Good Morning from beautiful Monroe, Louisiana, home of GREAT people. GREAT Business, GREAT culture and GREAT food. What a blessing to wake up here and to enjoy all the city has to offer.
Speaking of things to do – Each week Alana Cooper, Sheila Snow and our friends at Discover Monroe-West Monroe send out a calendar of things going for the weekend. I promise you there is always something to do in our area. Here is a link to sign up yourself or watch each Thursday as we will share the calendar.
https://www.monroe-westmonroe.org/events/
We had a great week last week. The highlight was the “Regional Chamber Summit” held at Louisiana Delta Community College. It was a joint chamber event but kudo’s go to Kris Kelley for his work in putting it together. Special thanks to Congresswoman Julia Letlow, Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain and LED Secretary Don Pierson for joining us. Here is Commissioner Strain’s powerpoint.
Committee Updates:
All of our committees are in full swing. We will have more in-depth updates coming over the next few weeks. Non-Profit and Health are developing strategies from their respective surveys they will be sharing soon.
Membership is retooling and regrouping. We originally had a membership drive scheduled for October 17th but that is now moved to the week of January 31st.More details to follow on this, but I promise a FUN and PRODUCTIVE drive.
Small Business is partnering with the City of Monroe on numerous meet & greets (Coffee & Conversations). We will meet again this month with our commercial realtors and in October with our Southside Merchants. Our midtown merchant meeting was great.
Government continues to meet with elected officials and taxing bodies.
Our Diversity committee will meet again on Thursday – be looking for some event information.
Our Technology committee is planning a large cyber security summit and some social media classes.
Education will be rolling out some projects in the next few weeks and Workforce under the leadership of Adam Alexander will be hosting a career expo – hiring fair September 21st.\
Vlogging – the Chamber in partnership with Kinetix is offering you (because you are a chamber member) a very special vlogging opportunity – see this newsletter for more detail.
Be watching for more information and save the dates on the following events.
- The Chamber’s Annual Membership Golf Tournament – Friday September 16th at Frenchman’s Bend Golf Course.
- Career Expo – September 21st – 10-7 – Contact Adam for a booth.
- Cyber Security Workshop on October 27th at Bayou Pointe.
- Social Media Workshops – more info coming
- Leadership Ouachita Graduation – November 3rd
- Accent on Education – saluting teachers – November 10th
- Our Annual GALA – December 1st
- We are working hard to finalize Governor Edwards and Congresswoman Letlow.
- We have begun working on and selling our Annual “Inside the Chamber” Magazine.
Believe in US – Perception is reality. It is up to each of us to sell our community. It is up to each of us to tell our story. It is up to each of us to share the great things that happen here. Please share your own social media platforms to brag on our area. Use your social media platforms to brag on your business. It is a proven fact that we are who we say we are. It starts with each of us – we are our greatest ambassadors.
Thanks to each of you for supporting the Chamber – please know how much we appreciate you.
The BEST is yet to come and we are just getting started.
Roy