Deming

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My task throughout this semester was to assist Mr. George Pintar in determining the most effective method of leadership development for the members of the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Pintar is currently interested in acquiring a leadership development package that will be utilized by area business owners as opposed to something that will just sit on a shelf.

This report addresses the factors that determined which type of leadership development forum would be best suited to the business owners in the Deming area. I first researched the activities and direction of the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce. Second, I made comparisons between Deming and other areas of similar size in New Mexico. Last, I researched New Mexico State University (NMSU) and Dona Ana Branch Community College (DABCC) to determine what they had available.

After analyzing all of the data, I have come to the conclusion that several half-day mini seminars on leadership development would be most beneficial to business owners. To facilitate the option to have something tangible that could be referred back to as time goes on, Mr. Pintar could either taping the presentations himself or possibly get the NMSU/DABCC to provide the presentation on video tape.

I am Wilma Tillman Durio, a senior at NMSU. I am a Crimson Scholar and I am on the National Dean's List. I will graduate in May 2000, with a Bachelor of Science in Management (Leadership), and a minor in Mathematics. I have worked at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico for the past 29 years, for twenty-six years as a Secretary/Office Manager and the last three years on an intern Operations Research Analyst program. For this intern program I must earn a Bachelor's degree before I can get a promotion. I have continued to work full time while attending college full time the past three years.

My responsibility for this project is to recommend an effective leadership development program that Mr. George Pintar, Executive Director of the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce can use to assist business owners in improving their leadership skills. Mr. Pintar feels that leadership development is one of many areas that the Chamber of Commerce needs to improve.

The Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce is eighty-four years old. It is one of the oldest Chambers of Commerce in the State of New Mexico. In the beginning years, the offices were in the basement of the city hall. The Chamber in those days was described as the "right arm of city government." As Deming grew and obtained professional management, it was time for the Chamber offices to be moved to Morgan Hall. Later in conjunction with work completed by the city and financed by Lodger Tax funds, the present Visitor's Center and Chamber of Commerce offices were established. The Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce is located at 800 East Pine Street, Deming, New Mexico.

During 1999 chamber members were encouraged to network and solve common problems by attending Business After Hours events. Businesses and organizations were encouraged to groom high school students for employment through a successful Career Days program. Information geared to visitors was professionally presented through a new video entitled "Opportunities in Deming". The Souvenir Passport program was planned and created to encourage tourists to visit local businesses. The Visitor's Center responded to over 8,000 persons requesting information and materials about Luna County's tourist attractions. The Chamber and Columbus Electric Cooperative co-sponsored two Christmas Lighting Contests one for residents in Deming city limits and other for Luna County residents. The chamber newsletter began being published by an outside contractor, which freed chamber employees and volunteers to accomplish other tasks. Computer technology in the Chamber offices was upgraded, and now includes a computer that tourist can utilize to check and send e-mail messages. Three new chamber positions were created and approved. The Tourist Committee was disbanded and three new committees were established: Hospitality, Retailing and Special Events. The chamber has sponsored the "Downtown Deming Deal Project" and "Welcome the Snowbirds Back Party" and the Visitor's Center logged nearly 20,000 guests. In addition, the Chamber welcomed their new Executive Director, Mr. George Pintar during the last quarter of the year.

I, Wilma Tillman Durio, intend to assist Mr. George Pintar in determining the most beneficial method of providing leadership development for business owners in Deming-Luna County. I will make recommendations based on personal interviews and research.

The interviews will be conducted either in person or on the phone with Mr. George Pintar and with four or five business owners in the Deming area. The research will compare Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce with area Chambers of Commerce of New Mexico communities of approximately the same size, such as Silver City and Ruidoso. The research will also investigate available training programs/seminars/workshops offered at New Mexico State University and Dona Ana Branch Community College in management and leadership development.

My goal is to make a viable recommendation to Mr. Pintar for a leadership development package that will be effective and provide him and area business owners with the most benefit.

The following is a schedule I intend to follow to determine the most beneficial leadership development program for Mr. Pintar and the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce.

Objective 2.1 - Research Silver City Chamber of Commerce web site, March 18, 2000.

Objective 2.3 - Determine similarities/differences in the attractions, recreation, etc. between the three chambers, March 18, 2000.

Goal 3: Investigate what leadership development training/seminars are available.

Objective 3.1 - Research NMSU management department to discover what they have available, April 10, 2000.

Objective 3.2 - Research DABCC management department to discover what they have available, April 10, 2000.

Goal 4: Determine which leadership development forum would be most beneficial to Mr. George Pintar and the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce, April 26, 2000.

It is evident by the Deming-Luna County Chambers of Commerce mission statement that they are committed to the growth and prosperity of the community. Their mission statement follows:

"The mission of the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce is to create, promote and develop economic benefits for businesses and communities located in Luna County. This is done through a strong, active membership that will work on programs and projects to enhance the area economically, socially, environmentally, and culturally. By aligning our efforts with other groups and organizations, we can maximize our assets. Therefore, this becomes the foundation of all the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce."

The task now is to determine the best method of providing the business owners in Deming-Luna County with the most beneficial leadership development package possible.

