Executive Director Mike Brim completed a schedule of one-on-one meetings with legislators, mayors and county officials to update them on recent developments within BEST, Inc. and its volunteer operations arm, the Friends of St Andrew Bay as well as to enlist their continued support for major undertakings currently undeway.

Mike used a PowerPoint presentation for the meetings and left a copy of the Administrative Support Team's 2006 Annual report at each stop. His presentation gave an overview of the policies, goals and mission shared by BEST, Inc., the program's (501)(c)(3) non-profit corporation, and The Friends of St. Andrew Bay, which implements programs under the aegis of BEST, Inc.

Special attention was given to a progress report on the Stormwater/Contamination Project launched this year under a $500,000 grant initiated by the state legislature. This program is a unique watershed-wide study to pinpoint sources of rainwater runn off, which is a major source of water contamination in the bay.

Mike's report also covered results. Data in the presentation showed that volunteer workers had increased by 50% over the previous year. These volunteers had contributed over two thousand hours of work on FSAB projects during the past year. The hours contributed had a value of $68,950, up from $38,871 in volunteer hours contributed in 2005.

"These presentations have two purposes," Mike said. "First of all, we're accountable to the people who provide the funding that supports our work. We want to show them what they're getting for their money.

"Second, it is extremely important to have the full support of local governments in implementing the stormwater/pollution program being funded by the legislature. This program is engaging virtually every municipality in the county in a joint effort to tackle this problem on a watershed wide basis. It is essential that we have support on the local level from the top down. These meetings are helping achieve that goal."