1
100
4
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https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/90feb8ab39e4a2fec50679cbd193b838.pdf
ea92387fc069eaaebe2a80aee776dd81
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Celery Soup: Florida's Folk Life Play Collection
Alternative Title
Celery Soup Collection
Subject
Sanford (Fla.)
Community theater--United States
Theater--United States
Description
The <em>Celery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play</em> Collection encompasses photographs, artifacts, and oral histories related to the production of Creative Sanford, Inc.'s and Celery Soup's play <em>Remade - Not Bought</em>, performed at the Princess Theater in 2013. Many of the items in this collection were collected by Dr. Scot French's Tools in Digital History Seminar Graduate Class during the Fall 2013 semester at the University of Central Florida.
Contributor
Dingle, Cathy Lee
Delgado, Natalie
Fedorka, Drew M.
Ford, Nancy Harris
French, Scot A.
Kelley, Katie
Lee, Luticia Gormley
Maliczowski, Linda Lee
Maples, Marilyn
Miller, Mark
Reisz, Autumn
Thompson, Trish
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/44" target="_blank">Seminole County Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/16" target="_blank">Sanford Collection</a>, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Celery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play, Sanford, Florida
Creative Sanford, Inc., Sanford, Florida
Princess Theater, Sanford, Florida
Contributing Project
<a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/" target="_blank">Creative Sanford, Inc.</a>
<a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/" target="_blank">Celery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play</a>
<span>Dr. </span><a href="http://history.scotfrench.com/" target="_blank">Scot A. French</a><span>'s Tools in Digital History Seminar Graduate Class, Fall 2013 at the </span><a href="http://www.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">University of Central Florida</a>
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
"<a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com//about" target="_blank">WHO IS CREATIVE SANFORD, INC?</a>" Celery Soup. http://www.celerysoupsanford.com//about.
"<a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/about/" target="_blank">About: History and Purpose</a>." Celery Soup. http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/about/.
"<a href="http://www.communityperformanceinternational.org/sanford-florida" target="_blank">Sanford, Florida: How do you make Celery Soup? Add stories, then stir</a>." Community Performance International. http://www.communityperformanceinternational.org/sanford-florida.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
Reisz, Autumn
Miller, Mark
Interviewee
Thompson, Trish
Location
Sanford, Florida
Original Format
1 audio/video recording
Duration
45 minutes and 42 seconds
Bit Rate/Frequency
876kbps
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Trish Thompson
Alternative Title
Oral History, Thompson
Subject
Sanford (Fla.)
Seminole County (Fla.)
Oral histories
Community theater--United States
Theater--United States
Theater managers
Colquitt (Ga.)
Orlando (Fla.)
Race relations--United States
Playwriting
Description
Oral history told by Trish Thompson, Vice President of Creative Sanford, Inc. The interview was conducted by Autumn Reisz and Mark Miller on October 11, 2013 and focuses on Thompson's experiences with Creative Sanford and Celery Soup. Other topics include adapting the Swamp Gravy model to Celery Soup, how Creative Sanford and Celery Soup have evolved over time, the oral history interviewing process, partnering with the African-American community, the effects of the George Zimmerman trial on Sanford, adapting oral histories into community plays, goals of Creative Sanford and Celery Soup, community involvement and feedback, fundraising and the Celery Ball, production costs, preserving the legacy of Creative Sanford and Celery Soup, and maintaining community involvement. <br /><br /><p>Creative Sanford, Inc. is a non-profit organization created to manage Celery Soup community theater productions. The original idea for the Celery Soup project came from Jeanine Taylor, the owner of a folk-art gallery on First Street in Sanford, Florida. Their first production was <em>Touch and Go</em>, which took several years of planning. The play focused on how the people of Sanford overcame obstacles throughout their history. Some of these stories include the fall of Sanford's celery industry, the Freeze of 1894-1895, and the closing of Naval Air Station (NAS) Sanford in the 1960s. Richard Geer and Jules Corriere, partners from Community Performance International, were in charge of assessing oral histories, converting them into scenes for the play, and writing original songs. Director Geer also used an all-volunteer cast from the local community, many of which were not experienced actors.</p>
<p>During the process of producing the show, Creative Sanford decided to rehabilitate an historic building, the Princess Theater, which was located on 115 West First Street and owned by Stephen Tibstra. The Creative Sanford offices are housed in the Historic Sanford Welcome Center, located at 203 East First Street. As of December 2013, the Executive Board for Creative Sanford included President Brian Casey, Vice President Trish Thompson, Treasurer Linda Hollerbach, Secretary Dr. Annye Refoe, and Founder Jeanine Taylor. The Board of Directors consisted of Cheryl Deming, Juanita Roland, Wendy Wheaton, and Dr. Connie Lester, a professor of history at the University of Central Florida. Honorary Board Members included: Glenda Hood, former Florida Secretary of State and Mayor of Orlando; Valada Flewellyn, a local poet, author, and historian; and Jackie Jones, a local entertainer and arts advocate.</p>
Table Of Contents
00:00 Introduction<br />00:12 Thompson's biographical information<br />00:41 Celery Soup and Creative Sanford, Inc.<br />01:46 Mission of Creative Sanford and Celery Soup<br />02:28 How Celery Soup was founded<br />03:50 How Celery Soup adapted the Swamp Gravy model<br />06:29 How has Creative Sanford and Celery Soup evolved<br />11:36 Conducting oral history interviews<br />13:01 Gaining acceptance from the African-American community<br />16:26 Themes of oral history interviews<br />17:45 How to adapt oral histories into plays<br />20:07 Working with professional playwrights and directors<br />23:41 Using volunteers and employees from the community<br />24:45 Role of the Executive Board<br />26:43 Success in achieving goals<br />30:09 Importance of community involvement in plays<br />34:48 Biggest surprises<br />36:01 Fundraisers and the Celery Ball<br />37:36 Production costs and ticket sales<br />39:33 Preserving the legacy of Creative Sanford and Celery Soup<br />41:26 Maintaining community engagement<br />43:40 Advice for communities creating similar projects<br />45:29 Closing remarks
Abstract
Oral history interview of Trish Thompson. Interview conducted by Autumn Reisz and Mark Miller at the <a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/" target="_blank">Creative Sanford, Inc. Offices</a> in Sanford.
In an interview on October 11<sup>th</sup>, 2013, Trish Thompson, current vice president and former president of Creative Sanford, Inc., discusses the inspiration for, creation of, and the development and evolution of Creative Sanford. Thompson also discusses some of the financial and other challenges that Creative Sanford has faced. Creative Sanford is a community organization that collects group oral histories from Sanford residents and uses portions of these interviews to write, produce, and perform plays for the community.
Type
Moving Image
Source
Thompson, Trish. Interviewed by Autumn Reisz and Mark Miller. <a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/" target="_blank">Creative Sanford, Inc.</a> Offices, Sanford Welcome Center. October 11, 2013. Audio/video record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Requires
Multimedia software, such as <a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/" target="_blank"> Adobe Flash Player</a>.
Application software, such as <a href="http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp" target="_blank"> Java</a>.
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/reader.html" target="_blank">Adobe Acrobat Reader</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/82" target="_blank"><em>Celery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play</em> Collection</a>, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Has Format
Digital transcript of original 45 minute and 42 second oral history: Thompson, Trish. Interviewed by Autumn Reisz and Mark Miller. <a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/" target="_blank">Creative Sanford, Inc.</a> Offices, Sanford Welcome Center. October 11, 2013. Audio/video record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Coverage
Creative Sanford, Inc., Sanford, Florida
Celery Soup, Sanford, Florida
Swamp Gravy, Colquitt, Georgia
Creator
Reisz, Autumn
Miller, Mark
Thompson, Trish
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
Date Created
2013-10-11
Date Modified
2014-01-06
Format
video/mp4
application/pdf
Extent
287 MB
227 KB
Medium
45-minute and 42-second audio/video recording
20-page digital transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Geography Teacher
Humanities Teacher
Theater Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Autumn Reisz, Mark Miller, and Trish Thompson, and published by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>.
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
Accrual Method
Item Creation
Contributing Project
<a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/" target="_blank">Creative Sanford, Inc.</a>
<a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/" target="_blank">Celery Soup</a>
Dr. <a href="http://history.scotfrench.com/" target="_blank">Scot French</a>'s "Tools in Digital History Seminar," Fall 2013 at the <a href="http://www.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">University of Central Florida</a>
Curator
Cepero, Laura
External Reference
"<a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com//about" target="_blank">WHO IS CREATIVE SANFORD, INC?</a>" Celery Soup. http://www.celerysoupsanford.com//about.
"<a href="http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/about/" target="_blank">About: History and Purpose</a>." Celery Soup. http://www.celerysoupsanford.com/about/.
"<a href="http://www.communityperformanceinternational.org/sanford-florida" target="_blank">Sanford, Florida: How do you make Celery Soup? Add stories, then stir</a>." Community Performance International. http://www.communityperformanceinternational.org/sanford-florida.
"<a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-10-20/entertainment/os-celery-soup-sanford-20101020_1_oral-histories-swamp-gravy-celery-soup" target="_blank">Tales of Sanford's resilience are the stars of 'Touch and Go'</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, October 20, 2010. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-10-20/entertainment/os-celery-soup-sanford-20101020_1_oral-histories-swamp-gravy-celery-soup.
"<a href="http://mysanfordherald.com/view/full_story/12128828/article-Young-dancer-helps-put-spark-in--Touch-and-Go" target="_blank">Young dancer helps put spark in 'Touch and Go'</a>." <em>The Sanford Herald</em>, March 2, 2011. http://mysanfordherald.com/view/full_story/12128828/article-Young-dancer-helps-put-spark-in--Touch-and-Go. "About Us." Swamp Gravy: Georgia's Official Folk-Life Play. http://swampgravy.com/about-us/.
"<a href="http://swampgravy.com/about-us/" target="_blank">About Us</a>." Swamp Grave: Georgia's Official Folk-Life Play. http://swampgravy.com/about-us/.
<span>Sanford Historical Society (Fla.). </span><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53015288" target="_blank"><em>Sanford</em></a><span>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003.</span>
<span>Flewellyn, Valada S. </span><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/4497409" target="_blank"><em>African Americans of Sanford</em></a><span>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub, 2009.</span>
Click to View (Movie, Podcast, or Website)
<a href="http://youtu.be/nJSla2r-d3g" target="_blank">Oral History of Trish Thompson</a>
Date Copyrighted
2013-10-11
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
Transcript
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>My name is Autumn Reisz, and I’m here with Mark Miller, and we are asking the wonderful Trish [Thompson] a few questions today about <em>Celery Soup </em>and Creative Sanford[, Inc]. Um, if you just want to take a second and introduce yourself and we’ll get started on the questions.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Okay. I’m Trish Thompson and I am, um, former president of Creative Sanford for four years now, and vice president, and theater manager. Um, when we do our interviews we tell where we are and what the atmosphere is. So I’ll say we’re in my office and, um, the atmosphere is quiet and we only have an air-conditioner going that could possibly interrupt.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>So I’m ready when you are.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Alright.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Start asking!</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Well, thanks. Okay, um, what is <em>Celery Soup</em>?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Okay. <em>Celery Soup </em>is <em>Florida’s Folk Life Play</em>. It’s a story that is comprised—a play, excuse me—that is comprised of story gathering which we have done, which is a lost art, and we, uh, get them from the citizens of Seminole County[, Florida] and hire a playwright. They put the stories together and that becomes <em>Celery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play </em>and we’ve done three performances, um, with the first one being <em>Touch and Go, </em>the second one being <em>Made - Not Bought, </em>and the third one being <em>Remade - Not Bought. </em>And, um, there—it went over so well, we’re—we’re just—we’re real happy with it and we’re already in—working with the playwright to get another one on the road for next year. So, uh, Creative Sanford is the umbrella organization. We are the producers of <em>Celery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play</em>.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Oh, very nice. Um, uh, what is the mission of <em>Celery Soup</em>?</p>
<p class="Default"><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Uh, the mission of Creative Sanford—now you’ve got to know that we are the 501(c)(3) —Creative Sanford is. The, uh, actual production is <em>Celery Soup</em>—that’s the branding—is <em>Celery Soup</em>. It’s always <em>Celery Soup. </em>Every year the name of the play will change, but when they say, “What’s happening with C<em>elery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play</em>?” You know, then you tell ‘em whatever the new thing is that’s happening. Um, I’d have to read you our mission.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Oh, alright. That’s fine. No, that was excellent.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Yeah. So, um, how did the idea for <em>Celery Soup </em>develop?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Okay, the idea for, um, <em>Celery Soup </em>was, through our, um, person—the—the people that we knew in Colquitt, Georgia. And so Jeanine Taylor, our founder, went up there, met the people, saw the show and, um, and decided to bring it to Sanford when she moved her, uh, business here. And it was to help the economy and, uh, that was the first thought was that, you know, it was going to be an economic driver, bring people to Sanford, and of course help her business and other businesses in town. And she got the mayor and other people interested and they went up, saw the show, said, “Yes. This would be great for Sanford,” and that’s how it came to be in Sanford.</p>
<p>Then we spent three hard years with interviewing people and getting the community to understand what we do. We hired, uh, uh, <em>Celery Soup</em>—I mean, excuse me, <em>Swamp Gravy</em>—to come to Sanford and teach us how to do the interviews. Uh, they gave us the booklet that we use and, uh—just on a side note—uh, Freddie [Roman-Toro] who is—was our intern this spring, he rewrote it and updated it and got it where, um, it would fit in more with the RICHES [Regional Initiative for Collecting the History, Experiences, and Stories of Central Florida] Mosaic Interface that we’re gonna be using with UCF [University of Central Florida]. [<em>phone rings</em>]</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Alright. How did you change the <em>Swamp Gravy </em>model to fit the needs of Sanford?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>You know, that’s really interesting, because they’re—was that your question?</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>No. That’s not.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Alright.[<em>laughs</em>]</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>But Mark [Miller] really liked it.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Yes. Okay. Now when you’re interviewing, you know, you might not want the subject to know that you [<em>laughs</em>]—so you’re gonna learn along with me, um, the um—we been—what was the question again? I’m sorry.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Um, how did you change the S<em>wamp Gravy </em>model…</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Oh, okay.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>To fit Sanford’s needs?</p>
<p class="Default"><strong>Thompson<br /></strong><em>Swamp Gravy’s </em>model—2,000 people—very small town, very isolated—and they had to draw from churches and, uh, they went way outside the area to bring people in and they had to bus them in to, uh, to come to the play. And everyone in the community was involved in it, because, you know, 2,000 people and you’re puttin’ on a production with a hundred people, you know, that’s—that’s almost everybody in the town, at one point or another, has been in the play.</p>
<p class="Default">So for us, we’re in Central Florida. we compete with [Walt] Disney [World], the I[nterstate-4 corridor. um, we wanted to reach out to The Villages. that’s very difficult to reach out to The Villages, because they already have so much, um, entertainment and what have you that it’s right there at their fingertips. And they don’t come to Orlando very much. We found that out through the United Arts [of Central Florida], uh, president at that time, Margot Knight, that it was very tough to get The Villages, and so we’ve made so inroads into that and we do have one person who brings people in from there, but it’s, you know—that is, —that is harder.</p>
<p class="Default">For us, we’re more sophisticated. Um, the area there was—you could do just about anything for, you know, nothing, because there were no regulations and no, you know—the city didn’t make ‘em do this and that. So when we started, we had a lot of legal and financial, um, and city rules and regulations that we had to comply with. And I would suggest to anybody who is gonna to do something like this: do not cut corners on your legal and your—those kind of responsibilities in— in getting your, um, work-up with your city, so that your—you know, you’re not gonna get, quote, “a free ride,” but, you know, you’ll have a good working relationship with the city, if you comply with what they want done. So…</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Um, how has how has Creative Sanford and <em>Celery Soup</em>—how has it evolved from when you first started the program?</p>
<p class="Default"><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Oh my goodness. It has really evolved. When we first started we wanted to put on a show, Okay? One production a year and we were gonna—oh, someone was gonna give us a building. We’ve gotten a whole big song and dance of, you know, where you were gonna put it on. Well, we couldn’t find any place that would allow us to put it on. And the one theater that was in town, it was: number one, 500 seats 450 to 500 seats. And it had the fourth wall, which of course we didn’t know anything about, but it—the fourth wall was an invisible wall between the audience and the cast. and so, um, the community theater, one of the things that they require is that it is community involved and, you know, so it’s, um—it’s theater in the three-quarter is what we have. We don’t—we ended up renting a space.</p>
<p class="Default">So number one, we have rent now and it’s not a free space. And so when we rented it, we had to sign a lease. And when we signed a lease, that changed—I mean, it was like the before and the after. The before lease and after lease. [<em>laughs</em>] Because then we became a theater, and the theater has to support itself. So you can’t have one play in the fall and the spring maybe—two plays—and maintain a theater. You know you got your rental. You got all your utilities you’ve got to pay. So we had to have other shows.</p>
<p class="Default">So we first started with a group that wanted to have a home and they were called “The Princess Players.” And so they put on five performances during the year and, you know, we produced them. And so we did make money through that and were able to pay the rent, but so now after three years, since 2010, we made another big leap in that we realize that the theater was as important as <em>Celery Soup</em>. If we don’t have the theater, we’re in the same boat as everybody else, with searchin’ for a place to put your thing on and it’s gonna cost you a tremendous amount of money to be that little person who’s begging for a place to have a show. And after being in the theater, we didn’t want to go back to being in a gymnasium or someplace like that.</p>
<p class="Default">So we co-op the theater and we have three organizations that co-op with us and they own the theater for those periods of time. So that helps pay the rent. Phew, there’s something here. So that pays, you know—that gets our rent paid.</p>
<p class="Default">So then as time goes on, in the next year or two, we will be able to do some of the other things in our mission that we are not able to do now and, uh, the—the quantity that we would like to do and that helps other organizations that don’t have money that give them a place to showcase their art. Um, we’ve done art openings. We’ve done, uh, concerts. we’ve done, uh, with the Humanities Council—with the <em>Dreamers and Schemers </em>and they’ve asked us to come back in 2014 and do it again—standing room only—uh, we do <em>The Holocaust </em>with the Holocaust and Interfaith Council. So we’re making all these organizations that are becoming partners with us—that they’re doin’ it this year, that maybe next year, you know. and we’ll find places for ‘em to rent the theater to them for a minimal amount of money—cover the expenses—and they’re able to put something on and we’re able to provide the community with different kind[sic] of art— all different types of art.</p>
<p class="Default">So we’re doin’ <em>Celery Soup </em>now. They’ll be doin’, uh, <em>Sleeping Beauty </em>and <em>Grease</em>, <em>and</em> the co-op people are doin’ these things. One of them is a school, so they do things through the summer. and then in August, I believe it is, we’re goin’ to do <em>Spam-A-Lot. </em>So it will be our first time to do, um—produce a Broadway show. And it’s a Tony Award-winning and that’s what we want to do. So we’d like to do <em>Spam-A-Lot </em>one year and whatever the next one, as soon as the rights open up. We want to do the most recent, like I believe next year <em>Wicked</em>, off-Broadway—you know, from Broadway—will be open.</p>
<p class="Default">So this is a goal that we want to bring quality entertainment that people can afford to go to Wash—New York [City, New York] or Washington[, D.C.] or wherever. They can see really quality work, right here in Seminole County. They don’t have to go to Orlando. They don’t have to go to the arena, you know, and all that kinda thing.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Excellent. Um, so how do you collect the stories for the plays?</p>
<p class="Default"><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Okay. Uh, we advertised. We had the Swamp Gravy Institute come down and we had a whole group of people come in and learn how to do the interviews. and then they’d ask their friends, “Can I interview you?” So it started out friends of the people who are to interview and moved out from there. We went, um, Serenity Towers, which at that time was called Bram Towers, and we did practice interviews with the older ladies and gentlemen and—and, uh, the—it was kind of a learning experience for everyone. And then we also, um, then put ads in the paper.</p>
<p class="Default">And when we first got started we did a thing called, uh, <em>Talks from the Stalks</em>, is what we called it—like a stalk of celery. And, uh, the newspaper<a title="">[1]</a> was nice enough that we would put in little excerpts from interviews that we’d done. And so they’d do a little blurb—we’d hopefully have a picture of the person that spoke—and then a little piece out of their story. And then it would be the quote advertisement call to tell your story. So that’s how— that’s how we got started, with just grass-roots, asking your friends, and moving out into the community.</p>
<p class="Default">And the most difficult part was being accepted by the black community, because there was a lot of, um, [<em>sighs</em>] negativity in both directions, in that, um, the black community was told that we were exploiting them by some people, who, for some reason didn’t understand what we were doin’. There’s a fly in here<em>. </em>Um, and then there was some on the other side that didn’t know how to relate to the black community. So it was a give-and-take and over the last six years.</p>
<p class="Default">This year we were invited to Hopper Academy. Um, this was the first year we had been so lucky to have two reunions” The Hopper [Academy] and then the Crooms Academy [of Information Technology] we’re going to do in December. So that’s the, that’s a real plus for us to be able to have made the inroads into the black community—that they trust us.</p>
<p class="Default">And, uh, if you know anything about Sanford, we’ve just gone through an awful trial<a title="">[2]</a> that brought up a lot of really bad memories from a lot of people—black and white. And, uh, it’s just, uh— it’s just a miracle that we’re such a good community that we overcame the outside pressures and didn’t succumb to anything that they wanted to [<em>laughs</em>]—they wanted us to have a riot or something. I don’t know what the media wanted, but, uh, they didn’t get it, because we’re not that kind of a town. We’re a good town. We’re—we’re working together.</p>
<p class="Default">And I think we have helped over the last six years to help the community realize that, you know, all that outside stuff that made ‘em appreciate that we really are a closely knit community, much closer than was realized and yet there’s still a lot of—a lot of energy and a lot of negativity that—that is like post-traumatic stress disorder. You know, it’s—you think of the worst thing that ever happened you think—you in your life. It flashes [<em>snaps</em>] to you immediately. You know exactly was the worst thing in your mind that ever happened to you. And that may be, this—this—this trial just triggered. That throwback to that worst feeling of inadequacy and—and negativity that they ever had. So, you know, we—we have to appreciate that and realize it.</p>
<p class="Default">And I’ve talked to people who have said, “Oh, why don’t they just get over it?” And I say, “What’s the worst thing that ever happened to you?” “Oh, that I lost my child,” or, you know—I mean that’s horrific. And I say, “Well, get over it.” Whoa, did they get mad at me? But, I say, you know, you’ve got to understand—and it was somebody that wanted to interview, but they didn’t have the empathy or the sympathy or the—the feelings that were needed to be an interviewer in this organization. So, when you’re doin’ this, I’d say to anybody: be sure that the people who are interviewers have an open mind and/or can keep their feelings under—you know, under the radar—under the cover.</p>
