Best Places to Work in Illinois; Cary Grove Area Chamber of Commerce 2016 Community Map; Prince William Chamber Seeks Scholarship Applicants; Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce names new executive director; Editorial: Madison County Chamber steps forward to promote health initiative; BG Chamber interest: Workforce group pushes to use old WIOA funds for youth; 2017 Priorities: MSU-Meridian looks to grow enrollment, strengthen partnerships; Chamber interest: Sheboygan's bottlenecks and fixes for growth; Town Square Publications Chamber Membership Directories and Community Profiles: The best in the U.S.

Good morning #Chamber World! It's going to be a GREAT day!

Best Places to Work in Illinois

The "Best Places to Work in Illinois" is a combination survey, study and awards ceremony established to identify the top places of employment in Illinois.

The statewide competition is conducted by the Daily Herald Business Ledger. Marketing partners are the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, MRA-The Management Association, Human Resources Management Association of Chicago, and Small Business Advocacy Council .

Companies benefit greatly from being recognized as "the best." Companies applying best business practices and embracing high standards advance their business and distinguishes them from competitors.

Click here for details on the competition, visit www.bestplacestoworkil.com or call Best Companies Group at 1-877-455-2159.

NOMINATION DEADLINE IS JAN. 20, 2017.

Click here for coverage of the 2016 Best Places to Work in Illinois awards ceremony. Read more: Daily Herald Business Ledger

Cary Grove Area Chamber of Commerce 2016 Community Map 

The Cary Grove Area Chamber of Commerce 2016 Community Map is available at the Cary Grove Chamber today! Thanks to Lynn Caccavallo and the chamber team for their help and direction putting this together!

Cary Grove Area Chamber map

Town SquarePublications  (www.townsquarepublications.com) can help you accomplish your chamber's gloss map, directory, community guide or publication needs at no expense to the chamber. Please email John Dussman at jdussman@tspubs.com or call (847)-427-4633. 

Prince William Chamber Seeks Scholarship Applicants

Manassas, VA- The Prince William Chamber of Commerce is accepting applications for their scholarship program from December 16, 2016-February 20, 2017. The application is available online at PWChamber.org. Through their scholarship program, the Chamber seeks to support higher education by awarding scholarships to graduating high school seniors who have demonstrated a commitment to both academic success and community involvement. Three (3) scholarships in amounts of up to $2,500 each will be awarded. For 2017, Lockheed Martin is sponsoring one of the three scholarships.

In order to be eligible for the Chamber scholarship program, one must: 
Be a graduating high school senior with plans to enroll in an accredited community college, trade school, college or university; 
Be a current Chamber member company employee or the dependent of an employee; this includes staff of all Prince William County, Cities of Manassas and Manassas Park schools (elementary, middle & high schools). Students can find out if their own or their parents’ place of employment is a Chamber member company by searching PWBizFinder.org. All listed companies are members of the Prince William Chamber of Commerce; 
Hold a cumulative minimum GPA of 3.0 or higher; 
Demonstrate leadership and commitment to the community. 

Completed application packages, including essay, transcripts and letters of recommendation are due to the Chamber no later than 5:00 p.m. on February 20, 2017. Finalists will be required to participate in an interview on either March 22nd or 23rd. Winners will be notified on March 27th and invited to the Chamber’s Education and Innovation Breakfast on April 26th where student scholarship recipients will be honored and the Superintendents of Prince William County, City of Manassas and City of Manassas Park public schools will all speak. 

For more information on the Prince William Chamber of Commerce Scholarship Program, call 703-368-6600 or email Suzanne Lewis at slewis@pwchamber.org . 




Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce names new executive director

The Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce has named a new executive director.

Max Anderson, a Suttons Bay native whose diverse background includes experience in the financial sector, sales and teaching has been named as the new Executive Director of the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce.

Max Anderson, a Membership Relations Manager for Fifth Third Bank in Traverse City, will take over as the Chamber’s Executive Director in mid-January following the Chamber’s executive search that was launched in late October.

