Author: Brendan Buff

  • DDAA Announces 2026-2030 Strategic Plan

    At the DDAA Annual Business Meeting on March 8, 2026, DDAA Past President Chris Chiles formally unveiled the organization’s new 2026–2030 Strategic Plan. The announcement took place during the DDAA Annual Conference in Arlington, Virginia, where Local Development District (LDD) representatives, federal partners, and regional leaders gathered to discuss the future of community and economic development across Appalachia.

    The new Strategic Plan builds on DDAA’s previous plan adopted in 2021 and reflects a year-long process of board discussions, member feedback, and strategic assessment. As DDAA represents 74 Local Development Districts serving 423 counties across the Appalachian Region, the Plan outlines how the organization will continue to strengthen its support for LDDs while responding to an evolving policy and economic landscape. With federal budgets tightening, communities recovering from natural disasters, and development priorities shifting, the Plan emphasizes both strengthening DDAA’s core services and selectively pursuing new initiatives that advance regional collaboration and innovation.

    The Strategic Plan continues to organize DDAA’s work around five core areas: Leadership and Professional Development, Networking, Engagement, Advocacy, and Innovation. These focus areas reflect the services members most value—from training and peer learning opportunities to stronger engagement with federal partners and a more focused approach to advocacy for Appalachian communities. The Plan also introduces several new priorities, including expanded leadership development for new LDD staff and directors, stronger peer learning networks on emerging topics such as workforce and disaster recovery, and enhanced efforts to tell the story of the impact Local Development Districts have across rural America.

    The new Plan reflects both continuity and adaptation. DDAA will continue to deliver high-quality training programs and conferences while expanding opportunities for collaboration, mentoring, and knowledge sharing among members. At the same time, the Plan recognizes the importance of strengthening partnerships with federal agencies, philanthropic organizations, and national development networks in order to position the Appalachian region for future opportunities.

    The release of the Strategic Plan at the Annual Business Meeting marked an important milestone for the organization and reaffirmed DDAA’s commitment to supporting Local Development Districts as they work to build healthy, prosperous, and resilient communities throughout Appalachia.

    As implementation begins, DDAA will continue working closely with its members and partners to translate the Plan’s goals into concrete actions that strengthen regional development efforts across the Appalachian Region. DDAA thanks Erik Pages of EntreWorks Consulting for his work in the development of the Plan.

  • 2025 DDAA Breakfast Report

    DDAA hosted its traditional annual breakfast meeting at the NADO Training Conference in Salt Lake City, UT on October 16. DDAA President Dennis Stripling welcomed DDAA members and provided brief updates, and Jaclyn Courter from ARC and Brendan Buff from DDAA shared updates with the audience. Notably, ARC is transitioning to the new Pathways reporting system for its new quarterly reporting format. DDAA has an open awards nomination window – due October 31 – while there is a Revolving Loan Fund Peer Meeting on December 9-10 in Tuscaloosa, AL.

    During the meeting, DDAA encouraged attendees to share how they are managing uncertainty with each other. Several key themes emerged:

    With changes to the Federal budget and various programs, how are you managing staff and board expectations?

    • Being honest with staff and managing fears
    • Avoiding sharing speculation
    • Contingency planning
    • Frequent and transparent conversations with board members
    • Educational conversations with legislators
    • Organizational redevelopment and reorganization conversations
    • Review of membership fee structure
    • Diversifying into other programs
    • Engaging the private sector

    What do you want to see from DDAA in our next strategic plan?

    • Align with ARC plan
    • Refresh training conference content
    • Increase communication and timeliness of ARC updates
    • More information on policy for mid-level management
    • Increased communication
    • Support of ARC program funding and local government pograms

    What do you no longer have time to do in your workday?

    • Forward planning
    • Reading important documents and emails
    • Deeper, more engaged conversation with elected officials
    • Community engagement and project readiness workshops
    • Strategic discussion when more urgent matters exist
    • Visiting in the region

    Thank you to all those who attended and contributed!

  • 2026 Awards Nominations Open!

    The Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA) Awards Committee is soliciting nominations for the 2026 Myers, Whisman, Mazer, and Congressional Awards. These awards are presented each year to a deserving individual by the Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA) at its annual conference in Washington, D.C. – next year’s Dinner Banquet will be held on March 8, 2026.

    The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2025. More information on each award and recent awardees can be found here.

    Awards Committee Chair Rudy Johnson (rjohnson@gtpdd.com) or Brendan Buff (bbuff@crec.net) can answer any questions you may have.

    Click HERE to submit a nomination!

