CEO Report 12/16/22
Chamber Christmas and Holiday Open House
Thanks to all who joined us on Wednesday for our Open House here at the Chamber. We love providing a fun, relaxing time each year to connect with our Members and leaders and make a positive difference in Great Falls! We had several of our city and county officials attend with large groups of people rotating in and out during the event.
We appreciate each of you and we are so thankful for your support of our community and YOUR Great Falls Area Chamber!
OPI Legislator Forum – Monday, December 19th, 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM
Montana Superintendent of Schools, Elsie Arntzen, is inviting the community to participate in a conversation regarding our schools. Legislators will also be there to discuss the upcoming legislative session. Please join us this Monday, December 19th from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM in Heritage Hall at Great Falls College MSU. Click here to view the event PDF
Click here to view the Key Legislative Info Sheet
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine building tour & reception
I attended a tour of the new building for the future home of Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine located at 2801 18th Ave. South, which is on schedule to be completed in late spring. The third floor is close to completion with ceiling tile to be installed and doors to be hung, along with the other finishing details. The second floor is also close, with the ground floor being the final stage to be finished. The tour was led by Rabbi Moshe Krupka, Executive Vice President of the Touro College & University System who helped us envision the students coming into the college the very first day and walked us through the various floors explaining the intended purpose of each area. After the tour, a number of community leaders met at The History Museum for additional presentations and information as well as to meet and welcome some members of the executive team along with the founding dean, Dr. Elizabeth Palmarozzi, and Patricia Salkin, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost for the Graduate and Professional Divisions at Touro University in New York City.
SPEND LOCAL!
We have always been huge supporters and encouragers of ‘Shopping Local’, but I truly encourage you to do more than just shop locally – I encourage you to ‘SPEND LOCAL!’ We must continue to support our local businesses in every way we can – even if it means spending a couple of extra dollars. I don’t know about you, but I have never seen an Amazon logo helping support any banquets or providing any donations to our local organizations. I don’t see them doing any advertising in our market to help support our local media companies (or being a member of the Great Falls Area Chamber).
They pull money and YOUR hard-earned dollars out of our local economy, and then we lament the loss of business in our community. Then because we don’t have these companies around, we are forced to buy on Amazon. So let’s continue to support our local businesses and locally owned franchises because they are the ones that are also investing in and supporting our community!
New Look – Same Great Content
As we continue to grow, evolve and provide value to our members, we continually ask ourselves ‘How can we do it better?, How can we provide exceptional value? How can we make things easier and more efficient for our Members?’ We are constantly improving and adjusting things to provide a better experience.
We hope you like the new look and design of our Friday Flash as we will begin producing blog posts on our website to engage with a larger audience on all the various opportunities, news, and updates, as well as event updates.
If you haven’t checked out our website in a while, I encourage you to click here and see some updates as well as the new blog. Also – as we are getting ready for our 2023 Community Guide, click here to take a look at our 2022 Community Guide as it will soon be going away to be replaced with next year’s guide.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
Christmas is soon upon us with next week being the final week before the celebration of Christmas! We truly appreciate and are thankful for all of you and wish you a very, Merry Christmas and a wonderful Holiday Season with your family, friends, and loved ones!