The article in the last newsletter of the year is reserved for the President to comment on the year. When Linda Hulleman sent me a note a couple of weeks ago and said I needed to start preparing this article, my thoughts were wow, where did the year go.

It has been a great year, and your Chamber has accomplished a lot. I think we have certainly lived up to our billing of being a 3 Star Accredited Chamber.

Thanks
First of all I want to thank all of you for your membership and investment in the West Des Moines Chamber. It is because of you that we have such a great Chamber.

I want to thank my executive committee and this year's board of directors. Our executive committee this year has been, Chris Voggesser as Vice President , Tammy Cline as Treasurer, Rose Breuss as Secretary and Bruce Lambert as Past President. Bruce stepped in and served two years as Past President. These people put countless hours into this year and it is only the result of their support, help and wisdom that the Chamber has had a very successful year. I also need to thank our staff which also was a key factor to our success this year, starting with Linda Hulleman, our Executive Director, Julie Weeks, Executive Assistant, Deb Bengston, Membership Coordinator and Lynn McRoberts, Communications Assistant. Lynn left us at the end of November to work on Governor Branstad's staff and she will be missed. We will have a new person starting in December.

I also want to thank the entire board of directors. They include Chris Costa, Susan Dunn, Steve Gaer, Mayor of West Des Moines, Karen Hallagin, Nicole Hinton, Phil Hodgin, Bill Kalianov, Kurt Pearson, Sid Ramsey, Kay Rosene, Jeremy Shultz, Justin Washburn and Dean Whitaker. These people also provided a tremendous amount of input, and work to make this a great year.

Some of this year's Chamber accomplishments include:

*Held over 100 networking and educational events, including open houses, ribbon cuttings, monthly luncheons, Breakfast B4 Business, Business after Hours and Lunch & Learn programs. We have had tremendous attendance at these events all year.

*Held "Women in Business", legislative and candidate forums. Candidate forums were for both School Board and City Council elections.

*Recruited over 116 new members, as of mid November, with this number getting larger every day. Our membership is growing and we are now well over 600. We have really focused on a solid depth in our membership rankings with a diversity of member business. This growth is a direct result of our adding a marketing coordinator to our staff. Deb Bengtsen came on earlier in the year and has done an outstanding job.

*Graduated our first class and started our second class of the West Des Moines Leadership Academy. We have had outstanding class participants representing the best of West Des Moines. This bodes well for future leadership.
Developed a Pacesetter program for enhanced membership beyond our basic membership categories. This allows our member businesses to invest more in the Chamber beyond their basic membership. As of November, we have 6 Pacesetter members. These will be profiled on our Web site in the near future.

*Continued our close collaboration with our City, School, Community and Metro leaders. In May we went with the City to the ICSC conference in Las Vegas promoting West Des Moines to developers. In June we went to Washington DC. with City and School leaders pushing their agendas and requests.

*Developed and implemented a Membership Tune-Up program to help our members get the most out of their Chamber membership and to learn more about the Chamber. This program has received national and local recognition. If you have not attended one of these, please do so. It will be well worth your time.

*Added additional communication vehicles to keep you informed of Chamber activities and events. We have the "Week's Itinerary "which comes out weekly. The West Des Moines Chamber is also on "Facebook" and "Twitter". We also continue to update our web site.

*Participated on a regional basis representing West Des Moines and the Chamber in many programs and events of the Greater Des Moines Partnership.

*In order to be able to do all we have done, we have increased our staff to four members. The staff has worked very hard and the executive committee has worked with the staff as they continue to grow to support our ever expanding chamber.

Going into 2010, you will hear more about the following:
*We will be changing our annual meeting by focusing only on the Business of the Year. We will be hosting a brand new Citizen of the Year program in May. This will allow us to have more time at the annual meeting to focus on our Business of the Year, networking and having fun.

*We are starting a West Des Moines Young Professionals Group. All young professionals are invited to get involved.

*We are launching an exciting new marketing campaign which will be unveiled our annual meeting.

*We are merging the West Des Moines Development Corporation, a long standing organization in West Des Moines, into the Chamber to strengthen and provide more energy and resources for development activities in West Des Moines.

*We are working with the City of West Des Moines in developing a business incubator.

*And more to come. This next year, your Chamber will be in the very capable hands of Chris Voggesser who is incoming President. He will do a great job leading your Chamber. I look forward to working with him and your new board as the West Des Moines Chamber continues to provide value to you from your membership.

So again, thank you to all for making the West Des Moines Chamber one of the best. Thank you for giving me the honor to serve as your President this year. And finally have a very happy and productive Holiday Season.

Submitted by Mike Kammerer,

Vice President & Office Director

Shive-Hattery, Inc.

2009 West Des Moines Chamber President