     

  • 2026 Annual Conference: Call for Session Proposals

    DEADLINE: Friday, August 1, 2025

    The Development District Association of Appalachia is holding its Annual Conference in Arlington, Virginia from March 8-11, 2026. We plan to share cutting-edge ideas, highlight success stories and lessons learned, and engage with other LDDs during our annual gathering. DDAA is seeking compelling session proposals to ensure a comprehensive program. Session proposals should address topics and trends that reflect the wide-ranging needs and interests of member region, states or LDDs, with a focus on this year’s theme of Navigating Change, Cultivating Strength. We are searching for powerful session proposals that align with Appalachian Regional Commission’s 5 strategic goals:

    • Building Appalachian Businesses
      • Entrepreneurship support
      • New and emerging technologies
    • Building Appalachia’s Workforce Ecosystem
      • Substance use crisis
      • Reskilling the workforce
      • Childcare
      • Technology in the workplace
        • Artificial intelligence
        • GIS
    • Building Appalachia’s Infrastructure
      • Water and sewer
      • Alternative energy solutions
      • Broadband development
      • Rural transportation
      • Housing
      • Brownfields
      • Energy (solar farms, battery storage, etc)
    • Building Regional Culture and Tourism
      • Placemaking and planning
      • Developing and marketing local tourism
      • Sustaining and strengthening economies
      • Supporting outdoor recreation
      • Tourism best practices – achievable programs and measuring outcomes
    • Building Community Leaders and Capacity
      • Administrative capacity building for communities, boards, and LDDs
        • Budgeting, rules changes, audit issues etc
      • Leadership Peer Sharing
        • LDD 101 for executive directors and board members
        • Engaging your LDD’s board
        • “no stupid questions”
      • Re-thinking economic development
      • Shared services across regions
      • Partnering with university centers
      • Disaster recovery
      • … or other topics DDAA members would like to share!

    Conference Audience:

    The Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA) is a membership organization of the 74 Local Development Districts (LDDs) serving the 423 counties of the Appalachia Region. The DDAA works to strengthen LDDs and their member governments and to provide leadership to support the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) federal-state-local partnership. Conference attendees are Executive Directors, Board Members, local and state Elected Officials, Program Managers, and Staff of Local Development Districts across the 13 state region.

    Local Development Districts (LDDs) are multi-jurisdictional planning and economic development organizations that provide administrative, professional and technical assistance to local governments and citizens throughout Appalachia. An LDD is the Appalachian Regional Commission’s (ARC) name for the multi-county planning and development organizations which from State to State may be otherwise known as regional councils, councils of governments, area development districts, regional development centers, or regional planning commissions. LDD’s are the local partner in the ARC’s Federal-State-Local partnership, and they serve the member counties and municipalities within their designated regions in efforts aimed at achieving the goals of the ARC.

    Guidelines:

    Please read the following guidelines carefully before submitting your session proposal.

    • Proposals are encouraged to contain contributions from or highlights of the work of one or more Local Development District.
    • DDAA reserves the right to accept only the topic, title, and to accept or reject one or more speakers and moderator or any combination of the above list.
    • DDAA reserves the right to add, edit or make changes to the session title, description, and mode of presentation, panel and moderator.
    • All proposals become property of DDAA upon receipt. Session topics or speaker recommendations not accepted will be considered for use in future DDAA conferences, newsletters, webinars and resources for up to a period of one year.
    • Strong proposals are respectful of diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender and geographic location.
    • Proposals must be submitted with a minimum of one speaker for the panel. DDAA may confirm additional speakers and a moderator to complete the panel.
    • In order to keep conference registration fees reasonable, DDAA will consider requests for payment of speaker fees and travel expenses, honorarium or speaker’s bureau fees only in special circumstances.
    • DDAA reserves the right to combine session proposals on similar topics into one session.
    • Speakers and moderators interested in attending the conference will be expected to register and pay for the conference.
    • Speakers are invited to attend the session before or after their session, excluding meals and receptions, without paying the registration fee.
    • Individuals or organizations proposing sessions are responsible for confirming proposed speakers and moderators upon acceptance of session proposal.

    Proposal Submissions:

    Please fill out the SurveyMonkey form at the link. Contact DDAA at bbuff@crec.net via email with any questions regarding conference proposals. For more details about DDAA, visit our website at www.appalachiandevelopment.org.

    You will be notified via email regarding a decision on your proposal on or before August 29, 2025. All proposals will be kept on file for one year for consideration for future conferences. If the session proposal and speakers are accepted, the person who submitted the proposals will be responsible for confirming the moderator and speakers on or before September 12, 2025.

