Leake County, Mississippi, USA: Leake County Chamber of Commerce

TEAM LEAKE

"Team Leake Reports"

by Waid Prather, The Carthaginian 05-24-07

Months of work by an all-volunteer army came to a conclusion Monday night with final reports from Team Leake. The group was applauded for its efforts to set goals and strategies, then told to get to work knocking off the goals in an orderly fashion. Its fires rekindled in December, Team Leake has worked since then to update a Leadership Leake agenda established in 2003.

An updated plan for community improvement, in the form of reports from four major committees, was shared over fried catfish and iced team Mon- day evening in the Central Electric Power Association building in Carthage. The program also included words of encouragement from Gray Swoope, Executive Director of the Mississippi Development Authority. It concluded with admonition that the plan was good, but implementation was needed.

With more than 30 objectives before them, team members were advised to pare things down to scale and get to work. Marcus Ellis, of Walnut Grove, agreed the vast array of objectives and strategies could prove staggering. “Pick one or two, no more than two, of these programs that can be done,” he said, “and do them. “When we get together next time, it will be a reporting-out time, telling what we’ve got done.” David Howell, president of the Leake County Chamber of Commerce, who spearheaded the drive to reassess and pursue the goals, said the group had to continue its work as a group. “One of the things this does is it involves the team effort,” he said, “and I’d like to encourage you to continue working as a team.” Team Leake goals were handed to four committees, one each for education-workforce development, social infrastructure, business development and physical infrastructure.

Business development had the fewest objectives, three, while physical infrastructure had 17 objectives. Goals, objectives and strategies were outlined in a graph given those in attendance, and reproduced else- where in this edition of The Carthaginian. However, a detailed account of all the work plan was a 19- page document. Swoope advised the group that the plan looked good, but more was needed. “I encourage you,” he said, “to do the Grade A implementation of the plan.”

TEAM LEAKE SUMMARY REPORT (5-2007)