Chair's Column
In Sioux Falls, we're still
planning a bright future

By Dave Fleck
2008-09 Chair of the Board

Dave Fleck 2008-09 Chair of the Board

In preparing our volunteer leaders and staff for the 2008-09 Chamber year, we spent our annual planning session talking about our past. We recognized the role the

hamber has played in our community's success for the past 103 years and even more recently in the last 25 years.
I wanted everyone to be students of the past as we looked to Sioux Falls' future. The future looks a little different than it did back in August, however we're still moving forward. It is the Chamber's role in the community to communicate and provide our members with the most accurate information possible — both in good times and more challenging times.

Our recent Good Morning Sioux Falls program, the South Dakota Economic Summit and the upcoming CVB Visitor Industry Luncheon and the Augustana College/Argus Leader Media "Ready to Rebound" conference are all excellent opportunities to discuss local, regional and national economy and hear from top business leaders.

The truth is, we have it much better than many communities. In fact, we're still being recognized for our quality of life and our economic vitality. Sioux Falls again ranked No. 1 on Forbes' list of Best Small Cities for Business and Careers — for seven years running. The Los Angeles Times came to Sioux Falls and wrote about our city as a resilient community during the recession.

These challenging times are forcing all of us to be more creative with how we do business, from being "greener" and less wasteful to focusing more on customer service. We're working smarter — and that's a good thing.

The Chamber has added more programs and services in the past year to enhance our member benefits, from the aforementioned events talking about the economy to our Young Professionals Network. The YPN held its successful kick-off last month and this month marks the start of YPN programming. I couldn't be happier with the success of this group and I'm invigorated by the enthusiasm of our next generation of leaders.

The Chamber is also branching into social networking sites as a way to find more ways to communicate with our members. You can find us on LinkedIn and Facebook and the YPN is on Twitter.

We're are providing more value for our members. We know the economy will turn around and that these are things still worth doing. The recession is not limited to one geographic region of the country — it influences the entire world. In today's global economy, we are all affected when our customers or suppliers or partners are forced to make changes due to the challenging, and ever-changing economy. And that's why belonging to the Chamber of Commerce is more important than ever.

The Chamber is an opportunity to stay connected to information, networks and sales prospects. You need more connections in tougher times, not fewer. Without the investment from our members, our Chamber wouldn't be able to do its part to keep Sioux Falls a great place to live, work and do business.