The Garden City Telegram
Email this story | Add Your Comment
| Read (0) Comments
Chambers take regional approach
Published 11/7/2008 in Business : Business
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
The Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce is continuing to move forward with the idea of regional partnerships with other area chambers, as well as looking forward to a new year in which the chamber hopes to play an even bigger role in promoting and helping small business.
According to Chamber President Paul Joseph, the chambers of Garden City, Dodge City and Ulysses are meeting to further a coalition similar to the one formed between the communities of Garden City, Liberal and Dodge City. The city effort now is being called the Southwest Kansas Coalition and involves the idea of the three communities working together on regional issues. The hope is to give the area a louder voice in Topeka and Washington, D.C., on state and federal issues.
The chambers met this week, trying to finalize the bylaws for their coalition. While that's still in the works and the group still is forming, Joseph said the group plans to work on regional economic development and legislative issues.
The newly formed chamber group doesn't mean any of the chambers or staff will be disappearing, he said, nor does it mean the competitiveness among the four will be any less. The chambers still will be "fiercely competitive" with one another in getting jobs and businesses for their respective communities, Joseph said, but the idea of regionalism is that southwest Kansas can benefit as a whole from the success one community might experience.
An example, Joseph said, is if Garden City's already been crossed off the list by a prospect looking to locate in another community. Instead, he said, the prospect might be looking at locating in maybe Ulysses or Pueblo, Colo. In that case, Joseph said, it behooves him to do everything he can to get the prospect to Ulysses because its employees may live in Ulysses, but shop or seek entertainment in Garden City, Liberal or Dodge City.
"We all gain. That's regionalism," he said. "We need to help each other."
Joseph said he feels there's a hunger on the part of the chambers to work together -- in working regionally, he said, they stand to benefit themselves individually.
"Today's economy doesn't end at the city limits," he said, nor at the state line, adding he had an individual from China in Garden City's chamber talking about business and trade to China.
Don Linville, chairman for the Garden City chamber's Board of Directors, said the four chambers working together is similar to the idea of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, saying "it's a synergy concept."
A group might carry more weight than individuals with legislators, Linville said. At times, a mind-set of the east vs. west has come up in various groups, and he said he heard someone remark it's not that there's a bad perception in eastern Kansas of the western part of the state -- it's that there's really no perception at all.
Linville hopes the chambers working together can create more of a presence in the state and possibly benefit projects the region or individual communities are trying to achieve, such as Sunflower Electric Power Corp.'s proposed plant expansion.
The meeting of the chambers came less than a week after the Garden City chamber board finished up a two-day retreat in which board members heard ideas, concerns and needs city and county representatives see for the community, as well as what role they feel the chamber can play in those.
From the retreat, Joseph said, came three main initiatives the chamber is looking to pursue in 2009:
- form a small business and/or minority business council to further promote and help small businesses in the community.
- increase the presence of and grow the chamber's existing Government Affairs Committee, which provides chamber members with information on legislation and access to legislators. Goals of the committee include meeting with state and federal legislators to discuss the need for business friendly legislation; and research issues affecting local business and provide information to members on those issues.
- and to organize a task force for 2009 to catch emerging business leaders, including younger business leaders in their 20s and 30s. Joseph said the community and chamber need to attract the younger population to Garden City, keep them here and empower and grow them as young entrepreneurs. Joseph said 2009 will be the time to figure out how to do that and then hopefully implement a plan in 2010.
The chamber also plans to add a staff position to focus mainly on growing the chamber's membership.
The first day of the chamber's retreat was open to the public. The second day was closed and for board members only.
Linville said that during the second day, the board looked at what categories the chamber's current activities fit into: whether the service fits into the chamber's mission of promoting commerce in the community; if it doesn't fit into that category, is it a fundraising activity for the chamber; or whether it falls into the category of activities that may not fulfill the chamber's mission or bring dollars to the chamber, but somehow benefit the community.
Found 0 comment(s)!
Twitter Updates
