The Indiana Port Commission now has a new name: The Ports of Indiana.

While “Ports of Indiana” has been the marketing identity of the organization for years, legislation making it the legal name of the entity has only just taken effect, according to a statement released on Wednesday.

“This name change is very important to our organization for many reasons,” the statement said. “First, the name ‘Ports of Indiana’ identifies us as one organization operating multiple ports. Second, it is much more consistent with industry standards where our counterparts are the Port of Los Angeles, Port of Seattle, Port of New York/New Jersey, Port of New Orleans.”

The organization was created in 1961, when there were no ports in the state, only a commission comprised of five members. Nine years later the first port opened on Lake Michigan, then six years later a second on the Ohio River in Mount Vernon, then a third in 1985 in Jeffersonville. “Now Indiana has a thriving system of three ports totaling 2,300 acres and shipping nearly $2 billion of cargo per year,” the statement said.

The name change will not affect how the Ports of Indiana operates. It is still governed by board: the Ports of Indiana Commission. But the term “commission” refers only to the board and not to the entire organization, as was the case prior to the new legislation.

“This change,” the statement added, “highlights an important focus for our organization. By statute, we are created as ‘a body both corporate and politic,’ which makes us unusual in that we are created by government to act like a business. And that is exactly what we do. We operate as a business—not a regulatory agency of government. As long as the word ‘commission’ was in our organization’s name, people incorrectly assumed that we were a policing body that regulative activities at ports. That is not the case. We operation much like our entrepreneurial business partners located at our ports. We self-fund our own operations and do not rely on tax dollars.”

Each port has a specific name based on its location. Thus the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor; the Port of Indiana-Mount Vernon; and the Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville.

“We believe the ‘official name change’ will provide our family of port businesses more national and global visibility than ever before,” the statement said.

Posted 7/3/2008