partnership@work ... in three places at once!

It's always fun to see how much is going on at the Partnership.  Last week, we rolled out our Buffalo Building Reuse Project to an immediate and positive response from Mayor Byron Brown, hosted Execs Connect, and held the second meeting of our new Perspectives Council.  Next week, we'll wrap our insurance open enrollment period for 2012, which helps more than 800 Buffalo Niagara employers achieve cost certainty and flexibility in their employee benefits programs.

In the midst of all that, this week is a busy week in our federal and state advocacy efforts.  Two Partnership teams will be simultaneously advocating for Buffalo Niagara business growth in Albany and Washington in the first part of this week.  Through the magic of hard work, air travel, car travel, and lots of online activity, we'll be updating you on these efforts as they happen. 


AJ Wright, our Manager of Government Affairs, is in Albany to ensure that the needs of Buffalo Niagara employers stay top of mind for our elected officials.  His big three goals for the trip are:

1. Continuing to draw attention to the need for Proceeds legislation, which we had hoped to see in the Governor’s 2012 Executive budget.
2. Distributing the Partnership's 2012 legislative agenda – mandate relief; Roswell Park regulatory relief; includes IDA “civic facilities” legislation.
3. Continuing to advocate for our Accelerate Upstate agenda, which we developed this summer with the support of 300 stakeholders from across NYS. 

AJ has meetings scheduled with a host of our elected officials as well as a number of our partners and peer organizations in Albany.  Watch for a recap of his work Wednesday on this blog. 


Meanwhile, three staffers - Andrew Rudnick, Craig Turner, and Nadine Powell - will be at work in Washington DC to draw attention to our needs and efforts on the federal level.  They're in town to push for our big six Buffalo Niagara job growth priorities in 2012.  Craig Turner will be blogging about our work in DC - watch for updates from him both this afternoon and on Thursday.


These aren't sightseeing trips; there's real work to get done.  We've made enormous progress in the last six months, but there's much more left to do.  Follow our efforts on our facebook page, on our twitter feed (use hashtag #BNPatWORK for updates specific to these trips), and keep watching our blog.

Don't forget, it's business as usual here in Buffalo.  BN360 is hosting Gamechangers this Wednesday on the Medical Campus.  We'll keep you posted.