It used to be called Heiser Time—the segment of the monthly Flagler County Tourist Development Council meeting devoted to Peggy Heiser, the local chamber of commerce’s vice president for tourism. She executed the county’s tourism marketing strategy. Heiser left last November and was quickly replaced by Georgia Turner, formerly of the Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. This morning Turner made her first formal appearance before the council.
Maybe they’ll call it Classic Turner Time, though Turner herself prefers “Turner Talk.” Unlike Heiser’s, Turner’s appearance before the council was brief: a quick thank you and equally quick recap of the many getting-to-know meetings Turner has been holding since her arrival, then a look forward, though she’s also been busy laying the groundwork for a series of grants various organizations are seeking from the council.
Several grant-seekers appeared before the council, including the county government itself, which was requesting $150,000 to refurbish the stables at Princess Place Preserve (“restoration of the deteriorated concrete entrance ramp,”the grant application notes, “roof and external frame repairs, siding replacement, and repair to a major fracture in the building’s replacement.”) Princess Place attracts some 40,000 visitors a year. The council voted unanimously to approve the grant, which will fund the majority of the $204,000 project. The rest will be paid for out of the county’s general fund. “Excellent use of the money. Well done,” Bob DeVore, one of the council members, said.
Princess Place Preserve last made news before the council in September 2010 when the county had to explain why it had not yet spent the majority of a $35,000 grant, awarded in 2006, to make museum-quality exhibits possible. The council gave the county a one-year extension. The year has come and gone. The money has still not been spent, according to documents provided to the council. But council members raised no issue.
Next before the council came Matrix George, who was seeking $10,000—a third of his budgeted $30,000 event, not yet scheduled, ostensibly at Hammock Dunes—a combination golf tournament and educational experience, where golfers meet and network with business people and others, and where the keynote speakers are well-known celebrities such as Timothy Geithner, the treasury secretary, and Michelle Obama, the first lady. The problem is that George was projecting wishes to the council without having made good on so much as securing his scheduling from Hammock Beach Resort, let alone landed a big name to his speakers’ list. His application was unanimously rejected.
Next came the Continuing Education Company and its 6th annual “Primary Spring Conference” for primary care physicians, at Hammock Beach Resort April 2-6. “This is kind of a role model for the type of event we wish we could have every week,” DeVore said. The conference has been growing almost every year, from 100 physicians in 2008 to 360 last year, and a total of 1,250 people when doctors’ entourages are included. The actual number of hotel-room nights the organization recorded last year (hotel room nights are the barometer of a conference’s success), was 1,139, down from 1,361 the year before. Organizers are again projecting 360 physicians this year, and “a minimum of 1,476 individuals visiting Flagler County.” The council also learned that the conference organizer, Walter Ejnes, is planning to move to Flagler County.
The spring conference organizers’ request for $10,000 was approved unanimously.
Finally, Matt Saunders walked up to the podium with his $10,000 request. “Another long-time favorite of ours, Mr. Saunders, welcome back.” Saunders heads the annual Maya at the Playa Conference, a five-day event at the Government Services Building that gathers some of the world’s premier Maya scholars and archeologists in what’s become a signature conference on the subject. The 6th such conference is scheduled for Oct. 3 through the 7th. Saunders was fiddling with a laptop computer to make a presentation, as grant applicants are required to do, but he didn’t have time to finish before the council moved and unanimously granted the request. Saunders, a former teacher in Flagler County schools now teaching in North Carolina, went ahead with the presentation anyway, if only to remind council members what sort of impact the conference has locally—and its continuing impact it has had on students who’ve been through Flagler schools. The conference is open to local students, at no charge.
All the grants have to be ratified by the Flagler County Commission.
palmcoastpioneers says
One example of Palm Coasts’ Sanibel Island Symposia:
Perhaps someone can look into getting this back again like we had alot last Century. It was one of many nice things we had that attracted people to Palm Coast.
SANIBEL SYMPOSIA HELD AT PALM COAST SHERATON INN OCEANSIDE
An International Workshop on Quantum Mechanical Methods started the Symposia on March 6, 7, 8, at the Palm Coast Sheraton Resort Inn. The workshop was followed March 9, 10, 11 by an International Symposium on Quantum Biology and Pharmacology, and honored in absentia two time nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling, who is 77. Dr. Pauling won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 for his molecular studies, especially in the nature of bonding atoms in molecules. He received the Nobel Peach Prize in 1962. Due to an unforseen emergency, Dr. Pauling was unable to attend the Symposium.
A Nobel Prize winner at the Symposium was Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, 85, who received his award in Medicing in 1937 for his studies on metabolism and the effect of Vitamins A anc D.
Another Nobel Laureate at the Symposia was Professor Manfred Eigen of West Germany, who shared his award in 1967 with two others for studies of extremely fast chemical reactions effected by disturbing equilibrium by very short energy pulsations.
The final event at the Sheraton was an Internation Symposium on Atomic Molecular, Solid State Theroy, Collision Phenomena and Computational Methods, which was attended by Professor P.W. Anderson, a 1977 Nobel Laureate in Physics.
Dor Lowdin, who came to the University of Florida in 1960as an exchange professor from the University of Uppsala, Sweden, is Graduate Research Professor of Chemistry and Physics. He organized the Symposia in 1960 at the conclusion of a Winter Institute of Quantum Theory Project. The Quantum Chemistry Group. University of Upsala and the International Society of Quantum Biiology are co-organizers of the meeting. Many organization and businesses assist with financial support for the Symposia.
