Thursday October 25th, 2007 - 3:34PM

* Meet New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Nov. 9th at New World Landing!

* Glenn's Corner: "According to Google Analytics, the Friends site is setting new records!"

* Take a look for yourself: Latest graphics for Design Criteria posted

* Link up to the Maritime Museum

* Email addresses for all members of the non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates Board of Trustees

* Contact information for Ed Spears, acting Executive Director of the non-profit CMPA

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Here are the details:

The non-profit CMPA Covenant with the Community partner, The Gulf Coast African-American Chamber of Commerce, throws an open house for Pensacola to meet New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin!

The non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates (non-profit CMPA) partnered with The Gulf Coast African-American Chamber of Commerce (GCAACC) to supervise the Contractors' Academy training workshops to prepare Pensacola Bay Area businesses to compete equally with others for contracts being let as part of the park-building process.

We received this press release from the GCAACC announcing they are throwing an open invitation to all Pensacola Bay Area residents to meet New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin at a special appearance Nov. 9 at New World Landing.

The event is free!

Here is the press release on it:

Contact: Darnell Sims
850-433-9807
850-512-6252

Headline: Honorable Ray Nagin Jr. Mayor, of the City of New Orleans will be the keynote speaker at the City to City Economic Exchange Conference on November 9, 2007, at New World Landing.

Story: The GULF COAST AFRICAN AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE will host a city-to-city economic exchange conference on Friday, November 9th at New World Landing, 600 South Palafox, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m..

Keynote speaker will be the Honorable Ray Nagin Jr., Mayor of New Orleans.

"In order for the city to change and move forward, I think it needed someone like me to come in as an outsider with a different perspective, a different way of looking at things," Nagin said recently when he sat down for an interview.

"I surrounded myself with people who think outside the normal box of government, with a few governmental people sprinkled in to kind of make sure we have the experience levels we need. That's basically how we've approached it - as new thinkers, as change agents, as a group trying to make the city better."

"His leadership ability is what struck me," says David White, an executive and a co-owner with Nagin of the New Orleans Brass hockey team.

"He's very disarming when he meets new people. He's also very intelligent. He had to be very savvy to be where he was at Cox. He's a very effective businessperson. He's just a real people person."

"There is hope and opportunity on the horizon," says Van Mansker, Chairman of the Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce. "The future is bright for the cities along the Gulf Coast. We hope that Mayor Nagin can assist with the City of Pensacola's vision to develop a self-sustaining, successful business community for the many people looking to start or develop a small business."

This event will be FREE TO THE PUBLIC, BUT SEATING IS LIMITED! Get your ticket online at

http://www.africanamericancc.org

by call 850-433-9807, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Ticket deadline is October 31. 2007.

Thank you to our major corporate sponsors: Gulf Power Company, Cox, PNJ, Real Yellow Pages, Workforce EscaRosa

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* Glenn's Corner: "According to Google Analytics, the Friends site is setting new records!"

By Glenn C. Obert / Friends' web site creator and administrator

glenn@webfootenterprises.com

When Google Analytics wants to determine whether people are actually using your site, they use a technique called "The Bounce Rate."

The Bounce Rate is the percentage of site visitors who hit the first page of a site, then leave it - it is a way to get past the hype of some web sites that tell you all about the number of hits they get, but don't tell you if anyone is really interested in the site once they get to it.

According to Avinash Kaushik, Google's Analytics Evangelist, "it is really hard to get a bounce rate under 20%. Anything over 35% is cause for concern, and anything above 50% is worrying."

We had Google Analytics do a survey of the Friends site to find out how people are spending their visit.

The Friends' site has a Bounce Rate of only 8.33%.

That is less than half the Bounce Rate that Google considers "really had to get." It is a major endorsement of your use of the site - and a major compliment to you, the Friends of the Pensacola Bay Area's Vince J. Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park. We "Thank you!"

In terms of hits, we are setting new records each week. Our peak day this month was 29,186 hits on Oct. 15th.

When you think that in the entire month of September we did, 15,345 hits, you can see the surge for supporting the park is real - and growing!

As of today, we have 64,341 hits. That is 4 times the total for September - and there is still another week left in October!

