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ON
SETTING A CLEAR AGENDA FOR SOUTHERN LEADERS
WHAT
Setting an Agenda for a Better South is a major regional
conference of state and local thinkers who will develop a Southern
agenda to inspire leadership for states to move forward. Among participants
at the invitation-only conference are political leaders, policy
experts, private-sector decision makers, journalists and academics.
WHEN/WHERE
The conference will be held Nov. 6-8, 2009, on the campus of Davidson
College in Davidson, N.C. Map
and directions.
WHO
Among the panelists at the conference are:
- H.
Brandt Ayers, Anniston Star
- Jay
Barth, Hendrix College
- Adolphus
Belk, Winthrop University
- Glen
Browder, Jacksonville State University
- Richard
Greene, Governing magazine
- Ferrel
Guillory, SouthNow, University of North Carolina
- Mac
McCorkle, McCorkle Policy Consulting
- Warwick
Sabin, Oxford American magazine
WHY
Public policy matters. It drives how we educate our children, provide
health care, protect the environment and grow jobs for Americans.
But most people across the South don't think that much about public
policy and how it can make a difference. Somebody else, they think,
will deal with big problems.
In
our increasingly partisan and media-saturated world of small soundbites
for big problems, it's often hard for elected and appointed officials,
and other leaders to make serious inquiries and give thoughtful
consideration to big problems facing the South. Instead, they often
have to put out the fires of immediate problems rather than finding
solutions for decades-old problems.
What
state lawmakers, journalists, academics and leaders across the South
need now - more than ever before - is a clear and pragmatic policy
map that all of our leaders' horizons so they can reach decisions
that take long-term impacts into account. In other words, they need
an Agenda for a Better South.
SETTING
AN AGENDA
The conference, offered by the non-partisan Center
for a Better South, will bring together some of the best Southern
minds to explore and delineate pragmatic and progressive priorities
for the American South. In doing so, the Center is continuing its
mission to help leaders throughout the region better understand
how and why cohesive, structured public policy matters.
By
the end of the conference, the Center expects for participants to
have developed and approved an Agenda for a Better South- - a short
document that outlines major challenges on which Southern leaders
should focus. Each policy priority is to be accompanied by a measurable
indicator.
The
gathering also will allow participants to learn more about how the
influential L.Q.C. Lamar Society offered practical solutions to
Southern problems 40 years ago through its influential series of
essays captured in You Can't Eat Magnolias.
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
Each participant of the conference can download
a detailed briefing book filled with statistics and data about
the 11 Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Virginia).
If
there is information you want to provide us before the conference
to share with other participants, please
send it to us by email.
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