Message from the Chairwoman of the Board

Greetings! I expected a busy chamber year, and the first few weeks of my term as chair have confirmed those expectations!

We enjoyed a classy, elegant Inaugural Gala on June 29th at the Marriott. Roses, wine, delicious food and great camaraderie were the order of the evening. Many thanks to San Bernardino County Supervisor Gary Ovitt, Ontario Mayor Paul Leon and Cal State Vice-President William Aguilar, PhD, for their attendance and participation. Kudos also to the chamber staff for such a first-class event.

The chamber was proud to participate in the City of Ontario’s 4^th of July Celebration. I was amazed at the number of residents and friends of the city who gathered to watch the 4^th of July parade on a perfectly patriotic summer morning.

On July 13, the chamber board convened our annual planning session, held at the Kaiser Permanente Ontario Vineyard Medical Offices. (These offices are beautiful with many state-of-the-art features, if I do say so myself!) We spent an entire day getting to know each other a bit better and setting our priorities for our new chamber year. We had an outstanding facilitator for this meeting in Jeff Sandford of the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce. Jeff was skilled at helping us keep our mottos, Be Relevant, Add Value and Sharpen the Focus, in the forefront as we whittled our BIG priority list into a list of three priorities upon which we can begin immediate work.

Those priorities are: 1) continue our financial growth/stabilization, 2) reinstitute the form and function of our chamber Foundation and 3) expand our regional strategic partnerships. The tactics we will employ to achieve these goals are too numerous to mention in this column, but will prove to be exciting, innovative and most of all, effective!

Along with our focus on our priorities this year, we will also sharpen our protocols, ensuring a polished and professional presentation and representation at each of our events. And we will explore methods and packages to make your chamber membership even more valuable.

So, a busy start to a busy year - what could be better? Be sure to log onto our website at www.ontario.org to keep apprised of all our events and opportunities.