The Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce has reviewed the last three years accomplishments. This report speaks to the hard work by volunteers and staff working to make our community a better place for business. While the numbers are quick to look over, volunteers and staff spent hundreds of hours into the Program of Work for the last three years.
Education Initiatives
Interview Days Students:
Interviewed for Interview Days total: 2,099; Volunteer Interviewers 297; Pathways Youth Leadership Students who participated total 152; Businesses involved 25.
Job Shadowing number of students total 512; number of businesses engaged total 132.
Education Summit — 81 in attendance with a resulting standing committee of 59 members with Business Education Partnership committee being reformed.
The Speaker’s List had over 70 volunteers and an example of its usage is Conway Middle had a successful Career Day using this list to provide speakers for the students.
Familiarization Tour for new teachers: Summer 2012, Teacher and Business after Hours; Two years of teacher appreciation event to thank teachers,
Golf Tournament met fund raising goal for 2011 and 2012, Small Business Academy taught and helped launch new business for high school students.
Inborden Summer School for parents coordinated an Expo for parents at the request of the principal.
NC Rural Center Grant Recipient for 2012-2013 was $20,000 in funding for Pathways youth project, Teach for America Working with different staff of Teach for America as a resource
Work First Program
Job Fair participants totaled more than 1,850 with 89 businesses participating.
WorkFirst Clients assisted in gaining employment and training more than 600 clients through the JobBoost program
Leadership Roanoke Valley
Participants totaled 80 and more than 40 businesses participated and leadership alumni held their event 2012.
Events
Shop local for the Holidays garnered $520,000 in receipts.
The annual meeting saw 786 in attendance.
Women's Conference Vendors numbered 101 with 80 and 560 in attendance.
There were 128 Business Expo Vendors and 120 volunteers. Attendance was more than 4,000.
There were 121 Ducky Derby vendors 121 and 124 volunteers with attendance at more than 7,000.
Chair’s Night attendance was 570.
There were 15 Wedding Expo vendors and 72 in attendance.
Business Awards Luncheon saw 265 in attendance.
Advocacy
Take it to Raleigh: Interacted with State Auditor Beth Wood; Susan Kluttz, Secretary of Cultural Resources; Secretary of Transportation Tata; Assistant Secretary for Environment Mitch Gillespie; Tony Almeida, senior advisor to Governor McCrory; Secretary of Administration Bill Daughtridge; Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton; Moses Cary of the Department of Administration; Secretary of Agriculture Steve Troxler; Scott Rawls, President of the North Carolina Community College System; Andy Willis, Senior Government Affairs Advisor; Wayne Goodwin, Commissioner of Insurance and Governor’s Chief of Staff Britt Cobb.
Washington Perspectives saw Interaction with General James F. Amos, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps; Representative John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; Joel Klein, former Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education; J.C. Watts, former Representative of the 4th District of Oklahoma; Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina; Representative Collin Peterson of the 7th District of Minnesota; Representative Jim Clyburn of the 6th District of South Carolina and Secretary Hilda Solis, U.S. Secretary of Labor.
Government Affairs Speakers that visited the Roanoke Valley include: Hagan; U.S. Senator Richard Burr; President Pro Tempore of the state Senate Phil Berger; Head of the Division of Motor Vehicles, Commissioner Michael Robertson; Jim Westmoreland, Deputy Secretary for Transit for the North Carolina Department of Transportation; Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin; State Treasurer Janet Cowell; Toya Ogolla, an environmental engineer with the NC Division of Water Resources; NC Commissioner of Labor Cherie Berry; Health and Human Services Secretary Lanier Cansler; Terry Ellis, NCDOT's new Division 4 engineer; Vann Rogerson, President and CEO of the NC Northeast Commission; Tom Covington, of the NC Wildlife Resources Commission's Division of Engineering Services; Aaron Syrett, the Director of the NC Film Office; Wib Owen, NC State Forester; Mr. John Sullivan III the Division Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration; Mark Phillips of the NC Biotechnology Center; Doug Duncan, Executive Director of the NC Loggers Association, Gene Conti of NCDOT, Dr. June Atkinson, the NC State Superintendent of Public Instruction; Attorney General Roy Cooper; Chad Thomas of the North Carolina Wildlife Commission; Dan Gerlach of the Golden Leaf Foundation and Gus Tullos, new board member for NCDOT.
