Charlotte Regional Partnership (CRP)
Initiative: Bring together county-level elected leaders and county managers in a forum to pursue common concerns and initiate dialogue for unified actions.
Status: 2008 was devoted in large measure to the water issue that became so critical. The Regional Leaders Forum (RLF) group has matured significantly since its first meeting in 2007 when there were trepidations about meeting at all, much less openly discussing drought issues. The collegiality among RLF members is heartening and can be taken as a measure of a healthy regional perspective that continues to develop in the CRP territory. The Council of Governments (COGs) have a draft framework of the way to incorporate RLF into their CONNECT system. RLF leaders await final recommendations from the COGs on next steps. CRP and the RLF facilitators are prepared for the next steps in the RLF process.

Partners for Parks
Initiative: Conduct a comprehensive feasibility study for an expanded aquatic center.
Status: Feasibility study by Counsilman-Hunsaker is in review and final editing. It will be shared with stakeholders in early Spring. Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation is moving forward with renovation plans that do not include expansions recommended by Counsilman-Hunsaker.

Charlotte Regional Partnership
Initiative: Support of Clean Air Works initiative, designed to lower the Charlotte region’s carbon output.
Status: The Clean Air Works program initiatives in 2008 were designed to help existing partners expand their programs and to help new partners implement their initial programs. Key challenges for the year included maintaining commitment and enthusiasm of existing partners, addressing ways to tackle air quality issues while Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards were being tightened, and sustaining the program on a significantly smaller budget. These needs were true to our expectations, but our strategic and tactical plans proved to be very effective in addressing these concerns.

UNC Charlotte
Initiative: Provide critical benchmarks measured over time and compared to state and/or national data on a wide range of indicators that impact the region’s quality of life.
Status: A regular schedule of indicator data updates has been developed, based on the time of year that the source agencies publish annual updates to their data. To date, updated data has been collected for all 43 of the annually published indicators, and updated regional indicators are in the process of being calculated and reviewed in the project’s quality control process prior to publishing on the Web site. A conceptual design for a relational database has been developed. County Profile Reports are nearing completion for publication on the project Web site by mid-spring.

Arts & Science Council
Initiative: Conduct a feasibility study for establishing an arts and technology center in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
Status: Early in January 2009, National Center for Arts & Technology (NCAT) staff began the study by holding a series of interviews within the community. These interviews will provide NCAT with an understanding of our community’s organizational landscape. NCAT staff reports these meeting were a great start, with more work on the horizon. NCAT staff will return to Charlotte every few weeks to conduct more research and interviews. All of this research and face-to-face interaction will help determine the unique characteristics of our community that can be leveraged to tailor an arts and technology center to meet our community’s specific needs. NCAT staff anticipates the organizational landscape portion of the feasibility study will conclude in March or early April 2009. The entire feasibility study will take between 12 to 18 months, at which point community leaders will decide whether to move forward and, if so, how.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools
Initiative: Prepare a new cadre of educational leaders for selected high-need schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools system.
Status: The Leaders for Tomorrow Cohort I has completed six modules of the Educational Leadership program for principal license. Cohort participants will be assigned to a school site for the summer of 2009 to begin the first phase of an internship. The second phase of the internship will take place in the candidate’s home school for the entire 2009-2010 school year. The nomination process for Cohort 2 of the Leaders for Tomorrow has been completed. The interview and final selection of Cohort 2 will be completed by February 27. Twenty-five new candidates will be identified for the Leaders for Tomorrow Program Cohort 2. The Leaders for Tomorrow toolkit is currently under development and will be complete in May 2009. The toolkit will provide school districts with an overview of the nomination and selection process, detailed description of each course module, outline of internship experience and description of culminating experience.

Charlotte Regional Partnership
Initiative: Conduct a “Film Economic Impact Study” to create a sustainable template to measure the economic impact of the film industry in our 16-county region.
Status: The Film Commission of the Charlotte Regional Partnership has had difficulty contacting John Connaughton, but is now in the process of working out the details of the contract. The commission expects to begin the study within the next two weeks.

Charlotte Chamber
Initiative: Develop a benchmark survey that compares the Charlotte Metropolitan Statistical Area to cities – and regions – with whom we compete.
Status: Status presented July 2009

Carolina Thread Trail
Initiative: Develop the Master Trail Planning process in Lincoln County. The community-based process takes six-to-nine months to complete, with the end result being a master plan that has identified greenway routes within the county, as well as the priority legs which will become a part of the Thread Trail.
Status: Status presented July 2009

The Lynwood Foundation
Initiative: Establish and launch the Senior Fellow Organization, a network of trained, collaborative leaders from across the Charlotte region.
Status: Status presented July 2009