The Portal Group has also moved forward on a number of areas in 2008. In defining the overall objective of the group, they decided on creating a website that did two things. First, the site should provide current Green County residents and prospective residents with all the news and events happening in the county as well as create dialog about what's happening and how to improve the county. Second, the site should provide any prospective resident with information about the assets in the county and assist people with the transition of moving to Green County. In keeping with this, their two goals for 2008 are to create a website to serve as a resource for existing Green County residents that would be frequently visited and to attract new people to the county. We have since joined forces with Green County Spotlight to engage Green County residents and serve as a resource for anyone to quickly find out what is available, happening and upcoming in Green County. We're excited by the opportunites available to build out new functionalities and capabilites for this site. If you have any ideas to make the site better we'd love to hear them.

The Future Forward! group formed at the end of 2007 and spent the first few individual and joint team meetings defining exactly who they are and what specific roles they should play in the community. Both the overall Future Forward group and each sub-group came up with their mission, values and overall goals. In the beginning of 2008, the groups laid out short-term goals of what they were going to accomplish in 2008. Early in 2008, the Leadership Group organized joint meetings between the teams and was the impetus behind coming up with the overall mission, values and goals. After that, the Leadership Group faced some challenges as its leader, Sarah Burgert relocated to Arizona and the group was left needing a leader. The group now has two great new co-leaders that are excited to reactivate the group and really start moving forward again.

The Boomerang Group has made progress on a number of fronts in 2008. The group first defined their objective: to bring back former residents to Green County, along with new residents as a secondary objective. The group then picked a target on which to focus, started forming a message and determined how to communicate this message and recruit people to Green County. In forming a message, both the Boomerang Group and all Future Forward! members helped to create a list of community assets and analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of each. The group is working with the Portal group in seeking feedback and input from the public on these assets. The group also compiled and prioritized a list of venues where the target group could be reached. This includes high school reunions, big events such as Cheese Days, Heidi Fest and the Swing Dance event and homecomings. The Boomerang group produced the first version of a "Come Home to Green County" brochure and has been distributing it to high school reunions in the area. The group is also seeking information from the public on future reunions. The group is planning to team up with all the Future Forward! groups to communicate its message to former and potential new residents at Cheese Days this year.

The Liaison group plans to engage the many great groups and efforts that already exist in the county and assist to make sure everyone is moving toward the same goal of helping the county. This groups efforts will increase as other groups make progress.

For more information about the Future Forward! Green County initiave or to learn how to become involved, please visit the Future Forward! website.