It is a competitive, community world

Several of the recent posts have focused on the sense of urgency that I believe needs to be developed around the selling Hartsville initiative. By nearly any metric, the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area is thought of as one of the top places to live in the country. That part of North Carolina, called Orange County, is not just sitting around enjoying their position at the pinnacle of communities. In fact, at the end of this week that community has a trip planned to Ann Arbor, Michigan to see how another successful community sustains their growth and life style. In the corporate world this would be called benchmarking. In the academic world, this would be called research. In the Chapel Hill/Carrboro community is is a sold-out trip that is costing participants or their organizations significant dollars to participate. But, the trip is sold out, as was the last one to Madison, WI. These communities understand the sense of urgency and they understand that when you stop getting better, you stop being good.