The leadership of the new Regional Atlanta Civic League (RACL) believes it will become the ?go-to? resource on regional issues of consequence.  Part of their optimism stems from the fact that while the RACL may be a new organization, it was formed by the merger of three highly respected regional groups.

The oldest of those was Research Atlanta, a think tank founded by Atlanta business and community leaders in 1971 to provide the city?s elected officials with information that would lead to better decision-making.  As metro Atlanta grew over the decades, Research Atlanta?s scope of interests expanded to serve the ten counties that comprised the region.  Its areas of focus have included municipal services, air quality, public service delivery, governance, public finance, education, housing, and poverty.

The Atlanta Metro Group was created in 1991 to provide research, evaluation, help and advice to the governments in the metro Atlanta area.  Its trustees were prominent citizens including CEO?s, former CEO?s, and former public office holders.  Among its clients and projects were the Atlanta Public Schools, Atlanta Airport  expansion plans, City of Atlanta  financial management and pension funds, DeKalb County government, ethics, metro area public health, water privatization & wastewater issues, and metro area traffic and transportation.

Graduates of the Atlanta Regional Commission?s Regional Leadership Institute founded the third organizationthe Regional Leadership Forumin 1994, recognizing the need for an organization that could develop and sustain an infrastructure for civic engagement.  Over the years, the Regional Leadership Forum grew to a membership of nearly 500, including mid- to upper level executives in business, government and the civic sector, as well as private citizens.  Its focus areas included transportation, diversity, water, leadership development, child abuse, housing affordability, and civic engagement.

RACL?s mission is to engage citizens of metropolitan Atlanta in regional solutions to regional issues by performing research, educating the citizenry and leadership, building consensus, advocating for the greater public interest, and developing social capital in the Atlanta region.  Metro Atlanta is home to 4 million people living in nearly 100 cities in towns in more than two dozen counties. 

?We?re more of a mosaic than a melting pot,? said Steve Rieck, the RACL?s interim CEO.  ?Our region has a diversity of demographics, economics, backgrounds, perspectives and needs.?

Rieck is a community and economic development professional with more than three decades of senior-level experience in government and the private sector.  He served in the administrations of three Georgia governors, beginning with Jimmy Carter in the early 1970s, and was the president and CEO of one of Atlanta's major suburban chambers of commerce for more than 10 years.  He was one of the founding members of the Regional Leadership Forum and became its first executive director in 2003.

?After I was hired in 2003, we began to realize the enormous potential we could achieve through strategic collaborations with like-minded partners,? Rieck explained.  ?The RLF Executive Committee started informal conversations with its counterparts at Research Atlanta and the Metro Group in the spring of 2005, and within six months, everyone agreed that a merger of the three organizations would make great sense.  We incorporated the Regional Atlanta Civic League on December 1, 2005.?

Beginning in the late 1990s, both Research Atlanta and the Regional Leadership Forum forged a close partnership with the . That relationship will continue as the AYSPS will now house the RACL.   In fact, representatives of AYSPS, the Atlanta Regional Commission, and the Regional Business Coalition (representing more than two dozen chambers of commerce in metro Atlanta) have Ex Officio seats on RACL's Board of Directors.

"One of the things that we've tried to avoid is to spread ourselves too thin and become 'all things to all people,? said Rieck. ?Our Board has directed us to focus on three issue areas: to promote good governance in the region; to advance human capital; and to enhance the region's infrastructure.? 

 Former ARS chair and current ARS board member Chris Chadwickexecutive director of FOCUS St. Louis, a regional civic organization also formed by a mergeraddressed Atlanta?s regional leaders on January 20^th about St. Louis?s experience and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for RACL.

"Now, I?m not going to tell you that the merger was an easy process,? said Chadwick.  ?But we found that most of our constituents believed a merger did make sense.  As long as our process was open and transparent, and as long as we made sure that we communicated clearly what we were doing and why, we didn?t run into any major problems.  Most importantly, the merger discussions gave us an opportunity to think about what our region needed, to think about what we valued, and what were the best practices of both organizations that needed to be preserved.?  (See ARS Letter for more )

RACL has some interesting programs and events coming up over the next couple of months.  National Civic League President Chris Gates will address RACL members on March 29.  RACL will produce a special affordable housing forum on April 19; and RACL will partner with Atlanta's "Clean Air Campaign" on May 1, to launch an education program for Atlanta leaders at the start of this year's "smog season."

For more information on RACL, contact   You can find information on the founding organizations at www.racl.info.