January Message from 2009 President Mike Kammerer

Congratulations to Greg France and the 2008 Board of Directors for an outstanding year. Please join me in thanking Greg and all the board members for the leadership and hard work throughout the year.

I am honored to be your President this year, and I feel very lucky to have an outstanding group of people who serve on the Chamber's Board of Directors. Our dedicated Board Members spend many hours advancing the vision and the mission of the Chamber and serving the business community. They, along with the many volunteers and members of the Chamber, are what make the West Des Moines Chamber great.

We are entering our third year under the new Chamber structure, and each year your Chamber has grown and gotten better. 2009 promises to be another great year.

Last year we submitted documentation and were awarded a three-star Accreditation by the US Chamber of Commerce. This put us in an elite group of Chambers that have gone through a very thorough evaluation of their programs. This high degree of Accreditation has set the stage for an even better Chamber for years to come. As a continuation of the process, near the end of last year, your Board of Directors completed a three year strategic plan for the Chamber. Briefly, this plan focuses on the following areas:

1.      Retaining and growing membership,
2.      Building the West Des Moines Chamber brand through improved programs,
3.      Increasing non-dues revenue through programs and other fundraising activities,
4.      Taking a more active role in representing the West Des Moines Business community in local, state and federal government activities and relations,
5.      Re-evaluating our organizational structure and determining future staffing needs to assure that we have the support systems in place to serve the Chamber and its members as we grow.

We plan on implementing many of these action items throughout this year. An example of success with trying different things was our November luncheon where we had a networking program. We heard many outstanding comments about this program and requests do it again. We will and hope to bring many other new and exciting programs and venues out this year.

While it takes great planning and strong leadership, most importantly it takes active members to make the Chamber successful. We still have many opportunities on committees. Our committees include:

Communications

Membership
Government Relations

        Programs
        Finance
        Sponsorships

If you do not want to be on a committee for an entire year we have three task forces:
        Golf
        Zing into Spring
        A-MAY-Zing Days

So while Chamber serves you, you can serve it. Please volunteer.

Throughout the year, if you have any questions, or if there is anything we can do for you, please contact Linda, our executive director, any Board member or me.

Thank you again for being part of the West Des Moines Chamber.

Mike