I believe past reports from the First Impressions program can serve as a useful tool for measuring progress within a community and to assess whether or not progress is being made. I believe communities could also benefit from the experiences of other communities participating in the program. Because leadership within communities is constantly changing, I would like to use this section of the web site to serve as a depository for First Impressions reports. If you don't see your community listed as a past participant and you have a copy of a past report....please send it to me and I will add it to this web site. Obviously if you have an electronic version of the document that would be best. If you only have a hard copy of a past report, send me the print version, and I will scan the document. Reports can be sent to me at:

E-mail: andy.lewis@uwex.edu
Mail: Center for Community Economic Development
University of Wisconsin Extension
610 Langdon Street
Room 328
Madison, WI 53703

If you want to get a sense of what the final report should look like (that uses the template in the Users Guide), I would recommend the Cable, Wisconsin report , Merrill, Wisconsin report, or the Antigo, Wisconsin report (This report uses the new format and incorporates some photos). Recently (2007), the communities of Lacrosse, Wisconsin and Oshkosh, WI did an exchange. Prior to this exchange, there had not been an exchange done between communities exceeding 50,000 in population.

To view a copy of the report simply click on the community name. If there is not a hyperlink on the community name, it means that I was never forwarded a copy of the report.  The archived reports are available in Adobe Acrobat "pdf" form and require the free Adobe Acrobat viewer. The quality of the files varies due to the fact that most of the reports were created by scanning a print copy of the report (typically a photocopy!). Following the scan, the images were edited using character recognition software so that the text of the report would be searchable (use the binoculars icon within the Acrobat Reader software to search a report by a keyword). You will notice some instances where the OCR software was unable to recognize text and converted text incorrectly. If you have a copy of a final report that is not listed here, please contact me at: ablewis@facstaff.wisc.edu, or 608-274-2192, FAX (608) 263-4999. 

As noted in the First Impressions Users guide, the final reports simply record the reactions and thoughts of a few visitors. The reports are not intended to be an objective review of communities....that's not the intent of the program. While the comments are subjective in nature, these reports capture perspectives on a community at a specific point in time. My hope is that these reports might assist communities interested in gauging progress on a number of community development issues.