Prescott Chamber Announces Rochester Regional President Sheri Heiney as New Leader; Fredericksburg Regional Chamber Challenged Businesses to ‘Go Green’ for a Year; Greater Monticello Chamber holds fourth annual ‘Parade of Lights’; Flowers thrives on bringing people, community together; Kurt Bauer: Federal policy changes should spark stronger growth; Adkisson Presents Kentucky Chamber's 2017 Legislative Priorities to Chamber Members; Meet Fulton (IL) Chamber's new executive director;

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


Prescott Chamber Announces Rochester Regional President Sheri Heiney as New Leader



The Prescott Chamber of Commerce has hired a new CEO, Sheri L. Heiney, longtime President of the Rochester (MI) Regional Chamber of Commerce. She will begin her new duties on January 3, 2017.

In her new role, Sheri will oversee the day to day activities of a thriving Chamber that has over 860 members, and manages numerous important community events, including an annual Christmas parade. The Prescott Chamber is located in historic downtown Prescott, and serves as a visitor center for this tourism destination in north central Arizona.

Sheri has served the Rochester Regional Chamber for 15 years. During that time, membership has doubled, and the Chamber has won multiple awards and accolades. During her leadership, the Rochester Regional Chamber was recognized in 2008 as the Outstanding Chamber of the Year in Michigan, and was honored as runner-up in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2014. Mrs. Heiney was also named the Michigan Chamber Professional of the Year for 2011 and 2014. The Rochester Regional Chamber was also named Non-Profit of the Year by Automation Alley in 2009. The Rochester Regional Chamber has approximately 1,000 members and conducts more than 100 events per year, including the Hometown Christmas Parade, the largest Christmas parade in Michigan.

“As I look ahead to new opportunities in Prescott, I am delighted to begin working with a very enthusiastic, dedicated board, staff and community. For me, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” she said.

Sanford Cohen, Chairman-Elect of the Chamber Board and Chair of the Search Committee said “I am excited to have someone of Sheri’s Chamber experience coming to Prescott. We’ve only had three CEO’s in the last 47 years, so this is a unique opportunity. Dave Maurer has left some big shoes to fill, but I feel strongly that Sheri is up to the challenge!”

Sheri will replace former Prescott Chamber CEO David Maurer who announced his plans to retire at the end of 2016. He has served the Chamber as CEO since 2004. Read more: Prescott Enews

Birmingham Bloomfield 2016-2017 Community Guide & Directory  

The Birmingham-Bloomfield is available at the Birmingham-Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce today! Thank you to Joe Bauman and the Chamber team for their help and direction putting this together! 

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

Fredericksburg Regional Chamber Challenged Businesses to ‘Go Green’ for a Year

Two businesses honored for Their Outstanding ‘Green’ Achievements

FREDERICKSBURG, VA. The results are in for the first-ever Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Green Business Challenge which promotes and celebrates environmentally-responsible businesses.

The main goal of this year’s Green Business Challenge was to encourage and assist businesses in learning how to increase their energy efficiency and reduce their environmental impact.  By greening their operations, the 12 participating businesses were able to save money on energy, supplies, transportation, and water bills, while also minimizing waste and pollution. 

Participants were required to earn points throughout the year for completing green tasks such as tracking their current water, energy, and transportation usage; reviewing energy reduction methods, replacing lighting with energy-efficient LED bulbs, all with an eye towards greater efficiency.  These efforts also helped bring awareness to participating businesses and their employees about sustainable actions they could take to conserve resources and save money. 

The  participants who demonstrated the highest level of achievements in energy efficiency during this year-long initiative were recognized at the Marstel-Day Green Gala this week.  The first place winner was Basic Commerce & Industries, Inc (BCI) located in Dahlgren who received $1,500 and the second place winner was Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg who received $500 to continue greening their business.

The Green Business Challenge was open to local businesses and organizations who competed in six categories: energy, leadership, purchasing, transportation, waste management and water.

The Chamber is preparing for the 2017 Green Business Challenge and is seeking businesses to both sponsor and participate. For more information, contact the chamber office at 540-373-9400.

Thank you to the title sponsors: Marstel-Day and Stafford Printing; and the silver sponsors: Germanna Community College and REC.  Contact: Dawn Haun, Communications Manager, 540-373-9400

Greater Monticello Chamber holds fourth annual ‘Parade of Lights’

On Saturday evening, the Greater Monticello Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau held their annual Parade of Lights and Christmas carols at the gazebo in downtown Monticello.

This was the fourth year the parade has been held in the evening, making the annual event one that sparkles and lights up the the streets of downtown Monticello, while also lighting up the eyes of area youngsters.

Prior to the start of the parade, spectators gathered around the gazebo near the White County Courthouse to enjoy Christmas carols, which were beautifully sung by Christin Lowry.

For the complete story, Herald Journal

Flowers thrives on bringing people, community together

When she looks at the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce, Jane Flowers sees an organization that can be the incubator for improving the area by bringing people together and encouraging discussion and participation in the community.