<p class="Default"><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Well, that brings up a question of when you’re asking the stories, what sort of themes—you ask for themes? Or how do you go about…</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Well, we’re…</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Pitching the story.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>We started with a theme that was, uh, perseverance. And this was in 2010, and so our first story was about, uh, how Sanford and the community had overcome all sorts of natural, um, disasters. We had floods, and we had, uh, fires, and we had—the weather froze—and, I mean, uh, the weather was very cold and the fruit and vegetables and the trees froze. You know, so it changed the whole economy of things. The, uh, Navy left Sanford. Big, big, big, big problem. and Sanford’s overcome and actually gotten better from all the different changes that have happened. So that was what—it was perseverance, and we used as a sub thing, openin’ a can of worms [<em>laughs</em>]. So we—we just—“So what is,” you know, “What were you mad about? What did you not like? What did—what did ya get over on somebody?” You know, we had all kinds of questions that we tried to pull out of people that were deeper than just—“Who are you? Where did— where did you go to school and what do you do? “</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Well, you did something like, uh, what you’re, um, talking about, perseverance and…</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>You know, can of worms. How do you integrate that into the play?</p>
<p class="Default"><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Well, that is what you have your playwright for. Now we’re, uh, setting up now and working with UCF with this, um—we have, um—May, um—what do ya call ‘em? With, uh, the keyword—keywords. So it might be perseverance. It might be love. It might be hate. it might be alligators or animals, or, you know—so, you’ll have keywords and the, um—um, the—the writers can key in that word, and then up comes the transcription from the play of that—of that—that might fit that story—may might fit that thing.</p>
<p class="Default">So, uh, next year’s going to be a comedy. and so we’re, you know—we’re gonna have a theme that’s going to be outta—we don’t know yet—outta, uh—that hadn’t been decided. Uh, that’s how you do it is you decide on your theme and you go to your playwright and say, “I want you to write about this theme and here are your keywords and you can go to all these different” —so maybe when we do an interview—the interview usually lasts an hour and a half, um—in that hour and a half, you might get 10 good stories or 10 stories, you know. It depends on how fast they talk or, you know, what—what you could pull out of ‘em. Some of ‘em in an hour you won’t get one that’s worth anything. But, uh, it might be able to use in backgrounds somewhere. And some of ‘em you could use every single story in, you know—that they tell. They’re all just—oh my gosh. This is great.</p>
<p class="Default">And we have several of those families that have done that and one is Uncle Dieter and one is Mr. [Elmer] Baggs. Both of them have just fabulous stories that they tell and we’ve used them in all of our productions. We’ve used stories from them and we go back, like you said—we go back to them to, you know, harvest more stories from them and ask different questions and—you know. Some of ‘em are just so funny. You know, that you, you forget that you’ve to get in to some of these power depth things too.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Have you encountered any challenges working with a playwright that may or may not be from the Sanford area? is there any challenge to that?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>We—yes. We have had that challenge. Um, the one that the professional group that we used, they came and taught us a lot, and they were not from our area. So they had to do a lot of historical research at the libraries and, um, the historic society, so they got a lot of input there. Though it was very good for them, but also they would say things that we would say, uh, “Stop. We can’t use that. We—this—it’s not correct.” It’s, you know—or it’s too—it’s still too politically, um, explosive. That—that we don’t want to bring that to our town at this point. Later we’ll—we’ll delve into that, but right now we can’t do that.</p>
<p>And, uh, and one of ‘em is about—and it—it—it’s about, uh, ah, the [Mayfair] Country Club. And the—the playwright wanted to put that in there and I said, “We cannot put this in there. They are going to court. This is a lawsuit. It has not been [<em>laughs</em>]—you know, we can’t put something that’s an ongoing thing that maybe somebody would be a juror on that trial that saw our view of this. No, no, no, no, no. we can’t do that.” So it’s a perfect—it’s a perfect example of— of havin’ to help, you know, keep things in the right frame that we want to.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Have you, um, always used, uh, a playwright to produce your plays and a professional director and have you guys done any of that on your own?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>We’re in the process now of doing that and we hired—we’ve hired, um, people who have professional—have had professional experience, but are for—we only use the professionals the first time, ‘cause that was like $125,000 and so we had to raise money for a long time to—to get that together. And that was the year that we signed the contract with the theater. So, you know, all of this and financial part of it all mixes together.</p>
<p>And you realize, once you start this, you are a theater. You know, you’re not just—unless you’re going to keep it on a low key, not very large, but if you want to go big, you’re going to have to be a theater. And we want to go big. We’ve—want to go to the [John F.] Kennedy Center [for Performing Arts] in—in, Washington. We’re already set to be at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. We’re working with Central Florida, uh, uh, Community Arts and they’re gonna do a Christmas that’s gonna be the same show, or similar to the same show, that they put on at Christmas at Disney. So it’s the candlelight, uh, service that you pay 80-90 dollars for and you’ll pay 10-20-15, you know, for this show here. Because we want community to be able to see what we’re doing. And, and, uh, that is—that’s part of our mission, to bring the community together.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Um, so the professional—that’s the direction that you guys are going to go in going forward is using, uh, not necessarily, um, director per se, but definitely a professional playwright and things like that? you going to keep that?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Well, no. we’ve brought the community on the playwright too. As a matter of fact, um, even I helped write [<em>laughs</em>] a little bit of the play that we’re doing right now. So I can’t call myself—I call myself an editor, not a playwright.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Well, that was one of the questions, that, um, regarding—do you have any employees?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>No. we’re—not yet.</p>
<p><strong>Miller <br /></strong>You were talking about having some professionals...</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Uh uh.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>So, um, you hire people as you need them? Or…</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>The way they—yes. and the way that works, um, is that they would get a stipend. Um, you would be for, um, a director, you might pay 750-1000 dollars, something like that. It’s not big money. And they have to work for six or eight weeks before the show to get it ready. I mean, that’s a lot of work for, you know, that kind of money.</p>
<p>Uh, but a lot of community theater only pays the music director. Everybody else is volunteer. And we have thousands and thousands hours of volunteer hours, because we have no paid staff. We do have some[sic] paid artist, but not any paid staff. And nobody and—none of the actors are paid.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>So you draw your expertise from the community also?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Right. and that is a lucky thing that we have. That we have so much theater and, um, entertainment in Central Florida, and people who want to do theater. And they’re tied into day to day jobs that, um, you know, stifle their creative—and, and they do it for free. They do it for the love of theater.</p>
<p>Which I didn’t understand. I’m a businessperson. I came out of, you know, owning my own business for many, many years and my husbands a, uh, CPA [Certified Public Account] and ran an insurance company. And, oh my gosh. You know, everything is the bottom line kiddo [<em>laughs</em>]. So that’s kinda where I fit in. And t’s a little difficult for me to learn and having to learn. And most of the other people on the [Executive] Board are businesspeople. And they—it’s—it’s—it’s somethin’ to learn how to do this.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Well, what—you brought up the board. What role does that—the board play?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Uh, the board makes the decisions on where the money goes, and—and where the fundraisers and, um—we do all the—all the grunt work that has to be done. We do the marketing. We do the, uh, advertising. We do the, uh, um—um, the Celery Ball, which is our main fundraiser.</p>
<p>We reach out to all community to—to get the word out and speak to groups and make connections wherever we can with the politicians, in, uh, um—you know, just have to reach out to every single facet. And it’s—it’s—it’s a miracle. It’s wonderful. It is wonderful. And I love working this class that’s a very diverse class, with older, younger, men, women. It’s great. You know, I going to learn so much from you all [nods].</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>How, um, how is—how is Creative Sanford and <em>Celery Soup</em>, how have—how have you been successful in achieving your goals?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Well, we’ve put on three shows. Yes. We’ve brought in community who have done playwright—playwriting—who have done music, who have done directing, that are from the community, that were paid a small stip—small stipend. And, um, you know, this is—this is the goal. is to bring the community together. We’ve brought people together who would have never have met.</p>
<p>Um, one lady who’s a very prominent, uh, poet, and she was in our show and she helped write a little bit of it. And, um, she was afraid of one the—of one of the people in the show. It was a young black guy and she was an older black lady, but she wasn’t raised in any of the—so she had a whole generational plus economic—there wasn’t a reason to be afraid of this young person. But she was—she was fearful. And so she really learned. And the—and the young person learned too. How to be more respectful and so that’s—that’s a goal is—you know, I think people call it bullying and all of that, but it’s really—it’s learning how to love each other and work with each other, and um, and blend into to, uh, international, you know, family.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>You mentioned earlier that there was a couple of things that, um, you hadn’t achieved. You know, you want to do more outreach with other community groups and things like that?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Is there anything else you—that Creative Sanford would like to do, but you haven’t been able to do yet?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Oh, yes. We’d like to, um—we’d like to have a performing arts center. and we have talked to, uh, Congressman [John L.] Mica about that. um, preliminary, stages, of maybe having an arts council—not an arts council. We have the Seminole Cultural Arts Council, but um, to work with them with Creative Sanford to have our theater in a building, to have uh, um, uh, galleries in the theater, and have gift shops, and have, uh, study areas, and training areas, and studios. I mean, we’ve got a big group of ideas and that would—that would involve all the arts. And that’s one of the things that, um, is real—real difficult to get off the ground on no money. So that’s where you’re going to look for federal grants and that’s where you need your politicians to help you. And Seminole Cultural Arts Council and ourselves are working together to, uh, work with Congressman Mica and—and see if we can get one in Seminole County. You know, there’s a lot people, there’s a lot of money in Seminole County. It’s all going south. So we want to bring some of it back to Seminole County and let them realize that, not only are we a bedroom place, but also a great place to—to just enjoy life and make your whole—whole area more livable.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Um, why is it important—in particular in Sanford, of course—but why is it important that these plays are produced by the community for the community?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Well, that goes right back to, um, people learning each other, meeting each other, uh, getting together, and becoming friends and, um, meshing as a team. And they go out when—when we have done this, um, the group says, “Hey, I know a place that we need to go.” So emails go back and then we just get together, we go out, maybe put on a performance or—not a whole show—but do vignettes, maybe do a little bit of Uncle Dieter maybe do a little bit of, um, Elmer Bags. Just, you know, somethin’ funny or, er, poignant, or somethin’ like that.</p>
<p>We’ve done one called <em>Generations</em>,where the woman tells the story of how her family came from Africa and, you know, where they landed, and you know, how her history came about, and now she’s the last one in her line. And she says—at the end, she says, “Who will remember me? Will you?” And it just—oh, it just gives me cold chills right now. It’s just—it just tells people—opens their eyes and minds and hearts to, you know, what’s going on in the rest of world and how other people are feeling and, um, we always want to do more of that.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Uh, you had mentioned earlier that—that the—that Creative Sanford and <em>Celery Soup </em>in particular had been really well received by the community?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Um, how have you integrated community feedback into your projects and the things that you’re doing, besides just the interviews?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Well, that is—that is one of the big things that we do. When we have the play and getting it ready, okay? We have a day, that we have—invite all the community to come to the theater and we do a run through of the play. And if they have feedback, “Oh that—that story wasn’t there. That story is over on Eleventh Street.” “Oh, this is wrong,” or “I don’t like this,” or, oh—they don’t laugh or, you know, they think something’s offensive. And we take that all into consideration. We’re very much attuned to what—it’s like what we tell the playwrights, sometimes we say, “Hey. Something we already know politically you can’t do that. They’re already in a—they’re already in a lawsuit.” But it is the same thing with other peoples’ feelings. And, um, we had one lady who got up and said she loved this part and the other lady got up and said that, “This isn’t the way it was where I was.” And it was complete opposite, so it was like, “Okay. Well, we’ll tell this story here and let’s interview you and get your story for the next time.”</p>
<p>So it’s—you know, we’re going to tell our stories as much as we can, but we want to—we want to be fair to everybody, but that is what we do. That’s part of the community—that we learned from the professionals. It’s that you have—when you start your cast, you—you have a day that you talk about, um, being compassionate and—and working with your other cast members and all of that sort of thing. And, um, that kind the way it starts and then, you know, we get this real tight group going and people know you now.</p>
<p>For me, see, I am known as the “ticket lady,” because I was always down there working the tickets and, you know, all this. They didn’t know I was president. they didn’t care who I was. I was the ticket lady. That’s the one they saw every night. But now they’re seeing me in a completely different role, because I’m in the play. And I have just a small—I have three small parts, but, you know, one of ‘em is absolutely just as silly as all get out and so they’re seeing, “Oh, the ticket lady does something besides” [<em>laughs</em>], you know, “sell the tickets. She might have some other good things that she can do.” So they’re seeing me in a different light and I think we see everybody in a different light. That—that whatever they perceive themselves to be, we’re seeing them in a different, more human light.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Well you’ve been with the project from the beginning, um…</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Just about.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Well, what—what are your biggest surprises about this?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Oh, all of it. All of it. I had no idea how much work it was gonna be, how much fun it was gonna be, how enlightening it was gonna be. It’s just been—it’s just—it’s been like [<em>sighs</em>] renewed youth of somethin’. You know, you’ve thought,<em> Oh, well, my identity is a restaurant owner. This—I’m the Rib Ranch</em>, you know. Well then you retire and I got all involved in this and—and, uh, now I feel like, “Well, hey. This, this is rejuvenated me.” and, you know, put your brain in gear again and you have all these new goals, because I’d already completed all my goals. I was the best restaurant that sold barbeque in Seminole County and, you know, where do you go from there? So this was a new goal and set new things. So age never matters. Grandma Moses became famous in her 80s, so maybe I’ll become famous in my 70s [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Ah, what are some of the challenges in creating and maintaining a project like <em>Celery Soup</em>?</p>
<p><strong>Thompso<br /></strong>Financial. There you go. That’s the bottom line. That’s the big problem, is getting’ the money. Yup.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Well, um, you mentioned fundraisers.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>And you have a Celery Ball.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Do you want to describe that a little bit and some of the other fundraisers?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Okay. What we’ve done—and, of course, this has evolved too. When we first started we had the Celery Ball, we had a king and queen. And the king and queen raised money—the king and queen candidates raised money—and, um, the first year we raised over $30,000. The second year about $30,000. The third year about $25,000. And the fourth year $10,000. Okay. economy. There you go. The economy’s going down, people didn’t have money to do all this, so that next year it was—we had a lot of silent auctions. We did not have, and we’re not having this year, a king and queen.</p>
<p>So we feel like—okay. We’ve kind of burned that out. it’s got a life of about four years and then you’ve got to go to something else. So we’ve moved the play—we’ve moved it to a different location. It’s gonna be a <em>The Great Gatsby </em>themed, so it’s gonna to be ‘20s-‘30s. Gonna be a lotta fun and, uh, um—and we have silent auction and trips and things like that, that we’re gonna be putting out to—to raise money instead of having—it was real easy when you had kings and queens and they’re all out having fundraisers and, you know, they’re doing all the work and you’re raking in the money. But it doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t work that way for the whole thing.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Alright, um…</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>[inaudible]</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Yeah, uh, what are, um, some of your production costs? And in that the price of your tickets and stuff?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Mmhmm. okay. We price our tickets at $15—well 20 and 18 at first—and then we moved it down to 15 and 12. And, ah—again, it’s to meet the mission of bringing things and the quality—best quality we can—to the community. And these are bad times. I don’t know how you guys are seeing it, but, you know, everybody is working one or two, you know—working extra jobs. Still not, you know, cuttin’ it with the way things are going with businesses, where they’re cutting people’s hours back. “Oh, we’re only going to give you 26 and we’re never gonna give you more than 32, so you can’t be a full-time employee, so we won’t have to pay you benefits.” Da, da, da, da, da.</p>
<p>So we look at all of that and, uh, we decided on our price, and because we’re not usin’ the professionals. We’re back—we give just the small stipend—we do a production, is about 10,000, mkay? Is what it costs us to put on a production. and a lot of it is borrowing from different places in the community. Oh, and now that we’re a co-op we can say, “Oh, do you have some lights we can borrow?” Whereas we may have had to spend 10,000 on lights the first year, which we did. We had to rent ‘em. That, you know, now we can get lights and—as a matter of fact, we just had two people who gave us lights just in the last week. So, you know, we’re getting the lights—we don’t still have as much lighting as we need, and that’s one of the things that we’ll get a grant to help us get lighting and sound equipment and, you know, these kinds of things that we need. But, um, yeah. that’s it. Financial.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Um, much of what <em>Celery Soup </em>has been doing is preserving the history of and the stories of Sanford.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>How are you preserving the legacy of <em>Celery Soup </em>and Creative Sanford itself?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Well, we have two ways. Uh, Alicia [Clarke] at the, um, Sanford Museum has asked us for copies of everything. So they’re going to archive the beginnings and all of our—as time goes by, they’ll do it. And so I’m keeping double records of, you know, two pieces of paper and so we’ll keep one and give one to her. And of course, we’re expecting that a lot of our archiving is going to go up on RICHES, so we’ll have that as part of our archival process.</p>
<p>And we, um—you have to have a disaster program, you know, and so we have disaster programs and we have things backed up with—on the flash drives—or we have them backed up on secondary computers. We have, um, fireproof safes that we keep things in. and we keep things off, um—out of the office. I don’t—I can’t think of what the word is. but somewhere else that, um, we keep things—the financial things and the historic things—um, backed up. So that’s how we have to do it. And—and the things like this, I’m really happy that if anything happened to this little dress, um—this was the dress that was worn by the little two and a half year old little girl, who was in our very first production—Kalayla. and, um, so definitely want pictures of that. And that’s—that’s an archival thing. If this rotted, we wouldn’t have it. So…</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>Okay. um, how do you keep the community engaged in <em>Celery Soup</em>, uh, especially long-term?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>That’s a problem. You have to keep moving and especially when we have to look two ways: the economy and wearing yourself out, you know, with asking people over and over again for help. And, uh— so the engagement—we just try to broaden and not to go back to the same wells every time. That if there’s 54,000 people in this town, and if 2,000 people are helping us, we need to get to the next 2,000 and the next 2,000, and the next 2,000. And we’ve reached, um,—as a matter of fact, just last week we were given a check for $250 from an organization that had never helped us before. So here we are. We’re getting into that outer ring and so we’ll just, slowly but surely, we’re just gonna reach out all through the whole area and get some of these people.</p>
<p>Mercedes[-Benz] helped us and then they kind of backed—backed away with what they were doing and so we’re going to different places to make this thing work. And we’re on David Maus’ [Toyota’s] jumbo-tron out there, which we’ve never been on there before and so, you know, that’s a first for us. So we just keep moving ou.t and we’ve never had any kind of TV advertising or never had any TV that supported us, and so this year, uh—this 2014, we’re really gonna put a push on getting sponsors of, um, in kind or whatever we can get from the, uh, major stations. We’ve had radio. We’ve had, um, um, public and NCR<a title="">[3]</a> and public broadcasting, but we want to get more into the mainstream too.</p>
<p class="Default"><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Um, I know that we are getting tight on time, so we have one last question that we’d like to ask you, before we release you.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>Okay. Mkay.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Uh, but what advice would you give another community thinking about beginning a similar project?</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>The advice that I would give them is to contact everybody that has ever done one that you can find and ask them the questions that you’re asking. How do you do it? How much did it cost? We had a group that came in and asked us those questions and we answered them and, uh, and it was very interesting. We had—they came down and visited us and it was a very interesting time.</p>
<p>But, um, whatever the people tell you it’s going to cost, figure it’s going to cost at least 50 percent or a third to 50 percent more, okay? It’s much more expensive than you think it’s gonna be. Uh, some people think, “Oh, well everything be given to us.” and that’s what we were told” Oh, people would just reach out to you and they’re gonna give you this and they’re gonna give—let me tell ya. in a big market like this, they don’t do that. Maybe in very small towns, yes. You can get that kind of immediate help, but in a big, big area like we’re in it’s not the same process. And that’s where we differ with <em>Swamp Gravy </em>too, in that, you know, we have a very different financial field back and forth there.</p>
<p>So, yeah. It’s, um— it is—it’s mainly financial, legal. Be sure if you write contracts, if you go with professionals that, you know, you get a good tight that you’re protected and safe. And we went to an entertainment attorney and had her look over the contract and make changes and things to protect us a little bit better. So those are the things that you’ve got to have.</p>
<p><strong>Reisz<br /></strong>Well thank you very, very much. We greatly appreciate it. Um, we really appreciate it. And then we’ll probably come up with some other questions. If you think we missed anything, let us know. We’d be happy to ask about it.</p>
<p><strong>Thompson<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>] Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Miller<br /></strong>And we…</p>
<div><br /><div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> <em>The Sanford Herald</em>.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[2]</a> <em>State of Florida v. George Zimmerman</em>.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Correction: National Public Radio (NPR).</p>
</div>
</div>
11th Street
1st Street
501(c)(3)
Bagg, Elmer
Baggs
Bram Towers
Broadway
Celery Ball
Celery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play
Central Florida
Central Florida Community Arts
Clarke, Alicia
Colquitt, Georgia
community theater
Creative Sanford, Inc.