Elected Officials Reception saw 285 in attendance.
The State of Our Community luncheon saw attendance at 679 and the Breakfast with the Mayors saw 19 in attendance.
Legislative Victories
Uranium Mining and Milling in Virginia.
Tolling of I-95.
Local Business Park, North Carolina Center for Automotive Research.
Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport.
Employee Free Choice Act.
Unemployment Insurance Reform
Marketing of Members
Images Magazine, 21,000 magazines.
Website — www.rvchamber.com — 2,700,000 hits.
Map Project, 10,000 maps.
Relocation Packets, 27 packets.
Membership Directory, 1,500 directories.
Telephone Referrals, 1,000s of referrals.
Chamber mailings, 244,800 flyers.
Business After Hours, 30 events 2,250 attendees.
Email marketing, 260 emails marketing Chamber members.
Training
Twitter and business.
The First Contact is your telephone.
The Core of Free Enterprise Success: Customer Communication.
Creative Solutions for Your Marketing: Challenges, Secrets to Successful E-marketing.
How to secure a Small Business Loan for your business.
Recession Survival Techniques for Your Business.
How to Export Products Outside of the United States.
Windows 7.
Access to Capital: Are you looking to expand your current business?
Customer Service Seminar Series
The Core of Capitalism: Customer Satisfaction.
Communicating Professionalism to Customers.
Increase Your Profits and Customer Loyalty by Transforming the Customer Experience.
Increase traffic to your website.
Growing Your Company with Federal Contracts.
Learn how to save your company money through conservation and grow customers by being a green company.
Green Building.
Self Defense for Women.
Meet an Expert and Ask Questions That Can Help Your Business.
Individual leadership and organizational skills.
360 Customer Service with a Capital S and Create & Keep Devoted Customers.
Make Your Advertising Pay for Itself and Applying Marketing and Advertising.
Smart tips in Eastern NC.
Build and Manage High Performance Teams.
Time Management, Priorities and Projects.
Public Speaking and Presentations.
Seminar on Coaching and Conflict Resolution, Customer Service - it's a way of thinking.
Is your incident OSHA Recordable?
Revitalize a Small Business To Avoid Becoming Stale.
Professionalism in the Workplace.
Get Help and Get Stuff Done.
Outsourcing, Time Management and Productivity Secrets for Your Start-Up or Established Business.
New Supervisor Training.
Safety: Safety is an attitude that can save your company money.
Other Community Events
Great Roanoke Valley Pig Cook-off at Harvest Days; Tour of the Roanoke Rapids Dam; Box office for the Roanoke Rapids Theatre; Dog Days of Summer membership appreciation event and Fridays in the Park.
Companies that have used the facility for meetings:
DrugCo.
Asset Seminars.
Farm Bureau.
AAA Carolinas.
New Dixie Oil.
Halifax Linen Services.
Upper Coastal Plains Council of Government.
O Reilly’s.
Rural Health Group.
Harrisons Auto.
Weldon City Schools.
Delta Sigma Theta.
Kate B. Reynolds Foundation.
Boy Scouts of America.
Friends of the Canal.
Business Accountability Group.
Hannah’s Place.
No Tolls Coalition.
Teach for America.
Americap.
The Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit organization representing the interests of over 600 businesses in Halifax and Northampton Counties. The mission of the organization is to promote the business, industrial, and economic development of the Roanoke Valley. We act as an advocate, supporter, facilitator, and resource for the Roanoke Valley's business community. The RVCC provides services to help businesses thrive and grow. In assisting businesses to develop, the Chamber helps to enhance the Roanoke Valley’s quality of life.
Percilla West
Chair, Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce