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FEBRUARY 2004
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| ARS ACTIVITIES |
Austin Forum to Examine Role of CEOs in Propelling Regional Agenda
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Regional Stewardship Award Applications Due March 1, 2004
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 The next National Forum on Regional Stewardship, set for May 19-21 in Austin, Texas, will address the theme, Propelling the Regional Agenda: The Role of CEOs, spotlighting the Austin communitys strategic actions, beginning in the mid-1980s, to diversify its economic base from a center of government and higher education to a region of technological innovation. The first-ever Regional Stewardship Award will be announced in Austin on Friday, May 21st. Organizations interested in applying for the Award should note that the application-filing deadline is Monday, March 1st. For more information on the Award Program, click on the button below. For more information on the May National Forum on Regional Stewardship, contact Amy Carrier, Alliance manager, at or by telephone at .
[FULL ARTICLE] [REGISTER FOR THE FORUM] [AWARD PROGRAM]
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Upcoming Lincoln Institute Course: Learning to Think and Act Like a Region
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ARS Co-Sponsors Training, March 29-30, 2004
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 The Alliance for Regional Stewardship will co-sponsor a professional development course to be presented by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy next month in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Entitled Regional Collaboration: Learning to Think and Act Like a Region, the two-day course will introduce participants to all phases of conducting a regional collaboration, from initiation and process design, to selecting courses of action and strategies for implementation and sustaining momentum. For more information or to register by phone, call the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy at . Click on the link below to view and download a printable version of the course brochure.
[FULL ARTICLE] [VIEW BROCHURE]
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Gardner Academy Update
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Prospective New Valley Times Announces Fresnos Regional Vision
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The John W. Gardner Academy for Regional Stewardship offers intensive assistance to participating regions seeking to undertake or promote specific stewardship initiatives. One participating region, Fresno, California, adopted a set of recommendations at a summit held last September, which have been announced in an unconventional, yet compelling way. Earlier this month, the Fresno Collaborative Regional Initiative inserted a fictive supplement in The Fresno Bee entitled the New Valley Times. Dated in the year 2015, the insert was styled as a celebratory retrospective on the multiple civic victories achieved through Fresnos Regional Jobs Initiative. Last years summit, of course, was an initial step toward promoting long-term regional collaboration and job growth, for which this months newspaper insert constitutes a clever and powerful tool for sustaining momentum, as well as a reminder of the considerable expectations that emerged from the initiative. Among the headlines carried in the insert are Fresno named Top Ten City, Most improved air quality in the nation and Decrease in poverty. To view this model document, point your browser to www.newvalleytimes.com. For more information on the Gardner Academy for Regional Stewardship, or if you are interested in initiating a project, contact either Doug Henton, Academy Coordinator, at or John Parr, President and CEO of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship, at
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| NEWS YOU CAN USE |
ARS Network Participants in the News
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Birmingham Growth Association and Metro Louisville
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 Two regional communities associated with active ARS Network participants were featured in separate newspaper articles last month. The Regional Growth Alliance in Birmingham, Alabama established with the leadership of ARS member David Adkisson, who is President and CEO of the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce was the subject of a front-page story in The Birmingham News on Monday, January 12th lauding a new spirit of intercommunity cooperation in the seven-county Birmingham area. Then, on Sunday, January 25th, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland ran a story musing over the potential virtues and advantages of a merger of Cleveland with Cuyahoga County. That article pointed to Metro Louisville where ARS member Joan Riehm is a Deputy Mayor as a model of regional vision and administrative efficiency. To view the full articles, click on the links below.
[BIRMINGHAM NEWS] [PLAIN DEALER]
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American Chamber of Commerce Executives
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Resources for Chamber Leadership
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 Each month, we profile a national organization with which ARS has partnered to reach a broader audience capable of initiating action across sectors and jurisdictions. (For a full listing of ARS Strategic Partners, click the About Us button the home page of this website.) Founded in 1914 as the National Association of Commercial Organization Secretaries (NACOS), the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) is a national association dedicated to serving individuals involved in the management of chambers of all sizes. The organizations programs and services are designed to meet the needs of chamber executives and professionals, who hold positions requiring leadership, vision and strong management skills. ACCE is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. and represents over 1,300 members servicing 5,400 staff throughout the United States and internationally. For more information on the American Chamber of Commerce Executives and all its resources, visit the ACCE website at , send an inquiry to or call .
[FULL ARTICLE]
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International Conference: Science and Practice of Community Indicators
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Reno, Nevada, March 10-14, 2004
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 An ever-expanding range of communities, regions and organizations are using indicators and community-centered data systems to build identity and solve problems. To amplify knowledge and application of these measurement techniques, the Community Indicators Consortium consisting of nine national and international organizations will present an international conference next month in Reno, Nevada entitled, Advances in the Science and Practice of Community Indicators. Staff from the Alliance for Regional Stewardship and members of the ARS Indicators Affinity Group will be presenting a session on the use of indicators. This inter-disciplinary conference is designed to engage indicators practitioners, planners, elected officials, government and foundation staff members, researchers, and academics. To view and download a pdf version of the detailed conference brochure, click on the button below.
[VIEW BROCHURE]
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| REGIONAL PROFILE |
Institute for Metropolitan Affairs
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Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois
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In profile this month is the Institute for Metropolitan Affairs (IMA), a public policy research organization operated by Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. IMA engages in a broad array of research activities pertaining to public affairs that impact residents and institutions located within the Chicago region, and actively seeks involvement in projects that bear on the development of communities surrounding Roosevelt Universitys Chicago and Schaumburg campuses. Responsible for applying university resources to the solution of public policy problems facing the Chicago metropolitan area, the Institute is committed to working equally with central city and suburbs, thereby facilitating the integration of the Universitys two campuses, and thus promoting its identity as a single entity operating in the Chicago region. For more information on the Institute for Metropolitan Affairs, visit their website at www.roosevelt.edu/ima.
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[FULL ARTICLE]
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| PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA |
Better Together: Restoring the American Community, by Robert D. Putnam and Lewis M. Feldstein, with Don Cohen (New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 2003), 318 pages, $26.95 (hardbound).
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Reviewed by David Lampe
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 Where Putnams best-selling Bowling Alone (2000) presented a largely dismal rationale for why Americans vote, associate and volunteer in decreasing numbers, Better Together provides a hopeful portrait of social-capital building in large and small communities across the U.S. The critical importance of social capital which Putnam defines as networks and norms of trust, reciprocity and civic engagement to community success and socio-economic progress was the central theme of his earlier book, Making Democracy Work (1992), and remains a preoccupation of his ongoing research. The product of intensive field research on the characteristics of effective community organizing in contemporary America, Better Together includes ten in-depth case studies (refreshingly presented in the form of stories) from which it extracts a number of valuable lessons in organizing people for significant civic gains.
[FULL ARTICLE]
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Less Secrecy, More Efficiency: Baltimores Groundbreaking CitiStat
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By Neal Peirce
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BALTIMOREIs there a way to shatter the secrecy and inefficiencies that so easily plague American government, from city hall to the White House? Martin OMalley, youthful mayor of this troubled old city, thinks so. Its his CitiStat program, an intensely public way to track each city departments performancefrom health to housing, police to parks.
[FULL ARTICLE]
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Copyright © 2004 Alliance for Regional Stewardship. All rights reserved.
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