Crooms Academy of Information Technology
David Maus Toyota
Disney
Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center
Dreamers and Schemers
Eleventh Street
First Street
fourth wall
Generations
Grandma Moses
Grease
Great Gatsby
Holocaust and Interfaith Council
Hopper Academy
Humanities Council
I-4
Interstate-4
John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts
Kalayla
Knight, Margot H.
Made - Not Bought
Maus, David
Mayfair Country Club
Mercedes-Benz
Mica, John L.
Miller, Mark
Mr. Baggs
oral history
Orlando, Florida
Princess Theater
race relations
Reisz, Autumn
Remade - Not Bought
Rib Ranch
RICHES Mosaic Interface
RICHES of Central Florida
Roman-Toro, Freddie
Sanford
Sanford Museum
Sanford Welcome Center
Seminole Cultural Arts Council
Serenity Towers
Sleeping Beauty
Spam-A-Lot
Swamp Gravy
Swamp Gravy Institute
Talks From the Stalks
Taylor, Jeanine
The Holocaust
The Princess Players
The Sanford Herald
The Villages
theater
theater manager
Thompson, Trish
Tony Award
Touch and Go
Uncle Dieter
United Art of Central Florida
Wicked
-
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/aa68d21807557616253d866a6f0c7a7d.mp3
efcdc05ec3e8d4bb65aebe6b0b721b6e
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Marie Jones Francis Collection
Alternative Title
Francis Collection
Subject
Midwives, African American
Midwives--Florida
Midwifery--United States
Georgetown (Sanford, Fla.)
Sanford (Fla.)
African Americans--Florida--Sanford
Description
Collection of digital images, documents, and other records depicting the life and work of Marie Jones Francis. Francis, the "midwife of Sanford," lived at 621 East Sixth Street in Sanford, Florida. Francis, the "midwife of Sanford," left behind a successful hotel and restaurant she owned in Sarasota in 1942 to return to Sanford and become a midwife. World War II caused a shortage in doctors and nurses, so Florida's Children's Bureau sent Francis to Florida A & M to acquire her practical nursing license in 1945. She specialized in premature babies and returned to Sanford to aid her mother, Carrie Jones, at Fernald-Laughton Memorial Hospital before they opened the ward in their home. "When her health starting failing," she recollects in a newspaper article, "I took over." Francis converted her house at 621 East Sixth Street to also serve as a maternity ward, where she delivered over 40,000 babies over her 32 year career. She became a midwife in the same vein as her mother, Carrie Jones, and together they ran the Jones-Francis Maternity Hall in Georgetown.<br /><br /> Francis served her community in several ways. She delivered babies for both white and black families from Seminole County, primarily patrons who either preferred natural births or could not afford deliveries at a hospital. In the 1950s, it cost $70 to stay nine days where soon-to-be mothers were taken care of. Francis was assisted by her sister, Annie Walker, who did the cooking. The house and ward also served as a school, where Marie Francis taught nurses the art of midwifery. Nurses would come from across the state to learn how to delivery infants naturally. A heavy burden on a single working mother, Marie Francis had three daughters, Cassandra Clayton, Daphne Humphrey, and Barbara Torre. Clayton and Humphrey became school teachers and Torre became a purchaser at Seminole Memorial Hospital.
Contributor
Firpo, Julio R.
Humphrey, Daphne Francis
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Georgetown, Sanford, Florida
Contributing Project
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/buildingblocks.php" target="_blank">Building Blocks</a>
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Firpo, Julio R.
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
Dickinson, Joy Wallace. "<a href="http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/02/24/3287685.htm" target="_blank">A Very Rich Trail: Florida’s Black Heritage is Celebrated in an Updated and Expanded State Publication</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, February 24, 2008, page J1. http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/02/24/3287685.htm.
Moore, Stacy. "<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2922" target="_blank">Midwife on Job Here 32 Years</a>." <em>The Little Sentinel</em>, April 4, 1979, page 26.
Jeria, Michelle. "<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2933" target="_blank">Sanford's Birth Place: Marie Jones Francis Delivered More than 40,000 Babies in Her Sixth Street Home</a>." <em>The Sanford Herald</em>, Feb 16, 2003, page 1C.
"<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2944" target="_blank">Midwives Supply Needed Service Community</a>." <em>The Sanford Herald</em><span>, July 24, 1964, page 3.</span>
Flewellyn, Valada Parker, and the Sanford Historical Society. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/320804616" target="_blank"><em>African Americans of Sanford</em></a>. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2009.
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/44" target="_blank">Seminole County Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/16" target="_blank">Sanford Collection</a>, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/41" target="_blank">Georgetown Collection</a>, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
Firpo, Julio R.
Interviewee
Humphrey, Daphne F.
Location
Altamonte Springs, Florida
Original Format
1 audio recording
Duration
1 hour, 29 minutes, and 47 seconds
Bit Rate/Frequency
1411 kbps
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Daphne F. Humphrey
Alternative Title
Oral History, Humphrey
Subject
Sanford (Fla.)
Georgetown (Sanford, Fla.)
African Americans--Florida--Sanford
Education--Florida
Teachers--Florida
Educators--Florida
Midwives--United States
Maternity homes--United States
Description
Daphne F. Humphrey was born in Sarasota, Florida, but migrated to Sanford at age 5. In this oral history, she first describes Georgetown, an historic African-American community in Sanford. She then talks of her mother, Marie Jones Francis, the "midwife of Sanford," in great detail. She then spends time speaking of her own life and becoming a teacher.<br /><br /> Marie Jones Francis, the "midwife of Sanford," left behind a successful hotel and restaurant she owned in Sarasota in 1942 to return to Sanford and become a midwife. World War II caused a shortage in doctors and nurses, so Florida's Children's Bureau sent Francis to Florida A & M to acquire her practical nursing license in 1945. She specialized in premature babies and returned to Sanford to aid her mother, Carrie Jones, at Fernald-Laughton Memorial Hospital before they opened the ward in their home. "When her health starting failing," she recollects in a newspaper article, "I took over." Francis converted her house at 621 East Sixth Street to also serve as a maternity ward, where she delivered over 40,000 babies over her 32 year career. She became a midwife in the same vein as her mother, Carrie Jones, and together they ran the Jones-Francis Maternity Hall in Georgetown.<br /><br /> Francis served her community in several ways. She delivered babies for both white and black families from Seminole County, primarily patrons who either preferred natural births or could not afford deliveries at a hospital. In the 1950s, it cost $70 to stay nine days where soon-to-be mothers were taken care of. Francis was assisted by her sister, Annie Walker, who did the cooking. The house and ward also served as a school, where Marie Francis taught nurses the art of midwifery. Nurses would come from across the state to learn how to delivery infants naturally. A heavy burden on a single working mother, Marie Francis had three daughters, Cassandra Clayton, Daphne Humphrey, and Barbara Torre. Clayton and Humphrey became school teachers and Torre became a purchaser at Seminole Memorial Hospital.
Table Of Contents
0:00:00 Introduction<br />0:00:23 Growing up in Sanford<br />0:01:12 Interaction between black and white community<br />0:02:12 Layout of Georgetown<br />0:03:25 Sanford Avenue<br />0:12:04 East Sixth Street<br />0:13:00 Locust Avenue<br />0:14:37 Hickory Avenue<br />0:15:06 Goose Hollow<br />0:34:42 Marie Jones Francis and Carrie Jones<br />0:16:45 Students trained by Francis<br />0:19:15 Memories of her mother and her childhood<br />0:26:56 Experience as a teacher<br />0:30:01 African-American businesses and people in Georgetown<br />0:39:53 Parents<br />0:47:52 Age and mental retention<br />00:51:26 Education, employment, and siblings<br />0:53:38 Childhood neighborhood<br />0:57:31 Reflections on life<br />0:59:53 Growing up in Sarasota<br />1:02:46 How children have changed over time<br />1:04:26 Friends and family<br />1:11:24 Working at a health food store<br />1:12:18 Former students<br />1:15:11 Importance of being polite and respectful<br />1:16:16 Importance of reading<br />1:18:08 Daily plans and the RICHES project<br />1:19:39 Goldsboro<br />1:23:58 Childhood neighborhood <br />1:29:40 Closing remarks
Abstract
Oral history interview of Daphne F. Humphrey. Interview conducted by Julio R. Firpo at the home of Daphne F. Humphrey in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
Type
Sound
Source
Humphrey, Daphne F. Interview by Julio R. Firpo. Home of Daphne F. Humphrey. April 8, 2011. Audio record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>.
Requires
Multimedia software, such as <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" target="_blank"> QuickTime</a>.
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/78" target="_blank">Marie Jones Francis Collection</a>, Georgetown Collection, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Coverage
John R. Hurston House, Georgetown, Sanford, Florida
Jones-Francis Maternity Hall, Georgetown, Sanford, Florida
Creator
Firpo, Julio R.
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
Contributor
Humphrey, Daphne F.
Date Created
2011-04-08
Date Modified
2014-03-19
Format
audio/mp3
Extent
906 MB
Medium
1-hour, 29-minute, and 47-second audio recording
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Geography Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Julio R. Firpo and published by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>.
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
Accrual Method
Item Creation
Contributing Project
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/buildingblocks.php" target="_blank">Building Blocks</a>
Curator
Firpo, Julio R.
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
External Reference
Dickinson, Joy Wallace. "<a href="http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/02/24/3287685.htm" target="_blank">A Very Rich Trail: Florida Black Heritage is Celebrated in an Updated and Expanded StatePublication</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, February 24, 2008, J1. http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/02/24/3287685.htm.
Moore, Stacy. "<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2922" target="_blank">Midwife on Job Here 32 Years</a>." <em>The Little Sentinel</em>, April 4, 1979, 26. https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2922.
Jeria, Michelle. "<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2933" target="_blank">Sanford's Birth Place</a>." <em>The Sanford Herald</em>, Feb 16, 2003, 1C. https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/items/show/2933.
Flewellyn, Valada Parker, and the Sanford Historical Society. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/320804616" target="_blank"><em>African Americans of Sanford</em></a>. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2009.
Sanford Historical Society (Fla.). <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53015288" target="_blank"><em>Sanford</em></a>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003.
6th Street
African American
childbirth
education
educator
Francis, Marie Jones
Georgetown
Goose Hollow
health food store
Hickory Avenue
Humphrey, Daphne F.
Jones, Carrie
Locust Avenue
maternity home
midwife
race relations
reading
retail
RICHES of Central Florida
Sanford
Sanford Avenue
Sarasota
shop
Sixth Street
store
student
teacher
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
General Collection
Description
Collection of digital images, documents, and other records depicting the history of Florida. Series descriptions are based on special topics, the majority of which students focused their metadata entries around.
Florida was first inhabited by Paleo-Indians as early as 14,000 years ago. By the 16th century, several distinct Native American tribes inhabited present-day Florida, primarily the Apalachee of the Panhandle, the Timucua of North and Central Florida), the Ais of the Central Atlantic Coast, the Tocobaga of the Tampa Bay area, the Calusa of Southwest Florida, and the Tequesta of the Southeast Florida.
In 1513, Juan Ponce de León of Spain became the earliest known European explorer to arrive in Florida. During the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, Spanish, French, and English pioneers settled various parts of the states, though not all settlement were successful. Most of the region was owned by Spain, until it was ceded to the United States via the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. On March 3, 1845, Florida earned statehood. Florida was marred by nearly constant warfare with the Native Americans in the region, particularly with the Seminoles during the Seminole Wars.
On January 10, 1861, Florida seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of American on January 20th. The state's participation in the Civil War revolved mostly around the transportation of goods via ships.
On June 25, 1868, Florida regained its representation in Congress. During the Reconstruction period, Florida drafted a new state constitution, which included statues that effectively disenfranchised its African-American citizens, as well as many poor white citizens.
Through much of its early history, Florida's economy relied heavily upon agriculture, especially citrus, cattle, sugarcane, tomatoes, and strawberries. Florida's tourism industry developed greatly with the economic prosperity of the 1920s. However, this was halted by devastating hurricanes in the second half of the decade, the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and the Great Depression. The economy would not fully recover until manufacturing was stimulated by World War II. As of 2014, Florida was the third most populous state in the country.
Contributor
Humphrey, Daphne F.
Alternative Title
General Collection
Subject
Florida
Eatonville (Fla.)
Orlando (Fla.)
Winter Park (Fla.)
Sanford (Fla.)
Daytona Beach (Fla.)
New Smyrna Beach (Fla.)
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>.
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Eatonville, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Winter Park, Florida
Sanford , Florida
Daytona Beach, Florida
New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
"<a href="http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/" target="_blank">Florida History</a>." Florida Department of State. http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/.
<span>Knotts, Bob. </span><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49672975" target="_blank"><em>Florida History</em></a><span>. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2003.</span>
Website
A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ).
Original Format
1 motion picture
Duration
23 minutes and 58 seconds
Producer
Kriete, Logan
Fernández, Slyvana
Monticello, Monica
Director
Cassanello, Robert A.
Mills, Lisa
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Florida’s Purge: The Johns Committee Witch Hunt
Alternative Title
The Committee
Subject
Education--Florida
Civil rights--Florida
Gainesville (Fla.)
Tallahassee (Fla.)
Colleges
Universities
Homosexuality--Florida
Description
<em>Florida’s Purge: The Johns Committee Witch Hunt</em>, known colloquially as <em>The Committee</em>, is a short film about the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee's investigation of communism and homosexuality amongst students and faculty at Florida colleges and universities. Commonly known as the Johns Committee, the committee was led by state senator and former governor Charley Eugene Johns (1905-1990). The committee was established in 1956 and originally focused on the investigation of the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, an historically African-American university, for its faculty's and staff's involvement of the Tallahassee Bus Boycott (1956-1957). However, as the committee expanded its McCarthy era anti-communist witch hunt, it came to focus on the homosexual lifestyles of many faculty members and students at colleges and universities. After growing public critique of the committee's activities, it was eventually disbanded on July 1, 1965. <br /><br /><em>The Committee</em> centers on the anti-homosexual investigations of the Johns Committee. The film was produced and directed by University of Central Florida professor Dr. Robert Cassanello and Dr. Lisa Mills. Other producers include Slyvana Fernández and Logan Kriete, and Monica Monticello serves as associate producer. The screenplay was written by Monica Monticello, Kathryn Paulson, and Amy Simpson, with research conducted by Alex Boyce and Shay Cambre. Ben Taylor and Alex Wood were the cinematographers and the arts and graphics were created by Patrick Fenelon and Adrien Mills. The film was edited by Aaron Hosé, with the aid of assistant editors Chelsea Echols and David Mariutto. <em>The Committee</em> includes interviews with Ruth Jense-Forbell, a lesbian student interrogated by the Florida State University Police Department in 1964-1965; Chuck Woods, a homosexual student interrogated by the University of Florida Police Department while attending the university from 1959 to 1965; John Tileston, Sr., a UF police officer who investigated various faculty members and students, including Woods; Dr. Karen Graves, a professor of education at Denison University and the author of <em>And They Were Wonderful Teachers: Florida’s Purge of Gay and Lesbian Teachers</em>; Dr. Judith Poucher, a professor at Florida State College at Jacksonville; Bob Graham, a graduate of UF, the 38th Governor of Florida (1979-1987), and former U.S. Senator for Florida (1987-2005); and Dr. Fred Fejes, a professor of multimedia studies at Florida Atlantic University. <em>Florida’s Purge: The Johns Committee Witch Hunt</em> won various awards and accolades, including an Emmy Award.
