NNDA putting its membership to work

The difference is more than semantic as Northern Nevada Development Authority makes the transition from "committees" to "work groups." "You get into a work group and you work," says Ron Weisinger, executive director of the economic development agency based in Carson City.

The reorganization of NNDA, a year in the making, reflects a simple reality for the authority which works in Carson City, Douglas County, Lyon County and Storey County.

With two full-time staff members Weisinger and Business Development Director Judi Bishop NNDA needs its members to contribute more than attendance at the agency's monthly breakfast meetings.

The workload is rising rapidly.

In the last month,Weisinger told NNDA members, the agency fielded 19 inquiries from companies interested in relocating to the region.

Most of those inquiries, he said, appear to be serious.

That spurt of activity comes after months of fairly slow times in the economic development business in the region.

Weisinger noted last week that NNDA's board includes skilled, high-powered people whose skills otherwise might go to waste.

"We're using them now," he said.

"They're involved."

One of the work groups, for instance, spearheads NNDA's efforts to attract new industry to the region.

That group, Weisinger said, will work with the varying needs of the region urban, manufacturing- heavy Carson City as well as rural areas of NNDA's turf.

The business development group also has committed itself to making sure that all NNDA members get a fair shot at winning the business of companies that decide to relocate in the area.

"Nobody gets first crack at anything," Weisinger said.

Another work group, meanwhile, will work with existing business in the region, attempting to determine their needs for everything from government policy to new vendors.

Some of the worries voiced by existing businesses in the region will be addressed by NNDA's government affairs working group.

That group is working closely with a similar committee at the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada in Washoe County.

While NNDA and EDAWN sometimes are rivals in wooing new industries to the region,Weisinger said the two groups also recognize that they often can be more effective if they work together.

Another work group, meanwhile, will focus on building NNDA's membership particularly membership in the private sector.

"We are too dependent on government money,"Weisinger said.

Yet another work group will focus on NNDA activities such as the monthly breakfasts and the possibility of other social and business functions, and the executive committee of the board of directors also has been identified as a work group.

Weisinger, who has been at the helm of NNDA about a year, said the new organizational structure arose after members expressed their hopes for a stronger economic development organization in the capitol region.

"People said, 'You're not meeting our needs,'"Weisinger said.

"We asked:What do you need? What do you want?"

From those questions, he said, NNDA's leadership decided to get back to basics.

"For the first year, we are growing the base of the pyramid involved people and involved businesses," he said.