This past year we’ve had a blast announcing the national recognition our community has earned – 2nd in the nation for job growth, 5th in the nation for job expansion, 8th in the nation for a good life at a good price.
Here’s one more: The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce is among three finalists for the most prestigious national award: Chamber of the Year.
If you attended our Annual Meeting, you saw that the chamber is a whole lot bigger than its 18-member board and 9-member staff. It’s a whole community working together to make Greater Springfield, well, greater! That’s what makes this recognition so exciting.
As part of our application, we submitted our award-winning business retention program, HITS (Hire-Invest-Train-Space) and our community strategic visioning process: Greater Springfield Moving Forward.
It was exciting to show the judges the collaboration that continues to make both of these programs a success.
For Greater Springfield Moving Forward, we were able to showcase the hundreds of volunteers and our partnerships with Clark County, the City of Springfield, the Springfield News-Sun and other key stakeholders. And of course, our board, which had the original vision and made the decision to launch us on this very ambitious program two years ago.
HITS gave us a chance to shine the spotlight on our great partnership with WorkPlus, Clark State Community College, our Ambassadors and their employers, to retain and grow jobs in our community.
We had a number of great comments from the judges, such as:
“This is clearly a strong chamber that deserves national recognition.”
”This chamber should be proud of its communications efforts.”
“(A) very good application with two strong examples of leading businesses and leading the community.”
It’s no coincidence we’re getting recognized nationally in all these different areas. More than ever before, our community is coming together to wrap our heads, hearts and resources around a common vision, to make this, our home, a better place.
I’ve been reading a lot lately about the peril of fragmentation and how this one factor can predict whether a community is going to grow or decline. It has emphasized to me how absolutely critical it is that we keep our eyes on the bigger picture – a common vision of a thriving community – and not revert to the silos that keep so many companies and communities from moving ahead.
Thanks to our 800 member businesses, the chamber is able to be a strong leader in these efforts. It’s bringing Greater Springfield national recognition, which can only benefit us as we look to bring more businesses and jobs to our community, as well as garner the support and resources we need to continue the quality of life improvements we’ve embarked on over the last few years.
Thanks for supporting your community and your chamber.
Have a great Chamber day!
