Dear CEDAS members, it has been my great pleasure to be the President of CEDAS over the last two years. I've worked with outstanding board members and have met many fantastic dedicated professionals and Economic Commission Members. I am proud to say the CEDAS is meeting the goal of being a strong membership organization. Our membership is up 50% from where we began in 2009 and our fund balance is steady and strong. We have been more visible statewide the last few years. This has been especially important with all of the changes in state and local government. Even as the political landscape has changed, we remain a crucial part of the statewide economy because we do this important job everyday. We've had good direct contact with the governors office and statewide agencies such as DECD and DEEP. We've more visible in the press and most important to me we've been in many of your towns offering help at the Economic Commission level. Marketing-wise we have a newly upgraded web-site the cost of which was a great investment of our growing treasury.
Finally we have worked hard to promote continuing education through our scholarship fund for workshops conferences and training courses such EDI. I know we will continue to provide these services to CEDAS members. Most recently I attended the IEDC annual meeting in Charlotte and can provide to you the slides of the workshops. Just contact me I will send them along to you.
I want to thank the CEDAS Annual Meeting Committee for putting together a really great Annual Meeting event on December 2nd, especially Doreen DeSarro and David Prendergast. In 2012, Sandra Johnson will provide dynamic leadership for CEDAS to reach out further to collaborate with other brother and sister trade groups where we can provide common ground. Please help Sandra by participating in CEDAS, being part of committees and coming to event in including our monthly board meetings in Rocky Hill at CERC.
Happy holidays to you and I look forward to seeing you all in 2012