The Quantum Theory Project is a joint program of the Chemistry and Physics Departments and the Graduate School of the U:niversity of Florida. It is a special research and graduate teaching project devoted to the study of matter, particularly atoms, molecules and crystals.
Dr. Lowdin said” “Quantum theory is important as a tool in many fundamentals and applied areas of physics, chemistry and technology. He added that in contrast to the classical mechanics, quantum theory puts the human being at the center of everything.
Since 1950 Dr. Lowdin has spent about half of the time in the United States and half in his native Sweden. A native of Uppsals, he attended school there and after three years in the Swedish Army, received his doctorate in 1948 in theoritical physics. His thesis was a theoretical study of electronic structure of alkali halides and their cohesive and elastic properties.
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This was held at the Palm Coast Sheraton INN Oceanside. From: The Palm Coaster, Volume 7, Number 2 Summer 1978, p. 9
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sanibel Symposium is an international scientific conference in quantum chemistry, solid-state physics, and quantum biology. It has been organized by the Quantum Theory Project at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, Florida every winter since 1960. It was founded by Per-Olov Löwdin who was involved in its organization every year from 1960 to his death in 2000. From 1960 to 1978, the symposium was held on Sanibel Island, but later symposia have been held in ——->Palm Coast <——-and St. Augustine. In 2005, the Symposium moved to St. Simons Island, Georgia.[1]
The Symposium is noted for its long history and for the breadth of both the participants and the presentations. The 2010 meeting covers "Forefront theory and computation in quantum chemistry, condensed matter and chemical physics, nanoscience, quantum biochemistry and biophysics".[2] The Sanibel Symposium is described as a "highly respected regular conference" in a history of the Gordon Research Conferences.[3]
The Sanibel Coefficients, used for example in calculated spin densities, were named after the Symposium where they were widely discussed in the 1960s.
Lectures and posters presented at the meeting can be published in the peer-reviewed journal, the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry as one or more issues of the journal. Before 1996, the papers were published in special supplements of the journal for quantum chemistry and quantum biology.
palmcoastpioneers says
Perhaps someone can pass this on to Ms. Turner for her review/ consideration and hopefully acquire a copy of the Tape about Palm Coast from Merv Griffin Enterprises –
‘…MILLIONS HEAR ABOUT PALM COAST ON NATIONAL T.V…’
‘…Palm Coast this past summer received national attention on the Merv Griffin Show…’
Volume 5, Number 3, Fall Issue 1974, The Palm Coaster.
Dr. Norman Young, President and Chariman of the Board of ITT Community Development Corporation, was one of four guests discussing various aspects of economics and investments against a backdrop of spiraling inflation in America today. The other guests included Harry Browne, prominent author of “You can Profit from a Monetary Crisis’ and a vociferous advocate of gold investment, Robert Lyler, President of the U. S. Bullion Corporation, a company that buys and sells silver, which Mr. Lyler believes is a good investment as a hedge against the inflationary aspects of the American dollar, and Art Linkletter, well- known television personality.
Dr. Young’s position was one of strong faith in the long term economic health of America and in the value of the American dollar. According to Dr. Young, ‘there are multitudes of prophets of gloom and doom offering myriad alternatives as insurance against all kinds of catastrophies. This pessimistic attitude is more likely to breed catastrophe than the fundamental economic situation.’
The staunch confidence Dr. Young maintains in the future of America, stems from the fact that early in professional life he developed an expertise in statistics and learned that they have a pecular characteristic….they’re never level, never always up , never always down. They fluctuate and so there will always be ups and downs associated with the valuation of the dollar, of gold , of silver,. As far as the economy goes, there is absolutely no certainty of anything approaching the “funereal predictions of so many doomsayers.”
In another line of discussion, Dr. Young assayed the plight and decay of many major American cities. Cited as a root cause, restrictive non-planning was contrasted with enlightened design inherent in the use of master plans. Dr. Young also stressed the increasing awareness of the psychological effects of crowding and pollution, prevention of which are prime concerns in the development of new communities.
According to Dr. Young, “though we can’t have a Utopia at Palm Coast, we will give people enough room enought territory to live, to work , to play , to grow and that will help ensure the health of the community and of America without the pollution normally associated with the cities of the world.”
Griffin, as well as the others on the panel, was very impressed with the amount of attention given to the details of green spaces, open beaches, sports, and recreation areas, and housing design. The discussion of Palm Coast certainly advanced the cause of enlightened planning in building new towns.
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Hopefully this information will prompt ideas / Grants / Corporate Donations –
palmcoaster says
Great suggestion Pioneer. Hope Ms. Turner and the TDC council, reads it!
http://qtp.ufl.edu/sanibel/
Why to have a Florida gathering in Georgia when we need all the jobs and tourism in Florida that we can get?
Jules Kwiatkowski says
Why did you give $150k to put on a new roof on a horse stable.Why can’t you give a grant to a organization that brings the Jacksonville Symphony to Palm Coast every year.Last year they had over 750 people attend.This year they hope to bring more.
palmcoaster says
Is the good old boy network at play Jules. Farms, ranches, horses, potatoes, Princess Place, Agricultural Museum….get it? 150,00 for a horse barn roof? what will be made of? They don’t care at all about classical music and symphonic orchestras or Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms…Just give them some good all country and loud rock. If you want a fair share of the TDC bed tax for your 750 concert attendees, better make some loud noise and show up in droves to those TDC dog and pony show meetings and convince at least the chair now, Melissa Holland. Culture and arts do not count in Flagler, just something to stomp is okay.
Jack says
Culture and arts aside. The historical significance of the stables and other structures in Princess Place, pale in comparison to the 150K to preserve a landmark that dates back to the late 1800s.