Good evening.

Thanks to everyone for attending this community meeting, as we prepare for a successful rollover into the New Millennium.

• On Tuesday of this week we held a press conference announcing the creation of Team Leon County 2000.

And what that announcement represented was the first step as an entire community "Marching Together into the New Millennium."

• For some time now, the jobs of systems analysts in businesses and public and private organizations throughout the county have consisted primarily of making our critical systems compliant for this crossover into the new millennium.
   

• Y2K is moving swiftly from a technical issue to a communications issue. We know that our citizens need to know what we are doing to ensure that they will have a smooth transition in the new millennium. This is very important. There's a lot of work to be done in educating the community.
   

• Through Team Leon County 2000 we hope to provide a vehicle for interaction and networking between local businesses and governmental entities. And informing the citizens of Leon County is of the utmost importance. Through this effort, information about what we all are doing to prepare for Y2K will be made available through the County's website at www.co.leon.fl.us
   

• We are delighted that representatives from these various agencies have agreed to participate in this community outreach effort of keeping their patrons, and our citizens, informed and up-to-date on Y2K efforts. Their presence lets us know that they share our concern for the citizens of Leon County, and we appreciate that commitment.

We are sure that these efforts will be greatly appreciated by our citizens and will prove to be most helpful to them as we March Together Into the New Millennium.

• We are also certain that the New Year will bring with it a reason to celebrate. We wanted to be the first to celebrate a smooth transition into the New Millennium as a Team. Join us in counting down to the official beginning of Team Leon County 2000.

LATER IN THE PROGRAM CHAIRMAN THAELL INTRODUCES THE FRONT ROW PANEL.