As city officials ruminate on how much money to give upstart business advocacy organization Go Local, some might argue with the notion that Tacoma needs another business advocacy group. I mean, let’s be real. We already have 14 neighborhood business district associations, a Cross-District Association, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, the Business Improvement Area, various localized Chamber affiliates, the city’s Community and Economic Development Department, Downtown Merchants Group, a small business incubator, several college-affiliated programs, several Small Business Administration programs, an independently-owned newspaper dedicated to small businesses, and a couple dozen networking groups. I probably missed a few.

But this Go Local thing is different.



Go Local President Patricia Lecy-Davis characterizes Go Local as a sort of social thread that will connect businesses, and all the other business organizations. In a city where organizations frequently struggle against one another to get their hands on limited resources, Go Local would serve to make those resources go further and do more by helping connect neighborhoods, businesses, organizations and city government. Go Local would be dedicated solely to serving the needs of small, locally-owned, independent businesses, and its leadership is composed of those very business owners. Go Local, as opposed to simply Buy Local, is about creating connections beyond the framework of monetary exchange. It’s about creating connections between people, businesses and organizations. Those connections, and the sharing of resources and ideas, become fuel for prosperity.



“We are the thread that weaves all those neighborhoods and organizations together,” says Lecy-Davis.



Sounds like some new age crap, right?



Well, consider that some of the most brilliant minds in business now employ many of the techniques that Lecy-Davis uses to describe Go Local. Go to a board meeting at General Electric or Procter and Gamble, and you’ll hear words like “synergy” used over and over again. Many large companies have departments dedicated to ensuring that various departments connect efficiently, and that those connections ensure that the most is made with what’s available. Some of the more avant-garde economic theorists have borrowed the term “emphemeralization” from genius engineer Richard Buckminster Fuller, who created the triangle-based geometry that the Tacoma Dome’s dome structure is based on, among other things. Emphemeralization means doing more with less. It’s a way of increasing productivity and prosperity without the need for more money or resources. With the economy spiraling downward, a little emphemeralization might be just what we need, says Lecy-Davis. That, of course, runs counter to everyone’s natural inclination during a time of scarcity — the inclination to hoard funds and resources, everyone else be damned.



“We need to develop a mindset that says we have enough, and that we just haven’t learned how to tap into it yet,” says Lecy-Davis.



The Go Local crew, meanwhile, has asked for $100,000 to get the program off the ground. Discussions are ongoing as to how much of that request will be granted and how it would be split between 2009 and 2010 municipal budgets. That’s assuming the money is granted. City officials left Go Local off the 2009-2010 city budget, but said they would consider an amendment that would insert Go Local back into the equation. If granted, money would be used to build the organization’s administrative structure, hire an executive director and perhaps fill an additional administrative position.



“The situation should clarify itself in the next 30 days or so,” says Ryan Petty, director of Tacoma’s Community and Economic Development Department. In the interest of full disclosure, Petty notes that he is an ex-officio member of the Go Local board. “Right now I don’t know what will happen.”