What's in a name? A lot, actually.

Over the past week, we have begun rolling out a change in our corporate identity. The majority of people likely will not even notice, but those with a keen eye for detail might see we have replaced “Partnership” with “Corporation” on our website and social media accounts. 

Technically, this is not a name change. We have been Anson Economic Development Corporation since 1975, and all of our official business transactions have been conducted under that name for nearly fifty years.

In 2016, however, we entered into an agreement with Anson County and hired our first full-time executive director. At the time, it seemed like a good idea to highlight this new arrangement by calling the organization “Partnership” as a public-facing identity and creating a separate advisory board with broader government and quasi-government representation.

While this unofficial identity has helped positively position the organization in the public eye, the discrepancy in what we call ourselves and our legal name has generated some confusion with vendors, government reporting, and funding sources, and with changes in elected officials and QGO leadership over the past seven years, the two boards are now virtually the same.

As such, it was agreed at the last Partnership and Corporation board meetings to eliminate the use of “partnership” and consolidate the two boards. This change is being rolled out over a 30 to 60-day period, with the website, email, and social media accounts changing this week and new printed materials and signage in place by June 1st.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Does this have anything to do with the recent changes in Chamber of Commerce leadership?

No. This change was in the works since the first of the year. The timing was just a coincidence.

How does this change impact the leadership of the organization?

There will be no change in organizational leadership. Don Scarborough was the chairman of both the Partnership and Corporation boards and will remain chairman of the Corporation board. Our executive director, John Marek, was always a paid employee of the Corporation and will continue to lead the organization in that role.

What about contact information such as email addresses, websites, phone numbers, etc.?

We are changing our email addresses, website URL, and social media account tags to reflect the new corporate identity. The new website address will be ansonedc.com, and the email addresses will be [first name]@ansonedc.com. Our main phone number will also be changing, but our executive director's 24/7/365 line will remain the same. We will continue to support the old website URL and email addresses for at least six months.