Type
Moving Image
Source
Original 23-minute and 58-second motion picture produced by Dr. Robert Cassanello, Dr. Lisa Mills, Slyvana Fernández, and Logan Kriete: <a href="http://www.thecommitteedocumentary.org/" target="_blank"><em>Florida's Purge: The Johns Committee Witch Hunt</em></a>, <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>, Orlando, Florida, 2013.
Requires
<a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/" target="_blank">Adobe Flash Player</a>
<a href="http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp" target="_blank">Java</a>
Coverage
Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, Tallahassee, Florida
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
Florida State College at Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida
Stonewall Inn, Greenwich Village, New York City, New York
Creator
Cassanello, Robert
Mills, Lisa
Fernández, Slyvana
Kriete, Logan
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES<br /></a>
Contributor
Hosé, Aaron
Monticello, Monica
Paulson, Kathryn
Simpson, Amy
Taylor, Ben
Wood, Alex
Brown, Timothy
Hosé, Brigitte
Echols, Chelsea
Mariutto, David
Boyce, Alex
Cambre, Shay
Fenelson, Patrick
Mills, Adrien
Jensen-Forbell, Ruth
Woods, Chuck
Fejes, Fred
Graham, Bob
Graves, Karen
Poucher, Judith
Tileston, John, Sr.
Jensen-Forbell, Elizabeth
Date Created
2013-2014
Date Copyrighted
2014
Format
application/website
Medium
23-minute and 58-second motion picture
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Civics/Government Teacher
Geography Teacher
Provenance
Originally produced by Dr. Robert Cassanello, Dr. Lisa Mills, Slyvana Fernández, and Logan Kriete and published by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a>.
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a>
Accrual Method
Item Creation
Contributing Project
<a href="http://history.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">UCF Department of History</a>
<a href="http://svad.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">UCF Department of Film</a>
<a href="http://honors.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">UCF Burnett Honors College</a>
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
Cassanello, Robert, Lisa Mills, Slyvana Fernández, and Logan Kriete. <a href="http://www.riches.cah.ucf.edu/committee/view.php" target="_blank"><em>Florida's Purge: The Johns Committee Witch Hunt</em></a>. RICHES of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, 2013.
Graves, Karen. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/246893193" target="_blank"><em>And They Were Wonderful Teachers: Florida's Purge of Gay and Lesbian Teachers</em></a>. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009.
Beutke, Allyson A., et al. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47028564" target="_blank"><em>Behind Closed Doors The Dark Legacy of the Johns Committee</em></a>. Gainesville, Fla: University of Florida, Dept. of Journalism, Documentary Institute, 2000.
Florida. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51244830" target="_blank"><em>Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida, A Report of the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee</em></a>. 1964.
Click to View (Movie, Podcast, or Website)
<a href="http://www.thecommitteedocumentary.org/" target="_blank"><em>Florida’s Purge: The Johns Committee Witch Hunt</em></a>
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/36" target="_blank">General Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
Aaron Hosé
Adams Street
Adrien Mills
Advanced Documentary Workshop
African Americans
Alex Boyce
Alex Wood
Allyson Beutke
Amy Simpson
And They Were Wonderful Teachers: Florida's Purge of Gay and Lesbian Teachers
Anita Jane Bryant
anthropophagy
anti-Communism
anti-communists
Art Darling
ArtServe Fort Lauderdale
Atlanta's Out on Film LGBT Film Festival
Barbara Washington
Barry Sandler
Barry Sefteur
Behind Closed Doors: The Dark Legacy of the Johns Committee
Ben Taylor
Bill Young
Black's Law Dictionary
Bob Ewart
Bob Graham
boycotts
Brigitte Hosé
British Columbia, Canada
Broward County Sheriff's Office
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Bryan W. Knicely
C. Lawrence Rice
C. W. Young
Charley Eugene Johns
Chelsea Echols
Chip Burpee
Chuck Woods
cinemas
citrus
civil rights
civil rights activists
Cleveland
colleges
communism
communists
courts
Dade County
Daniel Robert Graham
David Mariutto
David Messer
David Morton
David Starner
David Strickland
Diane Maurtie
Don Uhrig
Donna Zell
Durban Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
education
educators
Elizabeth Forbell
Elizabeth Jensen-Forbell
Emmy Award
FAU
films
flagellation
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Citrus Commission
Florida Film Festival
Florida Legislative Investigation Committee
Florida State College at Jacksonville
Florida State Legislature
Florida State Senate
Florida State University
Florida State University Marching Band
Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
Frank Rose
Fred Fejes
Fred Ottle
FSC
FSU
FSU Marching Band
Gasparilla International Film Festival
gay
gay clubs
gay marriage
gay pride
gay pride parades
George B. Stallings, Jr.
George Stupksi
Governor of Florida
governors
Graveville
Greenwich Village, New York
High Springs
higher education
homophobia
homosexuality
Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida: A Report of the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee
homosexuals
International Jury Award
interrogations
investigations
J. Wayne Reitz
J. Wayne Reitz Student Union
James Monticello
Jennifer Campbell
Jeremy Mayeres
Jesse Monteagudo
Jim Noah
Joe McCarthy
John E. Evans
John Perez
John Tileston, Sr.
Johns Committee
Jon Bowen
Jordan Henry
Joseph Holbrooks
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy
Judith Poucher
Julia Andrew
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https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/cd74f6d4f021c278f1ade750cb885974.pdf
bdd511db4f3e441d5ee27c985c92705a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
General Collection
Description
Collection of digital images, documents, and other records depicting the history of Florida. Series descriptions are based on special topics, the majority of which students focused their metadata entries around.
Florida was first inhabited by Paleo-Indians as early as 14,000 years ago. By the 16th century, several distinct Native American tribes inhabited present-day Florida, primarily the Apalachee of the Panhandle, the Timucua of North and Central Florida), the Ais of the Central Atlantic Coast, the Tocobaga of the Tampa Bay area, the Calusa of Southwest Florida, and the Tequesta of the Southeast Florida.
In 1513, Juan Ponce de León of Spain became the earliest known European explorer to arrive in Florida. During the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, Spanish, French, and English pioneers settled various parts of the states, though not all settlement were successful. Most of the region was owned by Spain, until it was ceded to the United States via the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. On March 3, 1845, Florida earned statehood. Florida was marred by nearly constant warfare with the Native Americans in the region, particularly with the Seminoles during the Seminole Wars.
On January 10, 1861, Florida seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of American on January 20th. The state's participation in the Civil War revolved mostly around the transportation of goods via ships.
On June 25, 1868, Florida regained its representation in Congress. During the Reconstruction period, Florida drafted a new state constitution, which included statues that effectively disenfranchised its African-American citizens, as well as many poor white citizens.
Through much of its early history, Florida's economy relied heavily upon agriculture, especially citrus, cattle, sugarcane, tomatoes, and strawberries. Florida's tourism industry developed greatly with the economic prosperity of the 1920s. However, this was halted by devastating hurricanes in the second half of the decade, the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and the Great Depression. The economy would not fully recover until manufacturing was stimulated by World War II. As of 2014, Florida was the third most populous state in the country.
Contributor
Humphrey, Daphne F.
Alternative Title
General Collection
Subject
Florida
Eatonville (Fla.)
Orlando (Fla.)
Winter Park (Fla.)
Sanford (Fla.)
Daytona Beach (Fla.)
New Smyrna Beach (Fla.)
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>.
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Eatonville, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Winter Park, Florida
Sanford , Florida
Daytona Beach, Florida
New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
"<a href="http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/" target="_blank">Florida History</a>." Florida Department of State. http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/.
<span>Knotts, Bob. </span><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49672975" target="_blank"><em>Florida History</em></a><span>. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2003.</span>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
Lester, Connie L.
Clark, James C.
Interviewee
Hitt, John C.
Berridge, Randolph E.
Panousis, Peter T.
Holsenbeck, Dan
Martine, Carrie
Pynn, Roger
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of the Florida High-Tech Corridor Council
Alternative Title
Oral History of the Florida High-Tech Corridor Council
Subject
High technology--United States
Colleges
Universities
Orlando (Fla.)
Tampa (Fla.)
Gainesville (Fla.)
Description
An oral history interview of John C. Hitt, Randolph E. Berridge, Dr. Peter T. Panousis, Dan Holsenbeck, Carrie Martine, and Roger Pynn regarding the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. This interview conducted by Dr. Connie L. Lester and James C. Clark at the Board Room in the Office of University of Central Florida President John C. Hitt on December 3rd, 2012. The Florida High Tech Corridor Council (FHTCC) is an economic development initiative whose mission is to foster the high technology industry in Florida's High Tech Corridor, which spans 23 counties with rich industries in aerospace engineering, modeling and simulation, optics and photonics, digital media, and medical technologies. The council consists of the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, and the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville. In 1996, the Florida Legislature passed an act founding the FHTCC to support the 21-county service areas of UCF and USF. Its original mission was to expand research and educational partnerships in order to retain the Cirent Semiconductor water fabrication facility located in Orlando, Florida. In 1997, the development of all technology industries across Central Florida was added to the FHTCC's mission. UF joined the partnership in 2005.<br /><br />Interview topics include: how the High Tech Corridor Council began, the Dallas-Fort Worth Corridor in Texas, Charlie Reed, reinvesting the original funding, expanding partnerships, Silicon Valley, Lynda Weatherman and economic development in Brevard County, the “Core Team” and the “Pajama Hotline,” the Florida Virtual Entrepreneur Center, serving as a model for other regions, the role of venture capitalism, workforce development, the expansion of the corridor, the impact of the business community on approval of university projects, and future challenges.
Table Of Contents
0:00:01 Introduction<br />0:00:53 How the Florida High Tech Corridor Council began<br />0:07:24 Taking the plan to the Florida State Legislature<br />0:13:37 The Dallas-Fort Worth Corridor and project conception<br />0:20:11 Intellectual property<br />0:25:47 Charlie Reed<br />0:28:43 Reinvesting the original funding<br />0:31:10 Expanding partnerships and funding<br />0:35:57 Silicon Valley<br />0:40:02 Role of partnership in the success of the Corridor<br />0:48:18 Lynda Weatherman and Economic Development in Brevard County<br />0:51:01 “Core Team” and the “Pajama Hotline”<br />0:54:40 Florida Virtual Entrepreneur Center<br />0:58:46 A model for other regions<br />1:02:10 Growing and retaining versus buying jobs<br />1:13:27 Role of venture capitalism<br />1:20:35 Workforce development<br />1:27:52 Expansion of the Corridor<br />1:39:08 Impact of business community on approval of university projects<br />1:42:28 Future challenges
Abstract
Oral history interview of John C. Hitt, Randolph E. Berridge, Dr. Peter T. Panousis, Dan Holsenbeck, Carrie Martine, and Roger Pynn. Interview conducted by Dr. Connie L. Lester and James C. Clark.
Type
Moving Image
Source
Original 1-hour, 59-minute, and 19-second oral history: Hitt, John C., Randolph E. Berridge, Dr. Peter T. Panousis, Dan Holsenbeck, Carrie Martine, and Roger Pynn. Interviewed by Dr. Connie L. Lester and James C. Clark. December 3, 2012. Audio/video record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Requires
<a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/" target="_blank"> Adobe Flash Player</a>
<a href="http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp" target="_blank"> Java</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/collections/show/36" target="_blank">General Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
Has Format
50-paged typed digital transcript of original 1-hour, 59-minute, and 19-second oral history: Hitt, John C., Randolph E. Berridge, Dr. Peter T. Panousis, Dan Holsenbeck, Carrie Martine, and Roger Pynn. Interviewed by Dr. Connie L. Lester and James C. Clark. December 3, 2012. Audio/video record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Coverage
University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
AT&T Semiconductor Plant, Orlando, Florida
Gray-Robinson Law Firm, Orlando, Florida
Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale, California
Lake Nona Medical City, Orlando, Florida
Florida Polytechnic University, Lakeland, Florida
Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, Rockledge, Florida
National Academy of Inventors, Tampa, Florida
Department of Economic Opportunity, Tallahassee, Florida
Florida High Tech Corridor Council, Heathrow, Florida
Harrah's Cherokee Casino, Cherokee, North Carolina
GrowFl: Florida Economic Gardening Institute, Orlando, Florida
Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, Orlando, Florida
Florida Power & Light Company, Winter Park, Florida
Central Florida Research Park, Orlando, Florida
Creator
Lester, Connie L.
Hitt, John C.
Berridge, Randolph E.
Panousis, Peter T.
Holsenbeck, Dan
Clark, James C.
Martine, Carrie
Pynn, Roger
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
Contributor
Dickens, Bethany
Date Created
2012-12-03
Date Modified
2015-01-26
Date Copyrighted
2012-12-03
Format
video/mp4
application/pdf
Extent
298 MB
383 KB
Medium
1-hour, 59-minute, and 19-second audio/video recording
50-page typed digital transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Civics/Government Teacher
Economics Teacher
Science Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Dr. Connie L. Lester, James C. Clark, John C. Hitt, Randolph E. Berridge, Dr. Peter T. Panousis, Dan Holsenbeck, Carrie Martine, and Roger Pynn and published by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>.
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
Accrual Method
Item Creation
Contributing Project
<a href="http://www.floridahightech.com/%20target=">Florida High Tech Corridor Council</a>
Curator
Cravero, Geoffrey
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a>
External Reference
"<a href="http://www.floridahightech.com/about/" target="_blank">ABOUT</a>." Florida High Tech Corridor. http://www.floridahightech.com/about/.
Burnett, Richard. "<a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-09-19/business/os-cfb-tech-corridor-092010-20100919_1_grant-program-florida-high-tech-corridor-council-advocacy-group" target="_blank">Technology: Local council's grant program wins award</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, September 19, 2010. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-09-19/business/os-cfb-tech-corridor-092010-20100919_1_grant-program-florida-high-tech-corridor-council-advocacy-group.
Florida High Tech Corridor Council. "<a href="http://www.floridahightech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Press-Kit-florida.HIGH_.TECH-2014.pdf%20target=">florida.HIGH.TECH 2014: The Guide to Florida's High Tech Corridor</a>." Florida High Tech Corridor Council. http://www.floridahightech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Press-Kit-florida.HIGH_.TECH-2014.pdf.
Manning, Margie. "<a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/print-edition/2011/09/30/high-tech-corridor-matching-grants.html?page=all" target="_blank">High Tech Corridor matching grants create billion-dollar economic engine</a>." <em>Tampa Bay Business Journal</em>, September 30, 2010. http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/print-edition/2011/09/30/high-tech-corridor-matching-grants.html?page=all.
