Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510090012
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
Franklyn Moreno, its first director, resigned at the end of August. Alliance officials will spend some time working on a new job description before advertising for a successor.
Plans to change that job description apparently prompted Moreno to leave.
He said the Alliance's executive committee wanted to make drastic changes to terms and conditions of the existing contract, which would have changed his benefits and working conditions. Because his contract was expiring, he decided to leave.
There was no point in staying on under a system that "is less than you think you're worth ... I felt, from my own standpoint, that the change was going to be significant enough" to get out, he said.
Moreno, 57, took a pay cut in 1990 from his job as economic development director for 16 counties in southern Illinois to become the first director of the Alliance, which had been formed by chambers of commerce and business people in the New River Valley.
He is working on establishing his own consulting business, Moreno and Associates. The "associates" will be people in various professions throughout the country whom he has met during his more than 30 years in the economic development field.
As a consultant, he will make cooperative arrangements with people trained to handle specific projects, such as historic preservation, conference planning, community analysis or a strategic plan that a business or community might want to develop.
Meanwhile, Alliance President Barry Evans said changes in the organization will go beyond the job description of its director.
He hopes to increase the membership of the executive committee "a lot" and to analyze the scope and direction of the organization's future, he said.
A questionnaire will be sent to Alliance members to get their thoughts on possible changes in the organization, he said. They can criticize or make suggestions about current procedures and what they see the Alliance doing in the years ahead.
The executive committee will review that input. "I'm going to take all that into consideration when we do hire someone," said Evans, a Prudential Insurance agent in Giles County.
Evans said this does not mean the work of the Alliance is slowing. He said the committee's Prospect Team, headed by Appalachian Power Co. economic development specialist Frank Crockett, has generated so much activity that the office is having to catch up on handling inquiries and encouraging prospects to visit the New River Valley. An administrative assistant and marketing assistant still work there.
The Prospect Team will continue playing a key role after a new director is hired, Evans said. "Whoever walks into the position will understand that it is a team effort."
It was more the local team than Moreno who laid the foundations for the current prospect activity, Evans said. "He did do a good job in a lot of areas, but I can't say he laid the foundations."
"It's not a one-man, one-person, one-organization kind of operation. We have to do things with people," Moreno said. "We can bring [business and industry] people here, but it's the local people who do the sale."
The plan was for the Alliance to generate interest in business and industry in the New River Valley and show prospects what was available. Once a prospect focused on a specific location, a team in that community would take over.
"It worked. Our job was to do the marketing. We did that and got the word out," he said. "The Prospect Team was essentially the full-time economic developers. They were the group we used as part of the hosting process."
A major part of his job, as he saw it, was to raise the profile of the New River Valley to business and industry. "One of the things that we were trying to do is get the word out that we were here."
To that end, Moreno traveled across the country to trade shows, became chairman of the Virginia Team marketing group, served on the state Chamber of Commerce Board and otherwise landed key positions that helped promote the valley.
He said his being away on marketing trips did not mean a prospect would miss getting a look at industrial sites, because of the team structure set up. "If I was on a marketing trip, we had what we called the pecking order of response," he said.
"That worked quite well and, as far as I know, it was one of the few operations like that in the state at the regional level."
He would do about five trade shows a year, and two or three industrial real estate national conferences. "We made a conscious effort that we would be out there where the people are," he said.
The main contacts are at trade shows because upper-management officials show up to meet customers and gauge the competition, he said. In dealing with international prospects, he said, such shows helped get an economic developer known to someone at one management level who could introduce the developer to someone at the next level.
"It was building on a national scale and somewhat internationally," he said. He was pushing for a major effort in 1996 with the Alliance working with other economic development groups from west of the New River Valley all the way through the coalfields, he said.
The Alliance also developed direct mailing, he said, building up its prospect list "from literally zero" to 7,269 names. "But that's long term."
The Alliance did very little advertising, he said, except where the valley could piggyback on advertising being done by the state. A place like Virginia Beach could afford to advertise itself, he said, because its advertising budget alone is about four times the Alliance's entire budget.
These days, besides traveling to make contacts for his consulting business, Moreno is doing painting and fix-up work at his home in Christiansburg, which had been put off during his years with the Alliance.
He remembered overhearing one of his children comparing his job with the jobs of other kids' parents. "Oh, my Dad goes to meetings," the child said.
Now that he is home more, his children are away at college or out on their own.
His wife, Bonnie, is an artist and has a small jewelry-making business.
Apparently, Moreno sold himself on the New River Valley as a good location. He plans to stay, operating his business out of his home.
"I can get on my phone, and I can call anybody anywhere in the world. I can fax anybody anywhere in the world. They don't care where I am," he said. "Just look at the industries that are here in the valley. We can connect to anybody ... And, you know, we like the area."
by CNB