    No substitutes for speakers or moderators can be made without permission from DDAA.

    Important Deadlines:

    • June 26, 2025: DDAA begins accepting session proposals
    • August 2, 2025: Proposals due to DDAA
    • August 29, 2025: DDAA notifies submissions of the outcome of their Proposals
    • September 12, 2025: Successful submissions confirm their speakers and moderators (if applicable)

     

    CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL

  • Happy Holidays from the DDAA Board!

    Happy Holidays from the DDAA Board!

    The DDAA Board met in Greenville, SC in early December 2024 to discuss important business and plan for 2025.

    Most importantly, however, the Board would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season. No matter what you have planned, let’s all aim to be kind to one another and continue supporting our neighbors in Appalachia.

    DDAA is looking forward to new training and networking opportunities in 2025. We hope to see you at the Annual Conference on March 10-13, 2025 in Arlington, VA!

  • DDAA Solicits Nominations for 2025 Awards

    The Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA) Awards Committee is soliciting nominations for the 2025 Myers, Whisman, and Congressional Awards. These awards are presented each year to a deserving individual by the Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA) at its annual conference in Washington, D.C. The deadline for submissions is September 30, 2024. More information on each award and recent awardees can be found here.

    Awards Committee Chair Rudy Johnson (rjohnson@gtpdd.com) or Brendan Buff (bbuff@crec.net) can answer any questions you may have.

    Click here to submit a nomination.

  • 2025 Annual Conference: Call for Session Proposals

    DEADLINE: Friday, August 2, 2024

    The Development District Association of Appalachia is holding its Annual Conference in Arlington, Virginia from March 9-12, 2025. We plan to share cutting-edge ideas, highlight success stories and lessons learned, and engage with other LDDs during our annual gathering. DDAA is seeking compelling session proposals to ensure a comprehensive program. Session proposals should address topics and trends that reflect the wide-ranging needs and interests of member region, states or LDDs, with a focus on this year’s theme of Together Towards Tomorrow. We are searching for powerful session proposals that align with Appalachian Regional Commission’s 5 strategic goals:

    • Building Appalachian Businesses
      • Entrepreneurship support
      • New and emerging technologies
    • Building Appalachia’s Workforce Ecosystem
      • Substance use crisis
      • Reskilling the workforce
      • Childcare
      • Technology in the workplace
        • Artificial intelligence
        • GIS
        • Next Gen 911
    • Building Appalachia’s Infrastructure
      • Water and sewer
      • Alternative energy solutions
      • Broadband development
      • Rural transportation
      • Housing
      • Brownfields
      • Energy (Interagency Working Group, solar farms, etc)
    • Building Regional Culture and Tourism
      • Developing and marketing local tourism
      • Sustaining and strengthening economies
      • Supporting outdoor recreation
      • Tourism best practices – achievable programs and measuring outcomes
    • Building Community Leaders and Capacity
      • Administrative capacity building for communities, boards, and LDDs
        • Budgeting, rules changes, audit issues etc
      • Leadership Peer Sharing
        • LDD 101 for executive directors and board members
        • Engaging your LDD’s board
        • “no stupid questions”
      • Re-thinking economic development
      • Shared services across regions
      • Partnering with university centers
      • Disaster recovery
      • … or other topics DDAA members would like to share!

    Conference Audience:

    The Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA) is a membership organization of the 74 Local Development Districts (LDDs) serving the 423 counties of the Appalachia Region. The DDAA works to strengthen LDDs and their member governments and to provide leadership to support the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) federal-state-local partnership. Conference attendees are Executive Directors, Board Members, local and state Elected Officials, Program Managers, and Staff of Local Development Districts across the 13 state region.

    Local Development Districts (LDDs) are multi-jurisdictional planning and economic development organizations that provide administrative, professional and technical assistance to local governments and citizens throughout Appalachia. An LDD is the Appalachian Regional Commission’s (ARC) name for the multi-county planning and development organizations which from State to State may be otherwise known as regional councils, councils of governments, area development districts, regional development centers, or regional planning commissions. LDD’s are the local partner in the ARC’s Federal-State-Local partnership, and they serve the member counties and municipalities within their designated regions in efforts aimed at achieving the goals of the ARC.

    Guidelines:

    Please read the following guidelines carefully before submitting your session proposal.