“To me, the Chamber is the living room of the community,” she said. “It’s a place where we can get together, talk about issues, encourage people to come to our meetings and promote our members.”

A fourth generation Warren County resident, Flowers has been involved with the Chamber and some of its satellite organizations since she began teaching marketing at Hinds Community College’s Vicksburg Campus after graduating from Mississippi State University.

“I can remember my first year teaching in 1975, or either the second years in 1976, and actually visiting the Chamber to get some statistics and information about this community for a project my student were working on. That was when the Chamber of Commerce was in an old building Skippy Tuminello had renovated on Monroe Street,” she said.

“I was an active member of the job fair committee for probably about 13 years, I guess, through my work at Hinds. I also at one time chaired the Economic Development Foundation, which was all run out of this building (on Mission 66) with the Chamber of Commerce.” Read more: Vicksburg Post

Kurt Bauer: Federal policy changes should spark stronger growth

What I like about being a pessimist is that you are usually right and even when you are wrong, you are happy about it. But, there is genuine reason for optimism about the direction of the U.S. economy as 2017 begins. My uncharacteristic confidence is largely driven by hope the incoming administration will reverse policies that have created disappointing economic results since the end of the Great Recession.

The opportunities are numerous, starting with taxes. At 35%, the U.S. has the highest and least competitive corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. Donald Trump said he would reduce that rate. If he does, we will see businesses respond.

Any tax reform package should include a one-time incentive to repatriate money trapped abroad because of the punitive costs to bring it home. The tax revenue could be used to fund another priority Trump talked about during the campaign: infrastructure.

Regulatory relief also needs to be front and center for the Trump administration. U.S. businesses pay an insanely high $2 trillion annually to comply with federal regulations, according to the American Enterprise Institute. The Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank are two of the biggest culprits. Both laws should be repealed.

The current administration’s prolific and brazen use of executive orders to bypass Congress must be stopped. Obama’s edicts have not just harmed the economy because of the unchecked expansion of the regulatory state; they have also damaged our democracy by undermining the separation of powers. Read more: Journal-Sentinel

Adkisson Presents Kentucky Chamber's 2017 Legislative Priorities to Chamber Members

 Kentucky Chamber President and CEO Dave Adkisson spoke Tuesday morning at the Legislative Update Eye Opener Breakfast which is hosted by the Christian County Chamber of Commerce. Adkisson provided an overview legislative priorities for the 2017 session of the Kentucky General Assembly. Priorities included a special emphasis on the need for pension transparency and tax reform.

The visit to Hopkinsville is part of an 18-city tour across the state aimed at familiarizing members of local chambers of commerce with the priorities of the Kentucky Chamber.

"A new majority in the state House presents an opportunity for success for many pro-business pieces of legislation that, even with broad support, have never been able to get enough traction to secure final passage," said Adkisson. "The Kentucky Chamber is hopeful that under the leadership of Rep. Jeff Hoover and his colleagues, Kentucky will finally be able to benefit from some commonsense, job-creating policies that focus on economic growth."

The 13 issues that the Chamber will place significant emphasis on during the legislative session are:

• Protecting Kentucky's academic standards
• Enabling charter schools
• Workforce investment accountability
• Enabling smoke-free workplaces
• Pension transparency and reform
• Tax reform
• Repealing prevailing wage
• Reforming the criminal justice system
• Enact Right-to-Work
• Improve the workers' compensation system
• Enacting legal liability reform
• Investing in a 21st Century infrastructure
• Protecting low cost energy

"We're in a pretty deep hole in terms of the state's public pension problem," said Adkisson. "Some progress was made in the last legislative session, but to make the entire system sustainable, we must focus more on other issues such as transparency." Read more: SurfKY.com

Meet Fulton (IL) Chamber's new executive director

Brandi Langner, a resident of Sterling, Illinois, recently joined the Fulton Chamber of Commerce as the Executive Director. Find out more about her in this week’s edition of Meet Your Neighbor.

What is your favorite thing about working on the Mississippi River?

It’s alive; I’m a motorcyclist so people like to ride the river and people love to be on the river whether it’s literally on the river boating or motorcyclists coming up the river. The fact that the Mississippi is such an iconic place, it draws people of all persuasions so it’s a neat thing to be a part of.

What is your favorite thing about your new job as Executive Director of the Fulton Chamber of Commerce?

People. We’re just going to circle back to people for everything. Every job I ever do is for people and it always equates back to that. Meeting new people like our Chamber members or potential new Chamber members and helping them in whatever way I can.

What are you currently reading?

Oh gosh, now I’m going to get called out, my guilty pleasure is the Janet Evanovich series. I just started the new one yesterday, “Turbo Twenty-Three.”

What is your family like?

I’ve been married for 25 years to my high school sweetheart who works up the road at Drives. I have two children ages 18 and 21, a granddaughter who is 2 and a Yorkie-Poo who is 5. Read more: Clinton Herald

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