Click to View (Movie, Podcast, or Website)
<a href="https://youtu.be/W3_zduqV0s8" target="_blank">Oral History of the Florida High-Tech Corridor Council</a>
Transcript
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>Can you tighten up?</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>Oh.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Come on over Peter. Just from a standpoint of getting—we want to get pictures and video for the archives.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>And can I do one thing before we start?</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Oh, no.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>Should I get this out of the way?</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Best practices says that we need to get a—a release so that we can use this. So I am going to send this around.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Doing exactly what you’re supposed to do.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Yes [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>And so while you guys are—are signing those, I mean, I just—I—I shared some of these questions with you earlier today but, [Dr.] Connie [L. Lester] is—is leading this effort in the—in the [University of Central Florida] History Department, and Jim Clark has been working very closely with her, and Bethany [Dickens] is—you’re a graduate student, right?</p>
<p><strong>Dickens<br /></strong>Mmhmm. Yes, sir.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>And we’ve been on a—some months’ quest to review everything that we have in our archives about the [Florida High Tech] Corridor and—and how it evolved, but in a meeting that we had—I guess a couple of months back—both Connie and Jim said, “You know, it would really be helpful to have the anecdotal background. The opportunity to sit and—and talk with this team.” Because we had described how it all began and how you four worked together to make it happen, and so I volunteered that I—no. The first idea was that I was going to take everybody out to lunch. We didn’t get there [<em>laughs</em>], but it—it really would be helpful if you all could just think back a little bit before we get into any questions or any specifics. Think back to how this all began. Randy,<a title="">[1]</a> I think you probably picked up the ball and Kerry it from [Dr.] Pete[r T. Panousis]’s office to John [C. Hitt] and started the conversation, and maybe you—maybe you want to, Dan…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>We had…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>First, I can’t remember.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>We had a council of some 25 division heads of AT&T [Inc.] representing about 6,000 employees. I had the smallest division, and I was the oldest and the dumbest, so I got to chair the thing [<em>laughs</em>], and tried for 12 years to pass that gavel on to someone else—unsuccessfully.</p>
<p>In [19]95, Peter and Peter’s associate, Bob Cook, had shared that there was a major expansion that was going to happen to their semi-conductor manufacturing operation, then located on the south side of Orlando[, Florida], and it had the potential of being up to 1.4 billion and 1,500 jobs. Normally, that kind of operation gets most people’s attention, but the concern was that the expansion, at the time, looked like it was going to happen offshore, based on incentives that were ladled to the tune of $90 million. Payable in two years, and what we had in Florida at the time—thanks to some research that Charlie Gray, founder of the Gray-Robinson Law Firm—and—and I had the pleasure of helping with—was that Florida had about 6 million [dollars] payable over seven years, and so, with Charlie’s help, we negotiated another 6 million, also payable over seven years. So those of you who are really good at net present value calculations: if you had 90 million incentives payable over 2 versus 12 payable over seven, I think I am pretty sure which—which one you would pick.</p>
<p>We had several things going for us. We had a great management team that didn’t necessarily—didn’t want to move to Madrid[, Spain]. We had a facility that was built three times larger in the early 80s than needed at that time that we could readily expand into, but more importantly, we had a research capability provided by UCF [University of Central Florida] and USF [University of South Florida] that was not available offshore.</p>
<p>And so one day on the golf course—Roger [Prynn], you were there—we shared with John that we are fighting a potentially losing battle regarding this facility and, John, you said, “Well what—what do you need? What do you—what do you have the potential of having here that you don’t have offshore?” And we replied, “A research commitment that UCF and its professors and USF and its—have been providing for quite some time.” So John, you checked with Betty Castor, then-president of USF and came back with a commitment of $20 million, payable over 10 years—1 million per year, per school—of real asset. Not something where we would try to figure out what it was, but a real asset and that made the difference. Peter, why don’t you…</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>Let me add a little bit to the first part. The—the opportunity to move to Spain—the Spanish government providing the—the extra money—may have been appealing to some people, but it wasn’t to me [<em>laughs</em>], and it also wasn’t to a group of 100 engineers we had moved from New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Florida just six months before that, and so we really, really wanted to find some way to stay in Florida. We liked the facility, we liked living here, and we certainly didn’t want to move again, and we weren’t quite also all that sure about what would happen if we moved to Spain, just because I could feel the boat rocking, and so, when the opportunity to—came up to find alternatives, we jumped at those opportunities, because they were important to us, as I believe they would have been to the State of Florida, and so we’re—we are in the right mood for that kind of operation.</p>
<p>And the thing that made a difference is—I think Randy talked about the money. You looked at the money that was on the table, and if—if it was just money, you go to Spain. You wouldn’t—you wouldn’t come here, but what was being offered and what we worked out after a while with the—with the universities was an opportunity to couple in to two universities—two large universities—and—and connect to the research base in a way that we could never have been able do in Spain, and we really were a very high-tech company. We were leading edge in the semi-conductor field. So having that kind of support was worth a lot of money, and so it became—it became an easier sell when we could go back to the board of directors and say, “Look what we can do here,” compared to “what we can do there,” and—and it worked.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>So what was the—what was the process, Dan, that took it to the [Florida State] Legislature? Took it to the next step and actually resulted in the creation of the entity?</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Well, as the mathematics, that Randy explained, boil down to a million dollars a year for each of the institutions to offset the million dollars a year worth of research. Whether that was in-kind or actually whatever it might have been, it had a value of about a million dollars, and so, our charge by the president was to try to find, you know, additional cash from the Legislature to make that happen.</p>
<p>So my colleague, who has since retired at USF, Kathy Betancourt and I started to work together on a strategy to simply to get a million dollar earmark. We didn’t think we could get a million apiece, but we thought we could get a million total. So our first visit was to [Antoinette] “Toni” Jennings, who was President of the [Florida] Senate and—from here, and we proposed to her a million dollars, and she said, “A million is too much. Seven figures is difficult for the Legislature to absorb right now. I don’t think we’d even talk about it. Anything less than that for a major project …”</p>
<p>But anyway, she said, “Why don’t you settle on something a little bit lower? How about 850 [thousand]?” And of course, Kathy and I said, “Yes, ma’am. 850 is fine,” and actually, Toni was not president of the Senate at that time…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>She was Chairman of the [Committee on] Rules…</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>She was Chairman of the Rules, exactly. About to be President of the Senate, and so she sent us down to—to see the Chairman of [Committee on] Appropriations at that point, who was the infamous Senator Tilders. I don’t make a personality judgment by saying “infamous,” but he was famous in some ways and not so famous in others probably, but Kathy and I went to visit with him and he said, “Did Senator Jennings approve of this and ask for this?” And we both said, “Yes, sir,” and his response, which I’ll never forget, was, “Whatever that young lady wants, I’ll give her.”</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>] Young lady…</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck</strong>So the Senate was going to put $850,000 in the budget. The second part of that—and the president was a witness to it—I probably ought to let a witness tell a truth rather than me embellish the story.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Oh, I’m eager to hear it.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>All right, but…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Y’all have already heard some revisionist history so far [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>But our next step was to go to the [Florida] House [of Representatives] because we had a commitment from the powers in the Senate, and there are lots of other commitments too in the Senate. [John Hugh] “Buddy” Dyer, for example. I mean, Buddy was, at the time, one of the leading Democratic [Party] Senators. I think he was later majority—I mean minority leader, but we had his full support from the very beginning. So Senator Jennings knew that she—with her support and with the minority leader’s support—because you were in Buddy Dyer’s district at the time—that was pretty good.</p>
<p>But we had to cultivate the House, and that’s the way those things do, you have to go back and forth. So Representative Alzo [J.] Reddick happened to be Chairman in a Democratically-controlled House of the Committee on Transportation and Economic Development Funding at the time. So the president and I went to visit him and talk through the project and so forth, and ask him for a million dollars, and he said, “I’ll do it,” and then he calls his staff director in from around the corner—I forget what his name was—and the staff director comes in and Alzo says, “I want a million dollars in the budget for this project,” and he says, “Well, what is it and what will—will he do?” And that’s the source of the tale that whatever it is I had in my pocket.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>It was an envelope, as I recall.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Yeah. I just wrote down, “Million dollars for UCF, USF, and AT&T to grow, retain, and attract high technology industry to the I[nterstate]-4 High Technology Corridor,” and we handed that to the staff director, and that’s how it came out in the bill, and that’s what the source is of that original language. Now you got a million dollars in the House, and 850 in the Senate. Guess what happens when you go to [U.S.] Congress? Randy gets $925,000, and that’s where the original appropriation came from, and it was also funded through Enterprise Florida—which a lot of people forget—which created some interesting situations later on.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Had we created Enterprise at that point? I didn’t realize that.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>About the same time.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>Let me—let me add a little to that, because there’s a piece that I think you might find interesting. I still remember the very first meeting we had. I met John and Betty Castor and the airport and we went to see Charlie [Bass] Reed, and I didn’t know any of them at the time. We all met for the first time and Charlie Reed was the [State University System of Florida] Chancellor of Education at the time, and—and basically I wanted to—all I was there for was to get some money out of the—out of the universities. I wanted $10 million. He—after he stopped laughing, said, “No. don’t you understand? Companies give us your money. We don’t give them money.” [<em>laughs</em>] And we had a discussion about that, but after—after we were done and John—that’s where John showed, at least for me, the very first picture of High-Tech Corridor —the lights along the two coasts…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>It’s there. Right there.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>That middle thing there.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>I remember him showing that, and describing the way—at that time it was—it was Dallas[, Texas] and…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Dallas and Fort Worth[, Texas].</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>And Fort Worth. Growing together and—that’s the picture he had, and—and in that discussion, I think Charlie Reed sort of bought into it pretty—pretty well.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>And as—at the end of the meeting he said, “Look. I don’t know how to do this.” But—but we shook hands and he said, “I’ll find a way,” and I think what you described was the way.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>The way.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>I think you need to share—since you shared it with the board of governors and your fellow presidents—the idea—the corridor coming to you…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Oh, yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>In the shower, you know?</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>It drives Dan [Holsenbeck] crazy to hear this story. Thanks Randy [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Well, Dan will get over it [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>We all take showers, Dan.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>I—I know. I know.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Your historians are wondering what’s coming.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>I know. Well, early in my time here, I had driven pretty much coast to coast to the center part of the state, and, you could see along I-4 infill of population, and I’d watched that process take place in my native state of Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth. When I was a boy, you could see, you know, area between them was ranch land, there were a lot of cattle grazing along the side of the highway. You know, it was really a rural environment. Well, by the time I left Texas in—in ‘77, they had pretty well grown together, and if you’re—if you’ve driven along it in—in the last 20 years or so, you know, it’s—it’s one big, continuous metropolitan area now, but, you know, it occurred to me pretty strongly there—there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people who are moving in, and a lot of them settle right along that corridor, that, you know, essentially goes from the Tampa Bay area to—to the—the Daytona [Beach] area. But, you know, it sort of spills down towards the Space Coast as well, and the question in my mind is what kind of jobs are they going to have? Now, we’ve got a great hospitality industry here in—in Central Florida and, you know, it—it is the backbone of our economy in this—in—in this part of our state. Really for our whole state, but if you think about the—the distribution of pay for the jobs that they’ve got, it’s biased towards lower in—income employment. Now all jobs are good jobs. You think about it, there’s—if the alternative is unemployment, just about any job’s a good job, but, it—it just occurred to me that, if we really are going to have the kind of jobs we want our kids and grandkids to have, it would be really helpful if you could find a way to bring in more high tech industry, and it seemed to me that we had a good chance with two large state institutions, each of which had a strong engineering program, a strong business program, the—the natural laboratory sciences to support research and development. We really could have a—a guiding effect, if you will, on the development of the economy, and I had proposed to—to Betty Castor, before Peter came on the—on the scene, that we try and put together a cooperative endeavor and get some state funding for it, and—and Betty just had too many other things on her plate at that time, you know. She didn’t really respond all that favorably, you know, and I—you know, I didn’t take that as a bad thing. I figured, <em>Well, we’ve got time—time.</em> We’ll win her over soon or later on this. It’s a good idea, and we just went on.</p>
<p>Well then, Pete’s opportunity challenge presented itself, and I think what you saw was the value of a good organizing concept. It—it—there’s nothing all that overpowering about the idea. It’s just—it’s—it’s just sort of an observation. <em>Gee, Dallas and Fort Worth grew together, I think I see the same kind of process beginning here in—in Central Florida. Isn’t that interesting?</em> Well, then you think about two universities, and well, <em>Maybe we could have an influence on what kind of jobs get developed, maybe we could raise the—the prospects for high tech industry</em>, and then, guess what? We get a really high tech industry who is wanting our help, and we were able to get enough people excited about the possibility to really do something, and—I—I’ve said repeatedly, with—without the opportunity to work with Peter, all we’ve got’s kind of an interesting idea. You know, better than no idea at all, but it probably would have come to very little if we hadn’t had a—large-scale employer in a high tech business who really wanted and needed our help. You know, I think wanted more than needed. You would have gone somewhere, you know. You would have gone to Spain or somewhere else without us, but, you know, you wanted our help, and sometimes wanting something is every bit an important or more than needing.</p>
<p>So we were able to put together an idea, and Dan’s memory is just as mine—we had it, you know—it was the focus right then when we were at Alzo’s outer office—was retention. We had the foresight to put—attract, grow, and retain in that bill, and that is indeed what let us go from this one instance to a general operation that recruits, grows and, we hope, retains high tech industry. It—it’s been a very interesting thing to watch—and you know—and without—without Peter, you don’t have much. Without Dan’s skills in the Legislature we don’t have much and without Randy’s determined leadership—and excellent leadership over the years—we probably wouldn’t have nearly what we have.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>That’s very kind.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>So it pays to take showers, you know? [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>It was—it was—a very unique partnership. I had—I had a lot of years at AT&T and we had lots of partnerships with companies in the universities, but generally they were—they were designed for very specific application, and generally they were tense, because the other companies are competitors and the universities really did what Charlie Reed said, “Give me the money and I’ll give it back, with 200, half the time,” and what was happening in this relationship is—is right from the beginning. in fact, the legislation you put together called out that this was a partnership, that there were certain rights that the company—AT&T had—to the intellectual property, which was truly unique.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>And—and it made a big difference, because now we could get research support from two universities and we didn’t have to give up the intellectual property that was generated in the process of doing them, and that was really, a big—and big deal, and I—I still remember telling other people about that and they wouldn’t believe it. They said, “It couldn’t be, couldn’t be, couldn’t be.” In fact, some other universities said it was illegal, even though it was in the legislation [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, well, one university very distinctly [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Pete, I can remember you saying back then that you had—we were sitting together at the plant one day—you’d never had relationships with universities like this. This is unheard of.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Well, a prevailing model at universities was that the industrial partner ought to throw money over a transom and come back in several years to hear what the university had done with it.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Well, let’s not preclude that.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>And feel suitably proud, you know? Guess what, you know? When money is not terribly plentiful, the enthusiasm for that gets pretty darn scarce and the other—the other side is the intellectual property side. The university still does well out of this—and when you get to these partnerships, you know, my sense is that most universities want to control 100 percent and they end up with something about this big, and they think that’s better than having 20 percent of something this big, and I’ve never quite seen that point of view get you anywhere.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>And it’s interesting. In all the time we worked together, I can’t think of any single case where we had a serious disagreement about intellectual property. It just wasn’t that big of a deal. The people—people are paranoid about it.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, it’s a principle, you know?</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>It’s a principle. It’s a principle.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>I’ve had the pleasure of approving 12—more than 1,200 research projects. Dan, more than half of those with UCF. My—my case with UCF, USF, and UF. I can count on the digits—less than the digits on one hand—the projects we did not get to because of an issue over intellectual property, and when you—when you share that with an audience that—that has this perception that there’s going to be an issue, and you share well—wait a minute. We’ve done 1,200 of them with 400 companies, where we’ve put up over 56 million [dollars] to fund those projects—from Carter funds at UCF, USF, and UF, and we have more than 160 million [dollars] in corporate cash and in-kind at the time we do the project and more than a billion on top of that in downstream return to the university—to the companies, and yet in—in—in going on—about to finish 16 years, we have had really not had an issue on intellectual property, because the companies see it—that—well, this is unique. Our hometown university wants to help us. They’re not asking for the money back. Where is the value? And the value is the partnership with the company that creates more jobs, creates more intellectual value, and by the way—we’ve got an outside, investigator/researcher that’s showed there’s more than a billion returned to our local economy from—from this program.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Yeah, let me—let me just say that Randy had an awful lot to do with those languages and that we were able to translate into legislation, and the actual legislation that you’re talking about Peter, where that language about the IP was? Was part of the matching tax exception—matching grant program? And I always thought that pulling that off as a collective effort —taking advantage of really the goodwill of the company—the essence of that bill said that the Legislature would put aside another package of incentive moneys—not just the money that we were operating the Carter on the doing research with—but they put aside another pot of money that if Cirent[?] would take the tax-exemption that they were given under the incentive laws. That if they would take the taxes, they would have paid and send it over to the university, the State would match it out of that fund. So all of a sudden, both institutions were able to do really big things at once like our materials lab.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>That’s where out materials lab—to this day, seems one of the best in the southeast, maybe in the country—comes from.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>AMPAC [Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center].</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>That’s right. That’s where…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>AMPAC.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>That’s where USF’s—what’s it called? Center of Metrology?</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Center for…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Center for Materials Research. Sam R., I think. Center for Materials Research.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>So that was another, part of that whole deal—the tax-exempt matching grants that’s kind of gone away, because they don’t have any money to match it with anymore, but I always thought that was a—one year—in one of the later years, the Legislature decided to sweep together everything that they were funding for the High-Tech Corridor, because they all wanted to take credit for a big deal. So when they pulled together all the operational funds and showed the tax-exempt matching, there’s a line—and I forget what year in the budget—that shows something like 25-26 billion dollars. Charlie’s in California. So I cut that out, sent it to him, and said, “Charlie, if you’ve ever seen a bigger turkey in Florida, I want you to let me know.” [<em>laughs</em>] And he wrote me back and he said, “Nope. That’s got to be it.” It was a $25 million line-item in the budget that pulled all that stuff together one year.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Help with the name—is it <em>The Chronicle of Higher Education</em>?</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Is that the right term? I believe both of you about the same time shared with me an article that our friend Charlie Reed crafted that appeared in there, where he took credit for the Corridor and—and explained his version of what it’s all about, and it’s—that’s pretty special, knowing where it came from.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Can I tell you one more quick[sic] story about Charlie? The first year was 950,000 and then it jumped a little bit and—we were looking for—in one of the years, we were looking for—I think it was another million and a half for each of us, and we wound up getting 1.7 million and USF got 1.5. So we’re down in the committee room where they are about to vote on it and make the decision. By the way, the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, making this happen, under Speaker Dan[iel Allan] Webster, is Orange County School Superintendent—no. School Board Chairman Bill Sublette—he’s the Chairman of that committee.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>That’s right. I forgot that.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>That’s right. Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>So Charlie comes up to us, with Kathy and me with his entourage—which is not unusual for Charlie—comes blustering and says, “I just took care of it. We’ve taken care of everything. You’re going to get a million and a half,” and Kathy and I looked at each other and said, “Charlie, you mean—million and a half each?” And he said, “Oh, no, no, no. just a million and a half.” I said, “Charlie, the bill’s about to come out. It’s a million and a half each,” and there was a five million appropriation for research, so we were going to get basically two-thirds of that money or—or close to it, and Charlie did not speak to Kathy and me for a couple of weeks after that [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>It’s not nice to tell the Chancellor he’s wrong.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>By the way, the original funding—9—925—the original funding, UCF got 300 for corridor funds—corridor projects. USF got 300 and AT&T got 325. Ask him if he ever took the money.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Did you?</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>Nope.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>No recurrent funding invested back in the corridor.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>We—we…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Used it to run this Corridor center.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Sixteen—privacy of this room—for 16 years, we’ve invested that money back into the corridor to help market the region as a high-tech region. That’s pretty special.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>The thing we—we needed from universities was the research.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>We didn’t need the money. I mean, the money’s nice. We would have taken it, but if you, you know—if you think of the numbers just over the whole period time, we spent a little over a billion dollars. We were exempted, most of that time, for the 6 percent sales tax. That’s 60 million dollars. By giving up fairly significant piece of that—almost all of that—to the university that was doubled by the State to close to 120 million dollars that was shared between the two universities. That’s a lot of money. I still remember the time we were sitting there thinking about how to spend it [<em>laughs</em>]. That was tough to do.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>The results of that effort—not only the great research projects and the marketing comes to us by the way of Roger Pynn and Kerry Martine. It’s interesting when an organization outside of our state shares nationally the top technology regions in the country based on information from January of 2012 to August 2012, and I know if I were a better teacher or instructor, I’d have a better show and tell graph. I gave a speech this morning out at its—its—and I did the same thing to the audience, it—even the first row couldn’t see it, but what it portrays is…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Randy, we prepare you better than that. Don’t you ever do that again [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>What is portrays is the top regions in the country, and we’re number four, ahead of the Research Triangle and ahead of—of Austin[, Texas], and—and the major one is the number of high-tech job openings. A positive statement that our region —we’d like to have top talent come here as well as graduate from here. So it says Florida High-Tech Corridor.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>That’s neat.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>That’s certainly a manifestation of grow, retain, and attract.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>And Dan—when—when you were going through that review of the expansion of the state funding, since it’s a history project—I’m not sure, Connie, that we have been able to—and if we have, Kerry [Martine] can take credit for it—accurately give you a timeline of the progression of the funding. I think it would be very helpful to have. Maybe we can work with someone.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>We have it. We—it’s—we had to go through digging it out, But yeah. We can show you the bills and the amount of money each time.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>So you see, it wasn’t just a one-time thing. We—if it had just been for the initial bill, that provided people that the research they needed, we’d have been a one-hit wonder and this would—none of us would be here today, but this was about the evolution of partnerships, and—and—and John realized very quickly afterward, we had something here. Once he pulled it off with AT&T, he says, “Hey, you know, we’ve got a good deal here. We can help other people,” and that led to the MGRP. The idea that we can create research projects on an ongoing basis. Bringing companies on campus to do it, and—and having them kick the tires of young students—as their graduate students, as their research partners. Just to—just to…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Give M. J. Soileau some credit for helping devise the program.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>True.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>And working with the folks at USF in making sure the programs mirrored each other.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, it’s been interesting watching all that, you know, even with M. J. The first response is, “How do I get part of that money?” [<em>laughs</em>]. “How do I—how do I get my share—my fair share of the money?” And then it evolves. You see people start to understand, “Oh, there is no share—fair share. It’s all money that’s there for a purpose.” “How do I get to be part of the purpose?” is really the—the question to ask, and if you—if you—I think if you conceive of it properly, it’s money that attracts business leaders to the campus and incents faculty members to work with them.</p>
