TH Chamber of Commerce 107th Annual Meeting Part 1

TH Chamber of Commerce 107th Annual Meeting

To the following special presentation family feud will not be seen.

Good evening... and, welcome to "the terre haute chamber of commerce 107th annual meeting".

Sponsored by: the butler's shop... first financial bank... indiana state university... ivy tech community college... old national bank... st.

Mary-of-the-woods college... sycamore engineering... tabco... terre haute savings bank... thompson thrift... tribune star... union health... vectren... and, wright's pool service.

Now, tonight's master of ceremony - news 10's susan dinkel.

Good evening and welcome "to this special broadcast"..

O the 107th "terre haute chamber of commerce" *annual meeting*.

I'm susan dinkel.

I'll be leading you through tonight's event..

Which includes "on-location award presentations", "celebrations o local business", and a special address from indiana governor "eric holcomb".

This year's "annual meeting" looks a bit different..

But so do "a lot of things these days" thanks to the corona-virus.

"the chamber of commerce" is committed to continuing its work which is even more important "right now".

For those of you tuning-in..

That are not familar with what *exactly* "a chamber of commerce" does..

You're not alone.

I'm told "this question" is asked quite a lot.

And just because you might not be able to rattle-off everything "the local chamber" does i'm sure you've witnessed..

And possibly benefitted "from its work".

"the terre haute chamber of commerce" has been in business for *107*-years!

Just to give you a little perspective the president at that time "was woodrow wilson".

During "his presidency"..

"the federal reserve" was created.

"the united states postal service" delivered the *1st* package that year a loaf of bread would set you back roughly "5"-cents and a gallon of milk about "35"-cents.

Obviously..

Times have changed but "the terre haute chamber of commerce" continues its work..

"advocating" and "supporting local business".

So, what exactly does that mean?

Well "here locally"..

It means a lot!

"the mission" of the chamber of commerce is "building business" "building community" on the business side of things..

"the chamber staff" works to advocate on "a state" and "federal level" "for business development" and rallies for economic growth in the form of "a casino" and "convention center" in terre haute.

"80"-percent of the chamber's members "are small businesses".

"chamber staff members" help with everything from ribbon cuttings and strategic marketing work..

To networking events and low-to-no cost professional development.

In terms of community "downtown terre haute" is also under "the chamber umbrella".

So, if you've ever gone to "a 1st friday event", "participated in downtown trick or treating", or attended any number of festivals and events downtown there's a real good chance "the chamber" played an important role.

And now..

With "the see you in terre haute community plan" leaders are working "even harder" to bring business, economic growth, beautification projects, and tourism "to west central indiana".

But enough from me "about the chamber" at this time, i would like to welcome chamber president "kristin craig".

She's the 1st woman..

And youngest chamber president in its "107"-year history.

Kristin craig there is no doubt this has been a tough year.

When i think back to march, i'm not sure we could fully comprehend what we would all experience over the last few months.

There is no denying this pandemic has been devastating in many ways.

However, as benjamin franklin said out of adversity comes opportunity.

I have seen countless businesses shift their operations quickly and effectively to meet the "new normal".

Through quarantine, we've found new ways to connect and embrace technology.

Through shutdowns, we've pivoted to find ways to continue to serve customers.

And the chamber, in many ways, has done the same we've continued to be a fierce advocate for our community staying in constant contact with our state and federal legislators, giving them perspective on what our local business owners need and pushing for action that will help all of us recover faster.

We are also building a new generation of political leaders, working with leadership connect to encourage emerging leaders to run for office.

And now, we are taking action through another initiative under our umbrella, the west central indiana defense network, to pursue exciting, high-flying defense opportunities for our community.

We've moved forward with the see you in terre haute 2025 community plan despite setbacks and adapted the work of our six pillars to fit the changed needs of the community.

This means leveraging funding opportunities to make sure terre haute and west central indiana is taking advantage of every single resource available.

