On Thursday, May 23, Coach Don Nehlen and Bill Raney met with the Annual Statewide Convocation of Senior Programs in West Virginia at Cedar Lakes in Jackson County.  More than 300 participants enjoyed visiting with the Coach and had a number of questions and discussion about the industry.  Among those in attendance were a number of retired coal miners and coal miners' wives.

We have continued to increase our focus on social media outreach. Our Facebook pages have continued to grow, with the “Friends of Coal West Virginia” page now reaching over 9,200 fans and averaging approximately 40,000-50,000 page views per week. We have also seen several posts reach 10s of thousands of people – one has now been seen by more than 330,000 people.

Our other pages have also experienced significant growth, with the “Friends of Coal Virginia” page now topping 5700 fans and Citizens for Coal (on which we have posting privileges) topping 2,300 fans. Altogether, it can safely be estimated that our pages are reaching more than 100,000 people per week. Our growth rate exceeds 10 percent, with us adding approximately 300 new fans to the FOC-WV page in just this week alone.

We are rapidly integrating all our social media, including FLICKr, Twitter (both wvcoal.com and friendsofcoal.org have a Twitter feed), and we are evaluating other social media platforms, including a blog, which we are developing  and a social media management tool (Sprout Social) which will allow us to manage all our social media efforts on a single platform.

The Friends of Coal and the West Virginia Coal Association in a sponsorship deal to lend its name and logo to Hillman Racing, for the #27 Camping World Truck Series entry driven by Team 7 MotorsportsVirginia driver Jeff Agnew at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the N.C. Education Lottery 200 held on May 17, 2013.  The truck drove to a 24^th place finish.

Audience estimates indicate the television viewership for the event was approximately 1 million viewers. The event was part of the annual “All-Star Weekend” NASCAR series at Charlotte.

Governor Tomblin has appointed Speaker Rick Thompson as Secretary of Veterans Assistance, effective in mid-June.  The Governor's press release is included below.  As you would expect, the race to replace the Speaker started immediately!  Likely candidates include House Finance Chairman Harry Keith White (Mingo), Kanawha County Delegate Doug Skaff, House Judiciary Chairman Tim Miley, and House Majority Leader Brent Boggs (Braxton).  A Special Session for purposes of electing a new Speaker is expected to be called in mid to late June.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin today announced the appointment of Speaker Rick Thompson as Cabinet Secretary of the Department of Veterans Assistance. The appointment will be effective following the retirement of Secretary Keith Gwinn.

 

"I want to take this opportunity to thank Secretary Gwinn, our first Secretary of The Department of Veterans Assistance, for his service to our state and his enthusiastic commitment to our veterans," Gov. Tomblin said. "Secretary Gwinn accomplished much during his tenure, including his role in helping to secure the largest federal grant for a state veteran's cemetery. I'm truly grateful for his service."