<p>The big complaint you still hear today is, “How do I get the faculty to work with industry?” Or “How do I get industry to work with faculty?” Well, you put some money on the table to do good things and you—you—you get a little entrepreneurial interest. Which is what we’ve done, and Pete, you’re, you know—you—without you in all of this, I don’t think we’re celebrating anything today, but that’s basically, you know, between the Legislature and Dan’s good influence there, and the leadership we’ve had from Peter and Randy. We—we’ve created a self-perpetuating cycle at this point. Virtuous cycle.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>This is a small world we live in. What are the odds that we’d have this conversation today, and the new VP[Vice President] of Engagement<a title="">[2]</a> at FIU [Florida International University] wanted to set a meeting and the only time we could do it was before this meeting, and her predecessor was promoted to Provost in Virginia, and so Mark [B.] Rosenberg lost his focal point of cloning our corridor in his end of the state.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>So the new person is on board, and the only time we can meet is right before this meeting, and she said, “I apologize. I know you’ve been through this. I know you’ve come down here to meet, but we’re basically starting over would you”—Roger’s about to die—“would you mind sharing with me again all about the corridor? How you got started? How you’ve done? What you’ve done?” And I said “Well, thank you. You’re getting me—getting me warmed up for a meeting with President Hitt, Peter Panousis, and the rest of the team.” I said that it’s going to take more than a half an hour to explain the length and breadth of what we’ve—what we’ve done. So honored by the compliment again from Mark Rosenberg that he still wants to figure out how to make it happen.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>And that’s one of the questions that Connie’s had is, “Can this be exported to this equation?”</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yes, it can be, but you need to have a good understanding of the model and you gotta have to have a…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Peter. You’ve got to have a Peter.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>A business leader. Yeah. Otherwise, you—you can write it all up and everything…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>We’ve suggested to Mark, you know, a couple of companies down there that could be—could be the patron that—that Dr. Panousis and Sarah McGeer was to us.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>You know what’s curious is in Silicon Valley, the normal sense of business is that they deal with universities. That’s just what you do, particularly with Stanford [University] and other universities. It might not be…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Guess why? It works. Fred Turner.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>It works. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Fred—as a young man I was vice-president of the TCU [Texas Christian University] research foundation and he served on our advisory council, and I got to sit and listen to Fred talk about how—he didn’t phrase it this way—but he started Silicon Valley. He came back after World War II, he had seen [Massachusetts State] Route 128 outside Boston[, Massachusetts], he—he knew what had happened there, and he said, “We could do that here,” and he proceeded to do it. He was then Dean of Engineering at Stanford, became Provost and—and really, I think it is—I think if you had to pick some sort of high-tech industrial heroes, Fred would be right up at the head of the pack.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>So there must be some in South Florida.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>You know, there have to be. Man, they just need to be found [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Can I ask a question a question about that? Do you see the High-Tech Corridor as being more similar to Silicon Valley? Or what—what has it added to the—to the growth of the high tech industry that’s different from Silicon Valley?</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>That’s a good question. I don’t know the inside of Silicon Valley well enough probably to answer —to answer—to answer in a well-informed way. Pete, what—do you?</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>I think that—and I don’t know if I have an answer, but—but I think what happened there is they got to a critical mass that we never quite have gotten to.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>And there were so many companies doing the same kind of work that people were just spilling out of each, setting up additional companies, and every new idea was a new company, and it just got to a level where it was just running by itself. Now we’ve got to that point. Or haven’t gotten to that point.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>We may have more self-conscious direction at the university level. It may have become just auto-catalytic at Stanford, because of that process you’re talking about. We’ve taken a view that really says that the university is the agency that will help this happen in—in—in the region, and maybe I’m not expressing it well, but I think we—we have tried to see the university—the—the—the metropolitan research university as the equivalent of the land-grant university—the 21<sup>st</sup> century equivalent of the land grant. Where we combine the generation transmission application of knowledge, and it’s a social agency, if you will, that—that helps companies.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>John, your leadership—UCF’s leaderships and its partners—Medical City is going to be, in my humble opinion, the catalyst that’s going to give us—give us that next boost in terms of comparing our corridor—our region—to Silicon Valley. If you reference the facts that we shook our heads when we said, right after World War II—after World War II—having been there, like a couple of people in this room, but very young—look at the time span, and yet, UCF is now celebrating its 50<sup>th</sup>, we’re celebrating our 16<sup>th</sup> as a—as a corridor. We have a lot of room to grow, and despite all the issues in terms of Florida Poly[technic University]—when they call us—Rob Goddell and team called and asked for help in terms of focus, as you and I discussed—to—to give them some ideas in terms of what they are going to focus on in terms of a curriculum. That’s pretty special, but it’s part of this continuum of our region catching up with—maybe even surpassing—Silicon Valley. The university is still—if you notice, the university is still centering to that happening.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>The—it seems to me that one of the—well, I think it’s—there are two very strong forces at work here that you’ve got to—have to—even think about duplicating anywhere, and we all travel and we all have got our canned speeches on the High-Tech Corridor, and what it means, and, you know, the advantages of it, but there are two things that the High-Tech Corridor has proven, and both of those are related to one word, and that’s “partnership.”</p>
<p>First of all, it’s just a spirit of partnership. It’s mutually beneficial. We’re willing to put on the table and sacrifice a little bit—or “comprise” maybe is a better word. You do the same thing and we’re both just going to just flourish after that, and then the second part of it is—to reinforce what we’ve said—is that I don’t think you can just be given some money. Other places in the state have tried to get an appropriation. They’ve said they couldn’t do it, okay? What they’ve got to have though, again, is this, again, spirit of partnership from a very large organization, or at least relatively large, so you can have an anchor and tie.</p>
<p>Let me—let me do one more. I can’t help the opportunity for these political—but taking the word “partnership,” okay? The High-Tech Corridor created something in the Legislature that has never, ever happened. Not before and definitely not—not since, according to what I’ve been told. The second year of the funding, the money was eliminated at some point during the process, and we have to earmark it out of the budget. So we asked two people to sponsor the amendment to add it back on the floor during the final debates of the bills, okay? Way over here on the left side, one of the most loyal Democrats of all time, is Rep[resentative] Alzo Reddick, and way over here on the right side—so far right that he told me one day that Dan introduces me on the right side of the stage, I’m so far right he thinks I’ll fall off—that person was [Thomas] “Tom” [Charles] Feeney [III], who was going to be Speaker of the House. So in front of the entire legislative body, outspoken Democrat, outspoken conservative Republican, stand together and offer an amendment to do this. There was not a single negative vote that I recall, and it was the spirit of partnership that has permeated this project all the way through, which I think has made it successful.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, support for the university, for the community.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>An effort to—to work together to build something.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>And until the medical school came along, and probably now—I’ve always used in my conversations that, you know, the High-Tech Corridor is the perfect example of what John Hitt means about being America’s leading partnership university.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Did the fact that the Corridor existed and had been so successful—was that instrumental in helping to bring high tech industry, or laying the foundations for…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>I don’t know. Certainly the successful experience lent credibility to the university and our administration. I don’t know that people drew—the people who were making the decisions—I don’t know that they drew lessons from the corridor operation, but the fact that we had done it and it was successful probably helped.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Well, I—he—he’s being modest, because I know in some of the conversations we had on the medical school in the Legislature that I had—and I can name three or four of them—very powerful members—to say—if John Hitt says that this is good and it’s going to work and it’s a partnership, then that’s all I need, and that’s the truth. One of them had two children to graduate from here, so I’m not making those names up, but I think it did have maybe more then you want to give it credit for is this spirit of partnership that we’re known for.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>It was certainly a track record by that time.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Oh, yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>And I don’t think there’s been a person in the [Florida] Governor’s Mansion since this happened who hasn’t wanted to point to the Corridor in some way or another at the start of every year.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Mmhmm. The disappointment that I think we all share to some extent is that is hasn’t been replicated elsewhere yet. There have been attempts.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Right. It’s good to hear they’re still committed to it, Randy, and we need to offer to—to give them what help we can.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, but, you know, part of the problem is you’ve really got to have industry. You’ve got—and you’ve got to be able to attract industry into it. So, you know, people will say the “I-4 Corridor.” Well, why don’t we have an “I-10 Corridor” or whatever, you know. Well, if all you’ve got’s a highway, you know, you’re not really—you’re not going to do this, and—and it’s still the case that some people think if they can just got an appropriation, they can have something. Well, they’d have the money, but that alone would not give them what they’re looking for if they’re trying to replicate the corridor. You’ve got to have—you’ve got to have that employer who’s really committed, and you do have to have a critical mass of administration and faculty who understand partnership. And, you know, I think there’s still too many people in universities who just want to be given money to go do what they want to do. That’s nice, and, you know, we’ll all take that, but it’s—it’s not going to give you—an organization like the corridor.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>You know, the partnership between the universities was also important—now three in the partnership. Yeah. I still remember a meeting—I was trying to recall what the background for it was—but Governor Lawton [Mainor] Chiles[, Jr.] was at the meeting so it must have been ’90…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>’96?</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>’96-’97, and we had just come from one of our customers, making the PalmPilot at the time, and we did something for them special, and we invited him to come to the meeting. He did, and I remember in his presentation, he made a comment that I thought was really interesting. He says he’s never seen two universities actually work together like the two—those two—UCF and USF.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>There’s no question.</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>And it was really interesting, because he—he was amazed that it could happen. I didn’t know any better, so I assumed it could happen [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>An example of the partnership—and I’ll share with you—Kerry Martine provided that. Gentleman pictured there—in ’99, we partnered with—very small company. He now has a billion-dollar drug. He now also is the new VP of Research [& Innovation]<a title="">[3]</a> at USF, and in the first meeting with him, he said, “If we have an incubator company that wants to locate in Orlando, is there any reason we couldn’t figure out how to locate them in M. J. Soileau and Tom O’Neal’s incubator at UCF?” And I’m sitting there going, “Ah.” [<em>laughs</em>] What a burden has been lifted in terms of—this is a prime example of partnership that he would reach out.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>And I said, “Not that I’m aware of,” and he said, “You think they would agree that, if they have a company in—in their incubator that would want to move to Tampa, that it would be okay if we housed ’em?” And I said, “I think we can make that happen.”</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Now, what son of a Mississippian says…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Yeah, son of a Mississippian. So there’s—Dr. Paul Sanberg, and thanks to Kerry Martine, who’s going to give that to me by email, I’m going to send that to Paul and say, “There’s a picture of you from the late ‘90s you might like to have for your file.” A good partnership.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>They had been doing anything they could to prevent them to leave, and so would we 20 years ago. You know, we hadn’t quite gotten to that point. I think the—the mantra of leader: leave your ego at the door. The idea that whatever can benefit Tampa, can benefit Orlando, and vice versa, has been such a powerful philosophy. People have gone out of their way—you like to tell the story of Lynda—thinking over in Brevard County…</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Weatherman.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Weatherman.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>The Economic Development Director over there, risking probably, at the time, her—her job to put was it 500 or 5,000 dollars into a sponsorship of an event that was going to take place in Tampa?</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>5,000.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>5,000. People were thinking, <em>Was she crazy?</em></p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>We indicated we would help her with something downstream. That was understood, but yeah, that she was willing to do that.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>She understood that she might benefit down the road from it. We…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, that whole notion that a win anywhere in the corridor in a win for everybody is hard to…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>We called Dr. Paul Sanberg, who’s a very respected scientist—founder of the National Academy of Inventors, and we have a project we’re working on that is very large in scope—almost as large as one of Peter’s projects—and we needed some initial funds to put on the table to get the company’s attention. So I called Paul and I said, “I know that our team is over about a week before this phone call to show support for a major project in the Tampa area, and so we have one, by coincidence, a small world. We have one a week late, as big as that one. If we can merge our matching funds at UCF and USF, we can make a better case,” and he said, “Make it happen. What are you putting on the table?” I said, “We’re going to make a commitment of 250,000 a year for five years, because of the size and scope and potential of this project.” He said, “You want to do the same thing from USF?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “You know, it doesn’t matter where the graduates work, as long as they’re working here. So the fact that you’re going to give an opportunity for some of our USF students to partner with—you know, professors to partner with UCF on a project for a company that happens to be located in the eastern end of the Corridor, our students are going to be benefited, so make it happen.” That’s partnership in its, you know, 15-16 years in the making.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>You know, there is another activity that a lot of folks don’t participate in or know much about—and I’ve always thought this was one of Randy’s brilliant creations—and that is what he called the “Core Team” and the Tuesday morning telephone calls. Every Tuesday morning, I’d say there are 25-35 people throughout the corridor who talk about what is going on in the corridor and by the end of that conversation—what reminded me was Lynda Weatherman—you have got Brevard County willing to go over to Tampa to participate with a Tampa Bay partnership. You have got 4-5 groups agreeing to come together to put money on the table to do a booth talking about the photonics industry and sending it to the west coast. You’re doing things that the state as a whole has not been able to get communities and EDCs [Economic Development Commissions] and workforce boards and all those things to do.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>We are doing things every Tuesday morning on that little pajama hotline that the state has never been able to do. It’s amazing to see the number…</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>This is a 16-year document…</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Yes, I have the whole box. Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>She has—she has a box. She has Steve Burly’s collection of every single one of those.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>It’s an old AT&T thing. Peter and I learned years ago what is bolded in here, including the names of the people, as well as what is in there is what was covered the previous weeks. You know, who attended and what was discussed and it becomes the agenda for the next meeting so you can continue.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>And I can tell you that is very helpful to a historian who is reading through this.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>You know, we need to get you in touch with Burly by the end of this, because the fact that he is collecting means he has got a lot of knowledge. The—what I can remember as an example of that is we achieved corridor-wide participation in the [International] Paris Air Show<a title="">[4]</a> on the telephone on a Tuesday morning. Had never happened.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Because Lynda Weatherman wanted to do it.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>That is right. Payback.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>In Brevard—and so we got Tampa Bay saying, “Yeah. We will do that with you. We will be there with you, in terms of presence and money.”</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>She helped those people earn over 5,000, and now we have an annual basis, participation to market this area’s aerospace.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>What a silver-tongued devil she is [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>She is. She chaired the Federal Reserve Board in Florida in Jacksonville—amongst her many talents. Also nationally, she’s a pretty sharp lady—chaired our workforce committee. What is unique is we start with this in ‘96-‘97—something like that—and we couldn’t get folks to attend, mainly our economic development partners, for a 4 o’clock call. So, once a decade, I am going, <em>Why don’t I have it at 7:45 in the morning? They can’t claim they are out working, selling deals, and entertaining prospects as 7:45 on the morning.</em> So half of the folks on there are on their drive time. We ask them to be on mute and make sure they drive carefully, but every Tuesday morning, unless it’s a holiday week—and Dan, you are on every one of them—7:45-8:15, and it is over at 8:15—and it’s over at 8:15, because everyone on there has a full-time job doing something else.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>A lot of spouses across this corridor who wonder what is going on a Tuesday morning, if you don’t have a call, what is happening? You are just sitting here drinking your coffee, reading the newspaper. You are supposed to be on the telephone.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>You know, I still think Roger and you and I have talked about this, but just for the purposes of conversation—that is one example of a critical activity to the corridor that’s not as glamorous sounding as the matching research. There another one—there is a tech path program that is done with…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Dr. Jeff Mendell? One of Peter’s top scientists?</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Jeff Mendell, one of Peter’s guys who is now in our physics departments that does this, and now going all over the place trying to get the other institutions and school boards and schools to learn about what it is to be in high technology, and another one—the Florida Virtual Entrepreneur Center. I mean, people don’t—Roger, I just don’t think the average person or even the average politician realizes how those three parts of what we do—the core team and the partnerships, the tech path and the entrepreneurial center—what a key element they are, and there is nothing—nothing anywhere in the state comparable to those three activities.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Hunt[ing F.] Deutsch is the head of the [Florida] Department of Economic Opportunity, and I am honored to have known him from the mid-80s, when my daughter worked for him in the trust department, when he had the trust affirmative for SunTrust [Bank]. They were going to have a business portal they were going to launch. They didn’t know what they were going to do but they were going to launch it—a bit reckless, and I said, well, “Howard, we already have one. It is called the Florida Virtual Entrepreneur Center.” “What does it do?” I explained to him what it does, and he said, “Why do we want to launch one of our own? Why don’t we just use yours and you will have a link and we will call it a state program?” And I said, “It is called a ‘Florida Virtual Entrepreneurial Center’ on purpose. It’s all 67 counties are up and running.”</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>They didn’t know it.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>They didn’t know it, but they do now. They had a webinar earlier this week—explained the program, so if you are entrepreneur and want to start or grow a business that won’t cost you anything to use it, and every county is there. You just punch in a county. Roger showed them too. He’s better at show and tell than I am.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>This morning we got the monthly—a monthly report on the activity.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Fourteen thousand.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Last month, 13,629 visits for all 67 counties, and even though it was a holiday month, that is 3.6 percent—6.5—3.65 percent increase month over month, and out of state, 2,700 from out of state were checking in on that, and out of country, more than 500 people visited to find out what’s available, what’s going on in Florida, “How can I do business here?” It’s an amazing thing.it continues to grow. Kerry, what’s the month to month on that? It’s just amazing numbers.</p>
