The nonprofit-aimed organization focused on regionalism efforts, Leaders for Ozarks Region Evolvement, or LORE, held its first meeting June 18 with an initial membership of 13 chief executive officers of local companies.
LORE's 13 initial members have pledged anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 a year for three years, said Dean Thompson, executive director of regionalism and economic development at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce. Thompson and the staff at the Springfield Chamber have been paramount in LORE's formation. The group's first face-to-face meeting took place at the Community Foundation of the Ozarks (CFO) headquarters in Springfield on June 18, with eight CEOs physically present at the meeting.
The chief executives discussed regional branding, expanding infrastructure, talent attraction and attainable housing as dominant needs in the area, Thompson said. The group discussed next steps, including the legal formation of the nonprofit and picking one specific topic to focus its efforts on first. LORE plans to announce the initial members and the topic of focus in one to two months, Thompson said.
“We're headed in the right direction of knowing what are the issues,” Thompson said at CFO June 19. “What we want to do in the next 30 to 60 days is get the final first group (of CEOs), pin it and have the public announcement that says ‘All right, here are the companies that are the founding members of LORE.'”
“It's a community approach, it's not just a group of CEOs just doing their own thing.”
LORE is culmination of regional-defining efforts of the last few years by a multitude of Springfield stakeholders, including CFO, the Chamber and the Hatch Foundation. The organization officially announced its name in April 2024 and began recruiting regional company executives for its initial membership.
LORE will focus on regional branding, workforce attraction and quality of life in the 10-county region, according to the company website. While LORE has not officially filed for nonprofit status, the organization aims to complete that process soon, Thompson said.
Different levels of commitments require different levels of investments
The man leading the formation and the first strides of LORE believes there will be different levels of company membership, depending on the role the business wants to play and the amount of money its willing to put to the cause. However, as the first meeting happened earlier this week, nothing has been approved by members, Thompson said.
An “associate level” company will commit $10,000 per year for three years, while a company that wants a seat on the board of the organization will commit a minimum of $25,000, Thompson said. Nothing stops a company from committing more; one of the initial members has already committed to $50,000 per year.
LORE will include nonprofits and governmental agencies, which do not have to commit funds to the organization like the for-profit companies do, Thompson said.
There will be “community partners that we will bring into the discussions that don't have to pay anything,” Thompson said.
CFO created a fund for LORE so initial members can put money into the organization. Once LORE is officially a nonprofit, CFO will transfer the fund to the organization, Thompson said.
“It gives us a mechanism to where we could get some of the donors who already put some money in there,” Thompson said. “So, we got some money to do things.”
Hatch has drafted some initial bylaws and operating procedures that will be sent to the initial members for approval, Thompson said.
LORE's members include 13 companies that represent 6 different business sectors
On top of the financial commitment, companies that want to participate in LORE have to devote the time of its leadership and also bring another C-Suite executive from the company to the organization, Thompson said.
The 13 initial members include regional companies that are both publicly traded and privately held, Thompson said. The 13 companies represent six different sectors of business in a 10-county region of southwest Missouri. Thompson is still holding one-on-one meetings with executives, so the initial membership pool may still grow in the coming months.
Thompson's role in LORE in the long-term is dwindling, he said. He officially started regionalism efforts about two years ago after taking the new position at the Springfield Chamber of Commerce. The goal has always been to form a strong enough organization that he could “work himself out of a job...and let someone else take it over.”
“Sometime next year, LORE gets an executive director on board,” Thompson said. And LORE will “probably need a support staff person of some sort. And I transition out, but I'm still there to connect the dots with the person” that takes over.
When he started down the regionalism path two years ago, the goal was to “get more private sector involvement from a leadership standpoint,” Thompson said. “We're on the cusps of it; we're not quite there, but we're very close.”
“It will just be neat to see where it goes.”
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