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Now that the Wyndham Championship has pledged some proceeds to help bring jobs to the Triad, a group of business leaders will meet soon to work out the details.

Bobby Long, chairman of the Triad Charitable Golf Foundation, the nonprofit group that runs the Wyndham, along with BB&T CEO Kelly King, told a worldwide audience on CBS last week that the golf tournament wants to go beyond charities and donate money to local programs that can build jobs.

“At the end of the day, we desperately want to help charities and the whole bit,” Long said in an interview. “But what better can we do than to create better jobs for our citizens, and particularly right now.”

Long has recruited such business and community leaders as Jim Melvin, president of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, to serve on the Wyndham’s board.

Several board members, including Melvin, overlap with a group of business leaders formed under the Piedmont Triad Partnership working with King to strengthen home furnishings, business growth at Piedmont Triad International Airport and research in nanotechnology and biotechnology in the region.

“Kelly ... called together a meeting,” Long said. “We’re getting people engaged that are tremendously talented and heretofore have not been as engaged. They get so many requests and this one is such a priority and such a way of giving back to focus on these initiatives. Our board is about as pumped up as it’s ever been.”

The Wyndham has earned between $300,000 and $400,000 a year, and Melvin said he hopes that about half that money could go into economic development projects.

He and Long say that two priorities are helping the Triad Partnership continue a work force preparedness effort after a federal grant runs out next year and, also, to promote this region worldwide.

It’s not clear whether the Piedmont Triad Partnership or some other group would handle the Wyndham’s contribution, but Melvin said he isn’t interested in creating more bureaucracy than necessary.

“We realize that it’s going to have to take some additional capabilities to create a world identity,” Melvin said. “We’re talking about trying to be competitive in the world. We’re not talking about trying to be competitive in the region or state. There’s going to have to be some additional talent put on board.”

At the same time, he said, “All options would be open. But the people who are associated with this Kelly King group — the leadership executive committee — they’re not interested in creating a lot of different bureaucracy. Do we need another organization? No. That’s my opinion. That decision has not been absolutely made yet.”

Melvin and Long declined to speculate about what the group will decide, saying King is the best spokesman. He was unavailable for an interview.

But Long said he wants the golf championship to have a bigger impact on the region than it has in the past.

He said aerospace, high-tech science research and home furnishings offer prime opportunities for an economic revival.

“We can spread the word worldwide through the golf tournament,” Long said. “Most communities struggle like crazy to find one project that can be a game changer and we’ve got three.”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com