Regional Economic Partnership meets April 25 in Willard

A little less than two and one-half years ago, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, in association with partner organizations, embarked on a new program aimed at promoting regional cooperation and sustainable economic development in southwest Missouri.

The Ozarks Regional Economic Part-nership was launched with 35 members in 1999. Today, 60 cities, counties and chambers of commerce are working to-gether to promote economic prosperity in the 10-county area.

One of the strongest values the members receive is communication and the opportunity to work together on common issues. There has been example after ex-ample of organizations working together in neighboring communities, or within the same community, to address development efforts.

For example, Sparta's effort and commitment to develop an industrial park has spurred other communities in working toward a similar goal. The cities and chambers of commerce in both Rogers-ville and Fair Grove are taking action by working together and learning from other's experience and taking advantage of professional expertise. The spirit of collaboration and open communication to accomplish similar goals is growing and will continue to become stronger.

Working together in a collaborative effort reinforces the fact that we share a common market in the region. No one community or organization stands alone in the region. The partnership's regional marketing program ensures that the activities benefit each member.

Rather than spending extensive time and financial resources to develop a marketing message for each member, the partnership has focused on combining our resources to market the region while maintaining community identities.

The major marketing activities have continued to focus on work force as a leading factor impacting economic de-velopment. Last summer, the Ozarks regional labor availability analysis indicated the quality of our work force in terms of education and skill levels, while also indicating a significant percentage of underemployment. This information is a tremendous marketing advantage to new and existing businesses.

However, this employee data paints an incomplete picture. In order to capture the full extent of our work-force assets, the partnership is currently conducting a project to collect data from employers regarding work-force skill levels, training standards, employee development, hiring performance, work ethic, productivity, underemployment and other factors. Together, this data will be a very powerful tool to market our area as well as address ongoing work-force challenges.

The growth we continue to experience in the Ozarks is very positive, but also very challenging. Population growth and business growth continue to thrive. Work-force growth also continues to occur, but available quality workers will continue to be a challenge as our region builds on its economic success.

Attracting new quality workers to the area is as important as creating job op-portunities that better fit the education and skill levels of those underemployed. A regional approach to marketing will allow all members to share in this success.

In addition, the partnership is a valuable resource tool for member organizations. There is a tremendous amount of knowledge, experience and ability within the group of volunteers who serve on the regional advisory council, as well as the community, business, and education leaders involved in member organizations. We can assist any community or member organization with any particular development goal or need. Sharing re-sources to promote collaboration is what makes the partnership strong.

Cooperation, marketing, and individual assistance are just a few of the things that bring value to our members. As we continue to grow, the partnership will identify and develop new activities and actions to address the needs of our members.

Just this year, the partnership has added a legislative function by joining the Springfield-Branson Regional Salute to Legislators Coalition. This has al-lowed our members to come together to form a one-voice approach on important legislative issues such as transportation, while also providing an avenue to ex-press individual community needs.

To build on our success, the partner-ship will bring community, business, and education leaders together for the third annual Regional Summit on April 25 in Willard. This half-day meeting will focus on the issues of infrastructure and work force. If we ensure our area has adequate infrastructure, including transportation and telecommunications, and a quality available work force, our economic success will explode throughout the entire region.

These efforts will also ensure that our economic prosperity is sustainable well into the future.

The Ozarks Regional Economic Part-nership is a program of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce in association with Associated Electric Coopera-tive Inc. and partner members throughout the Ozarks region.

(Allen Kunkel is the manager of re-gional development with the Spring-field Area Chamber of Commerce.)