On Friday, December 1, the LAI Atlanta Chapter welcomed the holiday season with a lovely annual lunch meeting at The Oceaniare Seafood Room. With ample time before and during the delicious lunch, existing members welcomed the new chapter members with cheerful conversation.

As part of “official” business, President Russ Posey led an informal survey of member preferences for the upcoming year. Here the results related to meetings:

  • Quarterly meetings are the timing of choice.
  • Lunch was the strong preference, with not one member voting for breakfast meetings!
  • One evening networking event per year is perfect.
  • Future meetings will feature one member with 5 – 7 minutes of podium time to share their professional endeavors.

In addition, the members were enthusiastic to host an educational event open to the community; a global LAI grant is feasible to fund the meeting. Augmenting the educational component, the event builds the LAI brand within the city as a valuable resource for land economics-related activities and projects. The event also serves as an excellent new member recruiting tool.

Another strong member choice is to develop a community project, possibly one that qualifies for a Land Economics Foundation grant.

Russ mentioned the important role Land Economics Weekends (LEW) play in membership value and encouraged attendance at the 2018 Spring LEW hosted by the Baltimore Chapter April 26 – 28. The October 17 -21, 2018 Fall LEW is hosted by the Orange County Chapter. A contingent of Atlanta members is building to attend the Baltimore LEW.

The meeting highlight was the new member initiations! Four new members were initiated: Tom Boland, Stephen Causby, Michael Halicki, and Tim Trefzer. Due to professional conflicts, Douglas Crawford and Doug Stoner could not attend the meeting; their formal initiation is slated for the February meeting. The LAI Atlanta Blog post, Welcome New Chapter Members | Officers, lists the new members along with headshots and short bios.

With six new members, the LAI Atlanta Chapter closes out an excellent year and prepares to build on the stellar momentum in 2018.

Photos from the luncheon are included the Ei FB album, Lambda Alpha International, within a new section.