Member organizations and board members for the Regional Development Association of East Central Kansas will be busy this week.
Current member organizations — the city of Emporia, Lyon County, Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce and Emporia Enterprises — have a special meeting at 8 am Wednesday to discuss new bylaws that would both expand the overall Board of Directors and give new voting status to certain members. The RDA has a proposal on the table that would expand the overall board membership from seven members to 11. It would also have three voting members from the city, three from Lyon County and one each from the Chamber, Enterprises, Emporia Main Street, Emporia State University and Flint Hills Technical College.
Following that meeting and additional discussions by city commissioners during their meetings Wednesday, the current members will meet at 7 am Friday. The Board of Directors then meets at 7:30 am, in part to possibly approve new bylaws and the board structure — and in part to discuss reconvening the CEO search committee on hold as the board structure discussion has taken center stage. Board members will also review and may approve the 2026 budget request for final approval by the City Commission.
All meetings are at the Trusler Business Center, 719 Commercial.
The bylaw and board structure proposal now under consideration follows a directive by the city to expand city representation on the board at the risk of losing city funding in December, but it also follows a Vision First economic study last summer that had dissolving Emporia Enterprises as one of its recommendations.
