presidential PERSPECTIVES
Rich White
Chairman
Robert “Bobby” Bisor
Chairman-Elect/Administration
Glen Brewer
Immediate Past Chairman
Kathy Krusie
Vice-Chair Community Enhancement
Uri Geva
Vice-Chair Communications
Mary Beckman
Vice-Chair Leadership
Jody Rodriguez
Vice-Chair Membership
David O’Neil
Vice-Chair Business Enhancement
Arty Brieden
Vice-Chair Finance & Physical Resources
Paul Atkinson
Stephen Beck
Neal Briers
Lori Bruffett
Sharon Burt
Crystal Dupre
Vicki Flenniken
Katie Fox
David Gardner
Rudy Grimaldo
Barron Hobbs
Jason Jennings
Rayne Knight
Chase Murphy
Casey Oldham
Brandi Ring-Cooper
STAFF
President/CEO
Royce Hickman
Director of Finance
Lori Farrell
Director of Operations &
Public Affairs
Burl Haigwood
Manager of Business Programs
Lucia Cropper
Manager of Member Services
Carrie Archer
Membership Investment
Representative
Heather Barlow
Communications Coordinator
Brittany Coker
Executive Assistant
Tracy Bates
Business Programs Coordinator
Kelli Davis
Receptionist & Membership
Assistant
Linda Espiriqueta
The Chamber Connections is a publication of the Bryan/College
Station Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 3579, Bryan, TX 77805.
Published monthly, the Chamber Connections is a public service to
CHAMBER DAY, 2015 A BIG SUCCESS!
Wow! What a great day March 26th was for your Chamber of
Commerce! As many of you know, that was the day our Chamber
held its 7th annual Chamber Day, which was sponsored for the third
consecutive year by Brazos County. The successes of our Chamber Days
since the first, held in 2009, gave us reason to believe we would have
another good day this year, but I must admit the results of this year’s
event exceeded my expectations.
Almost 150 volunteers joined your Chamber staff for the day – the
largest number of volunteers in the program’s history. They were
divided into teams of three and assigned a geographical area to visit.
Each team was asked to visit all businesses in their assigned area, not
just chamber member businesses. Our visit started with a simple,
“Thank you for being in business in our community.” We would then
ask them how their business was doing and if there were any issues where they believed the
Chamber could provide assistance. Next we asked them to respond to a brief survey that would
allow us to get an idea of how our local economy was doing. We closed by thanking them again
and asking if they had any suggestions or input for us.
I am so proud of volunteers and staff! On that one day they visited approximately 800
businesses in the Bryan/College Station area, the largest number of businesses visited in the
event’s brief history. There were 719 businesses willing to respond to our survey. I think you
will find that the results are very positive. When asked how sales had changed compared to
the previous year, 66% of our local businesses responded that their sales had increased. Forty
nine percent of those responding to the survey indicated that they expect their number of
employees to increase in the coming year, and 47% expected them to stay the same. Our
businesses are very optimist about the future as 82% of the responses indicated that they
expect our local economy to increase in the coming year.
The success of Chamber Day, like all Chamber events, is the result of our volunteer support. It is
exciting to see the large number of volunteers who played a part in us having our biggest and
most successful Chamber Day! It was also very exciting to see the number of volunteers who
have participated in multiple Chamber Days. These volunteers advised me that they returned
because of the positive experience they had during their participation in previous Chamber
Days. Each year we also have folks who were visited during the previous year contact us and say
they now want to participate as a volunteer. It was particularly pleasing for me to me to see the
number of representatives from the City of Bryan, the City of College Station and Brazos County
who were involved in a major way. The number of law enforcement officers who participate
continues to grow, and their participation has improved the effectiveness of the event more
than you can imagine.
I want to take this opportun