    • Proposals are encouraged to contain contributions from or highlights of the work of one or more Local Development District.
    • DDAA reserves the right to accept only the topic, title, and to accept or reject one or more speakers and moderator or any combination of the above list.
    • DDAA reserves the right to add, edit or make changes to the session title, description, and mode of presentation, panel and moderator.
    • All proposals become property of DDAA upon receipt. Session topics or speaker recommendations not accepted will be considered for use in future DDAA conferences, newsletters, webinars and resources for up to a period of one year.
    • Strong proposals are respectful of diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender and geographic location.
    • Proposals must be submitted with a minimum of one speaker for the panel. DDAA may confirm additional speakers and a moderator to complete the panel.
    • In order to keep conference registration fees reasonable, DDAA will consider requests for payment of speaker fees and travel expenses, honorarium or speaker’s bureau fees only in special circumstances.
    • DDAA reserves the right to combine session proposals on similar topics into one session.
    • Speakers and moderators interested in attending the conference will be expected to register and pay for the conference.
    • Speakers are invited to attend the session before or after their session, excluding meals and receptions, without paying the registration fee.
    • Individuals or organizations proposing sessions are responsible for confirming proposed speakers and moderators upon acceptance of session proposal.

    Proposal Submissions:

    Please fill out the SurveyMonkey form at the link. Contact DDAA at bbuff@crec.net via email with any questions regarding conference proposals. For more details about DDAA, visit our website at www.appalachiandevelopment.org.

    You will be notified via email regarding a decision on your proposal on or before August 30, 2024. All proposals will be kept on file for one year for consideration for future conferences. If the session proposal and speakers are accepted, the person who submitted the proposals will be responsible for confirming the moderator and speakers on or before September 13, 2024.

    No substitutes for speakers or moderators can be made without permission from DDAA.

    Important Deadlines:

    • June 20, 2024: DDAA begins accepting session proposals
    • August 2, 2024: Proposals due to DDAA
    • August 30, 2024: DDAA notifies submissions of the outcome of their Proposals
    • September 13, 2024: Successful submissions confirm their speakers and moderators (if applicable)

     

    CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL

  • Board Spotlight: Universal Broadband Projects Poised for Completion Later this Year: Nearly 15,000 Homes to be Served for First Time

    Board Spotlight: Universal Broadband Projects Poised for Completion Later this Year: Nearly 15,000 Homes to be Served for First Time

    By: Scotty Wampler, Executive Director, Cumberland Plateau PDC

    Significant federal, state and local investments in broadband continue to pay dividends in Virginia as many previously unserved communities received high-speed internet for the first time in 2023. In fact, multiple holistic and universal coverage projects happening throughout the southwestern section of Virginia are anticipated to conclude by the end of 2024, including ongoing efforts occurring in the four counties and twelve towns served by the Cumberland Plateau Planning District Commission (CPPDC).

    Those counties — Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell and Tazewell — are benefitting from a $68.3 million investment in new broadband infrastructure, which includes approximately $49.4 million in grant funding secured by CPPDC through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) to extend high-speed broadband to homes that are currently unserved or underserved. Those funds, matched by approximately $17.5 million from Point Broadband and $1.4 million from the planning district, support two concurrent projects that will deliver high-speed broadband service to a total of nearly 15,000 homes in the four-county area.

    Build-outs for both projects remain on schedule to conclude in late 2024. At that time, the planning district’s four counties are expected to reach 90-95 percent total broadband coverage (including all surrounding internet service providers). When complete, both active projects will have extended high-speed broadband to approximately one-third of the district’s population.

    Thanks to a variety of public and private partnerships, CPPDC set the stage for this broadband expansion effort two decades ago through the development of a robust fiber broadband backbone network in all four counties that ultimately made the scope of the twin VATI projects significantly more feasible to accomplish. Early supporters of this network included the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission and the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA).

  • Land of Sky Regional Council Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS): Our Region, Our Future

    Land of Sky Regional Council Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS): Our Region, Our Future

    By: Nathan Ramsey, Executive Director, Land of Sky Regional Council

    The pandemic caused disruption for us all.  But for most of us, we were able to overcome the challenges we faced with help from our families, communities, and so many others.  While the pandemic public health emergency has passed and the negative health impacts from COVID19 are less severe, we know many things in our life will never be the same.  Prior to the pandemic I had only participated in a few remote meetings.  I didn’t have a zoom account and I cannot recall ever using MS Teams.  Now we can return to in-person meetings and events.  I enjoy in-person meetings and usually learn far more by being there in the same room.  But today I will participate in more remote meetings in one day than I did in total prior to the pandemic.  Many of our staff offices are quiet as our team members are working from home on a regular basis.

