Industrial Authority: new website, same old agenda tonight @ VLCIA 2013-01-15

The Industrial Authority has a spiffy new website under a new domain, buildlowndes.com, and with their new logo, formerly only on their facebook page. Their meeting agenda for tonight, however, is the same old recycled content-free placeholder.

I sure don't miss the old hexagon menu, the new menu is up top and usable before they waste a bunch of space with stock photos. The Our Team page even links to the Linkedin profiles of Andrea Schruijer and Meghan Duke. While Allan Ricketts does have a Linkedin profile, it's not very fleshed out and they don't link to it.

The Recent Investments page is interesting, although it would be more so if

the names of companies linked to something, such as number of jobs, what they do, which are local and which are imports, etc. For example, I think all three of the "Value Added Agriculture & Food Processing" companies, Sunset Farms, South Georgia Pecan, and CJB Industries, are companies that began here. They have a couple of Testimonials on another page; they could link to those, at least. Or can they? Do they have to go through their fancy marketing consultant to do that, or do they know how to manage their own website? And over here under Leading Employers they have company logos and a blurb on each for some of the same companies, plus others such as Langdale, ADM, and Fresh Beginnings. And of course what they really seem to think they're selling, judging by what they talk about most in their meetings, their business parks. After all, their new tagline is the retro all-caps 19th century:

"BUILDING A GROUND BREAKING COMMUNITY."

There's a link to valdostalowndesprospector.com, which confusingly doesn't say that when you get there; it just has the same Valdosta Lowndes Industrial Authority logo as the main site.

The local government page is confused, with its link to "City & County Commission". Pretending they're a merged government, are we? That doesn't really help industrial development: Dublin and Laurens County are not merged, and they just keep bringing in the business, such as MAGE SOLAR, car part manufacturer Erdrich, and those solar street lights.

The Target Industry Clusters page lists Advance[d] Manufacturing, Value Added Agriculture & Food Processing, Green Technology & Alternative Energy, and Warehousing & Distribution. All good choices, although maybe one of Augusta-Richmond County's advantages that let it be second in the country in high tech job growth was picking a term they could spell. It's good to see VLCIA is for agriculture, unlike the Chamber. The Industrial Authority's take is getting close to Wiregrass Alley. I wonder why "Alternative" energy instead of renewable energy, and the one-line writeup says nothing about solar or wind, and could still include biomass. But at least it's on the list, and there's nothing about wanting a private prison.

Anyway, I think the website is a big improvement, although there's still room for further improvement. Here's the agenda for tonight's meeting, changed only in the dates of this meeting, of the previous meeting minutes (which are still not available to the public), and of the financial statements.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street

General Business

• Call to Order
• Invocation
• Welcome Guests

Minutes

• Regular Meeting, December 18, 2012

Financial

• Review Compiled Balance Sheet and Income Statements for December 2012

Public Relations & Marketing Update-Meghan Duke

Existing Industry/Project Report-Allan Ricketts

Business/Industrial Park Update- Allan Ricketts

Executive Director's Report- Andrea Schruijer

Attorney Report

Citizens to Be Heard

Adjourn General Meeting

• Mission of the Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority is to

lead economic development in our community by supporting existing industries

• recruiting industries through capitalizing on opportunities for collaboration.

-jsq