Our teams are actively working on promoting our parks and trails, beautifying gateways into our community, growing our population and, in general, telling the story of what a great place terre haute and west central is to live, work and play.

We've continued to serve our members transitioning most of our in-person programming to virtual opportunities, including this evening's event, .

And expanding our network throughout the six-county region.

And, when needed, we are stepping up to engage in difficult, but much needed conversations.

Leadership connect has proven themselves as a thought-leader for our community by creating an inclusivity task force and hosting the first of a series of panel discussions.

These are open, honest and thoughtful conversations with black leaders in our community about race, lived experiences and how we can all educate ourselves to do better.

And, last not but not least, we've done everything possible to support businesses through these uncertain times.

In fact, we've expanded our service offerings by taking launch terre haute under our management and building new and exciting partnerships to create a truly dynamic system to support entrepreneurs.

In short, we are making sure the chamber toolbox has everything we need to help build business and build community.

I'm now joined by the 2020 chair of the chamber's board of directors, sara smith.

Thank you kristin.

As a proud member of the chamber and vice president of a local small business, in sycamore engineering, it's my honor to applaud local business and community leaders.

We are in this together.

Please, continue to stay tuned for more as we continue the 107th chamber annual meeting.

Thank you sara and kristin.

For you-at-home we want to know..

"if" you're watching!

Use the hashtag "t-h annual meeting" and "annual meeting at home" to show your viewing party or, just you watching!!!

//////// it's now time to introduce terre haute mayor duke bennett.

Mayor bennett has served as mayor of terre haute since 20-07.

Mayor bennett is a terre haute native..

A committed "hautean"..

And has lived and worked in this community "his entire life".

He was employed with hamilton center for nearly "30" years... serving for "12"-years "as director of operations".

He and his wife "pam"..

Were also local business owners for more than "25"-years.

They have "2"-adult children.

"3"-grandchildren..

And one on the way!

Please welcome terre haute mayor "duke bennett".

Mayor duke bennett hello, this is mayor duke bennett.

I'm glad you joined us tonight here for the virtual terre haute chamber of commerce annual meeting.

You know it has been a very challenging year for us this year kind of like one we have never seen before with covid 19 and some racial injustice issues just a variety of things that has made this a very challenging and unique environment for all of us to deal with.

I still am excited about of a lot of things as we work through this you know with the convention center the casino we continue to have businesses that are growing even though we have had some challenged by covid 19 i really feel strong about the resiliency of our community and the direction we are headed.

I know that many of you have had personal challenges with covid 19 whether it is within you own family as you know we lost a firefighter this year.

It's affected us in a very very difficult way but i really believe that we're, it is bad right now but we will see the light at the end of the tunnel very very soon.

You know it has effected businesses a lot of small business are struggling to pay their employees you know and pay the bills that they have because people haven't been out we understand that but we want to be here to support them.

The chamber has done a great job of reaching out to small businesses and large businesses to but to be able to get some feedback from them and to be able to find ways to help them survive this covid 19 pandemic.

We have had some racial injustice issues and i feel really good about our terre haute police department and that what they've done in the past and what we continue to do today to minimize those opportunities for us not to do something we shouldn't do to hear on the national news all the time.

Those are things we are very conscience about we're working very hard to deal with.

We recently i participated with a panel with the chamber with some local african american owned businesses, business owners and leaders and we listened to their stories and had some engagement about issues they face.

You know i have talked with a lot of community groups to and so we are taking all of that and finding ways to be better every single day.

I'm excited about our future i really think that things are going well considering some of the things we have faced recently but our best days are ahead.

It's just making us stronger and as we move forward in partnership with the chamber working on our community plan.

All those things that can make terre haute such a much better place and i thank all of you for helping us make that possible and encourage you to get involved to help participate in moving us forward.

So i hope you enjoy your evening.

I am excited about terre hautes future, i'm excited about what the chamber is doing and look forward to seeing you very soon.

Lt governor susan crouch congratulations terre haute chamber on 107 years of making a difference in your community and state of indiana.

Governor