evolution is all about?
4. Communi-Versity Series: “100 Most Creative People in Business”- Dr. Anthony Atala, Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine?(Hearn) - Danny says that this series is about future trends, weak signals, bringing in futurists, and talking about new technology. These are things that can change our future in medicine, economic development, or education.... He is saying Dr. Atala is an example of someone that our local Universities could reach out to. Since he is so close, we can call on him and ask him to come speak as a part of this series. Dr. Brzorad was very receptive to the idea and stated that he will definitely look into this opportunity.
Unifour Foundation Grant Update - Turned Down
Danny stated that we did not receive the grant. He said he was very disappointed and explained what the consequences of not obtaining the grant would mean to our group. This does not mean that the FEC will not move forward, but it is going to make the process much harder.
Dr.Brzorad said this leaves us two options. Go find another funding source or come up with the money on our own. We would be taking even more ownership if we fund it ourselves. Dr. B said the grant was good even though we didn't get it. I asked if we couldn't tweak it ourselves and apply for other grants? Danny said yes, but where will we send those grants to?
We had a thorough and lively discussion that followed.
Jay Adams had a solid statement - People will invest in things that they believe that they can get a return from and that's the bottom line. Until this group can demonstrate credibility, we are just begging. You've got to give some credible indication that putting money into it (the FEC) is going to generate a real rate of return. People are looking for results or a high likelihood of results.
Terry Bledsoe said he had asked Danny Hearn, in the beginning, what is this group really all about. We haven't set any goals. Is this just a thinktank? Are we just trying to get information out to the people? What are we going to produce? Terry's summation is that we have one product on the table and that is with Lenoir-Rhyne and the Master Capacity Building Program. There is a great program with the Chamber called Leadership Catawba. He believes that the two could be merged. Maybe we could get funding that way.
Steve Ivester said there are places (Morristown, NJ; Silicon Valley; Research Triangle Park) that are hot houses and businesses are just blossoming. If we have a goal, it should be to cause and create this process in Hickory. Making Hickory an incubator of lots of new businesses and investment opportunities. We're a little to early to say that you should invest because of it.
Harry Hipps said we need to communicate by e-mail and create a mission statement. We have discussed some tangible assets, such as Master Capacity Building and Broadband.
Danny's Summation for the day - When people say, "who is the beneficiary?" He can't go to someone and say give me $10,000 and you will get this in return. This is not that investment. We are selling the invisible. If we continue to take this economy in the direction that we have always taken it, we aren't going to get anywhere. The Economy has totally changed. What we had prior to 2000 is gone. We have to reinvent ourselves. If we don't do that, then we are in big trouble. It is the thinking of elected officials, business, and education of changing the way we do things and that investment can't be shown. The community better embrace it and understand it. We can't even get our local officials (hmm hmm I'll say it Rudy) to read a document about Mobile Governance that Rick wrote. There are (forward thinking) investment ideas out there, that no current elected official will look at, but people (I'll say it - not lost in yesterday) who are prone to understand this and reach outside of their comfort level and try to embrace it, all of a sudden, an idea that a traditional thinker will not do, we might. Those ideas are achievable.
The Hounds Take is that the general consensus is we are going to develop a core subgroup of FEC people that will design a mission statement. This mission statement should entail a project that has a high likelihood of succeeding and the group should apply to funding sources that might achieve a real rate of return as a result of investing in the group that supports that project.
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