A
Message from Chamber CEO Douglass Wilhoit:
Change
comes to Port O Call, Chamber
July
2009 - When
you receive the July 2009 copy of Port O Call it will herald in the new
fiscal year for your 108-year-old Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce. If
you recall, in the June issue, I had the opportunity to say thank you to
the now Immediate Past President Dennis Goldstrand, those board members
and committee members whose terms were concluded for a job well done. That
was done with the grateful understanding that they will continue to serve
the business community, you and your fellow Chamber members and the City
of Stockton with their expertise, enthusiasm and dedication to help move
the City of Stockton and San Joaquin County as we all go through some very
difficult, but surmountable challenges.
I
also want to take this opportunity to welcome your new 2009-2010
President, Rick Goucher, the new board members, committee chairs and
committee members who will all work tirelessly with/for you and the
Chamber staff. They work to make sure that we all come out on top when
this economic valley is replaced by a beautiful view from the top of the
mountain and prosperity returns to our community and nation. This will
happen by letting a private enterprise system work the way it is supposed
that is the best system in the world, tried and true, and cannot nor
should not be replaced, retooled and overtaken by government at any level.
The
Installation Dinner held on June 25th at Chamber member Elkhorn
Golf and Country Club was a huge success and we all had the opportunity to
say thank you to so many for all the wonderful things that members and
staff have done for the Chamber, its membership and our business community
in the fiscal year 2008-2009. One part of the evening, in particular was
the surprise, of the honorary membership for Mary Pennini. Mary, who
retired after 23 years of serving all of you as a valued and loved member
of the Chamber staff, dedicated her entire being to The Chamber, staff and
community and the Executive Committee under the leadership of Dennis
Goldstrand and presented by your new President Rick Goucher was a very
special moment in the history of your chamber.
With
the new year brings some changes that have been very difficult to make
but, as all of you are experiencing, the period we are all going through
now has made us rethink, retool and move in other directions to provide an
optimum of services to either our clients and in our case, our membership
within the framework of budgets and or fiscal reality or constraints. Such
is the case in the Chamber’s 2009-2010 Budget that was adopted at the
May Board of Directors meeting.
Much
thought and soul searching went into the recommendations made to the Board
by the staff and ultimately by myself as your
CEO
. President Dwight Eisenhower once said,
“I have one yardstick by which I test every major problem – and that
yardstick is: Is it good for America.” To bring that closer to home
decisions made in regards to the 2009-2010 budget were made with a
concerted effort to make sure that the action recommended to the board was
in the best interest of the Chamber and, most importantly, the membership
of the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce.
To
that end we have had to make some difficult and gut wrenching changes here
at the Chamber, sadly to say, and not of any surprise to all of you who
have had to deal with this on a day-to-day basis. One of those changes is
that we will be closing down our Communications/Publications Department on
June 30th. As a result of that action this will be the last
issue of Port O Call as we have known it over oh so many wonderful years
and issues. We will be going to a new full-color, magazine style format
(STILL TO BE CALLED
PORT
O CALL) and we will double the
distribution to the community. The new
PORT
O CALL magazine will be published by
member Never Boring Design using additional Chamber members as partners in
the process.
The
new format will premiere the first week of September 2009. All other forms
of communication with our membership (advertising, blast emails, mixer
invitations, www.stocktonchamber.org and www.visitstockton.org, 2009-2010
membership directory, etc.) will remain and we will continue utilizing the
newest and most efficient technology available today and into the future.
Again, to quote President Eisenhower, “Neither a wise man nor a brave
man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future
to run over him.”
Your
monthly paper, Port O Call, has a long and glorious history with the
Chamber and the community and it is now going into a new era and with your
help and support, in the new format, will experience the same success and
share in the history of Port O Call.
Certainly
as a result of any change there is a very important human element. As a
result of the accepted recommendation made to your Board of Directors we
have to say a fond, grateful, sad, heartfelt farewell and thanks to some
members of the Chamber staff and our Chamber family.
Evenyl
Roemmich has been a very important and valuable part of the Greater
Stockton Chamber of Commerce, as both an employee and as a contract
employee, for a total of 33 years. Evenyl ALWAYS went above and beyond the
call of duty of not only doing an outstanding job of selling and
coordinating ads in all our publications over the years but being a
“star” ambassador for the Chamber while she was out in the community
both representing the Chamber and in other capacities.
Many
of you have both a personal and professional relationship with her and I
know you wish her well as she and George enjoy this special time in their
life. I too have had both a professional and personal relationship with
Evenyl for the past 30 years and do consider her a dear friend, so you
know the decisions I had to make as
CEO
were not easy. When I sat down with
Evenyl she rose to the occasion and again demonstrated what a team player,
family member and believer that even if change is difficult, that time
does come. The Chamber Boards, past, present and future, Chamber staff,
past and present, and all the membership of the Greater Stockton Chamber
of Commerce, past present and future, and all the people in this community
she has helped and supported over the years I know appreciate her so very
much and all of us do wish her God speed, heartfelt thanks, good health,
good traveling and enjoying life to the fullest.
Also
our Chamber family will have to say good bye to Kent Hohlfeld who has been
with us for three years and has done an outstanding job as the Chambers
Publication Editor. Kent has been a true team player and worked tirelessly
to bring to each of you the most professional, informational, interesting,
useful and attractive publications so you can further your business and
also be aware of the leisure opportunities available in your community.
Kent was always looking for better ways to communicate to members your
business along with the programs and events of your Chamber. Kent also
will be going onto a new chapter in his life and the same sentiments we
wish for Evenyl we wish for Kent and his wife.
As
we are all aware our City, County, State, Country, businesses and
lives are constantly changing! Some changes for the good, and some not.
When looking at the decision to change,
we had to take a hard look as do those mentioned at the start of this
sentence. But it is important we understand change does take place and you
can do one of two things, accept it as a community and work TOGETHER to
make sure the change is positive or you can ignore it by gnashing your
teeth, setting your jaw, closing your mind and say it is all about me and
not the greater good of a community or an organization. I would hope that
not only with the changes we will see here at your Chamber, and I strongly
believe will prove to be to the advantage of all, but also what we are
going through as a community, state and nation we all come together and
work for the betterment of all.
To
set the tone of what I have stated above, let me end by saying that on
Tuesday
June 16, 2009
our community family said farewell and
thanks to Gordon Medlin for all he did for his community in so many forms
but most of all as the co-founder of the Asparagus Festival which will be
celebrating its 25th year in 2010. The saying so much used by
Gordon and repeated so many times at the services at First Baptist Church
should be a call to all of us.
“Gordy”
would always say this truism: “The worth of a person’s life can be
measured by the difference she or he makes in the lives of others.”
Gordon, Evenyl and Kent have had a very positive impact on all our
lives so let’s keep moving together, in their honor, to make sure there
is always forward and positive motion to a more perfect self, organization
and community.
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