West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie E. Tennant last weekend accepted the 2016 National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) IDEAS Award for the Office’s Business Industry Growth (BIG) Map. The West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office was one of four nominees for this award, which recognizes innovation, dedication, excellence and achievement in state member programming, as well as significant contributions to the state information-sharing mission of NASS. “We couldn’t be happier to be recognized with the 2016 NASS IDEAS award,” said Tennant. “The BIG Map shows what happens when an innovative idea meets a skilled technology staff, all to benefit our state’s business owners, entrepreneurs and residents. The staff of the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office made this happen and remain committed to finding ways to better serve.” The BIG Map is a web tool that compiles business filing and formation data in an easy-to-use and understandable format. Features of the map include allowing users to compare business filing data from all of West Virginia’s counties over any date range. A user can also search by business purpose such as “Coal Mining,” “Software Publishers” or “Grocery Stores,” to find out how many have registered in a particular county or city and see their growth or decline. Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler, immediate past NASS president said, “BIG Map exemplifies state innovation at its best. It’s an intelligent, cost-effective approach to sharing business growth data that can be used for informed decision-making, something that other states will be able to replicate thanks to the road map provided by West Virginia.” NASS IDEAS Award submissions were reviewed and ranked by members according to their history, significance and effects, resulting in four national finalists. The members then voted to select the national honoree. Secretaries of State from Colorado, Montana and Nevada also received national finalist recognition on behalf of their respective states. While at the NASS summer conference, Tennant was also elected southern region vice-president. She will serve a one-year term, ending in July 2017. For more information on the NASS IDEAS award, visit http://www.nass.org/awards/nass-ideas-award/. For more on NASS, visit www.nass.org.
