Retooled Apex is a good move for city

Published 12:00 am Monday, December 18, 2000

A mark of a good organization is the ability to change and adapt.

Monday, December 18, 2000

A mark of a good organization is the ability to change and adapt. For many organizations changing mid-stream is a difficult task that is often avoided.

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Failure to change often causes organizations to grow stale and lose their effectiveness. Yet many choose this easier, safer path and then realize only too late that the scope of their influence and their effectiveness has dwindled to nothing.

In Austin, a relatively new organization has taken courageous and dramatic steps to retool and refocus for the next year and perhaps the years beyond.

Apex Austin is undergoing change that will allow it to adapt and respond to the changing needs of the community. Having met some of its goals, the group is busy recruiting new members and shifting its focus to new projects and new needs.

The first year of Apex Austin resulted in the creation of the Catherwood Child-Care Center and the Welcome Center – both are needed additions to the community. But Apex members have identified correctly that the work cannot stop with these two successes and more needs to and will be done.

Meeting the challenge of the new year began with identifying what the group needs to tackle next. At a recent meeting, Apex members identified housing, education and transportation as the issues most pressing to the Austin community. The group has nailed on the head what certainly are the challenges facing this community not only in 2001, but also probably for many years to come.

And while the group has yet to determine specific action, or direction, that needs to be taken in regard to the pressing needs, it is encouraging and exciting to note that this relatively new group is not about to rest on its laurels and grow stale.