Fort Smith chamber begins busy 3-month effort to reorganize

Editor’s note: The City Wire interviewed Paul Harvel, president of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, following a Friday morning general chamber membership meeting.

The aggressive schedule began Friday (Sept. 25) should result in a “fine tuned” system at the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce.

That’s the belief of Fort Smith Chamber President Paul Harvel.

About 200 chamber members gathered early Friday morning at a general membership meeting designed to set the stage for a significant change in how the chamber operates.

NEW LEADERSHIP
One of the biggest changes announced Friday was that Baldor Electric CEO John McFarland agreed to serve as chamber board chairman during 2010. Harvel said he asked McFarland to serve as a signal of the chamber’s desire to reconnect to the community.

“McFarland was born and raised in the area. He lives here. He’s the CEO of our largest company and he represents the base of our economy,” Harvel said.

McFarland told The City Wire that concerns with recruiting and retaining jobs are why he agreed to chair the chamber board. McFarland said he also is interested in addressing political and community issues that could help or hurt the business climate. The Fort Smith region has a good business climate, but it could be improved, McFarland said.

“I guess I’m like Paul. I’m concerned about economic development and the attractiveness of the business climate in Fort Smith and Arkansas,” McFarland said.

McFarland, who leads a Fort Smith-based company that employs between 7,500 and 8,000 in 28 manufacturing plants in five countries and sales offices in more than 80 countries, said he can directly help the chamber with economic development prospects.

“I think I could help him (Harvel) convince others that this is the right place to locate,” McFarland said.

NEW STRUCTURE
Harvel said the main focus of a new committee and leadership structure is to improve economic development and governmental affairs efforts, and to put the chamber on a better “financial foundation.”

A “working draft in progress” was presented to the membership that presented the new committees and potential goals. However, Harvel stressed that “the committee members and the chairs will be active in developing that (goals).”

The chamber’s executive committee for 2010 is:
Chairman — John McFarland (Baldor)
Chairman-elect— Jim Patridge (BancorpSouth)
Treasurer — Larry Bates (Simmons First)
Past chairman — Roger Meek Jr. (Coca Cola)
President — Paul Harvel
Chairman-economic development — Rob Ratley (OG&E)
Chairman-education & quality of place — Philip Merry (BMB Merry of Arkansas)
Chairman-governmental affairs — Ricky Cross (AT&T)
Chairman-health care — Jason Green (Baldor)
Chairman-membership, marketing & services — Sharla Lau (Coldwell Banker Fleming-Lau Real Estate)

Harvel said between now and Dec. 11, the committees, committee leadership and chamber staff will organize committee structures, conduct planning meetings, recruit volunteers and leaders for various committee functions, and establish goals and plans of work for the 2010 chamber year.

“They (committee chairs) will be active in this, because I’ve asked each of them to take into account what we want to do, but to remember that we (chamber staff) have just 8 folks and limited resources,” Harvel said.

One of the more important jobs is to get the membership committee active, Harvel said, because without members and their financial and physical input, the other chamber goals will not succeed. In addition to the obvious economic goals of recruiting and retaining jobs, the chamber, through its governmental affairs committee, will focus on improving Fort Smith’s statewide relations.

“We’ve got to get more of our people on important state boards and commissions,” Harvel said.

Harvel acknowledged that the process will be slow and require hard work and tough decisions. He expressed confidence in achieving many goals within the next two years.

“I don’t expect this in 2010 to be running like a fine-tuned machine. That’s not going to happen. I do expect it in 24 months to be running well,” Harvel explained.