INTERNAL---->

EXTERNAL

STRENGTHS

S1 Speed of response

S2 Customer courtesy

S3 MIS Flexibility/user friendly S4 New Executive Director

WEAKNESSES

W1 Quality control deteriorating

W2 Low membership 265/800

W3 Exec Dir not NM native

OPPORTUNITIES

O1 $20M tourism annually

O2 535 Additional members possible

O3 NMSU/DABCC

Maximize speed & courtesy to increase tourism (S1, S2, O1)

Maximize staff with new executive director to attract new chamber members (S1, S2, O2)

Have staff/dir attend NMSU/ DABCC workshops & seminars (S1, S3, O3)

Take advantage of NMSU/ DABCC to improve quality (W1, O3)

Executive Director should sponsor/oster an aggressive membership drive (W2, W3, O2)

THREATS

T1 Other tourist areas in NM

T2 Limited RV spaces available

Utilize MIS to attract more tourist (S3, T1)

Use customer courtesy & MIS (web page) to encourage tourist during Off season (S2, S3, T2)

Improve quality control by improving skills and taking advantage of opportunities at NMSU/DABCC (W1, O3)

Exec Dir can overcome his non-native stigma by continuously striving to build a good rapport with area business Owners and by inspiring more of them To join the Chamber (increases member-ship thus improves Deming overall for Tourism) (W2, W3, T1, T2, T3)

Speed of Response and Customer Courtesy. The Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce employees has provided it's customers with continuously rapid, courteous responses to their requests. Including mailing out 8,000 welcome packets and receiving over 20,000 guests at the Visitor's Center.

MIS flexibility/user friendly. During 1999, the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce upgraded its computer equipment, which includes a new computer that is restricted to visitor use to check and send e-mail messages.

New Executive Director. During the last quarter of 1999, the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce welcomed their new Executive Director, Mr. George Pintar.

Quality control deteriorating. The addition of the new computers may have lent itself to deterioration in quality control. However, this area should improve as employees and volunteers at the Chamber of Commerce become better acquainted with the new hardware and software.

Low membership 265/800. There are 800+ businesses in Deming-Luna County but only 265 of them are chamber members. This has created a shortage of members available to work on newly created programs.

Executive Director not New Mexico native. Not being form the southwest, and having never lived here prior to coming to the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Pintar probably has a few things to learn about the Southwest, especially the border area; the way of life and many different cultures here. There could be some resentment among business owners in the Deming area that someone local was not selected for the job. This may be a time of reckoning, for Mr. Pintar to prove himself to the business community.

$20M tourism annually. Deming-Luna County is a unique and popular tourist haven during the winter months. Snowbirds bring approximately $20 million into the local economy annually.

535 additional members possible. There are 800+ businesses in Deming-Luna County but only 265 of them are chamber members. This has created a shortage of members available to work on newly created programs.

NMSU/DABCC. NMSU and DABCC offer a vast number of conferences/seminars/workshops for the business community of Deming, both in Las Cruces on their campuses and in-house training for clients.

Other tourist areas in NM. Silver City, Truth or Consequences, Santa Fe and Ruidoso are all tourist areas also located in New Mexico.

Limited RV spaces available. Currently Deming-Luna County has a shortage of RV spaces during the months that the snowbirds are here. Some expansion is planned for next year's season.

Limited recreation available. This is the biggest area of contention when comparing Deming with other areas in New Mexico. Outside of rock hunting, a tour of the museum and a couple of walking trails, there isn't much in the way of recreation available in Deming. Silver City and Ruidoso are located in the mountainous areas of the state and both provide far more recreational activities. Truth or Consequences is located on the seventh largest lake in the United States, and Santa Fe is world renowned for its art and Spanish culture.

The Chamber is currently providing rapid, courteous service and user friendly computing technology to approximately 20,000 guests and 8,000 telephonic requests for information annually. As a result of these services, tourist bring $20 million a year into the Deming community. Although these are significant attributes, only 265 of the 800+ businesses in Deming-Luna County are members of the Chamber of Commerce. This significantly restricts the Chambers of Commerce ability to provide sufficient leadership development to business owners (according to Mr. Pintar). To understand why membership is low, I must search deeper to see what causes the current problem.

Mr. Pintar, the current Executive Director has recently (in the past 6-7 months) taken over the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Pintar is not from the Deming area, therefore has no established rapport with local business owners. It is vitally important for Mr. Pintar to develop strong, supportive relationships with local business owners and develop a positive leadership development environment for all area business owners.

What Type of Leadership Does the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce Currently Have?

Currently Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce has a hierarchy, an authoritative leadership environment, where the Executive Director makes recommendations to the Board of Directors who in turn establish and implement policies to staff and members. Not only does the Executive Director lack support from the Board of Directors, but the Board definately lacks the support of members, in that only 33% of potential business owners are members of the Chamber of Commerce. Somehow though, in spite of this all, the staff remains friendly, courteous and helpful, although they lack somewhat in quality control.

It is apparent that leadership is a major component of the problem. In my search of the correct solution, in addition to researching the available leadership development tools, I will research minor components such as Deming-Luna County Chambers of Commerce marketing strategy as compared to other New Mexico communities of comparable size.

First I researched both NMSU and DABCC to determine the resources available for a leadership development program that Mr. Pintar could use. Both institutes offer a variety of training/ workshops/seminars in the area of leadership.

It is my recommendation that Mr. Pintar review Dr. Boje's web page http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje for Small business materials or see the multi organization consulting at (http://www.nmsu.edu/~dboje/TDgameboard.html) to determine which seminar would best provide the leadership development he feels is most appropriate for the Deming area business people, and that Dr. Boje present a seminar in Deming for that purpose.