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Friends, As you all know, I�ve been working this year with a team of Northeast Ohio�s leaders, including Lou Tisler of First Suburbs Development Council and Brad Whitehead of The Cleveland Foundation, to shape, fund and launch the Regional Buying Network. I am thrilled to share with you that First Suburbs Development Council has formally engaged Regional Purchasing, Ltd. (a new company I formed for this endeavor) as the project manager for a 9-month pilot project funded by The Cleveland Foundation. We are now officially underway!! During the course of the pilot project, we are committed to achieving the following objectives: Engaging a minimum of 5 FSDC communities to participate in the Buying Program. Offering at least 2 products/services to those communities for joint purchase through the Buying Program. Benchmarking consortia and buying groups across the country. Reviewing alternative approaches for structuring the relationships between FSDC, the vendors and the participating communities. Developing recommendations for how to launch this project region-wide. A short summary of the Buying Network vision follows: OBJECTIVES: Regional Purchasing, Ltd. proposes developing a mechanism that enables the Local Governments to easily work together to achieve cost savings, providing them with an economic incentive to collaborate and creating a greater level of trust and cooperation amongst local governments. To that end, we propose creating and operating a regional network (the �Network�), with the objectives of: � Achieving efficiencies in the operation of Local Governments. � Enhancing collaboration and trust between Local Governments. � Generating a pool of funds that can be utilized for regional economic development activity. UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY: The basic thinking is that Local Governments provide a range of services (from plowing streets to police protection, collecting garbage to issuing permits) and house a broad array of operational activities (from staffing service departments to accounts payable, purchasing to fire protection). Some of these activities (e.g., zoning and police) may represent the core capabilities and responsibilities of the Local Governments; however, others do not. If those services and activities that are NOT core to a particular Local Government (the �Functions�) were optimally designed and aggregated from a broader perspective, not limited by existing geo-political boundaries, we would find that each Function could best be delivered within specific geographic areas (the �Zones�) ranging in size from the smallest township to the entire 13-county Region, depending upon the particular Function. PROPOSAL: Form a Network that identifies the Functions, those activities that are not core to the Local Governments. The Network would then determine the optimal Zones for each Function across the Region. For example, it may make economic and political sense to purchase road salt across the entire Region while coordinating dispatch or building inspection services across just three Local Governments. The Network would be charged with: � Identifying the Functions. � Determining the optimal Zones for each Function. � Negotiating the best deals for each Function within each Zone. � Engaging the maximum number of Local Governments to participate in the regional Network. The activities of the Network can be divided into 1) collaborative buying groups (�Buying Groups�) that secure volume discounts through the collective buying power of the Local Governments, 2) consulting services (�Consulting�) to recover overpayments, make cost-saving recommendations and provide highly skilled expertise in areas such as IT vendor selection, and 3) collaborative outsourcing efforts (�Outsourcing�) that pursue favorable pricing and terms for non-core Functions (from payroll services to garbage collection). Many thanks to each of you for your guidance and support during this incubation period. Thanks also to FSDC and The Cleveland Foundation for believing in the vision of this project. Also, I�m pleased to share that my wife Susan recently gave birth to our third child, Adrienne (Andie) Sarah Akers, who entered the world slightly ahead of schedule. Mom and daughter are doing well. For those who must know J, Andie was 17.5 inches long and 6 pounds, 1 ounce at birth.