I am running for School Board in my community of Flat Rock, Michigan. My wife and I have been heavily involved in the Flat Rock community ever since we moved to Michigan in early 2004. With three kids it doesn’t take long to find yourself volunteering in everything from little league to school classroom.
Flat Rock, Michigan is a great little community of around 10,000 people. When I was recruited up from Ohio to serve on the Quicken Loans Leadership Team I had many options of where to live. We visited communities from Birmingham, to Ypsilanti, to Monroe, and of course the more obvious options close to work–Livonia and Novi. All of those cities were very nice and I am sure we would have been happy living in any of them, but when we visited Flat Rock it had a remarkable charm that we immediately fell in love with.
You see the people who have lived in Flat Rock much longer than I have created a remarkable community. The folks are friendly and they care about their city. They are hard working and have strong family values. The City is active–there is always something going on; a baseball game, a soccer match, a football game, a parade, or a picnic. We have great walking/biking paths, beautiful parks, scenic waterfronts, and state-of-the-art community center. These are the outward things that drew us to Flat Rock.
However, as our kids started school we discovered even more hidden treasures–the teachers, the schools, the parents, and most importantly the children.
Unfortunately, the economy is going to make maintaining the quality of our community and education system challenging. This is what made me proud when several people from the community of Flat Rock asked me to run for the School Board.
I wait to represent these great people during these challenging times. And I know we will continue to improve on the strong foundation those before me have created.
If you want to read more visit the Flat Rock School Board website or the Bill Rice for School Board Facebook Fan Page. Feel free to join!
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angelinacook is discussing. 
, by Alexis De Tocqueville
, by U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd
, edited by A.M. Fairweather
, by Senator J. William Fulbright
, by Justice Antonin Scalia
Jerry Neumann 12:34 pm on November 24, 2009 Permalink
Seems like there are new ones popping up all over the place, at least in NYC. In the past month I've been through three (or four, depending on how you define it) that are still 80% empty.
One of the problems being an incubator seems to be that determining who you want in the space is a harder decision than a VC or angel investment decision. Investing money, you can put in more or less and even put in a little and see how it goes before putting in more. If you're going to incubate, you make a bigger commitment: your time. I think it's hard to commit, say, $10,000 worth of your time and office space and, when that has been used up, decide to stop. You have less 'optionality.' So the decision whether or not to incubate can take a lot of thought.
Aside from giving some space to some people you know well already, running an incubator is probably a full-time job.
Bill Rice 12:48 pm on November 24, 2009 Permalink
Right, maybe just offering co-working space is a better concept.
I think you hit on another good point: Getting successes is as much about getting the right mix of skills and talent into the space.
Jerry Neumann 5:34 pm on November 24, 2009 Permalink
Seems like there are new ones popping up all over the place, at least in NYC. In the past month I've been through three (or four, depending on how you define it) that are still 80% empty.
One of the problems being an incubator seems to be that determining who you want in the space is a harder decision than a VC or angel investment decision. Investing money, you can put in more or less and even put in a little and see how it goes before putting in more. If you're going to incubate, you make a bigger commitment: your time. I think it's hard to commit, say, $10,000 worth of your time and office space and, when that has been used up, decide to stop. You have less 'optionality.' So the decision whether or not to incubate can take a lot of thought.
Aside from giving some space to some people you know well already, running an incubator is probably a full-time job.
Bill Rice 5:48 pm on November 24, 2009 Permalink
Right, maybe just offering co-working space is a better concept.
I think you hit on another good point: Getting successes is as much about getting the right mix of skills and talent into the space.