Everything Paul Rodriguez when he was presented with a leadership award from Futuro RGV

Rio Grande Guardian's Podcast

MCALLEN, Texas - Paul Rodriguez, a board trustee with South Texas College and CEO of Valley Land Title, Co., has praised the work of Futuro RGV.

Rodriguez was presented with a Rio Grande Valley Leader award by Futuro recently. The event was held at the Radisson Airport Hotel in McAllen.

After being presented with the award, Rodriguez gave remarks. Most of them were aimed at Futuro.

“I think Futuro RGV is an incredible organization. For those of you that may not know or may not remember, it actually goes to the turn of the century, when it was Futuro McAllen, and its real emphasis was to let people know what was going on in McAllen,” Rodriguez said.

Futuro McAllen was formed in 1999. It changed its name to Futuro RGV about a decade ago.

Rodriguez acknowledged that since Futuro started there have been a lot of digital advances. However, he said many people still do not know of the decisions that are being made on their behalf by elected bodies.

“Despite all of the electronic advances we make, we still don't often know what's going on. We don't often know important issues. (We don’t know about) decisions being made at all kinds of levels, whether it's a school, the city, state, county. And I think there's really a vision that they (Futuro) had… this outstanding organization led by Nedra for so many years, of getting that awareness out there.”

The “Nedra” Rodriguez was referring to was Nedra Kinerk, longtime president of Futuro RGV.

Rodriguez said Futuro was not bipartisan. “They’re nonpartisan. And when you look at the makeup of the volunteers and the board members, it’s really quite a group in their own right.”

Rodriguez continued: “They get involved to the degree of trying to get to the citizens of the city, of the county, of the area… to be aware of who is running for mayor, who's running for city commission, who's running for state rep, senators, etc.”

Rodriguez said Futuro RGV has a stellar reputation.

“Their integrity is unmatched. People know that if you get an invite from Nedra, if you get an invite from Futuro RGV, you're going to get treated, right. It's not partisan. If you want to get your message out, if you really want to get out and talk to people, let them know where you stand and what you want to do and what's on your mind, man or woman, Democrat or Republican, Independent, people know you can trust Futuro RGV to do that.”

Rodriguez said Futuro RGV has embraced the digital age, and this has benefitted the communities of the Rio Grande Valley.

“Now, in fact, they've even upped the game. It used to be in person, conversations, debates. Now they're high-tech. They're on Facebook. They have Zooms, they have all kinds of capacities now to be able to (carry out the discussion on public issues),” Rodriguez said. “So, it's an outstanding organization.”

Rodriguez said Futuro RGV does not only educate the public on political matters and political races.

“There are other things that impact our community, economic development projects, things that are going on, that they (Futuro) are a sounding board for. And so, I think it's a critical organization. It's filling a tremendous gap, and their board members and volunteers, advisors, really go out of their way to do what's right.”

Rodriguez said the group’s solid standing in the community is “testament” to Kinerk. But he said there are others that work hard in the background, such as Laurel McLeaish.

Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.