Touting a membership that now represents more than 4,000 Greater Des Moines businesses, the Greater Des Moines Partnership celebrated the past year’s accomplishments last night at its 2008 annual dinner.

About 1,200 Partnership members attended the event at Hy-Vee Hall, which included remarks from incoming Partnership Chairman Steve Lacy and a performance by The Capitol Steps. Des Moines Area Community College and Kemin Industries Inc. were also recognized as the winners of the 2008 Diversity Award.

The Partnership anticipates a busy year in 2008, say officials, as it continues to carry out its regional economic development agenda while at the same time undergoing an organizational restructuring. As part of that restructuring, Lacy has agreed to serve a two-year term rather than a one-year term.

“It was approved at the end of the year meeting in December, though it had been discussed for some time,” Partnership spokeswoman Susan Ramsey said. The Partnership looked to United Way of Central Iowa’s two-year chairman term, a role in which Lacy had previously served for two years, as the model, Ramsey said. However, it hasn’t been decided whether two-year chairmanships will continue in the future. For now, the Partnership has not named a chair-elect as it usually does to signal who will serve the following term as chairman.

“This is a huge credit to Steve Lacy that he would take the time to ensure we have the continuity that any work that will be done this year in a transitionary phase will be carried on,” said Steve Zumbach, one of the Partnership’s executive committee members.

Some of the accomplishments highlighted in the Partnership’s annual report:

• a unified membership model that increased the number of members from about 1,650 to 4,000;
• 32 recruitment trips and trade shows in more than20 states and two foreign countries that led to more than 280 recruitment appointments;
• total capital investment of $191 million by businesses; 10 new businesses and 21 business expansions; and nearly 2,400 new or retained jobs.

Last fall, Partnership officials announced the organization’s next five-year fund-raising campaign, Partnership 2012, with a goal of raising $30 million for continued regional economic and community development efforts.