By Mary Alice Murphy

The first speaker at the Friday, October 17, 2014, Gila Economic Development Alliance's monthly Roundtable was Paul Leetmae, managing owner of Lawley Automotive, which sells autos and trucks by Ford, Toyota, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram. "We have six automotive choices, and we work with 56 other businesses."

He gave a brief history of the company in Arizona and that bicycling brought him to Silver City.He said one of the strengths in Silver City is its unique, creative and innovative people.

Leetmae asked those attending the meeting how many knew Jay Hemphill, Steve Moseley, Lee Gruber, Mary Alice Murphy. Varying numbers of hands went up with each name.

He said Hemphill is a photographer, who now works at Western New Mexico University, but also photographs for other entities, including Holiday Inn Express, where his photos will grace the walls. 

Leetmae asked how many people watch "Game of Thrones." A few raised their hands. Leetmae explained that a local jewelry maker and designer, Steve Moseley, makes the jewelry for Game of Thrones.

Lee Gruber, owns with her husband, David Del Junco, Syzygy Tileworks, which Leetmae described as the epitome of economic development. He advised everyone to take a tour of the tile factory.

"Another local strength is local collaboration," Leetmae said. "We have a strong group of people who work together. Joe's (WNMU President Shepard) got an idea with a way we can bring everyone mentioned into a collaboration."

Leetmae also talked about Race Across the Sky, which is a film about the Leadville 100-mile bicycle race, which must be completed in less than 12 hours. "It is the biggest, most applied for bike race. Finishers in under nine hours receive a big belt buckle with their name engraved on it."

He said he thought challenges included not enough technological knowledge in the community, for websites and social media. "People have conflicting individual agendas. For instance, they don't have a Facebook page." He cited the Copper Country Cruizers car show, which before he encouraged them to have a Facebook page, was seeing fewer visitors and fewer entrants. With a Facebook page for the past couple of years, their numbers have grown.

"I have an 80 percent collection rate on my email addresses database," Leetmae said. "Our strength is collaboration, but it can also be our challenge. For instance, scheduling conflicts, with two music festivals in September, with vastly different organizations—one with no website, no Facebook page and the other very well organized."

Leetmae continued to challenge those in the audience: "Who has done an online review of a business in town? Who sent an email to colleagues to invite them to this meeting? Who knows what is playing at Light Hall this weekend?"

"We need to harness tech to get connected," Leetmae said. He thanked personally the Gila EDA board and all those attending the meeting for continuing to be interested in economic development.

Steve Walker, WNMU business professor, pointed out that next semester, the business department would offer a new class on social media marketing. Also a new marketing club was helping a new business with its Facebook page. "We created an engagement pyramid. We need the help of members in the community."

Kim Clark of the Realtor's Association, a Prospector and involved in the Wild, Wild West Rodeo said the collaboration between Lawley Dodge and the rodeo for the past two years was excellent.

"Bringing back Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram helped me be a bigger sponsor for events," Leetmae said. "Last year I employed Jay to do a photo contest of people in front of their favorite Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep or Ram vehicle. We posted them on Facebook, and the picture with the most likes got a buckle. The reach last year for the contest on Facebook was 25,000 views. This year it was 35,000 views."

Earl Montoya, self-described community watchdog, said: "I want to compliment you, sir. It is refreshing to see someone like you step back and look at the whole picture. Now that you have it," Montoya addressed the EDA board members, "what are you going to do with it? I suggest that a lot of the Hispanic community doesn't know they can make a service appointment with Lawley by email. Maybe a notice in Spanish would help."

Joel Schram of AmBank asked Leetmae: "With your strong commitment to social media, do you have statistics on sales as a result?"

"We get views and website stats, but not that specific, although we probably can," Leetmae replied. "It's there; there's a lot to know."

Shepard said with Western's new website, he knows that if someone visits the Western website from Facebook, when that person returns to Facebook, a WNMU ad will come up.

Lillian Galloway of the Silver City Public Library said she does the Facebook page for the library. "There's more information there than I know what to do with. The library is working with six different organizations on presenting tech courses. It's a basic course to start with. On Oct. 30, we have an open house for the computer lab."

Walker pointed out that Facebook is a mass form of communication. "It creates awareness of a business, and then you can track those who visit. The marketing club is working on the Facebook page for a business. Training in the community needs to be part of it."

Bruce Ashburn of PNM, speaking as a member of the community, said Leetmae is also accessible and willing to listen and give guidance to people. "How lucky we are that you chose Silver City."

Shepard said part one of Leetmae's talk was about his business; the second was about the challenges of doing business in the area.

"To form a collaboration from the Gila EDA, the chamber, the green chamber, we have Watts Hall," Shepard said. "We have lots of room. The Small Business Development Center is already there. Right now, we have the Arts and Cultural District on one end of town, and the Grant County Business and Conference Center on the other entrance to town. I propose we turn Watts Hall into an economic development hub. We have talked to the two chambers. I extend to the Gila EDA office and meeting space. Research shows that collaboration is enhanced based on proximity. We have a reception area, which, with one person answering questions and directing calls, would show unity of the community."

"It would be a collaboration center right there," Leetmae said. "We didn't script this. I didn't know Joe was going to be here."

George Julian Dworin, Silver City Arts and Cultural District director, noted how old and damaged are signs leading to Silver City. "We have collaboration on the signs. The funds are there. All the billboards will be updated, with events rotating on them." He also said the momentum in the press is "huge and growing."

The next speakers were Trent and Tonia Bohl of Smokey Joe's. Trent said he does fixed opportunity consulting, with a specialty in growth. He was brought to the area by Lawley Automotive.

"I spent 25 years in an office," Tonia said. "I am now the proud owner of Smokey Joe's."

Trent said he and his wife came to Silver City a year ago on July 24, when the monsoon was raging. They were surprised at how green the area was. "Paul put us in touch with people and businesses, who gave us a positive view of Silver City. Smokey Joe's is not just a tobacco shop, although we have cigars. It's hard to keep the humidity rate correct. Tonia watches that. We will be relocating to 1307 Pope Street, in the old USA Cleaners building. We also have roll-your-own tobacco, so you don't have all the chemicals of the big names. We have e-cigarettes to help you break the habit. We also feature custom-blown glass from a local artist. We will expand out products to more cigars, espresso, gluten-free snacks and a golf pro shop to support the cigar group. We hope in the next four months to hire four people."

Tonia said the shop is now open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, with Tuesdays closed. "When we hire more, hours will increase."

Clark asked the Bohls about the challenges they had setting up a new business, such as with regulation.

"We had the normal challenges," Trent said. "I copied my sister's format. She has a similar shop. We've been slow in marketing."

Miguel Vicens of the WNMU business department said the department has business assistance to help. Trent said they have a patent they want to work on.

Bob Switzer of the business department said the department's goal is to replace textbook exercises, with working on field studies. "We will match the student with the business. We are not only offering office space but services."

Attendees then gave their announcements, which will be covered in the next article.