FEBRUARY 2019 BACC NEWSLETTER
|
|
BACC is the leading organization in engaging community leaders in
understanding and shaping the future of the greater Green Bay area.
|
|
President's Letter, Fr. Paul Demuth
In Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical (“letter to the world”) “Laudato Si” or “On Care for our Common Home,” he addressed both faith and secular communities about the interrelatedness of creation and its people. As we conclude Black History Month, we also reflect on the rich interdependence of race, diversity and changing demographics in our own community. This can all be such a heady and abstract subject until we encounter a story that somehow brings it to life.
Photo from Guatemala by Oscar Leiva/Silverlight for CRS
I had an opportunity to experience this in my recent trip to Guatemala. I had the chance to see the ancient ruins of the Mayan culture in Tikal as well as mix with today’s Mayan descendants in the town square of Santiago Atitlan. It was a strange feeling to experience the ancient history of the Mayan people who were experts in architecture, who had their own intricate alphabet and mathematical systems and yet whose culture rather rapidly disappeared through drought and poisoning in the 800s (they used massive amounts of water to dissolve limestone so that they could cover their temples with shining white lime; as they worked to do this, they were unintentionally infecting their lungs with lime powder and at the same time poisoning the water supply with the residue). Their leaders were indeed advanced and cultured, but treated the ordinary class of builders and workers with little regard for their dignity and health.
The Mayan descendants — ordinary people who survived through the centuries — today live ordinary lives: working, selling, building, having families, praying and celebrating, dealing with poverty and illness. Today these “native people” still do not have the same advantages as their richer compatriots of Guatemala. Despite the disadvantages they daily experience, I was amazed by how friendly and welcoming they were to us as foreign tourists; even though we probably seemed like giants among the rather short native peoples.
Being out of the country for even a short time gave me a fresh perspective on how we in the USA and our brothers and sisters elsewhere share this earth as our “common home.” We do a great disservice to ourselves and others when we don’t appreciate and rejoice in the vastness of our universe, the preciousness of creation and the variety of gifts that each people, race and nationality can offer our world and nation. Mutual respect, care for the least among us, and preservation of our environment are all interrelated!
|
|
Know your BACC Director: Randy Van Straten
Tell us a little bit about yourself—where you were raised, past and current professions and careers, how long you have lived in Brown County, and some of your favorite pass times
I am grateful to have lived my entire life in the Brown County area. I am even more grateful that my wife, Julie, and I have had the opportunity to raise our family here. Currently, Theo (senior), Sam (junior), and Ava (sophomore) attend Notre Dame Academy, and we live in De Pere.
My career at Bellin Health actually started immediately after high school as a means to help finance my college education. I refer to my alma mater as the Harvard of the Midwest (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay), where I earned a bachelors and masters degrees.
I currently serve as Vice President of Business & Community Health at Bellin Health. Our division has developed a highly successful strategy that is helping employers in northeast Wisconsin not only control, but in some cases lower their health care costs, while improving the health of the companies’ employees and their family members. This division works directly with employers to identify areas of health risk and then creates solutions to improve health while controlling costs. But most importantly, we save lives who don’t even know they need to be saved through early intervention and prevention strategies. Last year, this division saw over 80,000 visits outside the walls of our clinics and hospitals, bringing care directly to employers and communities.
For 19 years, I have also directed the Bellin 10K Run. The race now captures national attention as one of the 10 largest 10K runs in the nation with 20,000 registrants. The growth reflects the success of the community programs to help develop healthy lifestyles through innovative programs like the Kids for Running Program and the Corporate Challenge.
I have two favorite things that I like to do: First, I like to spend time with my family, often travelling, skiing, or mountain biking as a unit. Second, I am passionate about running. This spring I will complete my 51st marathon and 13th Boston Marathon.
Describe your relationship to the BACC—when did you start on the BACC, what are your hopes for the BACC, what personal gifts do you bring to the BACC mission?
I joined the BACC Board five months ago, following positive experiences with Brown County LIFE Study activities. My hope for the BACC is to expand its great work of collaborating with business, government, education, and non-profits to continually improve our community. I hope to assist with strategic planning and a population health approach that incorporates determinants of health.
What do you like most about life in Brown County?
Simply put……it is the people of Brown County I like most. They are unique in their willingness to get involved and help the community be a better place to live, work, and raise families.
|
|
FEBRUARY 14 BACC Board meeting
|
|
The BACC Board of Directors met on February 14, 2019 in Todd Wehr Hall, St. Norbert College.
The Communications Committee shared that it has met with three different vendors who have or will provide proposals for how it can help the BACC sharpen its brand. The Committee hopes to select its preferred vendor within one month.
