Regional Excellence
A National Coalition of Regions?
Trading Capacity for Cash
by Bill Dodge
The 2012 Annual Conference of the
National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) in St. Petersburg showcased NARC’s
efforts in an incredibly challenging 112th Congress.
NARC is keeping its member regional
councils up-to-date on opportunities through its eRegions newsletter, preparing timely handbooks on regional
challenges ranging from poverty to solar energy, and guiding national demonstrations
on new regional approaches, in collaboration with federal and other partners. Member accomplishments are equally
impressive, even as regional challenges are exploding and federal and state
resources are shrinking.
This success
is not new. NARC and its sister national regional associations have
a proud history of advocating for legislation and funding that facilitates cooperation
in addressing transportation, economic development, and other regional
challenges.
However, the national regional
associations have always had inadequate resources, in part, because they divide
up all too few, and often underfunded, regional organizations. Each of them tends to represent a particular type
of regional organization. NARC primarily
represents regional planning agencies and councils of government; the National Association of Development
Organizations, regional economic development districts; the Association of Metropolitan Planning
Organizations, independent regional transportation planning organizations; the Association of Chamber of Commerce
Executives, regional chamber of commerce directors; and similar organizations for regional
emergency preparedness, aging, and other activities.
Moreover, as regional challenges
have become more inclusive, cutting across all types of regional organizations,
national regional associations are often pursuing parallel but independent strategies,
further stretching their already limited resources.
Bringing national regional
associations together to pursue collective efforts is like herding javelinas. Even when they succeed, such as in the
national regional summits sponsored by NARC, resources are rarely available to
follow up on even the most promising opportunities. Addressing common needs affecting all
regional organizations, such as building a collective regional capacity to foster
sustainable or even equitable growth, remain ethereal will-o-de-wisps.
Now, however, the national regional
associations themselves are struggling to survive. The rapid reduction in federal government
largesse has led to the same program and staff reductions seen in local
governments. NARC is increasing membership
dues just to sustain the core staff required to represent its members.
Ironically, over the past few
years, federal government interest in regional cooperation has grown. Regions are increasingly seen as the most appropriate
level for bringing federal, state, and local interests together to effectively address
common challenges, such as emergency
preparedness and sustainable communities.
This interest helped fund NARC’s recent accomplishments. The federal interest prevails; however,
federal funding is disappearing.
Maybe it’s time
to reconsider the way regional interests are represented in federal and state
governments. For example, national regional
associations should consider conducting joint efforts, such as having a single
Washington-based legislative conference.
Such joint activities would also facilitate preparing a common national regional
agenda to advance with the U. S. Congress and other regional supporters.
Preparing a national regional
agenda itself would also benefit from joint efforts. Coincidentally, NARC just created a new Center
for Regional Research to explore regional challenges. The Center could help develop partnerships
between national regional associations and academic and other research
institutions to examine potential topics and proffer practical actions for such
an agenda. The federal government, along
with national foundations, could target their shrinking resources on these collaborative
efforts.
If any of these joint efforts are
to succeed, individual members of national regional associations need to take
the lead. They pay the dues and dictate
the associations’ agendas. Cities and
counties have wrestled with similar challenges, and used the power of the purse
to assure that their representation in Washington and state capitals is coordinated
and has as much substantive rigor and political clout as possible.
Individual members also need to help
negotiate the intergovernmental deals required to make regions work. Given that federal and state governments will
have inadequate resources to fund future regional initiatives, they need to be
persuaded to empower regions to address the tough challenges more
independently, such as by providing priority funding to regions that prepare
regional charters and invest in strengthening their capacity to cooperate. Maybe “Trading Capacity for Cash” can be the
mantra for a national regional agenda.
These ideas
are not new. NARC also held its 2000 Annual
Conference in St. Petersburg on the theme of the future of regional
cooperation. In the opening session, the
panelists pretended to be in the year 2020.
I moderated that session and hobbled out on stage with a cane and wore a
grey wig. One of the panelists wore
sunglasses that allowed him to review his email; another speculated that regions had replaced
states.
The most common, and maybe
promising, conclusion of panelists: NARC
had helped bring together all national regional associations, and their public
interest group, foundation, academic, and other friends, in a National Coalition
of Regions to collectively represent regional interests in federal and state
governments.
It’s over half way to 2020. Google, Apple and others are already
perfecting glasses that double as wearable computers. Maybe the national regional associations could
start conducting joint activities in 2012 that lay the groundwork for a National
Coalition of Regions before 2020.
***
Bill Dodge is looking for a few good regions that are
interested in designing regional charters to strengthen their capacity to take
bold actions to address tough common challenges. He is the author of Regional Excellence, and is writing a new book on regional
charters. WilliamRDodge@aol.com
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