    Post pandemic, our region must be prepared for the transformative changes that are coming due to technological, labor market and economic disruption.  We were reminded in the pandemic about the dangers of being too dependent on a few sectors in our economy. Our region had maintained the lowest unemployment rate in North Carolina for over five years prior to the pandemic.  But early in the pandemic we held the distinction of having the highest unemployment rate in the state.  While our economy and labor market has generally recovered, many things are not back to the way things were.  Housing costs have exploded so that we now have the highest housing prices in NC, purchasing or renting a place to live has never been more unaffordable.

    To prepare our region in Western North Carolina for a more resilient, equitable and prosperous future, Land of Sky Regional Council in 2022 convened the Chambers of Commerce in our five-county region.  These counties comprise our Council member governments as well as the areas included in the Asheville MSA. To help us develop this regional strategy we engaged Ernst & Young (EY US) Economic Development Advisory Services (EDAS) to supplement our internal capacity on our Economic & Community Development team.  EY reviewed more than 20 existing strategic plans and studies in the region to identify themes for collaboration and partnership.  While each of these five counties have economic, political and cultural differences, they all share much in common.  Regional stakeholders included private sector leadership from the Chambers of Commerce and by extension the thousands of local businesses that are Chamber members.

    The stakeholders identified our region’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities.  The focus areas centered around five major topics: Place-based growth, Economic mobility and workforce development, Housing availability, Transportation and infrastructure and Regional marketing and branding.  While many of these topics are also challenges at the state and national, even global level, our region is experiencing what is perceived to be even more severe challenges when benchmarked against state and national data.  Business leaders recognized the lack of workforce and affordable housing is contributing to greater difficulty in recruiting and retaining their workforce.  As the region grows, the region is experiencing infrastructure challenges in transportation, water/sewer capacity and other basic infrastructure. These leaders identified many areas for potential collaboration to increase the region’s talent supply and promote a shared regional identity.

    Priorities were established for Housing Expansion and Diversification, Transportation and Infrastructure Improvement and Workforce Development.  Guiding principles of this work included Leadership Collaboration and Awareness, Access and Reliability, Diversity and Inclusion, and Equity and Economic Mobility.  To implement these priorities, EY EDAS recommended the formation of a Regional Business Council led by the region’s Chambers of Commerce.  The most urgent need was to expand and diversify the region’s housing stock. The recommendation for a more regional approach could accelerate housing development for residents across income levels. This included an integrated approach to housing and infrastructure development which could possibly lead to a regional housing trust fund. Additional focus areas included transportation and infrastructure improvements including high-speed broadband, connecting greenway and trail systems, and enhanced mobility options.

    We understand this work isn’t easy.  While our local governments and partners have a long history of working together, meeting the challenges of today and beyond will require greater collaboration.  We are excited about more opportunities for the public and private sectors to achieve common goals for a brighter future for everyone in our region.  The Land of Sky CEDS is doubling down on greater collaboration so our region will have a brighter, more prosperous and equitable future for all.  We cannot afford to leave anyone behind because our future depends on it.  To learn more about our CEDS please visit the following links or contact us.

    Regional Resiliency and Strategic Plan Alignment Report  landofsky.org/pdf/LGS/CEDS/LOS_RegionalResiliencyStrategicAlignment_Report.pdf

    Labor Shed and Target Industry Analysis  Microsoft PowerPoint – 07.29.22 Land of Sky Labor Shed and Target Industry Analysis Report_FINAL (Revised table p.66 – 09.29.22).pptx

    Land of Sky 2020 CEDS . (arcgis.com)

     

    Nathan Ramsey, Executive Director/Workforce Director  nathan@landofsky.org

    Erica Anderson, Deputy Director/Economic & Community Development Director  erica@landofsky.org

  • DDAA Board Member: Improving Water Infrastructure in Northeast Georgia

     By: Burke Walker, Executive Director, Northeast Georgia Regional Commission

    Northeast Georgia Regional Commission (NEGRC) serves 12 counties and 54 municipal governments in the Northeast Georgia Region. The Agency was created in 1963 to be a focal point for regional issues concerning local government and to be a resource for those governments in a variety of specialized areas. These include local government planning, economic development, grant preparation, administration, job training, and aging services. The Northeast Georgia service area encompassed by NEGRC is 3,260 square miles with an estimated population of 584,008.

    In 2020, the NEGRC assisted the City of Hoschton with securing funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). The project included construction of a 500,000-gallon elevated water storage tank for the Hoschton water system which increased water storage, pressure, and fire safety for 3,601 households and 153 businesses.

    Hoschton’s critical need for additional water storage had become apparent during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic due to dramatic spikes in water demand from residential customers.  The project also enabled the City to meet the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s (EPD) recommended storage capacity for its service area.