Did you know there is an organization focused on making our region an economic powerhouse? Leadership Southeast Texas (LSET) has brought together 70-80 of the region's citizens each year for the last two decades. The task at hand is to brainstorm ideas on how to improve the region, build the programming, market it internally and externally and work to ensure that the places we call home are sustained. The regional approach is so smart as we try to "compete" with mega-cities like Houston just 80 miles to our west. LU is an economic driver for the nine-county Southeast Texas Region (SETX). In this model, the mission of CTLE becomes even more important. LU is producing the workforce of tomorrow. Our students are critical thinkers who know how to work as part of a team or assume the leadership position. The task at hand for LSET is to harness this brainpower and funnel it to the communities that comprise SETX. Of course we are not alone in this quest. Eric Suder provides a good example of how we can get involved. Switching gears, there is now evidence that you can improve retention, and the University of Illinois at Springfield has done so by assigning staff members to serve as informal advisers and advocates for online students, says Ray Schroeder, director of the Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service. Do you have your students work in small groups? Are your colleagues utilizing the same active teaching method? Research by Hillyard, Gillespie, and Littig, show that student needs to understand and experience the benefits of learning in small groups but it cannot be happening in isolation. It requires campus initiatives and interdepartmental coordination for maximum effectiveness. Why not start a conversation with your colleagues about a sustained effort to utilize small group learning in your department.