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 “The secret of making progress is to get started. The secret to
starting is to divide your complex, overwhelming task into small,
manageable tasks, and then start the first.” said Mark Twain. That
is exactly what the new members of the Board of Directors for the
Logan County Alliance have done. They began meeting right away after
the election in late October to layout direction for the new
organization, and to give staff guidance on work that was currently
underway with the Tourism Bureau, Main Street Lincoln and the
Chamber. The newly-elected board was officially inducted on January
31st at the Chamber’s Annual Dinner. Until the end of December all
three boards for each organization continued to meet to finish out
the calendar year and assist with the transition process. Chairman
Tom O’Donohue and the other members of the new board attended
multiple meetings of the other boards to further help with the
transition process.
 The new board members attended several trainings in November
conducted by professionals in the non-profit governance sector. Also
in November the group met to discuss the paid leadership position of
the now named Logan County Alliance. After long discussion and
careful consideration the group decided to retain Andi Hake then the
executive director of the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce
for over six years. The group collectively felt that Hake had
demonstrated the desire to serve the community and strong leadership
skills that would be needed to guide the organization through its
first year of transition. It was an important point for the members
of the board that Hake was the only consistent staff that had the
knowledge of what the UOC desired the new organization to become,
and how all three existing organizations functioned and served the
community. The group felt this knowledge would be integral in the
merger process happening seamlessly.
The next big decision was naming the organization. Again, another
long deliberation happened before the group officially landed with
the Logan County Alliance. Through the process of naming and
choosing an appropriate logo for the newly merged organization, the
board sought feedback from the community. The first round of logo
submissions was, in the community’s opinion, not good enough, so
they literally went back to the drawing board, this time with a
professional graphic designer. The final logo “….is clean and
professional and represents Logan County well” said one survey
respondent.
Recently the Alliance board successfully secured a funding agreement
with the City of Lincoln to provide economic development services
for Lincoln, IL, and is actively working on several projects
including new webpages that target people wanting to do and bring
business to Lincoln, working with Retail Strategies the consultant
company hired by the City to recruit retail to Lincoln, kicking off
a business retention and expansion program, among other initiatives
that will be revealed as more logistics are solidified.
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Top on the to-do list for the Alliance is to fill the newly
vacated seat of the tourism director. The goal is to have a
highly qualified, self-motivated, and energetic individual in
that seat by the end of March. Other positions created and
filled this year is a part-time office assistant filled by
Jonathan Butcher, and a full-time office manager filled by
Sandra Wagy. Cara Barr was hired in early February to fill the
newly formed full-time events coordinator position. Her duties
include planning two of the special events that spun off from
the popular Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival (Arts in the Park and
Lincoln Balloon Festival); Barr is also coordinating meetings
and helping with logistics for the Lincoln’s Pigs & Swigs
weekend in June. “I’m very excited about our new staff structure
and even more excited about the individuals that have filled the
positions. We have a great team dynamic in the office—full of
energy and excitement for the direction we are moving.” said
Andi Hake.
Other projects that the Alliance is working on for the near
future is to continue to make new additions and upgrades to the
Lincolnillinois.com site to ensure that it will be more
representative of the Alliance and all the services the
organization now provides. A new temporary banner sign has been
ordered and will soon be installed to replace the iconic, but
deteriorating retro “Information Station” marquee that sits
outside the Alliance office until a more permanent solution can
be attained.
“It is easy to see there is much going on in the Logan County
Alliance. All of it exciting and all of it is great for Logan
County. We want to invite community members to get involved and
have their voices heard in the organization. There are ample
opportunities to get engaged from a council, committee to
volunteering for one of the many events taking place in 2015.”
says Hake.
To find out more information about the Logan County Alliance,
Chamber membership, special events or Tourism initiatives,
contact the Logan County Alliance at 217-735-2385 or
andi.hake@lincolnillinois.com.
[Andi Hake, Logan County Alliance]
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