Community Leadership Awards

Community Leaders: The ACE Awards

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I always like to see the different awards that are handed out each year by different organizations locally. Rotary International has theirs as does Leadership Southern Indiana. I'm sure there are countless other groups that name leaders as well from their point of view.

I find it interesting to see who they are and how they are contributing to make our community a better place. I will say though, the ACE Awards from One Southern Indiana are always my favorite. This is because One Southern Indiana, being the chamber and economic development group, has the widest reach and broadest base of people within Southern Indiana of all the local organizations. 

As I understand it, there are open nominations that are then narrowed down to three in each award group. A small part of judging is then done based on an online voting system while most of the scores are based on the merit of the applicant's application. 

Here is an explanation of the Ace Awards from One Southern Indiana's Facebook page:

"The ACE Awards celebrates remarkable individuals who exemplify the character and acumen of exceptional leadership, making them outstanding citizens in the business and regional community. This signature event aims to celebrate the accomplishments of individual business leaders who are members of One Southern Indiana.

The categories for the awards are:

Axiom Financial Strategies Group of Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC James W. Robinson Young Professional of the Year ACE Award

Duke Energy Kevin Hammersmith Community Leader ACE Award

Kightlinger & Gray, LLP Sam Day Professional of the Year ACE Award."

So many times we hear about awards named after people. I thought it was important to give a snapshot of who these awards are named after and why they are named after them.

• James W. Robinson: Jim was firm believer of the free enterprise system and a strong advocate for young people in the community, and his words of wisdom over the years will be remembered by many. A dedicated family man, Jim leaves a legacy of faith, integrity, hard work, generosity, and loyalty. He was co-founder of Robinson-Nugent, Inc., and past chairman of the board of Caldwell Tanks, Inc., Stemwood, Inc., and Niemco, Inc. Jim was inducted into the Junior Achievement of Kentuckiana Hall of Fame in 1998, earning the distinction of being the first father-son duo of inductees (his late father having been inducted in 1984). Jim was a S.C.O.R.E. Counselor, an investor in Rocket Man, Inc. and a past board member of Your Community Bank. He also served on the board of Kentuckiana Junior Achievement, Cedar Lake Foundation, and New Albany/Floyd County School Board. Jim was a Kentucky Colonel, an Indiana University Southeast Medallion recipient, a member of the Windsor Society, a Rotarian Paul Harris Fellow, and was toasted at the 15th annual benefit of the Rotary Club of New Albany.

• Kevin Hammersmith: Killed by a drunk driver in 2011, Kevin was the director of government and community relations for Duke Energy in Southern Indiana. Kevin was instrumental in shaping the Southern Indiana community through his involvement and contributions to many local organizations. He was a member of the New Albany-Floyd County Parks Board, former president of Harvest Homecoming, a Past Chairman of One Southern Indiana, and a board member of the IUS Board of Advisors and the Carnegie Center for Art and History.

• Samuel Day: Sam was treasurer and chairman-elect for the Southern Indiana Chamber of Commerce, on the advisory board of Indiana University Southeast, past president of the Floyd County Bar Association, a member of the Board of Governors and past secretary for the Indiana State Bar Association. He was a member of Leadership Southern Indiana, past president of the Kiwanis Club of Historic New Albany and he was the Southern Indiana Chamber of Commerce Professional of the Year in 2002. He devoted over 500 hours per year to volunteer work with many organizations, including the New Albany Floyd County School Corp., Project Peace, Highlander Youth Recreation and the Ogle Center.

For a list of this year's ACE Award Finalists, click the link below. There are videos for each person and you can vote for your favorite.

1si 2017 ACE Award Finalists

What are your thoughts?

Do you have the scoop?

Let us all know in the comments below.

Republican Showdown for District 71?

Councilman Owen Vs. Councilman Hawkins?

       

Councilman Matt Owen MAY (and I emphasize MAY in this sentence) have a Republican primary challenger in fellow Councilman of the Jeffersonville's 6th District; Scott Hawkins. This race would decide who would be the Republican on the November ballot for Indiana District 71 formally held by Rep. Steve Stemler.

The Democrats have yet to have anyone announce to try and fill Representative Stemler's fiscally conservative well respected democrat shoes. *INSERT CRICKET NOISES HERE*

Apparently Councilman Hawkins is currently doing some diligence in weighing his options and him running is one the table. However with the Republican 9th District and County Chairman Jamey Noel endorsing Matt Owen for this seat, it's already clear that Scott would have an up-hill battle within the local and potentially the state party.

But I have to be honest,  I take Hawkins as a "I don't care what you think" and "I'll do this with or without you" kind of guy. I don't mean that in a negative way by any means, only that he is not afraid to use the head on top of his shoulders for original thoughts. That very well may be the case here. 

Should Councilman Hawkins announce, it would put the May primaries on the list of races to watch. Both are strong within their bases but with Owen being an At-Large Councilman, part of his base is also within Hawkins' base. Although, on the other hand, the rest of the City is Owen's base.

IF Hawkins announces, don't count either candidate out too early. They are both strong and my prediction is that it would come down to a hand full of votes. 

IF Owen remains the only Republican candidate I'd still like to see the Democrats at least put up a fight to retain the seat. 

BUT the only way they are going to be able to do that is with some new additions to the party.

UNLESS another At-Large Councilman takes his hat and wholeheartedly throws it in the ring. 

What are your thoughts? Do you have the scoop?

Share in the comments below.

Another group with Best Intentions

Align Southern Indiana: ANOTHER Group

BEST OF LUCK!

Another community group. Working to pull leaders together. Interesting indeed. Maybe a little redundant but interesting nonetheless. 

