Non-profit conducting membership drive through April 15
March 21, 2009
David Anderson
Staff Writer
Paul Chused, right membership chairman for the Lenoir Committee of 100, accepts a membership check from Best Diamond Packaging President Kevin Thorne .
Photo submitted by C-100
The Lenoir Committee of 100 is conducting its first comprehensive membership drive in several years as it seeks to continue assisting Kinston and Lenoir County's anticipated economic revival.
Even though the national economy has fallen on hard times and local employers have cut jobs, the promise of Spirit AeroSystems and Sanderson Farms, both of which committed to Lenoir County last year, offers hope for improvement.
"Now is our opportunity to move to the forefront of economic growth, because in my lifetime the only similar situation was when DuPont came and virtually doubled our population," Paul Chused, the C-100's membership chairman, said.
"We've picked up members each year, but this is the first broad-based (drive) in several years," he added.
The Committee of 100 is a non-profit group made up of a cross-section of the community. Its members cooperate with state and local officials in convincing companies to relocate to Lenoir County or expand existing local operations.
"The Lenoir Committee of 100 has been proactive to address the needs of the community and is very important to our overall team," Mark Pope, the county's economic development director, said.
Membership dues help fund C-100 projects, Chused explained. He has been traveling around the community since Tuesday promoting the membership drive.
Chused said Committee leaders hope to recruit 50 new members for 2009 by April 15; at least 12 people had signed on as of Friday. The group already has about 200 members.
He estimated the C-100 pulled in about $90,000 in membership dues last year; the group hopes to earn more than $100,000 in dues this year.
David Anderson can be reached at (252) 559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.
For more information on the Lenoir Committee of 100, visit www.lenoiredc.com and click the link for Committee of 100, call Anne Lindley at (252) 527-1963 or e-mail c-100@myway.com. |
