President’s Message
I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to serve as president of the Wilsonville Chamber this year. It has been a pleasure to meet many of the Chamber members and represent you in the meetings, forums, and planning sessions I attended this year. The year went by quickly, but many accomplishments were achieved in a short amount of time. One of the most impactful accomplishments was the transition to a new vision and mission for the Chamber. This new vision and mission provided clarity and focus to our collective efforts as we sought to do the following:
Our Vision:
To create and promote economic vitality for business in the south metro region
Our Mission:
Business is the priority
Many new changes occurred. Equine tourism has really come into its own, the golf tournament and fall food fest changed locations, the website exploded in growth, and Brandi Herford was hired in September. We have worked with the city to improve the sign code, make Wilsonville a more appealing place to locate a business, and plan with city leaders about how to make it easier to business here. With all of these exciting changes, one thing stayed the same. In the middle double digit unemployment and a struggling economy, our membership stayed the same. This was a pretty amazing statistic to stay even with 2008, but still a very troubling sign as to the state of our economy.
The Wilsonville Chamber has taken strong stands to protect free enterprise. The most recent effort is rejecting the anti business efforts of the Oregon legislature by opposing measures 66 and 67. Additionally, we have advocated for more traffic lanes on I-5 to protect commerce, protect land to be developed for business, and supported efforts to protect exit 286 by building up surface streets in the Wilsonville, Tualatin, and the Sherwood area.
Our luncheons have been well attended and Scott Philips lined up some very inspirational speakers. Steve Gilmore has done a good job managing the Chamber and has assembled a wonderful supporting team. He has been very active in leading the Chamber with Candi running the office, Jennifer managing the visitor center, and I am excited about our renewed focus on our networking opportunities for AM’s and PM’s with Brandi’s leadership. They have all done a great job. I also want to commend the board and the executive committee. Their dedication, professionalism, and passion have really helped the Chamber be effective and bring value to its members. Finally, I’d like to thank the committee chairs for their time and leadership. They really take our vision to a higher level.
I appreciate your patience this year and the opportunity you gave to lead this great organization. We are well positioned for the future with staff, board, vision, and members to make it happen. Please stay involved and encourage other non member businesses to join with us!
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