We are happy to announce a regional effort in creating a Central Ohio Chapter of the US Green Building Council (USGBC).

As home to the State capitol, our central Ohio region has strong University, Government, Research, Healthcare and Insurance presence. Hence, this formation effort involves members from the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, Ohio School Facilities Commission, central Ohio's educational systems, Ohio State University, C-Tec (Licking County vocational school), City of Columbus and the Columbus Green Building Forum.

The goal is to develop a robust chapter locally by having active members in the community, on the leadership team, who have a keen interest in promoting green building practices and adopting LEED into their projects.

Our second meeting took place on December 7th at the Huntington Club at the Crews Stadium. At the meeting, we had Josh Arnold from USGBC National speking to us on the Chapter formation process. He also intimated that a coordination meeting will be held with three representatives from each group around the State including the USGBC Cincinnati Regional Chapter, the Northwest Ohio Green Building Council, the Cleveland Green Building Coalition and the Columbus Green Forum.

Each group should choose up to 3 delegates and one back-up delegate who are willing to come to Columbus for a full-day session. The national office has no pre-determined agenda except that they are willing to bring in a Dynamic Governance consultant to provide training for the group at no cost to you. In order to maximize the session, we're going to try to keep attendance to about 20 people total. Others from the USGBC national office are also interested in possibly attending.

Joshua L. Arnold, JD, MBA
Chapter Growth Consultant
USGBC - Heartland Region

Participant listing for the Chapter committees:

Organization
Saad Barghout
Bob Karl
Joe Russ
Richard Simpkins
Kurt Smith
Maria Spencer
Drew Vennemeyer

Programs and Education:
Kathleen Conlon
Sophia Corna
Allan J. Dinsmore
Loretta Graham
Kim Hart
Todd Pfahl
Jack Rosati
Tyler Steele

Brock Fortman
(Young Professional)
Ted A. Stutz (YP)
Kimberly Whittington (YP)

Finance:
Eric Elizondo
Ismail Jallaq
Richard Jones
Kirk Paisley
Kurt Smith

Membership
Bob Karl
Mike Rathburn
Greg Spires
Stacy Williams
Leigh Workman
Jim Zavesky

Communications
Debbie Edwards
Brock Fortman
Robin Leonard
Greg Meyer
Sandra Patton
Rob Zalewski
Jim Zavesky

Public Policy
Lesley R. Avery
Christopher Fleming
Bob Karl
John Mrofchak
Chris Schleicher
David Scott
Drew Vennemeyer

The Foundation for Environmental Education
The Foundation for Environmental Education
The Foundation for Environmental Education