A group of community stakeholders plan to have their second meeting Wednesday, Aug. 12, at Sinclair. The meeting won’t be open to the public, said Chris Kershner, vice president of public policy for the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce.
The group’s mission: Try to minimize loss of talent from the Dayton area tied to NCR’s decision — announced in early June — to move its corporate headquarters to Duluth, Ga.
“What we’re trying to do here, we’re trying to capture talent,” Kershner said.
The group’s second mission: Helping local employers tap into the talent pool of about 1,250 current and former local NCR workers.
The prevailing feeling is that a private group needs to take charge, Norris said. A public jobs office can’t always deal with an event that hasn’t happened yet, she said. NCR has only started notifying workers whether they will be offered positions in Georgia.
Said Norris: “To help them (workers) make those decisions now, it really does need to be a private organization,”
Jobs here to which workers might be pointed include Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s need for engineers and others conversant with Oracle, expected Base Realignment and Closure jobs and related defense contracting work.
Kershner says NCR workers have told him “Dayton is my home.” He and others want to make sure Dayton remains their home, he said.
The group includes representatives from Dayton Defense (formerly Dayton Area Defense Contractors), the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association, Technology First, city, county and state governments and more.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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