Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting - Austinite of the Year

Today the Austin Chamber of Commerce honored AISD Superintendent Pat Forgione as the 2008 Austinite of the Year.

Dr. Forgione has done so many amazing things for our local schools. This honor is long overdue. He has helped the school district reach national recognition for excellence in urban city schools (Austin is the 14th largest city in the United States), and has made parents proud to be able to say "My kids go to and AISD school!" (my two kids are in the public schools, and we are very happy with their education).

Congratulations to Pat Forgione and his family.

Additionally there were honors for nine other community leaders as the 2008 Volunteers of the Year for their outstanding service to Austin and The Chamber:

Rick Whiteley - Oxford Commercial (Economic Development)

Barry Mayer - Tokyo Electron (Education & Talent Development)

Dave Claunch - Liaison Resources (Education & Talent Development)

Bobby Jenkins - ABC Services (Government Relations)

Rashed Islam - HDR/WHM (Inrastructure & Regional Development)

Ron Dusek - Hilton Austin (Communications)

Beverly Boyd - ScentAir (Membership)

Tim Gillespie - Green Bank (Small Business)

Jeff Browning - Austin Ventures (Technology)

Austin is fortunate to have so many who give so much to make our community spectacular.

Have A Great Day

thom

PS - On a side note, I learned today that one of the areas top business executives is exploring the options for a run for the U.S. Congress. This is great news. He is exactly the type of person that we Americans SHOULD be sending to Washington D.C. : Experienced in running a REAL business (AKA, most of our politicians have no clue what real business professionals face when it comes to the realities of profit/loss, payroll, benefits, sales projections, customer service, etc.... Instead they just go to Congress and pass laws that impact businesses and then they attend cocktail parties - yes, I am jaded with the actions of most of our elected officials in Washington!).

More on this later!!! We (Austinites and beyond) will be fortunate if he runs and wins.

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