“I’m excited and thankful to be joining a tremendous organization with a diverse and experienced board of directors, a vibrant and engaged membership and a highly motivated staff,” Anderson said. “I look forward to building more Chamber connections in the community and working with area businesses to find more ways to add value. I want the Chamber to be the center of economic growth for our region.”

The 30-year-old grew up in Suttons Bay and has an Associates Degree from Northwestern Michigan College and a Bachelor's Degree in University Studies from Western Michigan University. Before his current position, Anderson served as a branch manager for Fifth Third Bank in Petoskey. He also worked as a banker for JP Morgan Chase Bank from 2011 to early 2014, and before that worked as a regional customer service manager for Schwan’s Home Service in Traverse City. He’s also worked as a teacher’s assistant at Western Michigan University.

Anderson is a recent graduate of the Chamber’s Leadership Grand Traverse program, and serves on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Michigan. He volunteers with the local United Way chapter, the American Cancer Society and Habitat for Humanity. He’s an Eagle Scout and serves on the Boy Scouts of America Explorer Advisory Council. Read more: UpNorthLive.com

Editorial: Madison County Chamber steps forward to promote health initiative

To make significant, lasting, sustainable progress in any community, a convener is needed to pull together leaders in local business, education, government, social services and other key sectors.

The Madison County Chamber of Commerce is stepping forward to do just that by beginning the effort to transform our county into an Indiana Healthy Community.

The distinction is a fairly new one in our state, with only Hancock and Delaware counties, thus far, having earned the Indiana Healthy Community badge. Businesses, real estate agents, school officials and economic development leaders can use the distinction to help recruit new employers and residents to the community.

An article in The Herald Bulletin's special six-part report, "Picture of Health," detailed Hancock County's efforts to become an Indiana Healthy Community. Hancock County addressed the community's needs according to the prescription required by the Indiana Wellness Council, which developed the Indiana Healthy Community initiative.

To earn the designation, eight key components must be addressed: strategies for a shared vision, understanding the community, leadership throughout the community, involvement by residents, political atmosphere, data-driven decision making, environment (built, social and natural) and communication strategy. Read more: Herald Bulletin


BG Chamber interest: Workforce group pushes to use old WIOA funds for youth

What was once thought to be lost will now be the cornerstone of a new workforce program for young people.

Earlier this year, the South Central Workforce Development Board was able to keep fiscal year 2014-15 federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act money designated for youth from being turned back to the state of Kentucky. The Barren River Area Development District had already turned back more than a half a million dollars to the state.

Now, the 10-county regional workforce board and its new direct-service provider, ResCare Workforce Services, will use that money quickly in 2017 to finance a push to bring 200 youth into programs that could lead to jobs.

"Two hundred youth clients is what the budget can sustain," said Victor Ponder, regional director of RWS in Kentucky, in an update Wednesday to a county judge-executives meeting in Bowling Green.

The clients are people who didn't complete high school and are looking for work, or people who obtained a General Educational Development diploma and still don't have a job. Ponder said those clients are hard to track down and serve, thus the cost per client is higher. Individuals interested in finding out about the program are asked to contact the Kentucky Career Centers in Bowling Green and Glasgow. Public officials can't ask for names in their counties because of federal privacy rules.

The federal government mandates 75 percent to 100 percent of the WIOA youth money can be spent on youth ages 18-24. In-school youth expenditures are capped at 25 percent of the money.

"We are going to make the funds last 20 months, rather than just eight months," Ponder said.

There are plenty of jobs for everyone, according to recent calculations by officials.

Right now, there are 55,000 total job openings within a 50-mile radius of Bowling Green, according to Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon. That's every kind of job, from manufacturing positions to store clerks.

Thirteen thousand of those 55,000 jobs are in the 10-county southcentral Kentucky area, said Ron Bunch, president and chief executive officer of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce. Read more: Bowling Green Daily News



2017 Priorities: MSU-Meridian looks to grow enrollment, strengthen partnerships

What a great year it has been for MSU-Meridian! 

