I have spent some time thinking about what we can do to get residents and business owners more involved in the success of our community and not just rely on the 20% who seem to be involved in everything. Creating leaders throughout our community helps ensure all voices are heard and that we are communicating clearly our ideas of success. There are so many ways to become involved and it doesn’t have to take a huge amount of your time.
Recently there are efforts being made to recreate a community stakeholders’ group much like the former Community Service Coalition that quietly disbanded several years ago. The idea is to once again bring together the leadership of all our community stakeholders to discuss how we can work together to build a stronger community. This is the first step we can take to develop a plan for each of our groups to connect, communicate, and collaborate in defining and achieving our mutual community goals.
One of the greatest challenges of our community organizations is recruiting enough volunteers to support the services they provide. Whether it is being a board member or volunteering your time, you can make a huge difference. I have seen firsthand what our residents can do when they put their minds to something. Volunteers create food drives to fill the shelves at the food bank, they come together in the spring to ready Lake Wilderness Park for upcoming seasonal activities, lend helping hands at the Community Center to care for families from toddlers to seniors, organize groups to clean the sides of the road to beautify our community, participate in Make a Difference Day, volunteer at community events that provide recreational outlets for residents…and I could go on. The combined efforts of everybody volunteering a few hours a year go a long way in making our community that much stronger.
The Greater Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce is one of the organizations that strives to make a difference in the community. The support provided to our local businesses is one key element to their success. The challenges of growing a business are made easier knowing that there is an organization of people behind you dealing with legislative issues, providing networking opportunities and advocating for business in general. The board of directors of the chamber provides the leadership for such support and right now we are looking for members to step up and put their name in the hat for nomination to the board. This year we have four open positions and we are looking for business people who want to make a difference by joining the amazing team we have already.
As the current economy has forced people to stay closer to home and look to their communities to provide more services and recreational opportunities, it is a great time to join together to build not only a great place to live but a great place to work and play.
Let’s make a difference together,
Karen
Added on 05/13/2011
Filed Under
President's Message by Chamber blog
