1. Celebrate collectively. Use regional terms and
invite your partners to share credit for good work and
good outcomes.
2. Publish jointly. Work cooperatively to produce
full-region research data.
3. Give a voice, not a vote. Bring representatives of
separate government jurisdictions together for
discussions of a specific issue, in settings that
provide the opportunity for everyone to explore the issue.
4. Keep saying it. Document and publicize those issues on which you have
consensus within the region.
5. Host a party. Invite staffs of elected and appointed officials of multiple levels of
government, jurisdictions and departments. No agenda – no lavish dinner.
Check lobbying rules in your state to be sure such a meeting is allowed.
6. Show a positive public face. If someone in a regional coalition breaks the
“compact,” deal with the disappointment, rejection, and betrayal privately while
remaining positive in public.
7. Practice regional cooperation. Find a big, long-term issue that can ONLY be
handled on a regional basis (like watershed or attracting a future military
establishment). Help people throughout the region work together on this non-
threatening issue.
8. Lead by example. Chambers in a region should be meeting together, plotting
together, lobbying together, and establishing “early warning systems” to keep
each other aware. Try intermingling boards in productive networks, and possibly
even sharing back-office operations.
9. Emphasize the incremental. If representatives of two entities within a region
can talk and work together, support it. Don’t wait for some grand union of
everybody under a single banner before you start to initiate regional strategies.
10. Remain united. Resist efforts by state or federal agencies and legislators to
separate and segregate the people of a region.

Source: American Chamber of Commerce Executives