Good morning.
The Chautauqua Lake Partnership (CLP) helped “Chautauqua Lake, a Great Lake Seeking a Greater Future”, take a big step towards that greater future in 2017.
Over 175 people attended the CLP’s “New Ideas and Leadership/End of Season Rally” at the Village Casino in Bemus Point on Saturday, September 2. We were very happy with the turnout especially with the County/Alliance “Celebration” only 2 weeks earlier and the limited advertisement given the CLP Rally. Our current membership of 240 is likely to grow substantially when we add the names of those who requested membership at the Rally.
Here is a link to the Post Journal Recap: Post Journal Recap of CLP Rally
Charts and Q&A documents used at the Rally are below:
Many of those attending had the opportunity to meet and speak with our special guest, Dr. Liesl Folks, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNYAB). Dr. Folks has overseen the SEAS at SUNYAB since 2014 and helped build the school to 2900 undergraduate and 1700 graduate students. We are exploring the potential for SUNYAB assistance with CLP’s lake improvement initiatives.
Also attached are the QAs used by Dr. Tom Erlandson, Brad Bowers for Glenn Sullivan, and Jim Wehrfritz for Dr. Doug Neckers, in last Saturday’s Panel. CLP gathered a great Panel and prepared the QAs according to the County’s instructions for the “Celebration of the Lake” on August 19.But, the County canceled that Panel so we handed them out at the “Celebration” and used them at our Rally. We hope you got to chat with SOLitude’s Glenn Sullivan, who drove in from Hacketstown, NJ, and Dr. Doug Neckers, organic chemist, who drove in from Toledo, OH, for the “Celebration”.
We regret we did not have time to answer all questions submitted real time by Rally attendees. We’ll recap, answer and include them in an update to members if we get a chance over the next few very busy weeks.
We will answer one of the questions, “Why didn’t we let people stand up and ask questions ‘real time’?” Our experience with that in prior CLP, County and Alliance-sponsored events was not good. A few of the same individuals often monopolized the limited time available with more lecture than questions. The process CLP used last Saturday, common in such venues, provides answers for the largest number of the most relevant questions and optimizes use of available time.
The Breakout Sessions for communities interested in organizing for 2018, as Bemus Bay did for 2017, were a huge success. Over 50 individuals from 5 Lakeside communities met for an hour after the Rally to plan near term activities. Interested communities should contact Karen Rine ([email protected]) to participate in CLP Community Outreach.
2018 Plans include a >300% increase in CLP’s budget with a corresponding increase in CLP Officer, Board Member and volunteer involvement. Many have expressed interest in assisting us. We will be sharing an organization chart within the next few weeks including numerous opportunities for involvement. We ask that you seriously consider how you can assist.
Stay tuned, much more to come.