Chair's Column
it's time to focus on the task at hand

By Dave Rozenboom
2009-10 Chair of the Board

Dave Rozenboom 2009-10 Chair of the Board

A sincere "thank you" to all who made the 103rd Annual Meeting of the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce such a success! Our theme for the night was "The Best of Forbes," with the keynote address delivered by Steve Forbes, Chairman and CEO of Forbes Media. It was a fun look back at the many accolades Sioux Falls has received through the years like being named No. 1 out of 200 small metros to begin your business or career by Forbes magazine...for an amazing seven years in a row!

More importantly, it was an evening where we celebrated the outstanding leadership and active engagement of the people in our community. This has been the single biggest attribute in setting our community apart from so many others in the past, and it will undoubtedly be the key to our success in the years to come.

This is always a special night for Sioux Falls. I can't think of any other event in our community where we bring together more than 1,700 business and government leaders together under one roof to celebrate our successes and challenge ourselves to an even brighter future ahead. If you didn't get a chance to attend this year, please make a special effort to attend next year — I promise you'll be glad you did!

As we put the finishing touches on our Annual Meeting, I would like to extend special "thanks" to our Chair for the event, Bob Thimjon with The Ramkota Companies, Inc., and the remarkable stage design and choreography done by HenkinSchultz Communication Arts — well done!

It's now time to focus on the tasks at hand. We are a little over a month into our comprehensive economic development strategic planning project called "Future Sioux Falls." The initial Competitive Assessment phase has recently been completed, providing significant baseline data from which we will move forward. If you have not yet had a chance to review this report, I invite you to go to the "Project Documents" tab at www.futuresiouxfalls.com to learn how our community stacks up. Much more to follow on this over the next several months so stay tuned.

Our Fall Membership Drive began Oct. 30. There are so many reasons to belong to the Sioux Falls Area Chamber and I invite you to spend some time with this month's Chamber News issue so you are fully aware of the many "Membership Benefits" that are available. Hopefully this serves as a helpful reminder to our existing members and a source of encouragement to our prospective members to get involved.

Our vision at the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce is to be the leader in building consensus and strategies that ensure the economic prosperity and quality of life in the region and to be recognized as the premier member-driven business leadership organization. If you are one of our over 2,200 members, I thank you for your continued investment and involvement. If not, there is plenty of room at the table and I invite you to join today.