Jeff Bagwell   Dear Members and Colleagues: On behalf of the Florida Housing Coalition, I would like to invite you to join us at the 21st Annual Statewide Affordable Housing Conference September 15-17, 2008, at the exquisite Rosen Shingle Creek Resort and Golf Club in Orlando, Florida. Our theme this year is “Housing: The New Environment”. Considering our current housing market, this truly is a new day for housing. We must re-evaluate our housing strategies in order to effectively assist Floridians in obtaining and sustaining affordable housing. With that in mind we are offering three exciting tracks on Green Building and Affordable Housing, Nonprofit Capacity Building, as well as the Mortgage Foreclosure and Credit Crisis.  We will also offer our traditional sessions covering the nuts and bolts of how to finance and build affordable home ownership and rental housing in Florida.   As part of our opening day of the conference, we ask that you join us Monday evening for our Conference Reception where we provide music, fun and great food. On Tuesday, you’ll benefit from the expertise shared during our instructional workshops. During lunch, you’re sure to enjoy our keynote speaker, Gihan Perera, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Miami Workers Center. Mr. Perera is a nationally recognized progressive movement leader, organizer, and strategist. We will close the day with our Community Land Trust Networking Caucus for those wishing to share ideas and achievement strategies with others involved with CLT implementation in Florida.   On Wednesday, we’ll host the Governor’s Affordable Housing Study Commission’s Stakeholders’ Meeting and invite you to attend our annual SHIP Administrators’ Roundtable - an excellent opportunity to engage in the latest and most essential SHIP related news for your communities. In addition, we are also pleased to host the Florida Alliance of Community Development Corporations Fall Membership Meeting. Of course, we also promise time-honored favorites, such as our Raffle and traditional Housing Expo, we will also feature our premier Green Building Expo where companies will display a variety of green building products and trends.   The Coalition’s annual conference is the premier training and networking opportunity for affordable housing professionals in Florida. Please take full advantage of this once-a-year opportunity by visiting www.flhousing.org and registering as soon as possible. We also encourage you to bring additional staff members and community advocates who are bound to benefit from the professional development opportunities made available by some of the industry’s leading experts.   I look forward to seeing you at the conference in September.   Sincerely,     Jeff Bagwell Chair