<p><strong>Martine<br /></strong>Yeah, they have continued to grow since. Probably about 4,700.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>The addition of the other counties. Give Kerry Martine the credit, if you would, because when you see it that is her creativity.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>She is the walking history.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Alright, and the other piece is—though its corridor funded. Doesn’t cost the entrepreneur to use it. Doesn’t cost—like Gray and Robinson, our attorneys—they can post that they are available help entrepreneurs and it doesn’t cost them anything to post. Now, if you would like a little better listing, thanks to Roger Prynn and Kerry Martine—or if you want to sponsor a section you can certainly do that. So when you think of Miami coming up with 10—excuse me—with $7,500, you think of Jacksonville, Duvall County, coming up with $7,500. So we raised about $85,000 last year, before we added all the other counties to offset the cost of what we’ve been putting in—in terms of the cost of people work it in on a daily basis. One of whom is a UCF graduate student named Michael Zaharris, who is an OPS [Other Personnel Services] employee reporting to Tom O’Neal. So again, it is a stateside program housed at UCF. Thank you, Dan.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>I have to say that I think that kind of retaining and growing of businesses is perhaps one of the most important parts of this. I am a Southern historian and I look at the economy across the South, and most of what I see is buying jobs, not retaining them in the long run. I have been interviewed a couple of times by the Federal Reserve [Bank] in Atlanta[, Georgia], about some things I have written about that, and I always say that the South is missing the boat when they keep buying jobs.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Your pride is our pride and getting a call from the economic development organization for Atlanta—the greater Atlanta area—looking to make a corridor from Atlanta and Athens[, Georgia], and they call and say, “How did you do it? What can we do? Can you clone it? Do you mind if we clone it?” And I said…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>And that is just one of them—one of many. We have had a lot of calls from around the country, from out of the country. I’ve heard Randy talking to people from Thailand.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>From Puerto Rico; the lead attorney for the [Colorado] House [of Representatives] and [Colorado] Senate from the State of Colorado; a co-ed from [Harvard University John F.] Kennedy School of Government wanting to start a high-tech region around Syracuse [University]; Yankton, South Dakota. Are you familiar with Yankton, South Dakota?</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>I am not [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Well, I get this call from Charlie Gross—the then-mayor of Yankton. “We would like to start a high-tech corridor between South Dakota State [University] and University of South Dakota.” He said, “Roughly the same geography, two universities you had two to start. How did you do it? And what do you do?”</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>A lot more cows than people.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Yeah, and I spent three calls—total of six hours—keeping track of these things with Charlie Gross. I get a call from the Head of Economic Development for the Cherokee Nation—they wanted to—my boss is looking at me. Does he look at you like this?</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>All the time.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>All the time. He wanted to diversify their gambling establishment in this Cherokee, North Carolina. Okay? God bless him, and I said, great, and I said “Where do you live, by chance?” Because I know where the gambling establishment is—I never been there—but I know where it is, and he said, “Well I—you probably don’t know it—but I live south of [U.S. Route] 74 on [North Carolina State Road] 28,” and said, “Where?” And he told me, and I said, “Well, if you come about 6 miles further south and turn onto Trailing [Oak] Trail, that’d be where we have a place.” “No kidding?” So I struck up a friendship with a Head of Economic Development at the Cherokee…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>So Randy’s now a player at the Cherokee Casino.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Isn’t that a hoot?</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Yeah, sure. Sure.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Do you remember the old TV program <em>Get Smart</em>? Yeah, but do you remember the episode where they had the Indians who were—they had a nuclear-tipped arrow—coming out of a teepee?</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Out of a teepee?</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, yeah, and the woman, Smart, says “That is the third-biggest arrow I have ever seen.” [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Too much.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>You know, you talk about—Connie, you talked about the path here versus buying jobs, and I know that one of the questions you said you were interested in exploring was the role played in the GrowFL[: The Economic Gardening Institute] program, the economic partnership program, and I think—Dan, that goes then along with the others you mentioned as—while there were folks that knew we were behind the kind of a catalyst to get that moving, they don’t realize just what it has done. There are a lot of companies out there that are really benefiting from the kind of counsel and advice they are getting to help them get to the next stage.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>That is the creativity of this university and Tom O’Neal, and convincing as he is to get Roger Pynn and yours truly, and Ray Galley and Amy Evancho to go to Cassopolis, Michigan.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Cassopolis.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>In November, and then he doesn’t get to go. He is still here in the middle of November—to…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>He was the lucky one, as far as I was concerned</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Smarter guy. Well, he has a doctorate from here and an MBA [Master of Business Administration], what do you expect? Mrs. Lowe has this wonderful facility—of 2,600 acres that housed 14 farms, knob them together, we get all the farmhouses—she was staying in a nicely redone farmhouse—to you can stay in their center, and what they share is economic gardening in Littleton, Colorado. The experience that community has of losing a 10,000-employee Lockheed Martin plant, and they decided that never again would they be dependent on one facility for their livelihood. So they started by building their own, and so the orchestration of that is the platform for this GrowFL program. You need to ask how did Mr. Lowe made his millions? Kitty litter. Oh, oh, I should have let her answer. You know she has 2,600 acres around Arcadia, Florida? Special.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>She is a cool lady. Very devoted to what we started.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>So the idea that we could bootstrap our own companies—and one of our own council members, George Gordon, went through it. Said after—in fact, we’ve used him—as you know, Dan—thanks to your leadership in the House and Senate to give testimony. He said, “Randy, not since my days at Annapolis[, Maryland] have I been grilled, and even there, as much as I was grilled by people who knew more about my business than I did.” As a way of taking another look at how you might be a better business person and make your company more profitable.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>You know, I went through the CEO round-table portion, and I was amazed to see folks who had very sophisticated companies. Particularly one of them has a company fella—has a company called Alinea. They are an Internet services commission. Brilliant guy, and he was eyes wide open in that process, sharing around the table the program is facilitating, and one day, he stopped in the middle of it, got up and left, because he had gotten the answer he needed. We didn’t see him for two months, until he had finished implementing it.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>It’s amazing when you can see what happens in our state. When our Governor,<a title="">[5]</a> who had received some poor advice last year, vetoed the program that we were told by his staff he was going to approve, and then, within two weeks of the veto in The Villages, was out in the state espousing the virtues of supporting small states, two companies. We need to do more of that, and so we had some folks whisper to his team to whisper in his ear, “You just vetoed the least expensive program in the state that has created the most jobs for the least amount of money,” and so we think that impetus, as well as some excellent work on Dan’s part and the team—two million? Two million in refunding this year. Corridor funded it, and then we get a call from Jennifer Thompson, who’d been told by [Orange County] Mayor [Teresa] Jacobs that they found some extra money in Orange County, and Jennifer didn’t want to invest in sidewalks. She wanted to invest in companies. I heard about this GrowFL program, and I’d like to learn more about it. Tom O’Neal took a meeting with her, made a friendship—$50,000. For a while, that $50,000 was happening. We, of course, went to the [Orange] County on the north to say to Randy Morris and his mentee, Bob Dallari, who is now chair of Seminole County—just reelected—that this is going to happen in Orange County. So Seminole County said, “Well, we want that too,” and they put in $50,000 to help this program, to match our $50,000 that we put in to keep it alive last year, and now, it is obviously going great guns this year, because the State has seen fit to invest in it. It is run out of UCF, but it’s a statewide program.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>These things are good examples of what you can do with discretionary funds under enlightened leadership, and when people talk about—they want to reproduce the corridor or try to expand their operations or activities—we do have a foundation that nobody else in the state has. Nobody else in the state has been able to get or sustain. Randy gives you an example of how I think he very wisely has used a lot of these funds that uses them as incentives or matches or initial investments, but the truth of the matter is: without those dollars, he could not do that, and it is very hard for others to get that same hold. I don’t think today we could do that. With the current economic situation and the current political leadership. I don’t think we could do it.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>We’re a 501(c)(6) in the State of Florida with a fairly substantial budget by comparison. How many employees do we have? We are all consultants to the enterprise.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Oh, I see.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>It is the most cost-effective way of running it. The idea that you would have a corporation set up to do these things, as we talked in ‘96—where does the money reside? It resides at the two universities. Well, three, because we have been able to get some one-time funding on occasion from UF, and hope to remedy that, and get David [P.] Norton, their new VP of Research—said it is their number 1 priority, and he is going to make sure Bernie says it is their number 1 priority to get recurring funding at UF for corridor funds, but the funds reside at the university, because if they transferred them to the corridor, a private corporation, you have a red flag. You have a target.</p>
<p>Oh, by the way, having a county organization at AT&T, here’s—excuse me—I have really good people that did it, and I kind of showed up. The county thinks it is an expense, but the university managing it through their existing processes—both in county and the auditing, the corridor doesn’t have to incur that expense; therefore, we can use more of our corridor funds to do the matching projects that Dan just talked about, but you know—see, I don’t trust there. We have been doing this—finishing 16 years. You are chronicling it. How many issues have we had over the spending of funds in that many years?</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Except for your travel budget? Oh, excuse me [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>My travel budget. Saks takes me to Dallas later—later this week, and you are right. It’s been an experience.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>We just…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>You told me. You tell them about that.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>He told me he wanted to come on a commission of colleges. I warned him, “Do you have any clue what you are getting into?”</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>“You have a clue what you are getting into?” I said, “No, but I have got some real goods friends who can help.” The idea is that the university has trusted its volunteers, as well as consultants, as well as team members, to do the right thing, to spend the money in the correct fashion. The majority of the funds are spent on the matching grants project. People say, “You have an organization. It’s got what it does and so…” it is really like an “ad hoc-racy.” We come together, we address an issue, address the problem, put some resources to it. By the way, we thought we created that term—you are a historian—we found out. We did some checks. I think Roger did it—it was created—somebody came up with it in ’72.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>“Ad hoc-racy?”</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>An ad hoc-racy.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>It was not a compliment.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>No, right, but we come together, address an issue, find some funds, get some other people who have some funds, do it, and move in.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>We did. Randy and I in the last year requested an audit, because with all the things that keep popping out, they finished the audit, having given us a written report. There are no questions, not management statements, any negatives.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>She asked for a little more in terms of elaborating on why we are putting money into the GrowFL program, and I think we can fix that. So I got a hold up Fran Korosec, and said, “Fran, I need a little more information on the use of corridor funds.” Immediately fixed that.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>I have to confess: I did not know it at the time. I would like to take credit for it, or give us credit for it, but using that term attract—attract implies recruiting public relations, advertisement things that you—a lot of things you can’t do with state-funded money, because the original appropriation has that word “attract” in it. Randy is exempted from some of the regulations. For instance, he can do things with state money that we can’t that relate to meetings and conferences. I wish we could say we were that smart in the beginning, but it just worked out that way.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>I always said you were that smart.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Since you are talking about funding—I have been teaching a class this semester in U.S. economic history. Divided my students into groups and each group did a project, and one group did a project on the High-Tech Corridor. So that way did their presentation today—and I said, “I’m coming…”</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>No, no. wait a minute. Excuse me—we are having this conversation today. I had the conversation with the FIU lady and now your class…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Randy is writing a book on small worlds.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>I have a book on small worlds. I should work harder on this book, but really? This is…</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Well, they gave a very nice presentation, and after it was over, I told them I was coming to this meeting and I said, “If you had a question to present to this group, what would you ask?” And they thought about it and then they asked, “What is the role of venture capital in the Florida High-Tech Corridor? Is there a role, and if there is, what is it?”</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>It is us. We are unique venture capitalists.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>We are venture capital.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>That is what we are, and the uniqueness is we don’t ask for our money back. Find a venture capitalist that will do that and not ask for their money back and I would like to see which asylum the gentleman is with.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Well, I think they were asking generally about private venture capital.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Well, I think there are two sides to that, Randy. We do want. We are very supportive of the venture capital organizations, the Florida venture…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Florida venture—we are supportive even though—if I may?</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>They changed their model about a year ago, and said we will no longer support small companies, and as gently as I could, I am saying, “Well, you may just have lost a sponsor.” Because we can’t be attached to that regimented approach to lunacy of not supporting your livelihood going forward. It doesn’t make any sense. They changed the administration. They changed the board.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>And this is?</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>The Florida Venture Forward, and you will find the gentleman’s name on this list is now part of our Tuesday morning call. He called and said, “If I told you we’ve changed and have gone back to supporting small companies, can we come back to the fold?” I said, “Absolutely.” So…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>It could be an un—or under-developed part of what we do though. We really—that has probably been the thing we have talked the least about, and I am not involved day-to-day with this, so, you know—but if I could think of one area I could say we might do more in from my standpoint…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Your students are very astute.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>But GrowFL has that as one of its objectives, so we use our funds to help start GrowFL and support that aspect of their mission.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>But we have done, over the years, a number of things to support and expand venture capital flowing into the state. We hosted a group on the far western end that came here from around the country—I am trying to think of the name of it—but they go—they are actually an international group, and they go from market to market very quietly and find a sponsor like us to come in and show them what’s there.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>We have been very supportive of the for—and I think you are really right. that’s an area that we—and this may be the time of us to step back and look and say, “What can we do?” Because it’s a one—we are two things. We get with our Central Florida Tech for or the Tampa Bay Tech for two issues: workforce, finding the town, and venture capital, and that is why Randy always says we are venture capital, because though we started with a mega-giant like AT&T as our partner, there are a lot of companies that are getting funding for that through that matching grant research program that otherwise it would have to come through a venture capitalist.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>May I compliment your students, number one? And number two, we have a pretty strong history of funding starving graduate and doctoral students. Twelve—excuse me—2,400 through our matching grants program over the 16 years, and Kerry is the keeper of that stat. We have two interns right now in Tom O’Neal’s shop helping us with economic impact studies that we do, but the question they have posed presents an opportunity for some corridor funding back to your organization and to them. I don’t believe as a state we do a good enough job of chronicling the venture capital invested in who, what, when, where, why, and how. Who are the venture capitalists investing in—in our state? How much? If we can capture that, but take it more than just venture. If I can expand their question, and have it friends and family starting with some crazy things I’ve done over the years, I have to admit, as well as angel funds, which I had that much money to qualify for that, and all the way to venture. Alright? And in doing that, they will get a better understanding of the difference in those categories and who they apply to, but more importantly, we may end up with a better study then we’ve ever had in terms of what is happening in Florida, and what can we do then to change the paradigm that we think exists of the folks that are in Peter’s category of having some megabucks and all? And why is he not investing in Florida, but in this—well, I know he’s investing in the Carolinas—but, the history we think we have…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>You are making a pretty good payment from the Cherokee Nation [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>That is going to my church. What can we do to identify better why we think the folks that have some money to invest are investing it in the states and the companies in the states from whence they came? Okay, so…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Well—or in California and New York or in California. I didn’t mean my comment to be at all critical of what we are or are not doing, but if I had to think of one area that we might be doing something in that I sort of thought—and heard the least about in discussions on the corridor—that is probably it.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Right. That’s it. Right on target.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>And that might be an opportunity for us.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>You’re on the leadership board with some of the Metro Orlando EDC [Economic Development Commission] and some of the refocusing things they are doing. To have this study, maybe have it annually for them—for the EDC—critical. In terms of—it’s just not having major hunting in major boxes. It’s growing and starting and growing our own and having a better idea of the potential of investment capital, no matter what size. We would benefit from that. So compliment them, please and the astuteness of their question.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Well, I was somewhat shocked when they come up with that question.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>It’s a good question.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>It’s a good question. Since you have brought up the subject of workforce as well, one of the things that struck me about the High-Tech Corridor as opposed to some other places, is the amount of effort that has gone into the partnerships to create a solid workforce that is going to do more than just put together widgets, but actually had make a contribution. So if you could talk about that…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>That’s from the golf—that’s from the golf course. We’re sitting on…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>A lot of things happen on the golf course.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>John goes—John goes…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Some of them we can talk about.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Yes, I understand.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>John goes, “Let me get this straight,” and this is—gosh. This has to be 12 years ago? This was when Feeney was Speaker. He said, “You want to take some corridor money and invest it with the community—community—community colleges.” Yeah. I said, “Yeah, John. You want to be the number one metropolitan partnering university, and if you don’t help the companies that are in your backyard do a better job getting the technicians they need, and getting the technicians a chance to get a baccalaureate, you are not going to be as successful in the partner category as you could be, and when you think about the great relationships that exist between UCF and the State and community colleges, the idea of funding seven of the Associate’s Degrees—which is what we ended up doing with a little bit before we got the funding, thanks to Dan and Speaker Feeney—but the workforce money we have received with seven different state community colleges funding those Associate’s Degrees—that’s pretty special, and we put about an average of 150,000 into each one of them, with the caveat that the community—state college—community college would bring its industry to the table, define the need, develop the curriculum from what the industry said the need was, but then structure it in such a way that the graduate—should they elect to do so—could go on and get a baccalaureate. Now, I will give you an example and watch your facial expression. Volusia did the Modeling Simulation and Training degree. There have been 600 enrollees. Ask me how many graduates have graduated to date. Program’s about 4 years old—5 years old.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>How many?</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Thirty. You see? You see that? And the individual—when I reacted the same way, I’m going, “Why did we put the money—why did we—what—with 30 graduates?” He said, “You didn’t ask the right question.” It goes back to your question in support of workforce. I said, “What?” He said, “Ask a different question.” He said, “Why don’t you ask me how many have jobs?” Light bulbs, light bulbs. He said, “All of them.” I said, “You are telling…” He said, “They are hiring them after they get their first year in. There is enough guts to the program that the corridor helped them devise, based on industry input to get enough that the industry hired them after they finish the first year.” Now I am going, “What happened to this idea of allowing the technicians to get a baccalaureate?” He says, “You’re helping the industry through the program that you funded. They can’t—they can’t get these—they can’t get enough of these technicians.”</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>That goes back on—remember when you were looking for people? We could find engineers. We paid enough money to a company in California or wherever. We could not find technicians. We started some of the programs in community colleges.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge</strong><br />The first one—the first one—it was—and…</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>We were paying a lot of money. We were stealing them from [Walt] Disney [World] and other companies, but there weren’t enough around to really fill it.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>It was…</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>That was the most difficult job to fill was a technician.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>That was the first one.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>And that’s also why we started Tech Path.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Tech Path.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>It was originally Chip Camp.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>I had forgotten that.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>And…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>There’s a—there’s a thing in a book that really influenced me—Lester [Carl] Thurow’s book, <em>Head to Head</em>[<em>: The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe and America</em>]. He says that economists in Germany make more than they do in the U.S, and that is because the technicians in Germany make more. You know, the guys out on the floor who really make this stuff make more, and that’s a lesson we…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Ben Noll…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Need to learn.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Head of the Interactive Game Academy. When he was number 2 at Electronic Arts or whatever his COR…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Sacher.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Right. When we asked him to be at the table to help determine the digital media Associate’s Degree at Seminole State College, he was Electronic Arts and had only technicians. Within about four months of that, he transitioned from Electronic Arts to FIAA, and he called—and I will count on you to clean this up if it makes your report—he said, “I will find the biggest crow in Central Florida. I’ll cook it any way you ask me to cook it, and I will eat it in front of any audience you choose.” He said, “I need technicians.” He said, “I want technicians to go through the UCF program, but coming in as technicians, because they offer a different perspective, but all are needed. That I need—I need the technician perspective, and then the baccalaureate, and then we will do some really neat things with them at FIAA.” But ask Ben Noll about that. He reaffirmed that, by the way, because he hosted our tech camp—the one that took place today, this morning. Kicked off for I/ITSEC [Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference] —the last one was at FIAA, which he hosted and he allowed me to tell this story, so that the teachers from schools all over the corridor would understand that their students. It’s all right to be a technician as well as then get your baccalaureate.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>So what that means is that everything we do is really workforce development. Every bit of it, and he who wins at workforce development wins at economic development.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>2,400 students.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Starting with kids in the middle schools and high schools.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>In fact, if M. J. or Tom were here, or Dr. Sanberg, or Tracy Swartz, or—or David—David Gordon—UF—or Shava Jackson-Carr—who runs a program there—they would tell you that, if a program gets to ask desk for approval—Peter is still one of our approvers—doesn’t have students built into it—hm?</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Doesn’t happen.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Very rarely does it happen now, because the intent was—we are doing applied research to help a company, but we want students as a part of that process.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Excellent.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Clark hasn’t asked any questions, have you noticed that?</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>Been wonderful.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Oh, and I thought it was just Roger.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Come on, we are so good at this, listen—he never—he never misses a chance to zing me a little bit.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>No, no. He’d never.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>I have a string today, John. I’ve got him under control.</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>I have—I have talked to Connie about this. Although it is called the I-4 Corridor, is there any limit to the north-south expansion?</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>We actually changed the name from I-4, because it turned out, you couldn’t trademark the name of an Interstate [Highway], so it’s the Florida High-Tech Corridor now. It can be the XYZ Corridor if somebody else wanted…</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>But could you see—it keeping going?</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>It’s in Gainesville.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Well, you have to have business.</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>Even north of Gainesville or south…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>But you’ve got to have business and some kind of employment. It wouldn’t have to necessarily high-tech, but you—you need an employer base that you work with.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>We’ve used it as leverage. The governor has accepted it. Thanks to John and Bernie’s oratorical skills, witnessed by some folks in the room. We were a plank in the governor’s—one of eight—in the governor’s economic development plan, when he was governor-elect. If you look at the most recent report out of the foundation for—Florida’s Chamber Foundation—we are a plank in their 20 year plan to replicate this around the state. Mark Rosenberg, because of the friendship, because of working together, has said, “We would like to clone what you have done it, how you’ve done it, from Miami to Orlando.” Didn’t call it the I[nterstate]-95. He just simply called it—in fact, Roger and Kerry have been helpful in trying to get him to name it. The idea is rather than become one huge—we think it’s five city-states in our state regardless of what we try to do to make it a state. Why not build on that strength? We complement each other…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>We’ve tried. We’ve tried to—for instance, Jim, connect all the way to the Gulf Coast and become a South Florida version of this. We basically cover the central portion of the state, because we are a partnership of the three universities. We define it as you’ve gotta be in the primary service areas of the universities. Now, Florida, as a land grant, has this statewide mission, but they are—they have defined—was it Alachua [County]? And they added two counties.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Bernie agreed—I know you are quick to go away there, but that didn’t go anywhere, but Bernie agreed that we would try to keep the idea of a corridor, so therefore it was just Alachua and Putnam [County] that we added, when we added UF, and that was their request.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>But you really do have to have an identifiable employment base that you are going to service and it can be high-tech, it can be something else.</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>So you are encouraging Mark to start his own, not join you.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Yes, sir. Yes, sir.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Well, if he wanted to join us, that’s fine, but he—he stills needs a base of employment down there. He needs some companies he is serving who will work in partnership with him. Absent that he can get appropriations, you can get all the free consulting from us—from Randy—that we could possibly give, but he won’t have an organic entity. You’ve got to have the real partnership. You’ve got to have a Peter Panousis, who says, “I need the research.” You know? “I’ve got a series of problems that we can work on together,” and absent that, you’ve just got another university office.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>We got the first funding based on the success of what was done for Peter through the two universities. We got the second funding—based on skills that Dr. Holsenbeck—Dr. Holsenbeck has—we got the second funding because of Peter, but also because of what we did with the money the first year. We got the third round of funding—again, the confluence of Toni Jennings, Dan Webster—leadership, leadership, leadership, but you gotta do something with the money. So the third round of funding came because we had branched out by that time, and we had done projects, like we did with Peter. We had done projects, started to do projects with companies of all sizes.</p>
