Welcome – Terence Roberts, TATT Chairman
Sara Hazzard, President and CEO of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance
Guest Presentation – Status of Manufacturing in South Carolina
Sara Hazzard, CEO of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance: Click here for her presentation
Sara wrote a guest post on the Staying on Top blog in early June. You can read it here.
In response to a question about exports, Sara referred us to this document.
TATT Updates
Dean Hybl, TATT Executive Director: Update on Pique—postponed until 2021, introduction of Sneak Pique
Michael Hildebrand, Upstate Mobility Alliance:
- Resulting from the Ten at the Top Listening Tours, the need to develop solutions for our rural communities was identified. The Upstate Mobility Alliance has convened a group of business, community, and elected officials to identify potential opportunities and will begin developing a plan of action soon.
- The Upstate Mobility Alliance is in the final stages of creating our strategic plan. This plan will outline key initiatives for the alliance to focus on. Part of the process will be a public rollout where we receive input from the community.
- The Upstate Mobility Alliance has begun a series of podcast interviews with leaders throughout the Upstate to engage and inform the community. If you are interested in being interviewed, please contact Michael Hildebrand at mhildebrand@upstatemobilityalliance.org
County Updates
Anderson (Faith Line, Director, Anderson County Libraries):
- Libraries are open! We have online resources: ebooks, e-audio books, databases, resources for school
- We provide computers for job seekers, people needing to communicate with family
- You can check out more than just books! Fishing poles, seed library and park passes
Oconee (JoAnn Johnson, Executive Director, Oconee County Chamber of Commerce):
- We are doing the best we can; facing challenges and acknowledging the positives. It’s challenging having no events, no after hours/outside of work events, and restaurants at 50% capacity. But the good attitudes, creativity, thinking outside the box and rising to the challenge has been amazing.
- Chamber has created a news channel and we interview politicians, heads of govt agencies. We do this to keep people informed and aware of PPP information, etc. Podcasts have been great. You can here them all here.
Greenville (Whitney Hanna, Coordinator of Community Collaboration, Greenville County Schools):
- Virtual offering for K-12; 23K have signed up which is 30% and more than expected.
- Offering a flex schedule plan which is scalable from 100% elearning to 1,25 day in class. There is a parent resource guide. GVL county has been hosting Facebook Live events to answer questions. All information is also in Spanish. The call center has had staff added and is answering questions by email and phone.
- Online resources: Parent Resource Page and Fall 2020 Return to School Resource Guide
- Check county tabs on Ten at the Top’s COVID-19 Repository for other school districts across the upstate, and also check out our schools and colleges/universities resource map.
Pickens County (Susan Cohen, President, Clemson Area Chamber of Commerce):
- Collaboration worked—we have heard from Enterprise about “Commute with Enterprise” and are looking into that
- Anderson, Pickens, Oconee Chambers cooperating.
- Focusing on Broadband
- Have come to realize how reliant we are on Clemson. There has been less recovery here so we are trying to provide resources to businesses.
- So many events were lost: graduation, visits, summer school, orientation, and now school is pushed back. Clemson provides 2x the amount of people than local population.
- The restrictions businesses have to work within are very hard, we are working to get more outdoor seating for restaurants, for example.
- Businesses are being VERY safe, these are family-run businesses, they want to stay safe too.
Adjourn – Terence Roberts