Launched more than three decades ago by visionary state leaders, the earliest missions of South Carolina's Councils of Governments focused on regional planning, keeping track of all types of statistical information, obtaining and administering grants and supporting regional economic development. Today, Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments and its sister organizations throughout the state still do those things -- and so much more. Thanks to local initiatives and statewide cooperation, we are taking better care of our elderly, training our workforce, improving transportation, making loans to growing businesses, expanding basic infrastructure, enhancing the environment and responding to unique regional challenges as new conditions and trends develop. In more than three decades of operation, Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments has forged fruitful local, regional and national partnerships that have produced beneficial and lasting results for our six-county region. Over the years, our commitment to partnership has led to unprecedented cooperation among local governments, enduring relationships with key federal, state and local agencies, increased effectiveness of numerous community-based organizations and job-producing connections with the private sector. Despite the long-term positive impacts of these alliances, Pee Dee Regional COG remains first and foremost a partnership of local governments and the people they serve.