School of CED 25th Anniversary

Hey All,

Can you believe it's already been 3 years since the Spring Hill Suites days...the evenings in the jacuzzi and the anxiety of juggling the regular life and getting assignments done?  Kinda fun.  Don't you miss it!  :-)

I decided to go to the SNHU networking event last Thursday at the Four Seasons Hotel here in Boston to support the event while in the hopes there would be some CED'ers in the crowd.  Well, it was an upscale event with passed hors d'oeuvres...they were serving Shrimp that were as big as a Chicken leg (hahahaha)

as well as all of these culinary delights with an endless pit of wines.  I was felling pretty nice before i left there.  All on SNHU.  The best part....no admission fee.  I guess part of the perks since we all paid tuition some time in the past.  A nice crowd with graduates of SNHU from the the old New Hampshire College days. As well as current graduates.  I spoke with The President, Paul Leblanc and he said someone left

1 Million dollars to the CED program!!  So now they're building a new CED building on campus.  He seemed real enthusiastic about SCED and pledged his support for the continuing expansion of the school and students.

Next, I went up on Saturday morning to partake in the days events.  Missed the 8am breakfast, but was there at 9am to get the coffee and danish and attend the Opening Plenary session and roundtables.  Walking into the auditorium at R. Frost Hall the first person I see is our good old friend Dr. Chris Clamp.  We wave, then I see Gus Simpson, Bill Maddox, Mawn and Michael Swack as we catch each others attention while trying to get seated...I even see Yoel off in the distance.   

After the opening statements and introductions by Woullard Lett and others the first speaker of the day was Chuck Collins who spoke about "Closing the Wealth Gap": Local and National Strategies.  At 9am in the morning he was pretty good.  Interesting, engaging and set the tone for the rest of the day.  Made me want to read his book all over again.  :-)

Afterwards we broke off into the the morning Roundtables upstairs on the 3rd floor.  3 different Roundtables to attend.  Which one?  Community Building and Public Policy, MicroFinance Strategies, or New Orleans-CED in the Katrina Crucible?  I chose  to go to New Orleans-CED in the Katrina Crucible.

All I can say is WOW!!!!!  The moderator was Dr. Mtangulizi Sanyika. A New Orleans resident who has a strong CED and Community Building background.  I believe one of the CED Gurus in N. Orleans. This gentleman was riveting and spoke without a break for 2 hours.  We were enthralled to listen what was the actual vs perceptions of the before and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  He spoke of the Levi crisis coming to bear...the flooding of the neighborhoods...Gov't indifference, CED effectiveness and ineffectiveness.... 

Opportunities for transformation and change - gentrification, race-class-gender, Social Policy & Change..........Community practices.......

I'm telling you - it was an engaging 2 hours.  There was so much more he said I can't elaborate on here.  He said A Whole Lot in 2 hours!!!  I think I went to the right Roundtable.

Then we broke for lunch.  I'm thinking....Yea buddy.  More Shrimp as big as Chicken Legs.  We get to the Athltic Center where they have it all laid out.  Salad with grilled chicken and popcorn shrimp...the kind you feed your fish in a tank.  :-)    (seriously)   I look around and say "Hey, what is this?  Isn't it the 25th Year Anniversary?  Where's the Beef?  I want the Four Seasons stuff.   You better go get some of those Culinary School students down here!  (hahahahaha)  So I had to get a couple of plate fulls to load up.  But what absolutely gets me is......for beverages they had 1) Water, 2) Coffee.....that's it.  

Then I realized - Hey, CED'ers are use to this second class citizenship.  :-)

I think the point was, we need more alumni donations.  Let me tell you, after going to the Four Seasons shindig and finding out about the 1 Million donation....and those Giant Shrimp they could have gave a Brutha a diet Pepsi!!  They save the good stuff for people who actually make donations!    :-)

During lunch I met a lot of intersting people from Philly, D.C., N.C., NYC, and from all over who were performing some interesting projects and yeomans work in CED.  Great networking and interesting people who had been through the program as far back as 1982, 1988, 1990, 1995, 1997, 1998.  That was cool.  Connecting with people who are looking to pool resources and make connections.  I met some dynamic people who were doing it!!!  Such as Joyce Dickens ('90) who was doing residential and moved into commercial development through her CDC in Rocky Mount, N.C.  Not only was she eloquent, knowledgable but a great resource in navigating the waters of real estate development and CED. 

Here's and interesting note: Also during lunch I met M. Swack's son Eric and I am telling you there is something about genetics because when you speak to this young 15 year old, he had the same mannerisms, speech pattern, and demeanor as his old man!!  Incredible.  It made me wonder am I after all these years a carbon copy of my Pop?  Hmmmmm, I wonder.   One of the guys gave him a T-Shirt that said, "Nappy, Happy, Black and Proud"  with a picture of a young girl with hair locks.  With bold letters FUDI ...

which stood for F U Don Imus.  Then we all harrassed him until he put it on!!   (hahahaha)

After lunch was the Ground-Breaking for the new School of CED....and I'm still thinking...1 Million dollars and no Giant Shrimp, no Pepsi.  Yea, have fun getting an alumni donation from the "Kid"    :-) 

Next on to the afternoon Roundtable discussions.  The choices were, Community Development Finance, Workforce Development and Rural Development.   I went to the Community Development Finance.  There were 3 different speakers for this session.  One was Joyce Dickens...and after speaking with her at lunch - I had to go here.  Then there was also Ted Wilkinson - if those of you who took Real Esate Development in our last semester, you will remember him, and Charles Albano speaking on  tax credits.  They were all full of information and took questions from the attendees.  A good session.

Afterwards a number of people gathered in the hallways at Frost Hall and we all talked about the various roundtables until it was time for dinner.  I unfortunately didn't stay for dinner...but hope they spread it out much better than lunch!  :-)       (not that lunch was terrible or anything...I'm still thinking Giant Shrimp)

So I said my goodbyes to Chris, Woullard, Gus, and others for the evening and headed on back down to Boston.  All in all it was a fantastic day.  Kudos go out to Woullard Lett, the staff, Chris, M. Swack and all others involved for a well organized weekend of events.

Wish more of you could have made the trek.  It would have been great to catch up.  That's the Report back for now. 

Holla, Harold