ARCC President Completes Fellowship Program

Todd L. Shimkus, the President/CEO of the ARCC, recently completed an 18-month Fellowship Program on "Regionalism and Sustainable Development" sponsored by the Ford Foundation. The Fellowship program was organized by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives and Futureworks to bring together 30 chamber executives from across the US and Canada focused on the issue of regionalism. The program took place over 18 months and included three conferences - - in Memphis, Denver, and Dallas - - plus a comprehensive set of readings, one-on-one technical support from the officials at Futureworks, and the requirement that each participant create their own regional action plan and contribute to a white paper to advise other chamber executives on best practices.

"The regional action plan that I put together will be shared first with the ARCC's Board of Directors," stated Shimkus. "It helps to outline some of the region's economic opportunities, challenges, critical issues and the role the chamber can play. Specifically, the plan looks at whether or not this regions is ready to host AMD and the developing nanoelectronics cluster to our south; how our state and local tax burden requires increased shared services to cut costs and improve efficiency; and how the ARCC itself can be a model organization pushing for shared services, cooperation and consolidation itself."

The other Chambers in this fellowship program came from the following regions: Fort Wayne, Indiana; Witchita, Kansas; Orlando, Florida; Dallas, Texas; Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario; Tacoma-Pierce County, Washington; Des Moines, Iowa; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Washington, DC; Westchester County, NY; Leominster, Massachusetts; New Orleans, Louisiana; Orange County, California; and others.