Our enrollment is growing as more students discover an opportunity to stay local, pay less, and earn more. New partnerships with local community colleges make the transition to MSU-Meridian more convenient than ever. Student enrollment for our Meridian campuses increased by almost 6 percent for the Fall 2016 semester.

We formally opened the newest MSU building in Meridian in October 2016. The Rosenbaum Building, on our Riley Campus downtown, houses health sciences programs and our new Bulldog Shop, where you can enjoy MSU dairy products and get the latest Adidas apparel.

The Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts is celebrating 10 years of productions and educational outreach, attracting more than 85,000 visitors and impacting the local economy by $4.3 million. This center, and MSU faculty, led the way to Meridian being selected for the prestigious Any Given Child program of the Kennedy Center. We’re partnering with Meridian Public Schools, and our community, to ensure every child has the opportunity to enjoy arts education.

As we look ahead to 2017, we will continue to focus on growing our enrollment for the Meridian campuses through even stronger relationships with local community colleges. These partnerships created office space on the campuses of Meridian Community College, East Mississippi Community College, and East Central Community College at which MSU staff members work with students daily. Efforts are underway to expand partnership programs to include Jones Junior College. We will continue to explore programs that make the transfer process easier to navigate and increase the educational attainment of citizens of this region. Additionally, we will explore ways to increase opportunities for graduate students.

We will continue to partner with the East Mississippi Business Development Corporation and local economic leaders to address educational needs that better prepare this region to attract new industry. It has been rewarding to see our graduate students assist small businesses in developing strategic plans, and it was invigorating to participate in the process of attracting Raytheon. Read more: Meridian Star

Chamber interest: Sheboygan's bottlenecks and fixes for growth

It was a year of the bottlenecks, and the next several years will be dictated on how we deal with those.

The largest bottleneck for growth continues to be workforce or lack thereof. The market has made some significant shifts to encourage relocation to the area or get additional people “off the benches” and into jobs again.

First, wages have been on the rise. For the first time in decades, incomes in the nation have been growing faster than inflation and that has been true in Sheboygan County. For the first time, the county’s median income has surpassed the national average.

Second, companies are continually becoming more streamlined as it comes to the hiring process. More and more realize to recruit effectively, it must navigate qualified candidates through the hiring process rather than letting hiring managers dictate the pace.

On a county-wide level, both the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation (SCEDC) and Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce launched the SomeplaceBetter.org campaign, which is a coordinated effort to “sell” Sheboygan County as a place to live.

This website includes information on the communities, schools, jobs and recreational opportunities. The website has received views and praise from many area companies. From August 2012 to August 2015, consistently our firms have added about 1,000 net new additional workers each year.

In the last year, August 2015–16, Sheboygan County has added 1,300 net new workers. It is unknown how much this effort has contributed to this 30 percent increase, but we do know that the site has been visited by thousands of jobs seekers from both inside and outside Sheboygan County. Read more: Sheboygan Press

Town Square Publications Chamber Membership Directories and Community Profiles: The best in the U.S.

Town Square Publications, a division of the Daily Herald Media Group, is a national chamber custom publishing group that specializes in developing partnerships by producing high-quality print and digitally integrated publications along with other added value programs dedicated to creating relevancy for local chambers of commerce and other membership focused organizations interested in raising non-dues revenues.

Town Square Publications parent company, Paddock Publications, has over 100 years’ experience of print product development and dedicated customer service in communities throughout the Midwest. Our experience allows Town Square Publications to offer you attractive royalty and non-dues revenue share streams, provide direct distribution of your custom designed printed publications, including digital and mobile integration, and all with the quickest turn-around times available in the industry. Town Square also offers multi-media maps in both print and online formats, both with our No-Cost guarantee. More information: Town Square Publications

Chambers of Commerce and member focused organizations serve as a valuable resource in the local marketplace. The networking opportunities and representation with a wide variety of diverse businesses in your community is the catalyst of a successful organization. For further information about Town Square's publishing partnership with chambers of commerce and our No-Cost guarantee and Earned Revenue Share Program, To request your chamber publication or map proposal, Contact Town Square Here