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Eco devo group makes moves amid pandemic

Show Me Christian County organization adds staff and plans to double annual budget through five-year plan

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The staff, budget and office size for Show Me Christian County are all poised to increase this year as the economic development organization is aggressively working to increase its impact.

SMCC just hired Ozark Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Anna Evans, and she plans to start March 22 as its vice president of business retention and expansion. Evans follows in the footsteps of SMCC President and CEO Andrea Sitzes, who led the Ozark chamber prior to taking the countywide eco devo role in 2018. Evans will become SMCC’s third employee.

At the chamber, Evans has collaborated with SMCC since its inception. She currently serves on the 10-member Show Me Strong Business Council, which aims to retain and expand existing Christian County businesses. Sitzes said Evans was hired among three finalists out of 26 applicants for the job.

“The knowledge and the background that she walked into the interview process with just really made it a no-brainer decision,” Sitzes said.

Setting goals
A primary responsibility of the position is oversight of the business council, Evans said. The volunteer group comprises business representatives from Nixa, Ozark and areas in the county. Councilors agree to serve two- or three-year terms.

Sitzes helps lead the meetings, but Evans said she will serve as the contact person for the councilors. The position’s goal is to either conduct or help the council facilitate 120 business retention and expansion interviews with businesses in a calendar year.

“That is, of course, 10 interviews per month,” Evans said, noting she will participate in most of the interviews and set up logistics. “We have our volunteer council of folks who are all working professionals in their own right, so this is an additional volunteer responsibility that they take on.”

Sitzes said 120 interviews might be feasible this year, but certainly by 2022. Only around 10 were conducted last year before the pandemic arrived, she said.

“If we don’t have at least 80 or 90 on the books by the end of the year, something has gone awry,” she said.

Evans is also tasked with researching and launching Fortify Christian County, a business retention and expansion program.

“It’s going to be basically a hybrid mix of business continuity, planning and disaster response,” she said. “It’s sitting down with businesses and helping them assess what their weaknesses are and helping them make and implement a plan for what happens if something like a pandemic happens.”

Councilors will conduct initial interviews to gather base data, Evans said, adding she will follow up with businesses to drill down on their preparations for the unexpected and knowledge of available resources.

Evans joins SMCC as the nonprofit seeks to grow its fiscal 2022 budget to roughly $360,000 from $150,000, Sitzes said. The organization’s board of directors has identified a $500,000 stretch goal for its five-year plan dubbed StepUp Christian County.

“My goal is to have that $360,000 budget secured by the end of June,” she said, noting the new fiscal year begins in July.

The initial $150,000 in funding for SMCC was raised by Steve Childers, Ozark city administrator, and Brian Bingle, former Nixa city administrator, Sitzes said, noting they secured pledges from 41 investors with five-year memorandums of understanding.

In the StepUp plan, the nonprofit seeks funding in partnership with area businesses, public institutions, community leaders and individual stakeholders. The largest single figure in the budget goal is $100,880 per year for business retention and expansion. It also calls for $72,000 annually for business attraction; $68,400 for entrepreneurship initiatives; $64,800 for workforce and talent recruitment; and $54,000 for marketing.

A capital campaign had just launched early last year before being suspended amid the pandemic, Sitzes said. Late last year, SMCC secured $50,000 annual commitments from Christian County and the cities of Nixa and Ozark. Ozark’s annual commitment runs for five years, while Christian County’s is three years and the length of Nixa’s contract agreement should be finalized next month, she said.

“Because we wanted to hit the ground running and get with our business community, they were able to go ahead and deposit those funds,” Sitzes said. “That allowed us to make this first step in our growth plan for the next year.”

Chamber search
As Evans looks to exit her Ozark chamber role next month, an executive director selection committee is being formed from community partner organizations, said Adam Kreher, board chair.

“In the event a replacement is not named prior to Anna’s departure, the committee will appoint an interim executive director to carry forth daily operations,” Kreher said via email.

Evans planned to take a marketing job at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce early last year – a move she said the pandemic prevented from happening. Staying at the Ozark chamber for the rest of 2020 was for the best, she said.

“Our members and our businesses needed that stability and that continuity and that sustained leadership there,” she said. “It was just not a good time either for the organization internally to be looking for somebody, and we wouldn’t have been serving our members well if we didn’t have leadership at that point.

“I’m better prepared now to do a good job in the position that I’m going into because of the work we did as a chamber this past year in the midst of COVID.”

The addition of Evans means the SMCC staff will be out of room within Nixa City Hall, where it has officed since 2018.

“Our board is looking at options for office space. We haven’t locked anything in yet but have identified a couple of options,” Sitzes said, noting a decision should be made by April.

Web Editor Geoff Pickle contributed.

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