Harvel: Alliances, member action will help economic development

Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce President Paul Harvel reiterated Wednesday his desire to see chamber members “empowered” to use the chamber to make positive community changes and to help the chamber recruit or retain new business.

Speaking to the Fort Smith Rotary Club, Harvel spoke first about the Christmas Honors project first accomplished in 2009 and gearing up for 2010.

The project in 2009 saw thousands of volunteers help place more than 12,000 wreaths at the National Cemetery in Fort Smith.

Harvel told the Rotary group that raising money and organizing volunteers for placing wreaths was not on his list of chamber goals.

“When I came to Fort Smith, laying 13,000 wreaths was not in my plans. That just wasn’t in my plan for what I wanted to do in Fort Smith,” Harvel said.

But it was part of his goal to encourage chamber members to get engaged. And because he had challenged Philip Merry Jr. and others to make something happen, Harvel said he had to support the project.

Community support is also needed to help the chamber stay on top of potential economic development prospects, Harvel explained. He said the chamber has created a LEADS program that asks chamber members and others in the community to forward tips they may hear about companies seeking to relocate or expand. If someone overhears a discussion in an airport or reads a report in a trade publication about an economic development opportunity, they should alert the chamber staff.

“We can’t canvas the world. We can’t market to the world. … We can’t know all the leads that are out there, but you can in your travels, and you can help us with that,” Harvel told the Rotary Club members.

Harvel also talked briefly about the emerging Fort Smith Regional Alliance. He said the coalition of chambers and cities in the metro area will improve the chances of growing the regional economy.

“(Site location) consultants and economic developers want to work with a structured regional alliance,” Harvel explained. “That means you have to have a board, and officers and a budget. … You can’t just be a group that goes to each others chamber banquets once a year.”

The Fort Smith Regional Alliance includes six counties in Arkansas (Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Sebastian and Scott) and two counties in Oklahoma (LeFlore and Sequoyah.) Communities in the alliance are Alma, Altus, Booneville, Charleston, Clarksville, Greenwood, Fort Smith, Ozark, Paris, Poteau, Roland, Sallisaw, Van Buren and Waldron.

The alliance, formed in early May, has hired Little Rock-based Boyette Strategic Advisors to conduct a strategic analysis and plan for the alliance.

Harvel said the Metro Little Rock Alliance, with which he helped create in 2005, initially had “serious” trust issues among the communities. However, he said community leaders eventually learned that if central Arkansas were to successfully compete against other metro areas like Memphis and Oklahoma City, they had to work together.

The first big win with the alliance was in landing a Hewlett-Packard technical center in Conway. The large operation is expected to bring 1,200 jobs to the area once fully operational.

“Economic development is not easy. It costs a lot of money … and it requires people to work together,” Harvel said.