BAY AREA COMMUNITY COUNCIL
MARCH 2020 NEWSLETTER
Special Coronavirus issue
The Bay Area Community Council is the leading organization in engaging community leaders in understanding and shaping the future of the greater Green Bay area.
President's Message,
Dave Wegge

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy,” Martin Luther King, Jr.

These are indeed challenging times of inconvenience, discomfort, fear, uncertainty, prayer, and risk, just to mention a few. These times challenge leaders, communities and individuals. But these are also times to pull together as a human community to push through the challenges of COVID-19.

The Bay Area Community Council is deeply involved in engaging community leaders in foresight analysis. Foresight analysis is a systematic process that utilizes a series of tools to anticipate and lead change. This process does not predict the future, but rather assists in identifying plausible futures. The future is impacted primarily by trends, events and the choices we make.

The COVID-19 pandemic is certainly a significant event that will have substantial effects on all aspects of our lives, both now and into the future. 

The COVID-19 event raises several questions for all of us who study and use foresight analysis.

BACC President Dave Wegge thanks retiring Board member Tom Hinz
BACC says farewell to
Tom Hinz

The BACC Board of Directors thanked retired Board member Tom Hinz (right in photo) for his nine years of Board service on March 12, 2020. Pres. Dave Wegge (left in photo) praised Hinz, citing BACC accomplishments during his service, and shared a medallion representing greater Green Bay with him. Hinz also served Brown County as Sheriff (1997-2003) and County Executive (2007-2011). Hinz shared a quote by Thomas Edison in his biography by Edmund Morris after being acknowledged.

Hinz matches Edison by bringing similar optimism and forward thinking to all of his endeavors.
Ever Old, Ever "Knew"

Fr. Paul Demuth
Board of Directors, Bay Area Community Council

Members of the Bay Area Community Council and graduates of the BACC’s foresight analysis cohorts are excited about our new approach to analyzing the present so that so that we are aware of future trends and can positively shape the future. We are using signal teams to look for patterns and trends that help us see what is on the horizon and what needs to change in our society, our businesses and in everyone’s lives. This task is a privilege as well as a challenge as we contemplate how to improve individual lives and our greater Green Bay community. Sounds pretty new, doesn’t it?!

Yet recently, fellow BACC Board member Tom Schumacher and I came across a meditation from Franciscan priest Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation (Albuquerque, New Mexico). Rohr quotes the Dominican priest Albert Nolan on the role of the ancient prophets:




STANDING WITH EACH OTHER DURING
THE CORONAVIRUS EMERGENCY

  1. Contribute to the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation Emergency Response Fund and encourage others to do so.
  2. Nonprofit organizations in Brown, Oconto, and Kewaunee counties impacted by the Coronavirus emergency may apply for grant funding from the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation Emergency Response Fund.
  3. Donate wipes,masks, and sanitizer to the Green Bay Metro Fire Department so emergency responders can maintain a safe environment while serving extreme victims of this crisis.
KNOW YOUR BACC DIRECTOR:
DAMIAN LACROIX

Damian currently serves as Superintendent of Schools for the Howard-Suamico School District (HSSD). Selected as the 2017 Wisconsin Superintendent of the Year, LaCroix’s reformist vision for public education has resulted in the development of creative student programming aimed at ensuring that all students are college, career, and citizenship ready.

Under his leadership, Howard-Suamico School District won the Proficiency Award from the Wisconsin Center for Performance Excellence, Bay Port High School has been recognized nationally by Newsweek and The Washington Post as one of the top high schools in America, and two schools have been acknowledged by the US Department of Education’s prestigious Blue-Ribbon School of Excellence program. Through his mentoring, several HSSD administrators have been recognized as the best in the State in their respective areas of responsibility.
Now is Our Time to Show Our Mettle
Judy Nagel, BACC Board of Directors and Board President of Green Bay Botanical Garden

Now more than ever we need the support of friends, family and colleagues. Last week, I learned that the Executive Director and a board member of Green Bay Botanical Garden were stranded in Morocco. They left about two weeks ago, before the Coronavirus was taken seriously, to join a Boston based company on a guided adventure tour. Before their scheduled return flight, the airports in Morocco were closed.



SUMMARY OF MARCH 12 BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

The BACC Board of Directors bade farewell to Tom Hinz, who served on the BACC board since 2010. He was a past president and important advocate for veterans, law enforcement, and the penal system as a Board member. Directors also welcomed new colleague Damian LaCroix, Superintendent of the Howard-Suamico school district.

BACC committtees are moving forward with the discovery stage of our branding initiative and network building of community leaders who have completed our foresight analysis training.

Director Noel Halvorsen offered an update on NeighborWorks Green Bay and demonstrated how he has applied foresight analysis training as Chief Executive Officer of NeighborWorks.



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

The Coronavirus Crisis. The Wall Street Journal.
All articles are free during the crisis.

Gates, Bill. " The next outbreak? We're not ready," TED Talk, April 3, 2015.

Greenfield, Nicole. " The City Insider Proving that Mayors Can Lead on Climate," Natural Resources Defense Council 2020, February 11, 2020.


Morris, Edmund. Edison. 2019.


Poon, Linda. " Coronavirus Exposes How Bad America’s Homework Gap Really Is," CityLab, March 20, 2020



Wu, Katherine J. and Lallensack, Rachael. " Ten Trends that Will Shape Sciences in the 2020s," Smithsonian Magazine, February 25, 2020.