Last week, the Route 66: The Road Ahead Partnership issued its third-quarter report to keep the Route 66 community up-to-date on its activities and future endeavors.
Bill Thomas, chairman of the group, summarized the report in an overview. One excerpt, lightly edited:
The board of directors held its third meeting of the year in September, during which it decided to schedule the organization’s annual, face-to-face board meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the first quarter of 2018. In conjunction with the board meeting, an annual stakeholders meeting will also be held in Tulsa. This will be an opportunity for any and all Route 66 stakeholders to attend an informational reception where they can meet Board members and be updated on the work being done by the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership.
Third-quarter highlights include: Additional co-sponsors came forward to support HR801, the federal legislation designed to designate Route 66 a National Historic Trail, and HR66, which will establish a federal-level 100th Anniversary Commission to celebrate the centennial of Route 66 in 2026. The Financial Sustainment Task Force initiated communications with Charity Charge, a public benefit corporation dedicated to helping not-for-profit organizations enhance their ability to financially sustain themselves by offering a 1 percent rebate from a credit card.
The Preservation Working Group, having completed the majority of its original goals, identified new ones. The Education & Research Working Group devised a new communications process for itself, designed to enhance the group’s ability to collaborate on achieving its goals. The Route 66 State Associations Working Group continued to consider how best to coordinate the scheduling and location of national Route 66 festivals. The Economic Development Working Group initiated a new goal focused on creating an economic development-focused conference for local officials and businesses to attend. The Promotion Working Group met with faculty and students from Breda Technical University and from the arts technology program at Illinois State University to develop a Route 66 navigational app and to move forward with several projects designed to promote Route 66 and increase brand awareness of it among millennials.
You can download a PDF of the complete report here.