Dave Wegge shared that the Futuring Committee has received extensive feedback from the 2018 futuring workshop cohort group. All of the participants answered that futuring/foresight analysis could be very valuable or moderately valuable to their organization's planning process. Eighty percent of the participants answered that they now know about futuring/forecast analysis and have introduced it to their organization. As a whole, the group recognizes the need for increased buy-in of futuring/forecast analysis amongst their co-workers. All would recommend the futuring/forecast analysis workshop to peers. The Futuring Committee recommended that the BACC board be trained in futuring/forecast analysis in the first half of 2019 and that the BACC recruit another cohort group for fall semester, 2019.
|
|
Applying forecast analysis to greater Green Bay's history, present, and future
BACC Director Bob Woessner kicks off a six month series by BACC directors connecting forecast analysis to our community's history, present, and future well being.
One of the saddest sights in my 36-plus years at the Green Bay Press-Gazette came on a cold winter day in 1972. A flatbed truck carrying several linotype machines inched away from a loading dock and moved carefully through a line of sign-carrying pickets.
The signs identified the pickets as members of the compositors’ union on strike at the newspaper. Many of the strikers had spent decades operating the machines being carted away because they had been made obsolete by new technology.
For generations, newspapers used linotypes and other machines to set type from molten lead. By about 1970, “hot metal” was being replaced by “cold type” which allowed reporters and editors to use computer-based technology to set type.
There were obvious savings in not having every story and headline keyboarded twice – once in the news room and again in the composing room where pages were assembled to be put on presses. The human cost was that the many people who turned liquid lead into type no longer had jobs.
The compositors assumed that without them, the PG could not publish. They were wrong. The paper never missed an issue. The compositors were not the first group of job holders to underestimate the impact of technological change. They won’t be the last.
But the PG strike might have been avoided had the typesetters been more aware of what futurists call “signals” – signs that technological change will require people to adapt.
In 1970, the printing-trade press was full of reports about the advance of “cold type.” At the PG, new equipment and techniques were being tested but the compositors did not seem to read or heed the signs of what was coming.
Noting such signals and assessing their potential impact is at the core of strategic foresight. No one can read the future with certainty. But signals point to trends, events and choices that suggest what may be coming.
The BACC has chosen to focus on such techniques and hopes to make them available to help local organizations look ahead with more confidence. If that effort is successful, there will be fewer replays of that winter scene in 1972 when people who did not look to the future saw their jobs carted away.
Favorite resources and news you can use
Recent news stories, articles, books, videos, Websites or venues of interest to the BACC supporters and newsletter readers, recommend by the BACC staff and directors. Also community events of interest to the BACC supporters
Patricia Finder-Stone, BACC Board Member and leader of the League of Women Voters of Greater Green Bay, is the new chair of the of the Board of Directors of the Aging and Disability Resource Center.
The
Brown County Planning Commission
will be updating the 20-year County Comprehensive Plan during 2019, and is currently seeking public input to help identify the top issues and opportunities that are important to county residents. These issues and opportunities will help form the foundation and the vision of the Comprehensive Plan document. The plan will cover different topics including, but not limited to, transportation, natural resources, and economic conditions and development. Planning Commission staff have created short (2-4 questions) surveys for each topic, available
here.
The surveys will be open through March 17.
Planning Commission
staff have created a blog site for people to subscribe to in order to receive periodic updates and possible opportunities for further input through the process. You may access the blog through the Comprehensive Plan Update page (the link above), or boostbrowncounty.wordpress.com.
SNC presents current area economic and business report and State of the Economy presentation
St. Norbert College Center for Business & Economic Analysis of the Donald J. Schneider School of Business & Economics at St. Norbert College presented "State of the Economy" on February 14. The BACC Board joined roughly 150 other community leaders. Speakers presented a general "
State of the Economy" address, a
regional cluster analysis presentation, and insights on
transportation logistics by Breakthrough Fuel.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns.
Leadership: In Turbulent Times. Thorndike Press, 2018.
The book addresses turbulence in the terms of Abraham Lincoln (issuing the Emancipation Proclamation), Theodore Roosevelt (dealing with a coal strike in 1902), Franklin Roosevelt (managing his first 100 days in office) and Lyndon Johnson (passing civil-rights legislation).
Johnson, Steven.
Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most. 2018.
University of Wisconsin Green Bay
Inside
. Fall-Winter 2018. Issue contains a number of articles of interest, including "Partnerships, like that at Titletown Tech, Energize the Campus and the Community," "Untitled Town Returns," and "Ever Phoenix. Ever Green."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
