The Greater Des Moines Partnership is unquestionably a force for economic and community growth, but in the past two years we have also taken a more active leadership role in laying out a vision for the holistic community Greater Des Moines can be. In 2004, we established four platforms of community-wide quality of life ideas based on the recommendations of the various Project Destiny work groups. These platforms are: arts & culture, human capital, lifelong learning, and trails & recreation. We advanced each of these platforms throughout the year.

We helped launch BRAVO!, a new organization established to support the area’s art, cultural, leisure and lifestyle amenities.

We put in place the core leadership of the Human Services Planning Alliance (HSPA), an organization working to create long-term solutions to community challenges by streamlining the delivery of human services.

With the opening of the John & Mary Pappajohn Higher Education Center downtown and new leadership in place at the Des Moines Higher Education Collaborative, we now have a framework in place to encourage continued education and lifelong learning.

And, we initiated development of a regional recreational trail system by bringing together eight jurisdictions now working to connect existing trails.

Each of these platforms requires the infusion of new and efficient resources, and we have proposed governance, finance, and communication tools to ensure that they have the support they require. In late 2004, we finalized our recommendations with the Metro Advisory Council (MAC) to create a regional authority encompassing Polk, Dallas and Warren counties to advance and help finance quality of life amenities in central Iowa. We recommended a regional one-cent local option sales tax in the three-county area to provide property tax relief, support capital improvements to publicly owned facilities, and support regional recreational, cultural, scientific and historic preservation organizations.

Finally, we helped plan a community-wide website which brings together a comprehensive calendar of events, activities, attractions and resources available in Greater Des Moines. The Des Moines Register took up the task of developing the website, www.dmJuice.com.

Outside of Project Destiny, our organization’s goals focus not only on overall business climate management but also on helping our individual business members leave their own mark on the Greater Des Moines region.

In 2004 we packed our member events calendar with more than 30 networking opportunities, including Business After Hours, Member to Member Breakfasts, the Des Moines Business Expo and our new series of Multi-Cultural Professionals Receptions.

We also expanded our educational programming with a series of conferences and informal “lunch and learn” sessions designed to advance and emphasize the importance of fostering inclusion within our member companies and our community.

Our Young Professionals Connection grew to over 500 members, and expanded its efforts in 2004 as well, with networking, educational, public policy and community engagement opportunities throughout the year.

We once again took a united contingency to Washington, DC for our annual lobbying trip. In 2004 we hosted 136 participants and helped convince U.S. Legislators to fund over $120 million in regional projects. These included all of our quality of life priorities such as the Des Moines River Greenbelt, Principal Riverwalk, Science Center of Iowa, and key road and infrastructure projects such as I-235 construction, an improved I-80 interchange for Waukee/West Des Moines and an east-west connector road south of downtown Des Moines.

Another highly visible effort put Greater Des Moines in the national spotlight early in the year when we hosted visiting media representatives for the 2004 Iowa Caucuses. We provided journalists from all over the world with story ideas, locations for their broadcast “stand-ups,” resources for finding local products and services during their stay and local experts on issues of interest. And, we kept reporters “on message” by helping them cast our state and region in a positive light.

Other Partnership website traffic was also significant in 2004. Most notably, we restructured the Member Services section at http://members.desmoinesmetro.com (as well as the Regional Resource Center mentioned previously) and more than doubled the traffic to that area.

The website takes on a new look for 2005 with updates to the original “Change Your View” campaign that also include changes to our print materials and local and national advertising. These fresh new materials promote a quality of life message that emphasizes the fact that we live well here – weekdays, weeknights and weekends.

CONCLUSION