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Let me share some things that we want to get over the goal line in 2010.
The Chamber’s Small Business Council which is lead by Lisa Wannemacher, President & CEO of Wannemacher Jensen, presented a 13 point plan to the city council in December.
The 13 points are basically programs and initiatives that will help business to prosper, particularly small business.
Our Small Business surveys showed that small businesses are able to diagnose their challenges, BUT, they do not always reach out quickly enough. This is primarily due to not knowing where to call. Well, Now, they can call The Chamber, work with a DEDICATED Business Assistance Specialist who will help them find a solution to their challenge. This program is appropriately called life line.
Life line is not the only chamber program that offers direct value to small business.
In 2010 The Chamber will provide professional services that small businesses need, such as Legal services, Accounting services and Business Coaching.
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On a monthly basis, Small business leaders can come to The Chamber and receive FREE advice in these areas.
This Key initiative will be lead by Jim Dickson, who is Partner in Charge at Adams & Reese, St Petersburg.
Your St. Pete Chamber of Commerce is committed to small business and you will see that in our actions and outcomes in 2010.
Our Public Policy efforts will continue. The Chamber, working with the Tampa Bay Partnership, will be the point organization for the Pinellas County transportation initiative. Joel Giles of Carlton Fields will provide the leadership for this initiative.
We will also be keeping you up to date on Amendment 4 (Hometown Democracy). This Amendement must be defeated in November.
The Chamber will continue taking actions and supporting efforts that ensure professional baseball has long term viability in our community.
And of course we will keep you informed as to which candidates support business.
I would like to close by talking a little bit about Leadership St Pete, what we learned from that program this year, and share with you ONE more initiative.
First let me thank all of those companies and class members that made this years class possible. The class of 2010 will definitely be “The Best Class Ever”!
Our Co-chairs, Representative Bill Heller and Governor Bob Martinez have been engaged and they have provided incredible leadership, no doubt this is the primary reason that the quality of this class is remarkable.
The thing about the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce is that it has always been a great Chamber. Leadership St. Pete is a good example of this, it has always been a great program.
So it occurred to us that The Chamber may have lost something that is immeasurably important. And I am looking at it right now. It’s the wisdom and engagement of the many past leaders of The Chamber, people, who built the organization entrusted to us today.
So I am doing a recall, If you have served on the board or committees for The Chamber in the past we are asking that you get reengaged with The Chamber. We need your wisdom, we need your experience, and we need your advice.
The mechanism that we have set up to enable your reengagement is our Advisory Counsel.
IT WILL BE a challenge to get people reengaged because it requires time. I am hoping that the same type of commitment and spirit that you had when you built this Chamber won’t allow you to say no.
I am also hoping that having a world class leader like Dick Averett, CEO & Board Chair from Raymond James Financial Services, at the helm of this initiative won’t hurt either
There is a lot to do in 2010 and the business needs us more than ever. The Chamber staff and The Chamber volunteers all want to make a difference.
I challenge everyone in this room to focus on and get behind what we all have in common .
The desire to see St. Petersburg continue to be one of the best cities in the world.
I want to thank General Petraeus for joining The Chamber as our Keynote for our "sold out" 110th Annual Meeting and for Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSN, Inc. as our Keynote speaker for our Annual Women's Symposium.
I want to thank the team at Humana for supporting me as I Chair the Chamber this year.
Finally, thank you all for coming and giving me the opportunity to serve this great chamber.
Sidney W. Morgan
2010 Board Chair
Humana Market President
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