What Does the Chamber Do?
What does the Chamber do? I would invite anyone to spend a day at the Chamber and discover just all that we do. As I write this article to submit to the newspaper, I will be leaving for Hesston to unload my vehicle of all the materials, refreshments, handouts, notebooks, etc. needed for the 2016 Leadership McPherson Class training. The work that has taken place and continues in organizing the Leadership Program just doesn’t happen with the crossing of your arms and the nod of your head. A great deal of time is dedicated to making contacts, arranging facilitators, making each session connect to the next, tweaking the curriculum to keep it fresh, providing supporting materials, etc.
This is in addition to the meetings, research and phone calls taking place regarding the needs of quality childcare. The Chamber is also still on a fact finding mission regarding a membership healthcare plan. We as a local Chamber do not have the mass numbers needed to launch a program, so we have been meeting with various representatives in discussing a possible regional or statewide healthcare plan. We certainly are getting more attention from businesses as they receive their insurance renewals, some seeing 25-30% increasing. Unfortunately, insurance is a complex animal and a solution will not happen overnight.
The Chamber has also been involved in the ACT NCRC Training Academy – the 2016 McPherson High School class will be the first to graduate with the added credential of a minimum silver ACT WorkReady Certificate along with their state required high school credits. The training will soon be completed and and hopefully McPherson will be an accredited Work Ready Community. The team will then need to outline a plan to share with employers on how to utilize the certificate when presented by a prospective employee.
In the middle of these activities, we started working on the Christmas promotion. Luckily, McPherson is a great community and understands and supports the term “collaboration”. We all want the same thing, to be part of a successful community, to be part of a successful organization, to have successful events, program and activities. As the Chamber tag line says “Doing What Most People Think Just Happens”, that’s just what we do!