Monday, January 18

Message From the Chair Emeritus—Richard Johanson
Welcome to the first issue of our Weekly Bulletin in this new decade. As a background note, the gap in distribution of the bulletin was due to an extended leave of our CEO—a trip to Machu Picchu in Peru. I also greet you with a thankful heart for the major accomplishments of our community during the past decade. We have traveled a transformational journey in creating the awareness that by coming together as an extended collaborative community we can attain our mutually defined goals. May those of you who carry the torch through this decade see the fulfillment of this Council’s Vision Statement adopted almost seventeen years ago.

A New Location for the Fresno Business Council—February 1
As of February 1, 2010, the CEO’s office of Fresno Business Council will be inside the Fresno Regional Foundation. The new address is 5250 North Palm, Suite 424, Fresno, CA 93704. (The same building). The new phone number will be 559.226.5600 extension 106 and the fax is 559.230.2078. It is impossible to measure the value of Deloitte’s 16 year hosting of our CEO. Productivity and job satisfaction have much to do with the people around you and the space you fill. On behalf of the Fresno Business Council and the community it serves, thank you to our long standing partner in transformational change—Deloitte!

Meeting of the California Stewardship Project at Stanford University
For over a decade, regional leaders in California have been working together to find effective ways to address complex issues and lead communities in this time of global and rapid change. “Developing innovative regional solutions for California’s most pressing economic, environmental and community challenges” has been the driving thought. In Fresno, the model we developed is a Four Sphere approach based upon a ten value operating system. At the Stanford meeting, Dr. John Welty, Dr. Alan Pierrot, Pete Weber, Ken Newby and Deborah Nankivell shared their perspectives on both the process and the yield from their long term engagement. If you are interested in the PowerPoint with narrative that tells the story or the background document focused on outcomes, simply make the request via email. As a leader from one of the newer regions noted, “your work has saved our community five years.”

“The Biggest Threat to California is State Government”
While every state and community is struggling to find a path out of the fiscal crisis and discover models for governance that match the realities of the 21st century, California’s size and complexity has made the challenge greater. We are a state of regional economies with dissimilar assets and problems with a one size fits all government disconnected from the realities of communities. What emerged from the meeting at Stanford is a willingness to work together as united regions to support transformational change recognizing that we are all Californians. We will keep you updated via the bulletin on current developments. Thank you to the Morgan Family Foundation for sustaining the network through the California Stewardship Project.