Community Leaders Workshop

Crime, education, growth topics for citizen workshop on May 22nd

More than 150 citizens from the area will wrestle with three key issues during the First Annual Community Leaders Workshop, “Making Mid-Delmarva a Better Place to Live and Work,” to be held on Friday, May 22, at The Fountains in Salisbury.

The session of neighborhood, business, civic, and government representatives will consider the issues of “Insuring Our Personal Safety,” “Meeting the Growth Challenge,” and “Challenging Our Students to More Science and Math Education” for a better job future.

The workshop runs from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., includes lunch, and is open to anyone interested from throughout the area, including Wicomico, Somerset, Worcester, Sussex, and Accomack counties, and other areas. The cost of the session is $25 and the public may register through a website at http://www.greatersalisbury.org and follow the payment instructions.

For each issue, there will be two speakers who will present key information for a few minutes prior to roundtable discussions by the participants, followed by one or more electronic votes to provide instant feedback on conclusions of the discussion. The sessions will be moderated by Eliot Pfanstiehl, who is the moderator for Leadership Maryland and several other organizations and companies from New York to Florida. He is from Rockville, MD.

James Garrity from Salisbury University’s BEACON and Maryland’s Dept. of Business and Economic Development will open the workshop with a short presentation on “Who We Are,” a demographic summary of Mid-Delmarva.

Closing the day’s workshop will be a summary session which will include, among others, Wicomico County Exec. Rick Pollitt and John Allen, vice president of Delmarva Power. The workshop will open with a welcome from James R. Thomas, Jr., chair of the Greater Salisbury Committee and president of George Miles and Buhr in Salisbury.

In addition to the issue sessions, attendees will participate in active networking which will allow them to form relationships with others in the area who have the same issue interests as they do.

The workshop is presented by the Greater Salisbury Committee, a 42-year-old civic improvement organization which covers the Mid-Delmarva area from Sussex County in Delaware to Accomack County in Virginia and includes Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset counties in Maryland.

Diamond sponsors of the Community Leaders Workshop include George Miles and Buhr, Peninsula Regional Medical Center, Perdue Farms, Delmarva Power, the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, WBOC-TV, M&T Bank, and The Fountains.
For more information, go to www.greatersalisbury.org.


From The Greater Salisbury Committee
For more information, contact: T. Jan Wiseman, Executive Director
P.O. Box 156, Salisbury, MD 21803, phone: (410) 742-5161, e-mail: gsc@comcast.net

March 30, 2009
(Note: GSC Chair Jim Thomas is available for an interview on the event after 2 p.m. on Monday, March 30th. Call him at (410) 742-3115 or (410) 742-5161 to schedule.)