Delta Grassroots Caucus-latest update
Delta Grassroots Caucus
April 27, 2011
SEE THE WEBSITE AT DELTACITIZENS.ORG, and go to the blog
The early registration deadline for the Delta conference at the Clinton Center in Little Rock is today, Wednesday, April 27, 2011, although if you can get your registration fees in the mail today or tomorrow we will still only ask for the early fee of $100. We have bills coming due before the conference and for planning purposes we need to know how many people will be there. The RSVP count is currently 130 and growing, but these are fairly large meeting halls so we will try to find room for everybody.
You register by mailing in the registration fees. There is no registration form to fill out in order to eliminate unnecessary paper work. The early registration fees are $100. Fees sent in after tomorrow will be at the late registration fee level of $150. Please make out the check to "Delta Caucus" and mail to:
Delta Grassroots Caucus
5030 Purslane Place
Waldorf, MD, 20601
GROUP HOTEL: The group hotel deadline is May 2, and we would encourage you to take advantage of the lower group discount at the group hotel and make your reservations ASAP. The group hotel is the Comfort Inn & Suites near the Clinton Library. To get the lower group rate of $79 (a good rate for downtown Little Rock) for the night of May 5, call the Comfort Inn at 501-687-7700 and say you are with the Delta Caucus.
KEY ISSUES: Job creation/economic recovery is the top issue, with almost all other issues being related to it. Key issues will be commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Delta Regional Authority and the Clinton administration's bipartisan Delta Regional Initiative, looking at what has worked thus far and where we still have serious issues for the present and future. We want to focus on energy policy, including renewable energy like biomass and biofuels, improved energy efficiency and green jobs. We will have a debate with advocates pro and con as to whether development of lignite can be done in an environmentally friendly way.
Health care issues like expansion of the Community Health House Network, hunger and nutrition, rural development, transportation and other infrastructure, education improvements, broadband, disaster relief and other FEMA-related issues, tourism initiatives with examples like the Japanese American Relocation Site, Visitors & Interpretive Center in southeast Arkansas, promising initiatives like Arkansas Baptist College, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Delta Citizens Alliance, economic development centers at Arkansas State University, Southeast Missouri State University, Murray State University, Delta State University, University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Grambling State University and other universities and colleges in the region and other innovations. We will have a panel focusing on regionalism and why it makes sense to take a regional approach to economic development.
Below is the latest draft of the agenda, which may have last-minute changes. Thanks--Lee Powell, MDGC (202) 360-6347
Agenda
"At the Crossroads: 10th Anniversary of the Delta Regional Initiative and the DRA's Creation"
Annual Conference, May 5-6, 2011
Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
OPENING SESSION: THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2011, 5 P.M. TO 8 P.M.
AT THE CLINTON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC SERVICE
5 p.m. to 5:25 p.m.--RECEPTION
Introduction--Lee Powell, Executive Director, Delta Grassroots Caucus
5:30 to 5:45 p.m.--Forum on Issues Regarding Development of Lignite in the Delta:
Rep. Garry Smith, AR, advocating for lignite development conducted in an environmentally friendly way to create jobs and reduce dependence on foreign oil
Former US Assistant Secretary of the Interior Ken Smith, environmental and energy expert, expressing concerns about environmental impact of lignite
5:45 to 5:50--James "Skip" Rutherford, Dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and Clinton School Graduate Student
5:50 to 6:20 p.m.--Federal Cochairman Chris Masingill of the Delta Regional Authority--Presentation and then Questions and Answers--the DRA at its 10th anniversary, its accomplishments, remaining challenges for the future
Note: There will be question and answer periods here and at several other sessions. We are glad to have Dr. Elizabeth Hood, Distinguished Professor at the Arkansas State University Biosciences Institute, an expert in biomass, at the conference and we plan for her to take part in these discussion sessions to make sure renewable energy is included in the dialogue.
6:20 to 6:28 p.m.--Robert Cole, East Arkansas Enterprise Community, on the value of regional approaches to economic development
6:28 to 6:36--Mayor Jack May, McGehee, Arkansas, on the new Japanese American Relocation Site, Visitors & Interpretive Center in southeast Arkansas commemorating the story of Japanese Americans held in southeast Arkansas during World War II--an excellent example of Delta heritage-related tourism
6:36 to 6:40 p.m.--Mayor May presents Inspire Hope Institute Award to a distinguished grassroots leader in the Delta for his decades of service to economic development in the Delta; this is only the second time the Inspire Hope Institute Award has ever been given (it is jointly awarded by the Delta Grassroots Caucus and the Inspire Hope Institute of Jonesboro, Arkansas, Chair, Laymon Jones)
6:40 p.m. to 8 p.m.--Best Practices and Models for Development in the Greater Mississippi Delta region
1. Obadiah Simmons, Grambling State University, Louisiana, Moderator and Speaker
2. Bill Ransdall, Missouri Department of Economic Development, Governor Jay Nixon's DRA Designee for Missouri (Governor Nixon is the state cochairman of the DRA)
3. Mayor James Sanders, Blytheville, Arkansas
4. Mississippi County (AR) Judge Randy Carney
5. Charita Johnson Burgess, Shiloh Distribution Center, Lexington, Tennessee
6. Loretta Daniel, Murray State University, Director, Regional Business & Innovation Center, Murray, Kentucky
FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011, GREAT HALL OF THE CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
8:30 A.M. TO 4:30 P.M.
