Engaged and impactful: words describing the work of UEDA member institutions across the nation and words illustrating the on-going efforts of your association.
Last month UEDA Past President and current Partnerships Committee chair Bill Michalerya and UEDA Executive Director Rich Overmoyer participated in the IEDC Leadership Conference in Florida. Bill and Rich delivered a presentation to the IEDC External Member Relations committee and discussed opportunities to enhance the existing relationship between UEDA and IEDC as we work together to strengthen communities and the profession of economic development. If you attended our 2012 UEDA Annual Summit, you’ll recall IEDC External Member Relations chair Janet Miller briefing us about IEDC’s initiatives. UEDA is committed to building meaningful partnerships that yield opportunities and results our members value. Our partnership with IEDC is one of these valued relationships.
Many of you are also actively engaged in the work of our UEDA Committees. Within the past month our Awards Committee chair Genna Hurd has initiated planning for the 2013 awards cycle. The aforementioned UEDA Partnerships Committee is presenting recommendations to the UEDA Board at our February meeting. UEDA President-elect Mary Francis Postupack has our 2013 Annual Summit Planning Committee working on our Pittsburgh Summit. Our Body of Knowledge Committee, led by chair Eva Klein and vice chair Jerry Smith, is moving forward on an exciting agenda that will allow even greater involvement of our members in sharing best practices and learning from our collective experiences. And, board members Melvin Ray and Chris Brown are chairing new UEDA Committees that are beginning to take shape and will help our association better focus our Strategic Communications and Marketing efforts and our Development activities. While all of this work is being undertaken, our Membership Committee chair Cameron Martin and his team is working to assure our existing members stay involved and UEDA is reaching out to attract new members. Rich Overmoyer and our colleagues from Fourth Economy are working hard to help all of our committees, but rely on the active engagement of UEDA members to get this work accomplished. Thanks to each of you for your efforts on behalf of UEDA and remember, it’s NEVER too late to join one of our committees and lend a helping hand.
UEDA is actively soliciting proposals from communities/regions to host our 2014 or 2015 annual summit. Specific RFP information is available at this link and the deadline for proposals is February 28, 2013. So, please encourage your community to get involved and submit a proposal.
Finally, if you haven’t yet made your travel plans to join us in Washington, D.C. on March 19-20, 2013, PLEASE join us. As you see from the agenda on our website, we have an ambitious work agenda combined with an opportunity to learn more about the plans of some key partners. I plan to arrive early to participate in the EAUC meeting, so I look forward to seeing you in D.C. next month!