Chairman Tucker introduced Dr. Nancy O'Quinn and Mr. Fred Terasa to give a presentation on the regional tourism initiative, "Southern Comfort, Culture, and Cookin."

Dr. O'Quinn stated that she had given an overview of the initiative at the last meeting. She said it had taken two years to get the program up and running. She stated Mr. Terasa had been the project manager for the initiative and was one of the reasons the initiative had been so successful.

Mr. Terasa stated that there would not have been a project if it had not been for Dr. O'Quinn's work. Mr. Terasa said the opportunity for the initiative came after he and Shelley Zorn attended a meeting in Americus at Georgia Southwestern about a RAP grant they had received to work on the "Andersonville, Cotton and Carter" tourism project. He said today he wanted to give just a short thumbnail sketch on what they had done and then give the RAC a proposal to use the same techniques they used to get the SCCC initiative started. He stated the communities of Ashburn, Nashville, Tifton, Ocilla, Fitzgerald, Quitman and Moultrie came together and put together about $50,000 in matching money for the project. The total project cost was $130,234. He said there was a clear idea of what they wanted to do when they started the project. One thing was to have a regional website to provide information about the area. They also wanted to have kiosks in the area. They also wanted to have billboards and brochures. They wanted the information to be user friendly to the traveler. They had to find the technology and the partners to make all of this work. He stated the partners included the GMA, Georgia Public Web, MEAG, TownWare, GDITT, DCA, Moultrie Technical College, ABAC and UGA TCCC. He said the seven kiosks would be going into the welcome centers this week and next week. The GDITT totals of tourist dollars in each of the seven communities determined how much money they would have to put into the initiative. Mr. Terasa talked about the website and how you could maneuver through it three different ways. He also showed the group the map printed in the group's brochures. He said this shows the tourist how quickly they can get from one place to another. He said each community could make their website as big as they want it to be. Mr. Terasa said there would be an estimated 3% per year increase in tourist dollars in these communities. He said over three years this could amount to 19.7 to 21.3 million dollars. He said they are working to secure funding for the next year of this project. After the idea emerged of hooking Region 11 on to SCCC and they realized it would be too expensive and complicated, they began looking for a way to help these other communities. Mr. Terasa passed out a proposal to the RAC to help develop another internet based tourism initiative in Region 11. This document explained the cost for this support. Mr. Terasa said you could never pay for the "sweat equity" that these communities have put into the project. Dr. O'Quinn said that people must buy into it to get this project to work. She said you must also have some unifying theme for the project. Shelley Zorn stated that she had attended another meeting and decided they wanted a kiosk that would give information to the tourist, not ask for information from them. She said the project has mushroomed into something bigger than they thought it would. Mr. Terasa emphasized how important GMA and Townware was to getting this project off the ground. He said they (SCCC) have the base expertise and project management to get the project off the ground. He said he wants to improve the life of rural Georgians and he looks forward to working with this group. Nancy Cobb of the OneGeorgia Authority asked when the program went online. Shelley Zorn said the website is not complete, as all communities have not put all their information into the website. She said the website had been functional since September. Ms. Cobb asked how many hits had been received by the website. Mr. Terasa stated that he knows Tifton is getting about 124 hits per week. Ms. Cobb complimented Mr. Terasa on the good job his group has done on this initiative. Ms. Cobb asked if they had considered taking it to the next step to involve eco-tourism. Mr. Terasa stated he had hired a lady at the TCCC to do ag-related tours in a nine county area. Ms. Cobb stated they had not awarded any regional tourism projects because they had not seen any good ones at the OneGeorgia Authority. Mr. Tucker stated that the way this presentation came about was that the RAC began looking toward developing a regional tourism initiative. He said that they looked at SCCC because they knew they didn't need to "reinvent the wheel." Ms. Zorn said there was no way the entire region could join into one initiative. Mr. Scott Purvis stated the RAC had talked about, at a previous meeting, of coming up with a theme for the entire region and then promoting the initiatives of groups of counties in the region. Mr. Purvis handed out to the group information on Scenic By-ways. He said he had spoke to some of the RAC members about U.S. 41, U.S. 441 and the Woodpecker Trail which is Hwy 121. He said this information was provided to get us all thinking of how we could promote ourselves regionally. He said there are no Scenic By-ways in South Georgia. Mr. Fred Carpenter with the RDC stated they are working on a Scenic By-way for Hwy. 177 and hope to get this designated as a National Scenic Byway. Ms. Kitty Sikes stated she is working on an initiative to develop an Okefenokee Outdoor Adventure Trail. She said this trail would be from I-75 to the Okefenokee and also from I-95 to the Okefenokee. She said it was possible for this area to expand outside of the Okefenokee area. She suggested the formation of a committee to brainstorm how we could get people off of the two interstates. Mr. Purvis suggested we conduct a regional tourism initiative inventory to find out who is doing what. Ms. Vickie Leverette said Ware County has already worked with Clinch and Charlton Counties to produce a brochure to market the Okefenokee area as one product.

Chairman Tucker asked that the Tourism Committee and Staff come up with a formal description of the current initiatives going on in the region and bring those back to the full RAC.

Chairman Tucker thanked Mr. Terasa and Dr. O'Quinn for their presentation to the RAC.

Chairman Tucker called on Ms. Nancy Cobb of the OneGeorgia Authority to make any additional comments.

Ms. Nancy Cobb reinforced the fact that tourism is big business and that the OneGeorgia Authority had not funded a regional tourism application. She suggested that the RAC bring all the natural resources that our region has together to develop an initiative.

Chairman Tucker asked anyone if they had anything to report from their individual communities.

Ms. Saralyn Stafford announced that Douglas has a new Mainstreet Manager, Niki Knox.

Ms. Regina Storey announced that Ware County and the Okefenokee Area Development Authority had located SeaPak with the help of a OneGeorgia EDGE grant.

Ms. Sheila Stidham announced that Minter Garvin is the new Executive Director of the Okefenokee Chamber of Commerce and Development Authority and that she would soon be retiring.

Mr. Josh Fenn on behalf of the Waycross Downtown Development Authority welcomed everyone to Downtown Waycross.

Ms. Nancy O'Quinn announced she would no longer be with RDP because of funding.

Chairman Tucker announced the next RAC meeting will be in August with the location to be determined.

Chairman Tucker adjourned the meeting at 2:05 p.m.

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