Thursday July 26th, 2007 - 3:16PM

Thanks for joining with your Friends for this week's news. Here's the latest . . ..

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!

Questions? Ed Spears has the answers!

Ed Spears, the acting executive director of the non-profit CMPA will be a guest on Thursday, July 26, from 5 - 6 PM on WEBY AM-1330's "Your Turn" program. Call in your questions to him at 623.1330!

If you can't tune in, here is his contact information:

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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*You're connected to more than 5,500 Friends of the Pensacola Bay Area's Vince J. Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park!

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This week's Big News: Don't miss this meeting!

On August 8, the Board of Trustees' ExDi search subcommittee will begin culling applicants for the non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates' (non-profit CMPA) Executive Director's position - it's open to the public, and it's vitally important - so make plans to be there! (Details below)

Special Note: Friends has created a single Adobe Acrobat Reader file (PDF file) which you can download for yourself if you want to review all twenty applications. The hyperlink for this will appear in next week's issue of Friends.

In other news: "Standing Room Only!" as public and Friends turn out to pack the July 13 presentations of Master Developer candidates. (Details below)

Other important non-profit CMPA public meetings: Contractor's Academy Subcommittee meeting - July 31, 2 p.m. - Whibbs Conference Room on the First Floor of City Hall. Call Ed Spears at 436-5655 for more information...

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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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Our top story:

The Executive Director Application Review Sub-Committee of the non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates, Inc. (non-profit CMPA) Board of Trustees begins the work of paring the present 20 applicants for the permanent Executive Director's (ExDi) position down to 4 or 5 when it meets on August 8, at 2 p.m. in the Whibbs Conference Room located on the first floor of Pensacola's City Hall.

Here are the details:

Last week we reported about the 20 powerful resumes submitted for the executive director's (ExDi) position with the non-profit Community Maritime Park Associates' (nonprofit CMPA). Board members Juanita Scott (Chair), Dr. Jimmy Jones , Rodney Jackson and Kathlyn White were appointed by the Board to begin the process of coming up with a short list of four or five candidates for personal interviews with the Board.

They begin that task in a "Public Strongly Urged to Attend" meeting at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, August 8. Everyone will gather in the first floor Whibbs Conference Room at Pensacola's City Hall. If the crowd turns out to be as large as attended the Master Developer presentations, "We have contingency plans to move the meeting to a larger area," according to Ed Spears, acting executive director for the non-profit CMPA.

According to the job description posted on the website of Slavin Management Consultants based in Norcross, GA, a suburb of Atlanta, "The Executive Director will serve as the focal point for the community and provide overall leadership and day-to-day management to the organization in the form of budget management, grant writing, program planning, relations development, community engagement, Board facilitation, contract development, and manage government and public relations. The Director will also be responsible for overseeing the development, supervision, and completion of major projects for the Board."

According to Robert Slavin, president of Slavin Management Consultants, the firm hired to process applications, "Slavin Management Consultants received approximately 60 resumes for the position of Executive Director. We have narrowed that group to about 20 who most closely meet the qualifications identified by the Board. The candidates come from a variety of backgrounds and we feel the Selection Committee will have considerable options in choosing a short-list based on the diverse skills and qualifications each candidate would bring to the position."

In a more detailed description of the job, posted in another location on the search firm's website , "The position requires a Bachelors degree in Public Administration, Business or similar field including five years of responsible professional experience in the area of planning, property development, or economic development."

Friends are urged to attend this meeting because it is the first one to begin paring down the list of 20 original applicants. Your participation means your vision of Pensacola is becoming a reality!

In other news:

It's "Standing Room Only!" as Friends and public swamp July 13 Master Developer presentations at Pensacola's City Hall

Here are the details:

A record-setting crowd packed the Pensacola City Hall's second-floor Conference Room as candidates vying to become the Community Maritime Park's (CMP) master developer put on their very best to convince members of the non-profit CMPA's Board of Trustees they can deliver on the park's promise to become an economic engine for prosperity in northwest Florida.

Regulars that attend the board's meetings say they have never seen such a crowd of new faces. These were everyday citizens and Friends who are serious about participating in building the most important economic change in the city's history.

The best indicator of the park's future is the quality of candidates hoping to lead the project. They include firms with projects that dwarf this one - but the Pensacola Bay Area's Vince J. Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park is on their radar screen because they know this project is going to become a highpoint in their portfolio.

The next step's timetable hasn't been set in stone yet, so keep reading your Friends news report so you don't miss out on anything! You'll want to be able to tell your grandchildren and great grandchildren, "I helped the park become the success that it is . . . your grandparents made a difference so you can have a better life."
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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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