Business Group, second intro

[qwhunt]

I'm sorry for fumbling through the meeting the other night. I wasn't
expecting to speak, and wasn't ready for it. Let's try this again:

I and a few others have been talking about a possible business group.
There have been zero formal meetings, and only casual talk so far. A
few different topics have come up, and one was the fact that most
funding needs to go through a non-profit. MABA of course came to
mind.

The thought of some association or cooperation is strictly in the
hypothetical stages. As well as the group on a whole itself.

I just want to state clearly that my original thinking is this:

Any town can be broken down into three groups. Community, City Gov't,
and Businesses. MABA is a great community group. The city council
and other boards seem to really be active and getting some great
things started. I feel that the businesses need to step forward and
be a group, or at least communicate a common theme amongst themselves.

This is not a critique of MABA in any way. I have been part of MABA
(mainly with the online group and briefly pre-merger), and other
community and tourism groups. I have seen that it is impossible for
one group to do everything. MABA has brought great things into town.
I, as well as others, feel it is a good idea for the businesses to
take an active part in the town, maybe I should say a more organized
part.

There are three legs here, and I think a specific group is necessary.
Spread any group too thin and it gets worn out. We all have to work
together for our town to prosper. Cross-over membership is expected,
but specialization is an important part of organizations. No one body
can be everything to everyone.


On a personal note:

When the original forum group decided to join the former MABA, at that
point I said that I wish this group the best, but what I see the town
needing is a business group. MABA has done well, and I hope the
business group (if there will even be one) will be able to prosper as
well. There is no thought behind this for me besides this has been a
goal of mine since I first opened my store.

Hopefully this time I got my point across a little better. Thanks.


*Done a horrible job of handing out this info so far. If you check
the link you can see how HUGE of a following I have so far. Current
and potential businesses are welcome.

http://groups.google.com/group/malvernbusinessforum

[Spencer Terry]

Quincy-and all,

As only 1 member of MABA, I believe your thinking is right on track.

From the beginning of MABA's reorganization, we knew it was imperative to keep businesses involved as a city is nothing without them.  As Malvern, MABA and local businesses have grown since 2006, I think we all know MABA can not, and should not, do everything.  With that said, I do think there's a way to consider structuring MABA where there are arms...or legs of the body that have specific goals, with specific people in charge of creating, implementing, obtaining and evaluating those goals.  

I'm sure some research may need to go into how the structuring would work, but I would assume that as a 501c3, some type of a 'Business Development' Board may just work.  If it were to use MABA's 501c3 status it would have to answer to MABA's board....similar to how many city boards report to city council, but still fall under and use the city's tax status.

You and I have kicked this same idea around for years now and I agree, Malvern is in as good of a place as any to take this first step.  Any time single voices can collaborate together is always a win-win, and Kudos to you and other businesses for potentially getting this off the ground.  I hope it will create more collaborative spirits and give us an opportunity to work closer with other neighboring cities as well--as I don't think Malvern isn't quite sustainable on it's own...yet.

Keep up the great work!

Spence

> Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2010 17:19:09 -0800
> Subject: [malvern-forum:945] Business Group, second intro
> From: qui...@pondibilities.com
> To: malver...@googlegroups.com

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