{"id":22114,"date":"2012-03-19T06:24:46","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T11:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=22114"},"modified":"2012-03-20T05:41:55","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T10:41:55","slug":"regional-summit-explores-area-quality-of-life-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2012\/03\/19\/regional-summit-explores-area-quality-of-life-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional Summit addresses quality of life"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Keynote speaker Jeff Montfort holds a door hinge illustrating the power of hinges to swing doors open. (photos by Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CELINA \u2013 Approximately 150 area community leaders gathered last Friday at Wright State University\u2019s Lake Campus for the second annual Regional Summit.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s featured speaker was Jeff Monfort, president of Fort Inc. and an owner-operator of McDonald\u2019s restaurants in Wapakoneta, St. Marys, Celina and Coldwater, as well as president of the 75 restaurants that make up the Miami Valley\/Dayton Co-op.<\/p>\n

He first noted that he felt he was \u201ctalking to the choir\u201d when talking to summit participants. \u201cWe all sing the same song and the song is building better communities,\u201d Montfort said.<\/p>\n

The theme for the morning event was \u201cPast, Present and Future: Improving the Quality of Life in West Central Ohio,\u201d and Monfort talked about the reasons he decided to return to his Mercer County roots after 14\u00bd years in Montana.<\/p>\n

He also spoke about hinges, and their importance in life, noting that \u201clittle hinges swing big doors.\u201d During his speech, he cited three hinges that lead to prosperity. Those \u201chinges\u201d include \u201cI stories,\u201d \u201cinnovation and investment\u201d and \u201cgiving back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montfort first talked about \u201cI stories\u201d — stories of why people make the choices they do and their impact.<\/p>\n

Noting that, in 1981, he was told there was no future in Ohio so he moved with his family to Montana, which is also known as \u201cGod\u2019s Country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs beautiful as Big Sky Country is \u2026 we chose to move back to \u2018God\u2019s county\u2019,\u201d Monfort said of his return to Mercer County, adding that, while Montana was a great place to live, this area has all the resources needed for quality of life.<\/p>\n

He also addressed the feeling of some of his young employees — nearly half are under the age of 20 — that it\u2019s impossible to be successful locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started at 16 behind the counter and now I own the counter,\u201d he told those at the Regional Summit.<\/p>\n

He also told participants in the summit to be \u201cproud out loud\u201d — tell their stories to others who may not realize that success is possible locally.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Julie Miller (left) of Wright State University's Lake Campus, and former Van Wert economic development director Nancy Bowen make a presentation during the recent Regional Summit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Montfort also talked about the importance of innovation and investment for companies and organizations, using as an example, the Eastman Kodak Company, which controlled 70 percent of the photographic market in 1998, but recently filed for bankruptcy because it \u201cfailed to keep pace with the shift from film to digital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Montfort spoke about giving back, something he said McDonald\u2019s founder Ray Kroc also felt was important.<\/p>\n

\u201cRay Kroc, our founder, always said it\u2019s our social responsibility to give back to the communities where we do business,\u201d the McDonald\u2019s franchisee noted. \u201cIf it was true then, it\u2019s even more true today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montfort said businesses have to work even harder than in the past to maintain \u201cbrand trust\u201d with customers, noting that scandals in business and society\u2019s institutions have created a \u201clow trust world.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said it was important to make sure important decisions were local in nature. \u201cI think it\u2019s okay to think globally, I think it\u2019s okay to think regionally, but we need to always act locally,\u201d Montfort said.<\/p>\n

The summit also included three presentations: \u201cConnecting with Community,\u201d presented by former Van Wert economic development director Nancy Bowen and Julie Miller, Western Ohio Educational Foundation development officer; \u201cConnecting with Technology,\u201d presented by Celina Schools Superintendent Matt Miller, Celina High School Principal Jason Luebke, Betsy Crites, technology integration coach for Celina City Schools and the Lake Campus; and \u201cConnecting with Culture,\u201d presented by St. Marys Community Public Library Director Susan Pittman.<\/p>\n

The presentations were followed by roundtable discussions among those attending and closing remarks by Wright State University President David R. Hopkins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor CELINA \u2013 Approximately 150 area community leaders gathered last Friday at Wright State University\u2019s Lake Campus for the second annual Regional Summit. This year\u2019s featured speaker was Jeff Monfort, president of Fort Inc. and an owner-operator of McDonald\u2019s restaurants in Wapakoneta, St. Marys, Celina and Coldwater, as well as president of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 05:26:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}