8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.--Big Picture Panel on Regional Economic Development
1. Johnnie Bolin, Moderator and speaker, executive director, Arkansas Good Roads Transportation Council (Mr. Bolin is from Crossett in Ashley County)
2. J. William McFarland, Alabama, Director of the Center for Business and Economic Services, University of West Alabama College of Business, Livingston, Alabama
3. Joe Black, Southern Bancorp, Helena-West Helena, AR (Southern Bancorp conducts extensive development activities in many locations across the Delta)
4. Mayor Jo Anne Bush, Lake Village, Arkansas
5. James Stapleton, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, Missouri
PRESIDENT WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON (INVITED) 9:35 A.M. TO 10 A.M. Introduced by a Clinton School of Public Service graduate student. (President Clinton has given superb live presentations over the audio system the last three years in a row and we expect he probably will this year as well, but due to his hectic schedule the exact time cannot be confirmed until shortly before the conference. This may require some adjustments for other speakers.)
10 A.M. TO 10:30 A.M.--Congressman Mike Ross
Introduction by Chicot County Judge Mack Ball
10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.--Governor Mike Beebe
Introduction by Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives, Rep. Robert Moore of Arkansas City
11 A.M. TO 12:15 P.M.--PANEL ON REGIONALISM--WHY SHOULD WE TAKE A REGIONAL APPROACH TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
1. Lee Powell, Executive Director, Delta Grassroots Caucus, based in Washington, DC
2. Larry Williams, CEO, Delta Citizens Alliance, based in Greenville, Mississippi, active in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi
3. Mike Marshall, Alternate Federal Cochairman, Delta Regional Authority, Sikeston, Missouri
4. Kevin Smith, former aide to US Senator Dale Bumpers and then Gov. Bill Clinton, former state senator, now a businessman in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas
5. Jerry Smith, Arkansas State University economic development center
LUNCHEON--12:15 P.M. TO 1:30 P.M.
1. Kay Goss, SRA Corp., Associate Director of FEMA in the Clinton administration
2. The Hon. Rodney Slater, US Secretary of Transportation in the Clinton administration, now parter, Patton Boggs, Washington, DC
3. CONGRESSMAN RICK CRAWFORD
Introduction by Rex Nelson, President, Arkansas Independent Colleges and Universities and former DRA Alternate Federal Cochairman
1:30 p.m. 2:50 p.m. to HEALTH CARE AND NUTRITION PANEL
1. James Miller, manager of Community Health House Network, Oxford International Development Group, Oxford, Mississippi
2. Tamidra Marable, Heifer International
3. State Senator Jack Crumbly, east Arkansas
4. Vivian Fry--Greer, Shiloh Distribution Center, Lexington, Tennessee
5. Natalie Jayroe, CEO, Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, Louisiana; Mike Kantor, public policy coordinator, Second Harvest Food Food Bank of Greater New Orleans
2:50 p.m. to 4:20 p.m.--ARKANSAS BAPTIST COLLEGE AND COOPERATIVE BAPTIST FELLOWSHIP SESSION
1. President Fitzgerald Hill, Arkansas Baptist College
2. Anitha Kobusingye, Arkansas Baptist College student from Rwanda
3. Arkansas Baptist College student or staff--speaker of President Hill's choosing
4. Catherine Bahn, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship project, Helena-West Helena, AR
5. Terrance Clark, nonprofit THRIVE organization, manager for Phillips County Small Business incubator project
Sponsors for the Delta Grassroots Caucus, May 5-6, 2011
Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock Arkansas
Major Co-Sponsors
Nucor Yamato Steel and Nucor Southeast Arkansas Delta
Steel of Arkansas, Blytheville, Arkansas Grassroots Partners
Inspire Hope Institute, Chairman, National Housing Assistance
Laymon Jones Council, Washington, DC
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas Heifer International
Delta Citizens Alliance, Greenville, MS Grambling State University,
(Active in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas) Louisiana
Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center, McGehee Industrial Foundation,
Southeast Missouri Arkansas
University of Arkansas Clinton School Mississippi County Economic
of Public Service Opportunity Commission
Sponsors
Desha County Judge Mark McElroy Southeast Missouri Delta
Grassroots Partners
East Arkansas Enterprise Community Shiloh Distribution Center
Lexington, Tennessee
Northeast Arkansas Delta Grassroots Partners American Agriculture Movement
of Arkansas
Delta Grassroots Caucus Partners
Last but not least, we would like to thank the hundreds of people and organizations who made smaller contributions in the range of $50 and $85 in the form of annual membership dues, registration fees and other contributions. For a grassroots regional coalition, we need to have a diversified, broad base of financial support from large numbers of relatively small contributions. The large number of these contributions really adds up to a major part of our budget, and we could not do our work without these donations.
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