Somerford is first Total Resource Campaign champion team captain

Pictured is Roby Somerford, Etech Inc., holding the Total Resource Campaign (TRC) Championship Trophy. Somerford is the champion Team Captain for the Chamber's first TRC held in fall 2010.

Somerford led his team "The Winners" to victory with a sales total of $37,375 of Chamber event sponsorships and memberships. The Winners team members are Somerford, Patrick Lanmon with Commercial Bank of Texas and Scott Waller with Xerographix East Texas, Inc.

Southern Power begins biomass plant hiring

from February 2011 NEDCO e-newsletter:

SOUTHERN POWER BEGINS BIOMASS PLANT HIRING
Southern Power is now in the recruitment and hiring process for the 35-40 full-time employees who will operate its biomass plant in Sacul once it becomes operational.

HR Representatives from Birmingham, Ala., along with local plant management, were in Nacogdoches this week to meet with individuals interested in working at the plant. In addition to an informal Q&A session at the County Annex on Tuesday, Feb 15, the group has also met with representatives from Angelina College and SFASU

The biomass plant is scheduled to begin providing power to its customer, the City of Austin, in mid-2012 and Southern Power intends to hire its employees this Spring so that they can begin the training process leading up to the eventual commissioning of the power plant next year.

A detailed listing of jobs currently available can be found on Southern Power’s “job postings” webpage at http://careers.southerncompany.com. Information on how to apply for the biomass openings, as well as other Southern Power openings throughout the Southeastern U.S., is available on their website - http://www.southerncompany.com/careerinfo/.

Nacogdoches to create high impact service plan

The City of Nacogdoches and Mayor Roger Van Horn are proud to announce an upcoming Non-Profit Summit scheduled for Monday, February 21st, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers located at 202 E. Pilar Street. The summit is the starting point to gather information so that the City of Nacogdoches can create a high impact service plan as part of its Cities of Service initiative.

About Cities of Service
American cities face serious challenges and many mayors want to take advantage of every resource available to them- including the time and energy of public-spirited residents- to address those challenges. But in cities across America today, citizen service is often an underutilized or inefficiently utilized strategy by municipal governments. Founded in September 2009, Cities of Service supports mayors to leverage citizen service strategies, addressing local needs and making government more effective.

All coalition members have signed a “Declaration of Service,” committing to lead a multi-year effort to expand community service and volunteerism by:
• Developing a comprehensive service plan and a coordinated strategy focused on matching volunteers and established community partners to the areas of greatest local need;
• Working with other mayors and elected officials to advance strategies and best practices that accelerate the service movement and produce measurable goals
• Encouraging other mayors to join this national effort to engage our citizens; and
• Ensuring that the voice of cities is heard in policy and program discussions related to service, which will help the country achieve the ambitious goals of the Serve America Act

For more details you can visit www.citiesofservice.org.

"We are excited to launch the Cities of Service program in Nacogdoches, we are only one of 110 communities in the nation to begin this process,” O’Brien said. “We will begin by assessing our agency’s needs at the Non-Profit Summit so we can establish a service plan that will accomplish our goals.” Nacogdoches Mayor Roger Van Horn signed the declaration of service during the fall of 2010. You can view the declaration at: http://www.citiesofservice.org/about/declaration-of-service/.

The Non-Profit Summit is open to all organizations, agencies and individuals who are interested in utilizing service to achieve their mission and goals. Information gathered at the summit through open discussions and surveys will be utilized to create Nacogdoches’ high impact service plan. The City of Nacogdoches has partnered with the One Star Foundation, SFASU, and the United Way to work together to create the plan.”The Summit is the starting point for our Cities of Service Initiative, we will gather much needed information from our local non-profits and agencies about what their needs are, whether it be financial, volunteers, time, etc. so that we can successfully address those needs in our service plan,” O’Brien said.

Interested citizens need not make reservations to attend the summit. For more information or questions about the upcoming Non Profit Summit or the Cities of Service initiative please contact the Nacogdoches Main Street Office at 936-559-2573 or via email at obriens@ci.nacogdoches.tx.us.