Family. (March 2022 Chair's Column)

Sometimes I feel like I’m just about “economic-developed” out. As February draws to a close, I’d kind of like to call a timeout – just a few days to do nothing but breathe. But we all know that our jobs don’t really allow for that very often.

Recently, our community was fortunate to announce a great industrial project location. The story is much the same as those that all of you have worked and successfully landed – a contact that came almost out of nowhere; a scramble to put together information; coordination of dozens of local experts and decision makers for meetings; negotiations, phone calls, Zoom calls, prayers, etc. Thank goodness for Rachel, and Alyce Thornhill, and Bradley Harris, and so many others who helped keep everything together.

As often happens, we worked on this project over a course of years – not days, or weeks, or months. During that time, we worked on other project leads, workforce development, community planning, and other activities – just as all of you do, all of the time. Unfortunately, sometimes others in our communities don’t think we are successful until the big project announcement. As economic developers, we eventually resign ourselves to the fact that the visuals of “success” in our profession don’t seem to happen as often as those of other professions. I’m looking forward to hearing more about the BeltLine story during the March Luncheon, in part because I know that that project has taken a long and winding road.

So, many of us will meet at the Ponce City Market this month to hear the tale of a redevelopment project, with challenges similar to those that each of us face wherever we work. We’ll hear about the local elected officials that thought the project was a crazy idea (and some that were greatly supportive), or the environmental issue that no one knew about. We’ll nod our heads when someone jokes about how “you wouldn’t believe what happened next,” because chances are our experiences allow us to believe. And we’ll drive back to our communities, and we’ll get back on the phone or the laptop, and we’ll keep thinking of ways to make our communities and our State better, and we’ll keep fighting the fight – because that’s what we do.

I’m pretty sure that my wife doesn't quite understand what I do. I know that most of my friends and family don't have a clue. That's one of the reasons why GEDA is so important to us – it gives us an opportunity to gather with others who have jobs like us, or others with jobs that work with people like us. We’re family. We can commiserate and tell stories, and laugh and cry together, and fill ourselves back up so that we can go back to these jobs that many people don’t understand, but allow us to create opportunities and hope for them anyway. What a cool job!

Have a great month, everyone. I hope to see you soon.

Benjy Thompson

GEDA 2022 Chair