It’s been four months now since Gov. Steve Beshear and Rep. Hal Rogers kicked off the SOAR – Shaping Our Appalachian Region – initiative with a December summit in Pikeville that attracted over 1,500 people.  WMMT reports on the first meeting of the ten SOAR working groups, at the East Kentucky Leadership Conference on April 24th & 25th, including a vision for “Appalachian Capitalism” from ARC Senior Advisor and Southeast Ohio native David Wilhem, regional demographic trends from Ron Crouch, and cautious optimism mixed with a few concerns from local Ray Tucker.