<p>So what we said to Mark—Mark called about three months ago, before he lost Davina. He said, “We’ve been meeting a lot.” I said, “Yes, sir.” “We’ve been meeting a lot.” I said, “Yeah. I got it the first time.” He said, “All we’ve been doing is meeting.” I said—“Mark, you’ve got it.” I said, “Just do something. Just do it. Okay?” And he goes, “Okay. What do you suggest?” I said, “Mark, you got a research foundation?” “Yeah.” “You got $250,000?” “Yeah.” “Does M. J. have a research foundation at FAU [Florida Atlantic University]?” “Yeah.” “Got $250,000?” “Yeah.” “Do you have friendship with the University of Miami?” “Yeah. kinda sorta.” I said, “Do they have a research foundation?” “Yeah.” I said, “Then why don’t you each put up 250,000 and just start doing projects like we’ve been doing projects? And once you’ve demonstrated success, I think you’ll have a better chance of getting some matching funds from the state to start doing what we are doing.” Besides you’re gonna get your money back off they call them—recovering’s or loadings—or what’s the proper term when it is charged to the companies?</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Overhead.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Overhead.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Indirect overhead.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>The other thing you just said that I think is really important is you encouraged him to talk to M. J., at least, M. J. is not Soileau’s; it’s Sanders, president down there at FAU. The people in the Legislature and other people in the communities like to see universities work together. So the fact that it isn’t just one university working in the community helps in generating financial and others helps. So I think that is really good advice, but they’ve got to have a few employers down there between that whole corridor from Fort Lauderdale, down to essentially Miami-Dade [County], they’ve got to have a few employers they could enlist to come in as part of this.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>I think, John, at this point, they haven’t quite figured out that part of the equation. All the schools are together, all the economic developers are together, and the private sector hasn’t been brought to the table yet.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>They won’t get anywhere ultimately until they do that. I mean, that’s the…</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>What Randy’s advice was: we’ll get two or three private developers on board for that match.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>But they need to reach out and ask. If they look at their foundation, let alone if they got it, even without a research foundation—just the university foundation—they’ve almost certainly got a few employers who are in manufacturing or some research operation they can bring in and just say, “Look, give us your research folks to attend a few séances here, and let’s try to get this going.”</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>We represent, for instance, Florida Power and Light [Company]. We have asked them to come to the table. I am sure they will. Through our partnership with MSW, we represent United Technologies [Corporation] and Pratt [&] Whitney. I was down there a couple weeks ago, and I asked one of the plant executives about how much research is done. He said, “Well, you know, we do a lot of primary research in this specific area” —which I am not allowed to tell you about or he would shoot me—but something very important, but he said, “We got applied research going on all the time.” So when we have this conversation, I’m going to put those people together for you. That’s the kind of partnership that I mean—jet propulsion.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, you’d think they’d kill for that. But, you know, Peter, you shared with me years back that a lot of the most profit-enhancing, if you will, work that you did in cooperation with the corridor, I think, was—was really operational research. You know, the industrial—classic industrial engineering.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Got to make it better.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, and that—you could be operating—you could be working with a trucking firm.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>And—and have—have opportunities there.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Yeah, that’s right. We did one at USF.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Well, but, you know, you don’t have to be in necessarily a high-tech industry to have really good engineering and scientific impact.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>You know…</p>
<p><strong>Panousis<br /></strong>[inaudible] that work there. It is really very valuable. You have as many kind of operation with stuff moving through a production line—and I use the term “production line” loosely, because it could be chemicals, it could be medicine, could be anything, but things are moving and they are limited by processes. Understanding that process is very important, and that’s something universities spend a lot of time on and was very valuable for us. We got a lot of out of it.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>It’s one of the basic skill sets that IEs brings to the table.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>One of the things that I think will help them is to broaden their horizon. One of the things that has been very powerful for us is the fact that we focus on a number of sectors. We have limited it other than to attach it to the areas that the partner universities believed were their real strengths, where there was the potential for a cluster to develop, where we were—we had teaching and researching in other areas that matched the interest of some industry that’s already here—modeling, simulation, aerospace. When Bernie and the University of Florida joined, they said, “Hey, don’t forget agro-tech.” We hadn’t even—I don’t think any of us had heard the term before. You know? But there’s a lot of technology that mirrors life sciences in agro-business. Right now, the folks in South Florida are focused solely on life sciences. They have—they believe for whatever reason that because of Scripts, because of the success in bringing them down there that that’s the ticket to ride. A few years back, they were the “Internet Coast.”</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>And they are looking—they are trying to figure out—they need to look to their strengths.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>That didn’t go anywhere.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>No, they need to look…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Still at the beach.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>They need to look to their broad, academic strengths, and say, “Who can we match this to in support?”</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>One—excuse me—just a quick answer to your question too, by using a quick example is [Central Florida] Research Park. A lot of people ask High-Tech Corridor and the Research Park to, “Come help us be successful,” and Research Park is—you could build a research park and set up an office. And, by that, I mean just the land and the infrastructure and set up an office, and that’s what the folks at Innovation Way [Corridor] have already contracted with us to do. Joe didn’t ever go out there, okay? Because somebody like Peter has to come in and express an interest in being there. So why—how do you start these kinds of things? Research Park is a good example. You have to have some tenants. Our Research Park owes its success not to the High-Tech Corridor, but to the simulation and modeling industry and the presence of the [U.S.] Military. That’s why it’s doing what it is.</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>Doctor, do you think that the involvement of the business community, going back 16 years, helped get other things approved, such as the medical school, the stadium? That is—you coming into contact with all these business leaders, and business community getting to know you, and the university coming to trust you guys?</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, I think that’s the way it works, it wasn’t say—if you think about either of the projects you mentioned, it wasn’t the nuts and bolts of them. It was the fact that they associated us with a successful enterprise. That we had been able to—helped organize something and get it really working, and they had seen the university as a competent organization</p>
<p><strong>Clark</strong> So is it possible that those things might not have happened if it hadn’t been for the initiative of the High-Tech Corridor ?</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Well, I suppose so. You know, I—probably less so with the—less so with the stadium, but when you ask people to get behind something as complicated as getting the medical school approved, probably the perceived success of the—of the High-Tech Corridor was a really…</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>I can give you one very solid example. Ken Pruitt, President of the Senate—we are trying to get FIA, and I go in and talk to Ken and explain—this was—this was this was, I think, the two years before he became president. He was Chairman of [the Committee on Appropriations], I believe, and I go sit down and talk to him, and I said, “You’ve heard about the FIA project and what we are trying to do there?” And maybe a few words changed, but this is exactly the way the conversation went. “Do I need to give you a white paper or do I need to put any other facts or anything together for you?” And that’s the absolutely truth. He looked at me and he said, “If John Hitt says this is what you’re going to do with the money, and this is what it will do, then I am okay.” That’s exactly what he said, and the FIA money was eventually in the budget.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>I forgot—Dan had told me that story at one point and I forgot it. There’s an important thing nested within that, that Dan and others at the table deserve credit on too. Universities sometimes get a bad reputation for taking money to do one thing and then doing something else with it, and that’s something that Dan and I have worked very hard to get all of our people to understand. You don’t do that. If you ever want to get money again from those people, don’t do that. You ask for the money to do X, you do X. If for some reason that can’t happen, you go back to them, and if need be and re-appropriate it, but don’t just take it under the supposition—promise—that you will do one thing and do something else with it. That’s deadly. Surprising how often it happens.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Well, I have a couple—couple of last questions. One of them is: where do you see as the challenges now that you are 15 years into this?</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>The answer I was honored to give a couple weeks ago in a similar setting was—if you believe in partnership, and it really is a partnership and you put yourself on the line—so I called Dan last week, following a conversation I had with David Norton, and I said, “David, we’ve been trying through some very, very tough times to get even one-time funding, let alone recurring funding for—for UF.” But it’s still a major objective. The governor accepted 5 million per state university that wanted to adopt our program on the basis that the money would come to us, we would validate their program, and only once we validated their program, would the money be transferred to said university. In doing so, that would have increased our funding as well, which we would be very happy, when you think in terms of UCF running through the budget by January-February, which it has historically done, that would tell you that there are plenty of projects.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Let me explain that—running—running through the research projects, not running out of money.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>The budget is appropriation is consumed by January-February, because we have that many great projects coming to the university to partner with corridor money to do the applied research. You forget was—if you had an amount more than we have now—we have taken budget cuts just as the university has, of course. Well, we could do more, if we had more in terms of funding, but we didn’t put it that way. What we put it was—establish the program for any state university that wanted to do what we were doing. We said in the process, our three—UCF, USF, and UF—we would like to see recurring funding initially at the 2 million level for UF. So that’s a major goal. So hopefully it doesn’t take the next 15 years to get that done. That would be a major goal.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>I think one of the things we have got to—to address—I think we have been doing so, but look around the table we are not spring chickens. And, I mean, even a young guy like Roger. You know? But, you know, this Friday—I guess it is I will be 72 years old. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be President [of the University of Central Florida], but it’s not another 20 years plus, and Randy’s gonna want to be fully retired one day, as well Ben, and Peter already is—the rascal. So you know we’ve gotta—I think we’ve institutionalized things pretty well, but if you got a president who just didn’t understand or commit to partnership, it would be hard for this to survive. When you think about the five goals, and partnership, and how much we are invested as an institution in that concept and in practice, I don’t think it’s likely that the next president will not care about partnership. I think that will be a criteria in the selection process that we’ve set up, but that’s clearly an issue, you know? Does it survive the person—the people who put it in place and operating it and sustaining that for 16 years?</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Bernie is in the process of going on to his next vocation—or vocation or what have you—dentist, I believe. Researcher, as well as a dentist.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>I bet he doesn’t go back to pulling teeth.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>No?</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Oh, no. He’s going to be here in Orlando for a lot of this time.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>So…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Is he?</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Really?</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>A transition plan for a couple years now.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>With the research center?</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, in developing part health partnership—expanding, I think, on what they’ve got with Orlando Health and…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Wonderful.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>We have shared it this morning from folks all over the country that are part of this. It’s a program—some nationally acclaimed teachers—we have been recognized through the tech camp tech path program as the best of the best in terms of the state of Florida for STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] programs. I want the gentleman sitting to your right to close his ears now. We’ve had his leadership in trying to bridge a number of STEM programs at our universities and in our region. PRISM [Promoting Regional Improvement in Science and Math]—I don’t like the term—no matter how you succinctly you try to pronounce the first thing that comes to mind is not an optical device or an acronym for STEM programs. Anyway, He lets me say that each time we get together, but the idea of merging all of these STEM programs across the region to make them more effective would be a target for sooner than later in the next 15 years. It needs to happen. With limited resources, Roger’s team has put together every school superintendent. Thanks to Jim Shot and others across our—is there ten? Ten of them?</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Ten.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Ten counties. So that’s the lynchpin you’ve got—that you’ve got the school superintendents that have come and gone. Bill Vogel—his replacement—Orange County—he’ll shoot me—just retired from Orange County.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Ron Walker.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Don’t tell Ron I did that. All this transition and they’re still together, but they’re only…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, but his successor’s also a [UCF] Knight.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>UCF alumni.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>That’ll help. That’s right.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>The school superintendent in Orange, Seminole, Lake County. All three of ‘em. ’80, ’81, ’82 grads.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>That’ll help us keep that group together, but there is so much more in terms of potential. So how do we do a better job or orchestrating and sharing best practices?</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>We take so much for granted. The ability to partner vertically in this—Central Florida. It’s not even the case in a lot of the rest of the state, where, you know, where you could say, we’re going to work with the schools, we’re going to work with the state colleges. Hell, there are parts of the state where they’re at war with one another. Not only do they not collaborate and cooperate, they’re fighting one another, and we tend to take that for granted here.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Yeah. Instead of working together in difficult times—without mentioning the topics, because I think it is like this right here, a signed docent—but the school system and the community colleges have to come to us for a joint endeavor, and that’s an example, and we all talked—the three government relations people—as we sat around the table and talked, and we said, “Do you know anywhere else—not only in the state, but maybe in the country—where this kind of initiative would come from the K-12?” So I think that’s something unique. I think one of the long-range goals is that we need to move with even more design and strategy to emerge as truly the statewide model, and help everywhere we can go and every corner of Florida to instill this program, and I think that should be one of our goals, and Roger knows this. I think he and Kerry—his organization—do a great job, but I still think, as I said a while ago, we need to double our efforts to make the policy-makers aware of all these other programs that are going on behind the scenes that are so vital to the foundation of creating that high-tech knowledge and the workforce to go along with it.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>And that to me—and I talk about this all the time—having this history is such an important tool for us in our toolbox to tell that story. So once we’ve chronicled where this thing’s been, it’s a lot easier to do that. Hit somebody over the head with a book.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>And one last goal that I think would really help us—and I’ve been saying this for years—and it takes the M. J.’s and the faculty, but we need one huge hit, one great big project that the three institutions secure together. We need a high-tech SymTech or a high-tech something with hundreds of millions of dollars from the Federal level, and if we could ever get all those faculty members working together unselfishly on that level to come up with some sort of sharing program on that, I think that would be an indelible footprint on the map of what we’re about.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>And that brings up a point that we really haven’t talked about here. It ain’t for not trying that we haven’t gotten there. Behind the scenes, we’ve made some incredible efforts…</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>To try and focus Federal energy and other grant-making activities on this region. We’ve come very close, and the great news is that out of that we have—I always look at it as part of that pajama hotline we have on Tuesday mornings—we have a bunch of people on the phone on Tuesday mornings who can respond like that—put together responses for opportunities. One of these days—we’re going to hit another...</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>SymTech was one.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>We’ve had two by the way. Guess that—from what company the two projects came from? Yeah. You’re good. Yeah. One of your graduates, and it was a wafer-polishing deal where we brought professors and students in from USF and UCF to work on.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>You know, there’s a good example too of what Roger said—the learning that takes place as you respond to these. We were a lot better in our attempts to bring Sanford-Burnham [Medical Research Institute] here than we were in our attempts to bring Scripts here. I mean we learned a lot from the near-miss on Scripts, and we were a lot closer on that then people knew. What’s the guy’s name that’s head of Scripts, who’s going to retire now?</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Richard…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, and he was—when we were out at the airport before they left to go down south, he was asking if I’d come out and meet with his board the next week. We were—we were that close to getting that, but I correctly forecasted we would not. The farther they got away from us, the more his desire to be down there with the billionaires would take over, and that’s what happened.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>The area also looked like La Jolla[, San Diego, California]. A lot of those people were coming…</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Because they wanted that environmental landscape.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>You know, we—we had the better offer in terms of what we could really provide for them, but there’s was a lifestyle component that was very important to them and I thought the closer they got to that—the farther they got from Lake Nona and what we were offering them, the less we were going to be happy with the result, and that’s indeed what happened, but boy, what we learned. Not just here at the university, but what Orlando and—and Orange County learned made a big difference in the next effort.</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>One thing that surprised me ever since we got involved in this was: in so many places, the local university is either the 500 pound gorilla—and I am thinking Yale [University] and New Haven[, Connecticut] —or else is an ivory tower that almost is ashamed of—Duke [University] and Durham[, North Carolina]—being in the community, and this is really very unique. This is—I—I can’t think of other—other cities where this has happened, where the local university…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>There are a few.</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>Has played such a role in the business community.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, yeah. No, and that makes a big difference for us, in the support we can get for various things.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>That’s how we had University of Florida [inaudible] Dean of Engineering, a friend—I guess they’ve been together in a past life—with President [Bernie] Machen. Vermont called and said, “We’d like to join the corridor,” and said, “We’re honored.” On asking why, he said, “Well, there’s no way we can stay on the top 20 or have any hope of getting into the top 10 of engineering colleges in the U.S. if we don’t climb out of our ivory tower and get down and start partnering with companies to do applied research.” Not basic—applied research. Oh, by the way, his stats—and he knew it—70 percent of those companies in Florida “were in your corridor, and we’d like to partner with them.”</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>I know we can come down, but that’s not the way to do it. We want to figure out how to partner with you.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>I think that’s a change in attitude among the institutions…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Again, which is to your credit, is this concept of partnership—that it does work, because I think what Randy said is, Bernie could be here, do whatever he wants to do. He does need us, but in reality, he could do it without us.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Yeah, he could, and it’s a closely-held strategic view. They see, as he puts it, we are the survivors, and they would like to work with us. I hope that survives Bernie.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Yes, that’s the—that’s always the question.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Always the question. You know, if you’ve got an old-style, rigid, competitor mentality that it might not, but…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>John, I think going—part of [inaudible] we will know that very quickly, but that search committee was given the sense of the importance of that partnership.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Well, and in their chair in that David Brown again? He and Bernie are really good in that selection.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>What can we do for you?</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Well, I—this is…</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>You had another question, you said?</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>They answered it.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt</strong> <br />Did they? Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>In going through that. This has been very helpful. A lot of the things that you said I kind of gathered through looking at other things and I kind of had the intuition that this was the way it was, but it is very helpful to hear you say it and confirm it. That that’s the way it was, and there was some new things I learned, and I know your time was very valuable and I really appreciate the time.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>This was fun.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Thank you.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Thank you. Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>I have to say, on a much smaller level, I’ve worked at a couple big universities before I got here. This is the first university I’ve been to that actually meant it when it says “partnership,” and even in the [UCF] History Department, RICHES [Regional Initiative for Collecting the History, Experiences, and Stories of Central Florida] now has 28 partnerships between different departments, the community, and businesses.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>Oh, wow.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>You guys and gals over there are doing partnerships. It—it’s known.</p>
<p><strong>Lester</strong> It’s really been amazing to me how well that works.</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>Did you know we have our own museum now? Up in Sanford?<a title="">[6]</a></p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>You’re the dinosaur.</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>A number of people have said…</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>Can I get two points?</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>You’re a leg up on three points</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>But you know…</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>A number of people I’ve talked to, involved in this, have said that giving me a pay raise would enhance the university.</p>
<p><strong>Lester<br /></strong>Exactly.</p>
<p><strong>Clark<br /></strong>Have you given that much…</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>We have. We’ve thought about it a lot.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>You know what—actually, I understand.</p>
<p><strong>Hitt<br /></strong>We’ve thought about it as much as we’re going to.</p>
<p><strong>Pynn<br /></strong>I understand we’ve thought that we’re going to do some research on that.</p>
<p><strong>Berridge<br /></strong>It’s a history project.</p>
<p><strong>Holsenbeck<br /></strong>Let’s say goodbye to the staff. Thank you so much for the interview.</p>
<div><br /><div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Randolph E. Berridge.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[2]</a> Irma Becerra-Fernandez.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Paul R. Sandberg.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[4]</a> Salon International de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, Paris-Le Bourget.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[5]</a> Richard “Rick” Lynn Scott.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[6]</a> UCF Public History Center.</p>
</div>
</div>
501(c)(6)
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