Thursday, April 24, 2003

WILMINGTON – Southeastern North Carolina consists of eight counties with a population of 621,138 people. Much talk focuses on preserving the "quality of life" that brings people here or keeps them here, but what is actually meant by the words "quality of life." How do we know if "quality of life" is improving, going down, or staying the same?

For the second year, community leaders, policy makers, media, and other regional organizations will meet to define and benchmark "quality of life" indicators. They will also discuss the feasibility of setting up a Regional Progress Board to monitor the progress of this region in improving the quality of life.

The event is organized under the leadership of the Political Science/Public Administration Department at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington

The conference will be held from 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., Friday, May 9, in the ballroom of Warwick Center on the campus of UNCW. Luncheon at noon is available at no cost but reservations are required by calling Ruth Lawrence, 910/962-3220. The public is invited to the conference and lunch.

This conference will be aimed at accomplishing two broad purposes, noted Dr. Milan Dluhy, chair of the Political Science Department and organizer of the event. First, UNCW in conjunction with other local governments and non-profit agencies will assemble for the second year a wide range of data describing and detailing the region and its people. This information will be organized and presented at the conference but will also be available online.

This data will be updated annually at subsequent conferences.

" Eventually, UNCW and others will develop Quality of Life Indicators that will be published annually to measure the progress of the region modeled after the very successful Oregon Benchmarking Project developed over 20 years ago," Dr. Dluhy said.

Second, the conference will use the data to help identify additional regional problems for agenda setting purposes as well as to pick the most critical indicators for tracking progress. In the afternoon, community leaders will discuss how to set up a Progress Board.

Conference organizers expect to accomplish three objectives:

• Report on the quality of life for the eight-county region and consult with key stakeholders in the community about the validity and reliability of these indicators. These counties are Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, and Sampson.

• Develop agenda items for further action based on the discussion and prioritization of quality of life indicators for the region

• Discuss the feasibility of setting up a Regional Progress Board modeled after Vision Asheville-Buncombe

Dr. Dluhy expressed appreciation to the Wilmington Star-News and WHQR for their co-sponsorship of the conference as well as financially supporting the regional telephone survey. Corporate Sponsors include Alltel, Bell South, Cavanaugh and Associates, and Progress Energy.

For background on the conference including selected social and economic indicators and benchmarks, go to www.uncw.edu/pls/conference. To reach Dr. Dluhy, call 910/962-7686. The conference agenda is below.