The plan is out in the public square, but whether nine different economic development organizations will agree to unite is anyone's guess.

Board members of seven independent Howard County economic development organizations and officials with city and county government are now in possession of the lengthily titled "Economic Development Organization System Analysis Report," a three-month study of how local economic development groups interact.

And as expected, study author Donald T. Iannone is recommending a drastic reduction in both the number of boards and organizations, a consolidation which would leave the area with a single umbrella organization in charge of all areas of economic development.

The study also recommends the city and county governments -- the source of 78 percent of the current funding for the various economic development groups -- collaborate to create a $2 million Strategic Investment Fund to support worthy economic development projects.

The city and county should also enter into a three-year funding agreement for the new umbrella organization and work together to establish criteria for investing economic development funds, Iannone wrote.

Greg Aaron, president of the Kokomo-Howard County Development Corp., said Friday it was too early to comment on the report, which his board members received early in the week.

Discussion on the proposal will begin in earnest, Aaron said, after a Nov. 30 "unveiling" of the proposal at the Inventrek business incubator facility. All of the board members of the seven organizations are invited to join city and county officials at the meeting, which begins at 7:30 a.m.

Aaron said he doubted much discussion of the ideas in the report will arise at the meeting, but later in individual board meetings.

Getting the individual organizations to surrender some, or all, of their autonomy will be crucial to any effort to form an umbrella organization.

But the idea has been brewing for nearly two years, prompted by a coalition of local business people and the Kokomo city administration.

Last December, when the idea of studying consolidation was broached in a city administration press release, Community First Bank President Mike Stegall, a proponent of reorganization, said city and county officials "owe it to the people who pay the bills to see if we can build a better mousetrap."

"Hopefully everybody would like to be part of the process, to see if there's a better model," Stegall said. "The question is whether we could get a bigger bang for the buck."

The press release came out just after officials from the Urban Enterprise Association, Kokomo-Howard County Development Corp., Kokomo Downtown Association, Small Business Development Center, Kokomo-Howard County Chamber of Commerce, Inventrek, and Howard County Visitors Bureau met with city and local business officials to discuss the consolidation effort.

Chamber president Rick Hamilton said Friday his organization's board initially declined to participate in the consolidation study.

But after the study was broadened to include how economic development dollars are spent locally, the chamber board agreed to participate, he added.

"I'm sure no matter what happens, the chamber will participate and work with this," Hamilton said. "Even if we're not part of an overall group, we'll work with whatever group comes out of this."