On behalf of the Board of Governors of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, it is my pleasure to welcome you to ONE OF THE TOP 3 Chambers in North America. Our Chamber is proud to have served our business community for more than 100 years. From public policy and advocacy, entrepreneurial and leadership programs, from young professional and minority issues, this Chamber has been a consistent and effective voice for the business community for many years.

We have an extremely effective professional staff headed by The Chamber’s CEO, John T. Long. Through John’s leadership, our membership has increased to more than 2,800, representing all facets of the business community from tourism to manufacturing, from large publicly traded companies to the sole proprietorships. The Chamber is actively involved in many issues that impact our business community. The Chamber believes that by supporting education, workforce housing and many community-based initiatives, we make our community a better place to live and work. The Chamber is an active partner with many public and private organizations to improve our quality of life.

Under the leadership of The Chamber’s past Chair, Jim Albright, The Chamber has reduced the size and improved the quality of its Board, become more financially stable, and increased its programming. This success includes the formation of a Political Action Committee (PAC) and separate 501(c)(3) Foundation. This year’s Board is intent on continuing to build on these remarkable successes.

Despite the success of our Chamber and its ever-expanding operations and size, we are ultimately a volunteer organization. We look to our members to provide support for our initiatives and programs but mostly to provide volunteers that will get involved and become active. If you are interested in becoming active in The Chamber or in participating in any one of our many programs, I hope that you will contact either me or John Long.

We look forward to a very exciting and productive year in 2008.

Cordially,