TEDC Board Meeting Minutes

Members present:  Spurgeon, Herbison, Olivier, Theiss, Lawyer, Brady, Denton, and LaGrange.   Suzie Lusk was also on the call.

Spurgeon called the meeting to order at 9:30 AM.     Minutes from the last meeting were reviewed.   A motion to approve was made by Lawyer which was seconded by Theiss.   The minutes were approved.

There were no financials to review at this meeting; they will be reviewed at the next meeting.

Denton briefed the group on the nominating committee for new board members.   The nominating committee must be chaired by a TEDC past president.   Her committee has the following TEDC members: Bill Shuff, Jim Rowland, and Kim Denton.   There will be two seats on the TEDC Board that need nominations: the Secretary/Treasurer position, and the Middle Tennessee Director.    Denton’s committee will convene via a conference call next week and present the slate of officers at the Spring Conference for a membership vote.

Spurgeon made the recommendation to take a look at repositioning the current board position of SEDC alternate.    Current TEDC Board has a voting SEDC Director position, and a non-voting SEDC alternate.    The recommendation was to approach Tennessee Chamber of Commerce Executives (TCCE) and offer them a position of TCCE liaison on the TEDC Board.    It was proposed that this new TCCE liaison replace the SEDC alternate position.  It was discussed that perhaps this could be a current TCCE president, a past, or even an incoming president.   All felt the concept was good, and that a good first step would be to take TCCE’s pulse on the idea.   Darryl Brady currently sits on the TCCE Board, and he will present this concept to TCCE on behalf of TEDC and report back to Spurgeon. 

At the request of TEDC member, Johnny Mathis, Spurgeon brought the issue of TEDC retiree membership rate to the Board for discussion.    Currently, TEDC charges retirees an annual membership fee of $150.    Per Lusk, our annual cost to serve a member is $108.    The board discussed the need to look at all of our dues structures and present a concept to membership at Spring Conference.  

Spurgeon appointed himself, Lawyer, and Oliveri to a committee to formulate a plan to present to Board.  The committee will convene via conference call in near future.

Herbison briefed the board on progress being made for Spring Conference.   In the works besides the standard presentations are:

• Panel discussion of economic development  regionalism efforts
• Presentation of workforce related incentives by Joe Brandon
• Possible presentation by the deputy commissioner of revenue
• Presentation of wireless communities initiatives by Eric Cromwell

It was suggested by LaGrange that the entire Jobs Cabinet be invited to TEDC conferences.  

Lawyer updated the board on the progress of the incentives study.   TVA has finished putting together state incentives information.     LaGrange asked that generalities of major utility incentives (TVA competition) be included in the study as well – as often times utilities play a major role in the formulating of incentive plans.  

Lawyer, Denton, and LaGrange are drafting an RFP for consultants.

There was no old business

New business, there were five new names submitted for TEDC membership:

• John Payne, Franklin County Industrial Board
• Dave Kozlow, Tennessee Leadership Center
• Bob Vincent, Mayor, City of Dayton
• W. Andrew Burke, Tri-Cities Economic Development Alliance
• Paula Sloan, City of Gallatin Economic Development

Denton made a motion to approve all five at once which was seconded by LaGrange.   The motion passed.

There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned.