The Path to Regional Excellence

1.   Celebrate collectively.  Use regional terms and

invite your partners to share credit for good work and

good outcomes.

2.   Publish jointly. Work cooperatively to produce

full-region research data.

3.   Give a voice, not a vote.  Bring representatives of

separate government jurisdictions together for

discussions of a specific issue, in settings that

provide the opportunity for everyone to explore the issue.

4.   Keep saying it.  Document and publicize those issues on which you have

consensus within the region.

5.   Host a party.  Invite staffs of elected and appointed officials of multiple levels of

government, jurisdictions and departments. No agenda – no lavish dinner.

Check lobbying rules in your state to be sure such a meeting is allowed.

6.   Show a positive public face.  If someone in a regional coalition breaks the

“compact,” deal with the disappointment, rejection, and betrayal privately while

remaining positive in public.

7.   Practice regional cooperation.  Find a big, long-term issue that can ONLY be

handled on a regional basis (like watershed or attracting a future military

establishment).  Help people throughout the region work together on this non-

threatening issue.

8.   Lead by example.  Chambers in a region should be meeting together, plotting

together, lobbying together, and establishing “early warning systems” to keep

each other aware.  Try intermingling boards in productive networks, and possibly

even sharing back-office operations.

9.   Emphasize the incremental.  If representatives of two entities within a region

can talk and work together, support it.  Don’t wait for some grand union of

everybody under a single banner before you start to initiate regional strategies.

10. Remain united.  Resist efforts by state or federal agencies and legislators to

separate and segregate the people of a region.

Source:  American Chamber of Commerce Executives

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