New Membership Year Starting

Wow is it busy here at our lovely chamber offices! We’re in high gear for the upcoming Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival at the end of the month, knee deep in planning our Black and White Masquerade Dinner and Auction of the Vermonsters of the Deerfield Valley at the end of October, and working on the plans for our annual chamber installation dinner (which just might be a breakfast this year!) and community awards ceremony in November. Occasionally we also try to sneak away for a soccer game.

October 1st is also the beginning of a new chamber membership year. This past year we had some great successes, a few thrills and chuckles, a couple hundred or so meetings, and a truly dedicated board, staff and volunteer crew working on behalf of the business and residential community here in the valley. As a valley, we are making progress!

Sitting with Ann Coleman during the final bidding at last falls’ bears in the valley auction I had a front row seat to a witness what can happen with cooperation, collaboration and hard work. I believe we’re going to see similar results from this year’s Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival.

Thanks to the collaboration of many chamber businesses, town officials and employees, our legislators and state agencies and Steve Wrathall; combined with Chamber President Lisa Sullivan’s fortuitous comments to a Vermont Life representative at a travel conference, a fabulous luncheon at the Deerhill Inn, a dozen or so trips to points north for negotiations and meetings, one session trying to pin down legislators at the statehouse cafeteria, a beautiful sunny day bill signing with the Governor at the White House of Wilmington, a year’s worth of Thursday morning meetings with our dedicated volunteers, and the foresight of the Dover Economic Development Committee and Selectboard, we are about to host an inaugural event we believe will make a significant positive financial impact in the valley for years to come.

The potential for success for not just this festival, but for additional events to come and our greater economic survival, hinges upon the cooperation between the valley towns of Dover, Wilmington and Whitingham, and our valley’s interactions with its neighboring regions and the state at large. We are careful to try and encourage local collaboration with all of the chamber’s projects and efforts, and both Lisa and I have been actively involved with a number of other discussion and activities centered on economic development and collaboration.

The message (and data) we keep bringing to these meetings is that the valley is a serious economic contributor to the state, and our economy benefits school and social programs in many of the much larger population centers. We repeatedly advocate for better understanding, protection and assistance for the valley, including trying to help different entities understand the impact education funding has had overall and on our business owners who in particular are not income sensitive. Though we often hear that folks are sick and tired of hearing the valley whine about property taxes, we have also seen quite a few light bulbs go on when we talk about protecting this important state revenue stream.

These efforts have been winning us cooperation amongst entities willing to join forces to our mutual benefit, and also causing folks to think twice about what they thought they knew about the valley. We’ve spent a significant amount of time on advocating for greater collaboration and know we have to continue to raise the level of business and quality of life here in the valley. There are no quick fixes to our challenges and no business, association, town or region is an island in today’s economy. The answer to our shortage of bodies, time and money has to be a continued and growing movement to joining forces with those who share common causes.

So this year, when you think about renewing your membership or becoming a new member or friend of the chamber know that in addition to putting your name in front of 240,000 plus unique visitors to our web site, having access to group health and dental insurance, getting discounted rates on seasons passes for skiing and golf, promoting your events weekly in our newsletter and your promotions and packages on our website, you are also supporting a full time advocate for the valley.

Membership in the chamber grew by 18 percent this past year and 10 percent in the year prior and we intend to make that at least a three year trend.

If you don’t receive a packet for membership in the mail, or are a resident or second homeowner interested in becoming a friend of the chamber, please give either myself or Megan Longe a call at 464-8092.