Over the past couple of years, we have been talking about the Grand Junction Area Chamber being a “3C Chamber”. You’ve seen the billboards and the televisions ads, but as a refresher, the 3 C’s refer to the Chamber as:
- A Catalyst for Business Growth
- A Convener of Leaders and Influencers Who Make Things Happen
- A Champion for a Stronger Community
One of the key factors to being an effective 3C Chamber is to understand how we are
perceived by you, the members. We are pleased to report that the most recent membership survey shows that you find the Chamber to be a valuable community resource, and a business catalyst, convener, and champion. In fact, 95% of respondents ranked the Chamber as mostly to very effective in helping businesses navigate the challenges of 2021 so far, and 84% are mostly to very satisfied with the Chamber and its overall performance.
Those numbers are incredibly satisfying for the excellent Chamber staff and those of us in leadership positions. We have worked very hard this year to earn your trust, respect and investment. Members cite a number of reasons for ranking the Chamber highly including:
- The Chamber working in partnership with Mesa County to maintain and grow the 5-Star program to help Mesa County businesses open earlier than the majority of the state and continue to stay open.
- Standing up to legislators seeking to destroy our state’s business climate with careless disregard for how their bills will hurt small businesses.
- Working with our community partners to tackle the workforce issues we all face.
In these cases, and many others, this Chamber has not been an observer on the sidelines or ridden the coattails of some other entity. We are in the ring landing the punches and sometimes getting our nose bloody as we seek to ensure our members and the entire local business community has a fighting chance at being successful.
As our board looks ahead and plans for 2022, we will be looking at the membership survey, to seek out opportunities to continue evolving and effectively serve the area business community. We will pay particular attention to the answers provided to the open-ended questions – both praise and challenges (especially challenges) are vital to keeping the Chamber relevant and effective. Thank you for your input and engagement! This community is growing, and growing pains almost always come along with growth. We know that we cannot continue to be a 3C Chamber by focusing on the past. We will look ahead to how we can contribute to positive changes by continuing to be the Catalyst, Convener, and Champion that you need now and into the future.