February 2008 Committee Updates

Aviation

The M2M Aviation Committee, made up of John Black, Diane Bryant, Don Daniel, G. C. Hixson and Cannon Loughry, continues to acquire and refine data on airports, higher education institutions and industry.  All airports with paved runways of approximately 4000 feet and longer in the M2M area have been identified and mapped; the subset of runways that support instrument approaches has also been identified and mapped.  Airports are especially important in overall economic development since they are used so often by major corporations as well as smaller businesses to visit and manage their regionally or nationally distributed assets and infrastructure.  The M2M area has a significant capability in aviation with over two dozen airports meeting the runway length criteria.

The M2M area also boasts numerous institutions of higher education related to aviation.  With over half a dozen institutions in the area, these programs vary across a full spectrum from aircraft mechanic to Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Aerospace Engineering.  

Data on aviation related industry in the M2M area are still being acquired and analyzed.  Preliminary analysis, however, indicates companies ranging from those with a few dozed employees to those with over 2000 employees are in the area.  The output of the organizations varies from engineering services to production of key aviation components.

Communication

The Communication Committee had an organizational meeting jointly with Faye Johnson of the Education Committee and Tara Stone from the Chamber of Commerce. Results among others included a measure for transitioning and continuing improvements to the M2M website. A subsequent conference call with Tara and Andrea Loughry resulted in further website planning and coordination of the Rutherford Chamber’s interim sponsorship of the newsletter which you are reading. Committee member Brian Robertson attended the Southern Growth Policies Board meeting in Nashville and was able to spread the word about M2M to many of the attendees from around the State.

The Communications Committee has cultivated a potential partnership or affiliation with Connected Tennessee (www.connectedtn.org). M2M members Andrea Loughry, Faye Johnson, Rosemary Owens, and Brian Robertson attended Connected TN’s Rutherford County organizational meeting January 29 at the Historic Courthouse. This meeting was followed by a discussion between the organization’s director, Michael Ramage, and with Andrea and Brian.  Parallel goals were discovered at every turn in the conversation, and mutually beneficial objectives were clearly identified. Most tangibly was the shared need for solid data. It is apparent that Connected TN has incredible data and statistical capabilities and has already accumulated much of the very information that M2M needs. At our next meeting, the Communications Committee will report fully on how our support of Connected TN’s mission can help with our mission.

Entrepreneurship

Dr. Patrick Geho, State Executive Director of the Tennessee Small Business Development Center and Chair of the M2M Entrepreneurship Committee worked under the direction of Middle Tennessee State University President Sidney McPhee and Dr. John Cothern, Vice President of Finance and Administration in presenting a comprehensive proposal to the Tennessee Board of Regents for special initiative funding consideration for the position of director of intellectual property. The new position would be a part of the MTSU Tennessee Small Business Development Center statewide program and would provide a wide range of assistance to the inventor to enhance the opportunity for securing intellectual property protection, product development and commercialization. The proposal made the TBR’s approved short list in October 2007 which was then submitted to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission for review. The proposal however, did not rank high enough for approval for the upcoming fiscal year.

In November 2007 to the Joint House and Senate Commerce Committee of the Tennessee Legislature requested Dr. Geho to present to the commission an update on MTSU’s Tennessee Small Business Development Center program activities and initiatives. Dr. Geho also addressed to the commission the intellectual property development needs of businesses and individual inventors through counseling, training, technical assistance and commercialization support. The Joint Commerce Committee asked for more detail on that specific initiative and as a result, a second meeting was held in January 2008.  A state funding proposal entitled “Director of Intellectual Property and Commercialization” was presented to the Joint Commerce Committee.  Discussions covered the budget, benefit to cost projections, possible considerations in preparing a funding bill, logistics and existing infrastructure to provide the proposed statewide services. The M2M Committee members could serve as joint marketing arm for the MTSU proposal as well as possibly serving as a clearing house to review inventor proposals.  Subject to the Joint Commerce Committee’s review and consideration of the state budget and revenue projections for the next fiscal year, the proposal was otherwise well received by the committee members.