The College of Education
 

News

Join One Voice Task Force and apply for scholarship to D.C.

One Voice, under the leadership of the Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area (EDC), is a pro-community campaign that has brought together leaders from the City of Bloomington, the Town of Normal, McLean County, surrounding rural communities, labor, local educational institutions and local private businesses. These groups have formed the One Voice Task Force. The goal of the campaign is to make McLean County a stronger economic force and a better place to live.

Each year, the One Voice Task Force chooses local projects to support in their quests for federal funding. Each spring, the One Voice Task Force travels to Washington, D.C. to meet with our congressional delegation and show them our community stands united in support of the projects. Each project must meet three criteria:

  1. It must have an economic development impact in McLean County 
  2. It must improve the quality of life in McLean County 
  3. Federal funding must have already been formally requested for the project.

Projects to be included on the Priority Project List for 2010 will be approved by the EDC Board of Directors in December 2009.

In 2008, the EDC created the Richard Eikenberg One Voice Scholarship Award, in which we invite one student from an EDC-investor school (Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, Heartland Community College and Lincoln College-Normal) to participate in the Washington, D.C. trip. Download the scholarship guidelines and an application (pdf).

Washington, D.C. Trip Details:
The 2010 One Voice trip will take place March 9-11. The scholarship covers all expenses of the trip, from flight and hotel to all meals and events. Specific trip details will be presented at our pre-trip briefing luncheon for all participants – Thursday, March 4. The scholarship recipient MUST attend the pre-trip briefing – NO EXCEPTIONS.

Nearly 40 local community, business and labor leaders attend the trip. During the trip, we meet with our U.S. senators and representatives, along with leaders of other government agencies. This trip is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and network with local leaders and discuss current issues in federal government with the primary decision-makers. For example, our past meetings have included U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, as well as Neel Kashkari of the U.S. Treasury who later went on to lead the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Participants also attend receptions and meetings with speakers from various economic development-related institutions. There is also limited time for sight-seeing opportunities. Videos from past trips can be viewed at our website, www.bnbiz.org.

If you have any questions, please contact Brooke Weishaupt (brooke@bnbiz.org) or Cathy Milligan (cathy@bnbiz.org) at (309) 452-8437.