THANK YOU, YUMA COUNTY
BY JOHN COURTIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
CHAMBER NEWS
IT’S A PLEASURE to Serve!
One of my office duties at your Yuma County Chamber of Commerce is to open the mail (proper financial cash handling procedures) and sort out bills vs. checks, the day-to-day kind of stuff. You probably think that kind of mundane stuff would be boring, but, to me, it is the most satisfying and rewarding thing I get to do. This time of year, the renewal notices go out to about 40% of our member/investors, and as a result, our postal worker has his work cut out for him.
It gives me and the team a tremendous amount of joy to see the hundreds of businesses that renew their membership/investment in the Chamber, many of whom do not network with us or come to any of our events. As we continue to improve our standing as a 3C Chamber (Champion for small business, Convener of policy makers and community leaders, and Conveyer of great ideas for positive growth), we will continue to try to deliver value to investors that don’t necessarily ‘show up’. The businesses that support our mission, support our promotion of all of SW Arizona, and support our outreach efforts, yet have never been to an event, are truly appreciated. It means when you write the check for your membership investment, we are doing the things that you, the business community, want us to do.
We are advocating for a better business environment every day, and represent you at water hearings, transportation hearings, environmental hearings, City Council meetings, education coalition meetings, and more. Through our YumaUP and Chamber Leadership programs, we are doing what we can to create a future of engaged and enthusiastic community contributors. We write letters constantly in support of, or in opposition to, efforts that impede your success or are onerous to your operations. Yes, we’ve been blessed to have been named Yuma’s Best Networking Opportunities in 2017 and 2018, but having so many of you understand our role in the business community, and continue to literally pay us to continue to do it, we simply can’t say thank you enough.
As we enter a new decade, we will work tirelessly on the above-mentioned issues and continue to work at improving our pipeline of workers through several workforce development ideas. We will be more engaged with our partners at the Arizona Business and Education Coalition, as well as AWC, UA Yuma, and NAU Yuma. We will create a deeper footprint in South County and have more programs in the Foothills, as well. Sheryl, Tania, Diana, and I are privileged to serve this wonderful community and look forward to another rewarding year
in 2020.
To get more details about our accomplishments of 2019, and plans for 2020, make sure you attend the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Awards and Installation Dinner at AWC on Friday, January 17 at 6:00pm. We will be celebrating our 115th birthday!