Leadership Triangle Presents First-Ever Goodmon Awards at Conference

Capitol Broadcasting Company and the A.J. Fletcher Foundation both sponsored the "Will You Lead?" tenth anniversary conference for Leadership Triangle on Thursday, October 18, 2002. The event culminated with the first-ever presentation of the Goodmon awards, named for CBC President & CEO Jim Goodmon.

"Will You Lead?" participants took a bus tour of the Triangle area to begin the day.

The group gathered at the Durham Bulls for lunch.

Former CBC employee, once Vice President of CBC's Capitol Sports Management, Winkie LaForce coordinated the day in her new capacity as Executive Director of Leadership Triangle. "Will You Lead?" included a bus tour of the Triangle, with individual tours of Cary, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Raleigh & Durham. The Durham Bulls catered lunch at the ballpark for the group, and CBC's Peter Anlyan made a presentation about CBC's renovation of the American Tobacco Complex.

CBC's Jim Goodmon led a round table discussion about the importance of Human Services,

Goodmon, Winkie LaForce (center) & Mary Braxton Joseph (wife of keynote speaker James Joseph) work together on a project.

CBC's Paul Pope participated in the day-long event.

During the afternoon, Goodmon, along with eleven other area leaders, led roundtable discussions in the Ironside Forum. Goodmon's table debated about the need for the state legislature to put Human Services first on its agenda and came up with ideas to convince legislators to make it a higher priority.

The day ended with a banquet at the Sheraton Imperial in RTP, the headquarters for the day's events, at 6:30pm. Keynote speaker James Joseph, former Ambassador to South Africa, challenged the audience of leaders from all segments of the Triangle to empower people by teaching them to help themselves. "People with no bootstraps cannot pull themselves up by their bootstraps," he said.

Goodmon told the group, "For our democracy to work, our citizens need a diversity of information."

Goodmon, along with Leadership Triangle Board Chairman Pamela Davison concluded the banquet with the presentation of the Goodmon awards. The awards were created to recognize individuals and organizations that have helped the Triangle flourish as a region.

Goodmon spoke first saying, "The concept of regionalism is not a threat, it's an opportunity."

Former Raleigh mayor Smedes York received the Exemplary Regional Leadership By An Individual award. Durham Mayor Bill Bell and Cary Mayor Glen Lang were co-winners of the Exemplary Regional Leadership By An Elected Official. Kate Dixon, Executive Director of the Triangle Land Conservancy, accepted the award for Exemplary Regional Leadership By An Organization on behalf of TLC. Finally, Smedes York and Bill Shore, co-chairs of the Board of Directors for the Regional Transportation Alliance received the Exemplary Regional Partnership award.