August 2012 Newsletter

Featured Articles The GEDA Games Time For August Luncheon The NEW GEDA.org! Say Cheese! Welcome Rebecca McGee In Memoriam - Linda Williams App of the Month US Dept of Energy   Say Cheese! Head Shots Taken at Annual Conference GEDA is very excited to announce a fun opportunity at Annual Conference.  Our own Matt Forshee (photographer extraordinaire) will be on hand and prepared to take a professional photograph of YOU!  For a very small fee ($30 vs. over $100 charged by most professionals) Matt will schedule time with you at Annual Conference to take a high-quality head shot of you for your use at work.  And, as an added bonus, GEDA can use these files and automatically update your profile page on our site!  Say Cheese!  (Scheduling and payment handled directly with Matt Forshee.) Welcome Rebecca McGee! GEDA Intern GEDA is pleased to announce the hiring of Rebecca McGee as our new Intern!  Rebecca comes to GEDA from The University of Georgia where she recently received her degree in Journalism.  Her work and volunteer experience are right in line with what our needs going forward.  We know that Rebecca will be a great addition to the GEDA Team!  Make sure to say hello when you see her at the August luncheon. In Memoriam Rest in Peace, Linda Williams GEDA is very sad to announce the loss of  our member, Dawson County Chamber President Linda Williams.  Linda served as President of the Chamber for 16 years and made countless contributions to Dawson County and North Georgia.  She had retired just one month ago. Surviving are her husband of 45 years, Marty Williams, Dawsonville; daughter, Angela Lackey, Brooks, GA; a number of other relatives and friends.  Memorial services will be held Thursday August 16, 2012 at 11 o’clock at Bearden Funeral Home Chapel (Dawsonville). In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Dawson County Mentoring Program, P. O. Box 872, Dawsonville, GA 30534 or Dawson County Family Connection, P. O. Box 872, Dawsonville, GA 30534.

Join Us For the GEDA Games:  We Hunger for Growth We are just over a month away from GEDA's 49th Annual Conference!  Are you registered?? For a registration fee of only $290, you get all this: Public Relations 101 from the experts An in-depth look at bringing Baxter to Georgia Possible Elton John sightings GEDA Awards Ceremony (Who is the next Rip Wiley?  What projects won Deal of the Year?) Perhaps the most exciting speaker we've ever seen at GEDA.  We promise, you will be amazed! Plus, all of the Thursday afternoon fun, including an exclusive tour of the Georgia Ports authority facilities in Savannah! SO MUCH MORE!! If you haven't registered yet, the time is now.  Early bird pricing ends August 31.  Book your room for Wednesday and Thursday nights at the host hotel, the Hyatt Regency Savannah.  We'll see you there!  (If you need extra incentive, we will have LOTS of cash and prizes to give away during the Conference.  Must be present AND seated to win!)     August Luncheon Is Around the Corner GEDA Welcomes Chancellor Hank Huckaby Today is the Early Bird registration deadline for the August luncheon!  We haven’t seen you since June and we know you miss us so register today.  USG Chancellor Huckaby will be speaking to us on the impact of education, provided by the University System, which supports Georgia’s future workforce.  A recently released report states that the combined economic impact of the University System of Georgia reached $13.2 billion in 2012. The study found that Georgia’s public university system generated nearly 132,000 jobs, or more than 3 percent of all the nonfarm jobs that exist in Georgia. The bottom line is that one job out of every 29 jobs in the State of Georgia is due to the state’s public University System. Join us for lunch on August 20th at the Renaissance Midtown (adjacent to the Centergy Building).  Huge thanks to this month’s sponsor City of Fairburn.   The NEW www.geda.org! GEDA Set to Unveil New Homepage Most website 'experts' recommend an updated look for a website's home page every 2-3 years.  It has been about 2-3 years since GEDA undertook a full overhaul of our home page.  We have received some feedback from folks about what you'd like to see at GEDA.org.  And now we are counting the minutes until we can unveil the new look.  We have tested it with a small number of people so far and have received rave reviews!  Here is a sneak peak of the new site ... New features include: Clean look with a new color scheme, Rotating banner in the middle (allows us to keep content super fresh) Dedicated login area.  You will not need to click anywhere to log in anymore - the fields are always ready for you! Six content areas.  Current site only has four areas - this gives us more freedom to provide you with maximum content on our home page.  That means less clicking for you!  Expanded footer.  We're going to put all kinds of fun stuff at the bottom - we just don't know what yet!

2012 Events Calendar August 20.  Monthly Luncheon featuring Chancellor Huckaby at the Marriott Renaissance Midtown.  September 12-14.  Annual Conference at the Hyatt Regency Savannah.  (Reserve your room at the Hyatt.) Welcome New Members! John Cheek, City of McDonough Kenneth Dobson, Fulton County Jay Flesher, Flint Energies Lilyn Hester, Google Joey Maxwell, Maxwell-Reddick & Assoc. Bruce Nicely, Southern States Regional Center Peter Tokar III, City of Alpharetta App of the Month Thank you to Nicole Ward with the Dublin-Laurens County Development Authority for this month's submission. CardMunch is a free iPhone app that can turn business cards into contacts.  It's extremely easy to use.  Once you  have the app on your iPhone or iPad, use it to take a picture of a business card.  That card will then come back to you as an electronic contact.  What a great time saver!  Thank you, Nicole!  (I use this one too, and love it.)  This one is for iPhones only, right now. Have an app to recommend to us?   Fill out this simple form.    US Department of Energy We have an exciting opportunity!  Ecotality North America is bringing the largest electric vehicle deployment project in history to metro Atlanta!   Atlanta  has been selected as the next city to receive mass deployment of EV stations under a large scale grant from The US Department of Energy, however, many more cities and regions in Georgia could qualify, if there is enough interest.  ECOtality, the Department of Energy and the EV Project are offering a chance to be a part of a national and historic undertaking in the electric vehicle conversation. Utilizing both government grants and private funding, the EV Project is offering FREE electric vehicle chargers, installation funding and establishing, within the Greater Atlanta Area, a comprehensive electric vehicle charging infrastructure.  Read the full article. Register for this event online; or to find out more, contact Stephanie Cox at 615.504.4928 / scox@ecotality.com or Jeremy Covert at 615.476.2814 / jcovert@ecotality.com.