And as the Google Analytics tells the world, when you come to see your Friends, you stay and spend time with your Friends!

Bookmark, or make it one of your web Favorites, then send this web address to everyone on your emailing lists for the best possible starting point for information about the park:

http://www.CommunityMaritimePark.com

As we progress, you'll see even more exciting, and timely, information about the most important economic initiative in the history of our area.

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* Take a look for yourself: Latest graphics for Design Criteria posted

Want to see for yourself all that the park is bringing to the Pensacola Bay Area? Then click on the link below, and check it out!

Pass the link around to your email lists, bulletin boards, email address list - everyone you know needs to know that the park is set on "Grow!"

http://www.CommunityMaritimePark.com

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The Multi-Use Facility - see it for yourself!

It's our understanding that the Pensacola News Journal will run a front-page story that includes full-color art of the Multi-Use Facility this Sunday, Oct. 14.

If you can't wait until then, you can go right now to

http://www.CommunityMaritimePark.com

or cut directly to the gallery at:

http://supporters.communitymaritimepark.com/page/gallery

and see them posted on the Friends' website.

Here is what you'll see:

The facility's graphics simulate four different uses for the multi-use facility: football, soccer, baseball, and concerts.

As you can see for yourself, the promise to provide a multi-use facility is being fulfilled.

Immediately below the graphics for the Multi-Use Facility, you'll find the graphics shown at the September Board of Trustees meeting regarding the Design Criteria.

The Design Criteria package was presented back to the Board at the Oct. 12 meeting. It is a public record, so if you want to see it for yourself immediately, call Ed Spears, acting executive director of the non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates (non-profit CMPA). His contact information is listed, along with the email addresses of all the members of the Board of Trustees, further down in this newsletter.

Your Friends web site will work to get the entire package posted by our next edition.

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* Link up to the Maritime Museum

A number of people asked us to include a link for those interested in learning more about the Adm. John H. Fetterman State of Florida Maritime Museum and Research Center at the University of West Florida Community Maritime Park Campus.

Give this link a try, and then bookmark it for future updates!

http://www.uwf.edu/maritime

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Email Board of Trustees members with your thoughts and ideas!

Here are the email addresses for the Board of Trustees members. Remember, the non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates, Inc. (non-profit CMPA) operates in full compliance with Florida's Government in the Sunshine Act. All email communications are open public records available to anyone who asks for them.

The syntax for the Board members is first name.last name@whibbspark.org

Collier Merrill: collier.merrill@whibbspark.org

Dick Baker: dick.baker@whibbspark.org

Dr. Jimmy Jones: jimmy.jones@whibbspark.org

Eddie Todd: eddie.todd@whibbspark.org

Rev. Hugh King: hugh.king@whibbspark.org

John Merting: john.merting@whibbspark.org

Juanita Scott: juanita.scott@whibbspark.org

Judge Lacey Collier: lacey.collier@whibbspark.org

Kathlyn White: kathlyn.white@whibbspark.org

Rodney Jackson: rodney.jackson@whibbspark.org

Susan Story: susan.story@whibbspark.org

Acting Executive Director on loan from the City of Pensacola

Ed Spears: espears@ci.pensacola.fl.us

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Email Relay Participants: Please forward this to your email lists, blogs, message boards, and other publications. Thanks to you, more than 500 people not on the regular Friends email list get the latest updates on the Community Maritime Park each week. You are making a difference!

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Questions? Ed Spears has the answers!

"When in doubt, call Ed to find out!"

Here is the contact information for Ed Spears, acting Executive Director of the non-profit CMPA:

Edward E. Spears, Neighborhood & Economic Development Administrator, City of Pensacola
180 Governmental Center, Pensacola, FL
P.O. Box 12910 / Pensacola, Florida 32521
(850) 436-5655 (office) / (850) 595-1143 (fax) / email: espears@ci.pensacola.fl.us

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Don't miss even one exciting second as the CMP goes from vision to reality!

Get your own FREE subscription to the Friends report: http://supporters.communitymaritimepark.com

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That's it for this week - until then, "Thanks!" from all your friends . . . who are Friends of the Pensacola Bay Area's Vince J. Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park!

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