• Two Years and Growing! Resilient Virginia Celebrates Its Second Year Accomplishments
• Welcome New Board Members and Leadership!
• What’s New
• Membership

Two Years and Growing! Resilient Virginia Celebrates its Second Year Accomplishments

Resilient Virginia highlighted two years of accomplishments at the June 30 Annual Meeting in Charlottesville. These include:

• The 2016 Resilient Virginia Conference, hailed as “a brilliant first conference” and a great start to building ties with the Governor’s resiliency programs;
• An active website, recognized for its calendar of statewide resiliency events and growing number of resources;
• Resiliency checklist for Local Governments now complete (see article below); and
• PrepareAthon August 27, 2016, working with the Science Museum of Virginia (see article below).

We were also pleased to host three guest speakers: Angela Navarro, the Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources; Terence Hill, a Senior Policy Advisor at EMerge Alliance; and Adrianna Vargo, the Director of Grower Services at Local Food Hub. Each took time to present on resiliency progress in their areas of work. You can view their presentations at www.resilientvirginia.org.

Finally, we invited attendees to share their resiliency initiatives, which included:

• Travorise Marks, Resilience Program Manager, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, who spoke on emergency preparedness within the state;
• Joanie Freeman of Eco-Village Charlottesville, who spoke on the progress of that initiative; and
• Jim Pierobon with Southeast Energy News, who spoke about ongoing coverage of clean energy and conventional energy topics in the Southeastern United States.

Welcome New Board Members and Leadership

Nell Boyle, LEED AP, took over the leadership of Resilient Virginia as the 2016–17 Chair of the Board of Directors. Her work as Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Roanoke (which has won national recognition for its energy efficiency accomplishments) and involvement with the US Green Building Council in Virginia and nationally gives her excellent hands-on experience as well as a broader perspective on where Virginia needs to go regarding resiliency planning across the state.

We welcome our new Board of Directors and Officers, whose combined experience with sustainability, emergency preparedness, rural issues, business and higher education, development, and resiliency planning ensures the organization future success in implementing critical programs.

OFFICERS

Chair
Nell Boyle, LEED AP
Sustainability Coordinator
City of Roanoke

Vice Chair
Daniel Slone, Partner
McGuire Woods LLP

Secretary
Jane Frantz, AICP, PMP, CFM
Associate Vice President
Dewberry

Treasurer
Alex McLellan
Principal
Resilience Thinking Institute

MEMBERS

Andrew V. “Andy” Sorrell, AICP
Coordinator, Office of Farmland Preservation, VA Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Erin Stanforth
Director of Sustainability
Virginia Commonwealth University

James Redick
Director, Emergency Preparedness & Response
City of Norfolk

Thanks to Our 2016 Annual Sponsors

Platinum Sponsor

Lifeboat Sponsor

Villager Sponsor

WHAT’S NEW

Get Ready to Participate in the SMV PrepareAthon—A Free Event on August 27

Resilient Virginia is working with the Science Museum of Virginia on this year’s PrepareAthon event. Taking place on August 27 in Richmond, this free, family-oriented event will offer attendees resiliency-themed activities; provide a chance to meet disaster experts and emergency responders; and find out about energy-saving homes, local food options, healthy lifestyles, and dealing with stormwater. There will be hands-on workshops — for example, you can build your own emergency preparedness kit — and fun activities for children and adults. You can also take a pledge to become a “Resilience Star” by visiting the exhibits and checking off what you have learned on the SMV Resiliency Checklist.

Find out more about activities being offered here and at http://smv.org/upcoming-events/preparathon.

The PrepareAthon is part of the Science Museum of Virginia’s Climate Connections Learn, Prepare, Act Program, a three-year initiative. This NOAA-funded program will expand the museum’s Science on a Sphere® program content, in addition to adding a resiliency lecture series and expansion of the museum’s interactive features, such as the Challenge Lab and EcoLab. Resilient Virginia is partnering with the Science Museum of Virginia to develop these programs, as well as George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and WCVE-Community Idea Stations.

New in 2016: Resiliency Checklist Added to the GoGreen Virginia Challenge

The 2016 GoGreen Virginia Government Challenge features a completely new section on resiliency planning. Local governments now have a roadmap to assess their resiliency readiness, identify any gaps, and move forward to develop a comprehensive approach to being ready for short-term extreme events such as tornados and hurricanes, as well as longer term risks.

The Resiliency Checklist was developed thanks to interest from Virginia Municipal League and Virginia Association of Counties as part of their annual update of the GoGreen Checklist. Resilient Virginia Board members Jane Frantz, Dewberry; Andy Sorrell, VDACS; Jerry Walker, Henrico County; Nell Boyle, City of Roanoke; as well as Annette Osso, Resilient Virginia Managing Director; and colleague, Speaker Pollard of Williams Mullen, contributed to the checklist completion. You can see the checklist at GoGreenVa.org.

Local governments should plan to attend the August 8, 2016 Go Green Challenge Forum, in Harrisonburg, VA, to find out more about the new Resiliency Checklist, and how to participate in the “Challenge,” a friendly competition designed to reduce carbon emissions generated by both the local government and the broader community. Register for this event here.

Have You Looked at Our Calendar Lately?

Check our event calendar on a regular basis to find resiliency oriented events happening in Virginia and virtually through webinars. www.resilientvirginia.org/calendar.

YOUR MEMBERSHIP HELPS US SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT RESILIENCY

JOIN TODAY—IT’S OUR FUTURE!

Support Resilient Virginia’s goals to:

• INFORM diverse leaders from government, business, and the community about natural, climate-related and man-made risks and vulnerabilities;
• EDUCATE key groups about the models for community resiliency planning;
• ACTIVATE Virginia communities by providing tools to engage in resiliency planning.

Take one of the following actions today:

• Join as an Annual Member,
• Sign up as an Annual Sponsor,
• Go to GoodSearch or GoodShop and designate Resilient Virginia to receive donations every time you search or shop.

Thanks to our recent new members and supporters!

Dewberry
Get Ready! Emergency Planning Center
James Keck, VCU
Ken Ratliff
Leigh Anne Ratliff, CPower Energy Management
Pamela Vosburgh
Rebecca Joyce, Central Shenandoah PDC
Thomas Thompson
Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services