On Thursday, August 14th, over 215 business, governmental, civic, and military leaders and community members from the Fort Leonard Wood (FLW) Region joined the Sustainable Ozarks Partnership (SOP) for our 12^th Annual Meeting at the Ark Community Center in Waynesville.

This year’s SOP meeting theme of “The Fort Leonard Wood Region, Our Partnership Continues” reflected our commitment to the vision of regional communities, governments and organizations, FLW, and state and federal enablers working together as stakeholders to make the region an ever-better place to live, work, and play while enabling FLW mission success and advocating for mission sustainment and growth.

Meeting attendees were welcomed by SOP Chairman, State Representative Bill Hardwick. Leonard Wood Institute (LWI) Board President Mike Dunbar and LWI Board Treasurer and SOP Vice Chairman Steve Ehrhardt recognized each of the 36 SOP Sustaining Members for their outstanding support in keeping the regional momentum going in support of FLW, service members, and their families. Dunbar and Ehrhardt also recognized Larry Sexton for his decades-long wisdom, vision, and leadership in support of our Army, Fort Leonard Wood, Soldiers, their Families, and the four-county Region.

Speakers during the annual meeting included U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt; Congressman Mark Alford (MO-4); Missouri Commissioner of Education Dr. Karla Eslinger; Missouri Civilian Aides to the Secretary of the Army Mr. Joe Driskill and Mr. Rick Morris; Deputy to the Commanding General, MSCoE and FLW Mr. Douglas Babb; AICP, President Benchmark Planning Mr. Jason Epley; South Central Regional Liaison Defense – State Liaison Office, Department of Defense, Military Community and Family Policy Mr. Jeremy Hilton; Missouri Military Advocate Mr. Harry Roberts, and Kit Bond Strategies Principal Mr. Mike DuBois.

SOP Executive Director, Dorsey Newcomb shared seven key takeaways with attendees. These points included:

• The Army is undergoing some force restructuring that will impact Fort Leonard Wood; this will present challenges & opportunities
• The Army continues to value the role FLW plays in training Soldiers and continues to make strategic investments that augment FLW’s capacity to accommodate diverse training requirements
• Our elected leaders at the federal, state, and local levels, along with our communities and many stakeholders, are unified in our support of FLW, service members, military families, and the region
• Through SOP the region continues to execute proactive strategies to anticipate further changes in the defense budget, force structure, and recruiting that may either positively or negatively impact FLW
• The Army and other military services urgently need our help increasing awareness of our nation’s ongoing military recruiting challenges
• Military recruiting will continue to have a profound effect on our national defense and our installation
• As communities, we must remain committed to improving the quality of life for service members and families across the region which will continue to impact the sustainment of FLW going forward

“It was great to see so many of our regional citizens in attendance and to hear from our elected leaders at all levels, our Army and DOD partners, our state partners, and others on how we can remain unified in our collective work to support the Army, Fort Leonard Wood, service members, and families,” said Newcomb.

As part of his update, Newcomb reported on the progress SOP has made over the past year towards its goals of strengthening the region and FLW and concluded the conference by describing the region’s strategies going forward. During the business meeting portion of the agenda, Newcomb announced that under SOP by-laws the Chairman, Vice Chairman, and Treasurer will continue to serve as SOP Board Officers through 2025.