Good Luck. I honestly hope it works. I really do. There is a major breakdown in a large vision for the benefit of all the communities for the items Align SI is working towards. And working to bring together all the community organizations with a common goal. Interesting. It could work, but baby steps is the way to go. 

LINK: Align SI working to unify organizations

But here is the problem. Without local elected leaders buying into this thing, it's success will be extremely limited.

Most of our city councilmen never leave their city nor care about what happens outside of it. County Council are too worried about money to have a vision. County Commissioners are either too beat down to continue or too busy trying to fix their county to pay attention. The Mayors are either too consumed with personal achievement trying to realize their vision or too proud (some would say stubborn) to work with neighbors.

The first time local community/organization leaders who are involved with this get threatened by those who are elected that don't like a plan, the organization/community leaders will back away. This is because they are scared of what might happen if they have a different opinion than their elected counterparts. They don't want to be on anyone's sh*tlist, so to speak. 

"What?!?" You say... "This really happens?"

Yes, this happens everyday. There is no healthy debate when it comes to local issues. If I'm wrong, please site an example...              Go ahead...               I'll wait...

There is no "I understand where you are coming from but... so let's move on and still be partners." Instead we have "I don't agree with you so I'm going to talk bad about you behind your back and never work with you again!  Until I need you."

A majority, not all, but a majority of our elected officials fit the description of what I stated above.

We are a small town area. Not as rural as we used to be but small town USA none the less. We are a people who are ruled by personal feelings that get them hurt when people don't agree with us. We inherently get our feelings hurt and struggle to separate personal feelings from non-personal decisions. We are afraid to say "Yes" in a tough situation or "No" in an even tougher one. But that's one of the reasons why "they" got elected from "we", to make the hard choices for us.

Disclaimer: ALL OF THE ABOVE STATEMENTS ARE SUBJECTIVE AND DO NOT APPLY TO EVERY ELECTED OFFICIAL

Here's where I hope I'm wrong. If Align can pull this off, it will be a huge benefit to the community as a whole as long as they are inclusive to all and not exclusive to a few (which seems to be how they are starting out). Sincerely, congratulations on getting this off the ground and good luck!

To the elected officials in Southern Indiana:

Thank you putting for yourself out there to serve us. I challenge you to engage with Align Southern Indiana. I challenge you to have a positive impact on areas outside your district, town, city, or county. I challenge you openly debate and not get your feelings hurt when you are not agreed with. I challenge you to be humble when you are. I challenge you to be a team player. I challenge you to be OPEN MINDED.

To the local community/organization leaders in Southern Indiana:

Thank you for all you do for your cause. I challenge you to engage with Align Southern Indiana. I challenge you to have a positive impact on areas outside your scope of work. I challenge you openly debate and not get your feelings hurt when you are not agreed with. I challenge you to be humble when you are. I challenge you to be a team player. I challenge you to be OPEN MINDED. 

Reflections

What IS and what COULD be...

This past weekend was beautiful! So we spent a good part of Saturday at the Greenway. Great views. Flowers along the path. Wildlife could be heard in the breeze. Just an overall good day.  Nothing exciting happened but after, I reflected on all I had seen... What a nice addition to the community. While we rode our bikes, EVERY SIGNLE PERSON that passed us at least said "Hello". 

There were men. There were women. There were children. There were white people. There were black people. There were people from of every color in-between. There were young people. There were old people. There were single people. There were married people. There were walkers holding hands. There were runners keeping pace. There were hardcore bikers clicking away the miles. There were dads teaching their kids how to ride on the path. 

My point is this...

Nowhere else in our community is there such a diverse mix of people who can come together and take advantage of an asset while being so friendly. 

Now, what's next?

Who is going to lead the way to take the next big step? Jeffersonville stepped up with the Walking Bridge and Big 4 Station. Nobody believed it was worth the investment, but look at how it has transformed Jeffersonville. The Ogle Foundation has dedicated untold amounts of money to projects that have helped transform our community as has the Horseshoe Foundation and Community Foundation. Thank you! 

With so much on the horizon for our area, now is not the time to say "That will never work." Now is the time to believe in our future and figure out a way to make it work. Our local cities, towns, and counties have a vision of how they want their community to grow. But they cannot and should not do it alone. 

Partnerships between government and investors can (and maybe should) be the way forward. While investors in a project to have the freedom to do as they want with their project, fitting the vision of a community should be part of the consideration. And while local government should be welcomed to the table, they have to be realistic in their expectations by not holding investors to such high demands that it kills projects. But killing a project that is allowed legally is not the role of government. 

A great example of a recent partnership can be seen in this news piece from July 26th: Click here 

While this developer could have went on to build this neighborhood without input, they recognized the city would like to have a park there, took initiative to approach the city (not the city to the developer) and come up with a mutual beneficial plan. 

Hats off to Mayor Moore and Premier Homes for coming together. This is a great example of what can happen when government and private investor both know their place, don't over step, and let investment happen.

But I digress

Let's be real here. Government does not know how to run a business. Government does not know how to spend your money better than you.

Government's job is to         (....wait for it......say it with me......)          GOVERN.

However, working together with someone who does know how to spend money and run a business to be sure the interests of the community are met is their place. Demanding frivolous investment and spending for pipedreams that prevents a return on investment by private business is NOT where Government should operate. Unfortunately, that's were they operate most of the time without realizing it.

Local government is the worst of all because they truly don't know what they don't know and (at least some of them) let ego's get in the way of understanding that. At least at the state and federal level they have resources available to them to be educated on a topic. Locally, they just go on their merry little way because "I was elected as (insert any random governing office)!" 

Time for some of our local elected officials to wake up understand they cannot govern on principle (some would say PRIDE) alone. Wisdom has to have a place in the equation. Asking someone who is smarter than you about something you know little about is a good trait in a leader.