Nearly half of the ARS Board recently participated in the first regional leadership academy in Florida ?s history.  Conducted by myregion.org, ?How Shall We Grow?? is a 15-month effort to create a regional strategy for growth in seven-county central Florida , whose population is expected to surge from 3.5 million to 7.2 million by 2050. (See Innovative Ideas piece in this enewsletter for more details about the academy)

ARS Board Chair George Vradenburg and member Robert Grow in January spoke to a group of more than 70 elected officials, civic and business leaders from across Central Florida about national and international best practices.  Vradenburg is president of the Vradenburg Foundation in Washington DC and chairs the Potomac Conference, a regional stewardship organization in the DC region.  Grow was the founder of Envision Utah, which is widely recognized as one of the country?s most successful public involvement efforts for the development of a broad-based, long-term growth strategy for a major metropolitan area.

Additional ARS Board members participated in a three-day strategy session in late March offering their perspectives on how other regions are dealing with the issue of growth.  These included ARS President John Parr, Christine Chadwick, Katherine Aguilar Perez, and Joan Riehm. ARS advisor Doug Henton, founder of Collaborative Economics and national coordinator for ARS?s John W. Gardner Regional Stewardship Academy also participated. (See Innovative Ideas piece in this enewsletter for lessons learned from Doug?s experience running the Gardner Academies)