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An offshoot group of the Monroe County 2030 Comprehensive plan wants to create a cohesive image and an effort to attract and retain small businesses in the area. The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Task Force met Wednesday morning at the East Stroudsburg University Innovation Center. About 16 leaders from government, academia and the business community discussed various issues, including the disembodied voices of several conference call participants. Mary Frances Postupack of the innovation center led the conversation into infrastructure, outreach, strategy and action plans. “We want to capture the energy here and sustain it for the betterment of Monroe County,” she said. How do we take the message from a small group and make it viral to the municipalities, she asked the group. A meeting of municipal leaders was discussed, but the difficulty of doing that became apparent as participants doubted it could be pulled off. “Redevelopment, infrastructure improvements, zoning. Quality of life is what we offer here”, real estate developer Troy Nauman said. “We have to create an identity and give them a reason to be here.” A survey of those municipal supervisors, commissioners and borough council members was suggested as a way to feel out each municipality’s own point of view on, as Nauman said, who they want to be when they grow up. “We need 80 percent of municipalities on the questionnaire and cheerleading representation from at least 10 supervisors or council members,” he said. Nauman thought it was critical to determine how each municipality sees itself going into the future, which affects zoning and development matters. Nauman was optimistic about the prospects for the county. “How come St. Luke’s made such an investment here,” he said, referring to the new St. Luke’s Hospital Monroe Campus in Bartonsville. “Part of their data shows growth here.” Once a marketing plan is drawn up, and that’s where the group seemed to be heading, it would have to be institutionalized through the Greater Pocono Chamber of Commerce. The chamber is currently consulting with the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, an institution with greater resources that has helped grow business in similar areas, including Carbon County. “We look for connectors. We have maybe 30 mixers and events every month to get people together,” Valerie Case of the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce said. “We also aim to get younger people involved.” She likened Stroudsburg to Bethlehem, suggesting it be marketed as an historical area just as the Lehigh Valley chamber did for Bethlehem. George Roberts, television producer and anchor is also the chairman of the Greater Pocono Chamber of Commerce board. He said after the departure of its former president and CEO, the chamber’s board realized it needed to be doing something different. That led to the association with the Lehigh Valley chamber. “They help get smaller chambers back on their feet,” Roberts said. “We’d like to work with younger people and ideas. We have a digital strategies committee. A women in business committee. It’s about the value we bring to the community,” he said of the chamber. It’s called collective impact, Jen Strauch of the United Way of Monroe County said. “Make people want to come here, make our businesses want to grow.” To read the original article, click here.