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Presidents Message - July 2008
Our installation of Officers on July 10th, kicked off the Chamber’s
new fiscal year. This wonderful summer evening at the Lakeside Fire
Protection Agency was the perfect setting to honor all who have
supported us throughout this last year.
As I stood before the podium, I saw a sea of familiar faces; faces who
give the chamber its heart, its life, its purpose. Our Board of
Directors who volunteer their time and energy to ensure that the chamber
fulfills it’s obligation to our members and to the Lakeside Community.
Our 2008/2009 Board of Directors were there ready to take their oath of
office, ready to serve. Without their efforts we would not have been
able to accomplish so much this past year.
We were honored to have in attendance, some of our community’s elected
officials, supporting the chamber once again, as they do all year.
Supervisor Dianne Jacob officiated the swearing in of our 2008/2009
Board of directors and presented awards to all those so deserving
people.
Assemblyman Joel Anderson, representatives from Congressman Hunter’s
office and Senator Hollingsworth’s office were also there to honor the
Chamber and its many award recipients. Duncan D. Hunter accepted the
Chamber’s Legislator of the Year 2008 award on behalf of his father,
Congressman Duncan Hunter.
As I continued to scan the audience, I saw a vast array of faces that
have helped us accomplish so much. Our Volunteer of the Year 2008
Recipient, Tim Garret was surprised as his name was announced, but as
typical of Tim he accepted graciously and wondered when our next event
to help out was.
Our first winner of our Member of the Year 2008, Alpine Rock and Block,
the Rodvold Family only substantiated my belief in how much the chamber
has grown. The Rodvolds have been our biggest and most often supporter
of every event we do, whether it’s a mixer, a golf tournament or our
spirit of Christmas, you will always see their footprint.
As I began to reflect back on 2007-2008, I was amazed at the growth we
have experienced. Our most shining star certainly was the 1st annual
Community Expo. The businesses and the community coming together to
exalt all the wonderful assets Lakeside has to offer.
A tide of positive feedback came flooding in and we are looking ahead to
our next Expo. As I scanned the audience I saw with pride our wonderful
Ambassadors, chaired by our Board Member of the year 2008, Terry
Leimbach.
The Ambassador program is a growing extension of the Chamber, working
and networking on our behalf, attending our mixers and creating a
positive image for our members to see.
We have also seen an increase in our chamber members opening their place
of business to host our mixers, chaired by Mike Anderson, and seeing a
greater attendance; giving our members opportunities to a broader
networking base.
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I was proud to introduce our scholarship recipients in attendance and
reflected back to the successful Scholarship Golf Tournament, chaired by
Bobbi Buettgenbach. With the support of our members, sponsors and the
community, we will be able to continue offering scholarships to our
local graduating seniors, thus creating a solid base for our future
generations to continue building a better Lakeside.
With all these wonderful people, we also successfully hosted one of our
largest parades, chaired by Frank Hilliker, a family-oriented Christmas
event, chaired by Terry Leimbach and created a new direction for your
chamber.
In 2007/08 we also saw a new membership &
member2member discount program, chaired by James Fread, a volunteer program, coordinated by Amy Ruiz and an events program,
chaired by Frank Hilliker.
Even with all this support by our
community leaders, ambassadors, volunteers and Board of Directors, none
of this would have been accomplished without our hard working office
staff, Kathy Kassel, Executive Director and Steve Clark, Special Project
Coordinator.
It is their time, energy and sweat that moved all these
ideas, thoughts and suggestion into a tangible accomplishment.
Amongst all these accomplishments we were also faced with changes, we
had to say good bye to Steve Clark, who had other organizations in need
of his expertise. We are extremely grateful for all of his creative
and innovative ideas and solutions; launching us into a new phase;
having developed a strong base for us to continue growing.
We start the New Year by welcoming our
newest Director, Mike Randazzo, and new
office assistant Christie Gocke. Mike, who, along with his wife
Jennifer, were our Ambassadors of the Year 2008 recipients
and has proven himself as someone who gets things done.
Our new
office assistant, Christie, who in the last few weeks has jumped right
in, rolled up her sleeves and has proven she is a tremendous asset to
the chamber.
As it dawned on me
all the wonderful things we
have
accomplished I am now renewed and ready for the New Year. With the
support of our members, the encouragement of our community, the support
of our elected officials, our wonderfully hard working board & office
staff, I realize we can do anything we set our mind to.
It is with
great anticipation I look forward to passing the gauntlet to our 1st
Vice President, Todd Williams at next year’s Installation of Officers
and being able to once again reflect back at all we will have
accomplished in our 2008/2009 year, I am confident we will all be
standing proud.
Sincerely,
Steve Menefee, President |
