CEO's Focus: A New beginning to a Prosperous Future 

by Chris Messina,
President/CEO,
Napa Chamber of Commerce

I’m humbled by the amazing opportunity to serve the Napa business community, a community I have long admired. While our community is facing unprecedented challenges, together we can forge unprecedented solutions to what many consider the challenges of our generation.

As the steward of our business community’s interests, we pledge to build on the world-class Napa brand and create one of the strongest and most sustainable economies in California!

As a critical advocate for businesses, large and small, we pledge to work with our elected officials, reminding them that “there but for the grace of you, our businesses, go all of us”!

In the service of our existing members, and the many businesses that have yet to join our community, we pledge our unflagging support, and a shared vision of community impact.

For therein lies our value to the business community: to be relevant to our members; to have a positive impact on our community—by working on those problems that drive businesses elsewhere; and to build on the good work that’s been done before us and make Napa and the greater Napa Valley the preferred place to do business in California!

Together we can improve the quality of education in our community, attracting more businesses. Together we can make Napa the best place to start and grow a business. Together we can make our community the shining example in California for what it means to have a sustainable vision for our business community. As the saying goes, “Without a vision, a people perish.”

I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with you as we confront the business and economic challenges of our generation. I’m grateful to those that came before, even as we look towards a brighter future. And finally, to my Sonoma County friends I cannot deny that the Cabernet IS better on this side of the mountains! I invite you, and all others, to come and enjoy and invest in the Napa community.

Thank You!
 

 

 

 

 

Chair's Focus: Membership Benefits from the Candidate Endorsement Committee

by Debra Dommen,
Vice President,
Government and Community Relations,
Treasury Wine Estates

2012 Board Chair, Napa Chamber of Commerce

Unless you’ve been living under a rock and missing all the action with the Republican Presidential Primary race, you realize that 2012 is an election year.  Election years always seem to be, what shall I say, more interesting here at the Napa Chamber of Commerce.  We are starting to pull our Candidate Endorsement Committee together to start their long, deliberative process.  In the end, they will provide a recommendation to the Board of Directors on which candidates best align with our Five-Year Community Vision.
 
The process is long, labor intensive and requires a large commitment from each member.  Prior to actually interviewing the candidates, the committee meets several times to draft questions for each elected position.  Once the questions are completed the interviews begin.  Each member takes copious notes, and in addition, all interviews are recorded for future reference.  The races that the Chamber will consider to endorse are Napa City Council, Napa County Board of Supervisors, California State Senate, California State Assembly and the U.S. Congress.  On occasion we have been asked to expand our list, and will do so when it has the potential to affect our local businesses.   

The Candidate Endorsement Committee is made up with 4 members of the Board of Directors, 3 members of the Legislative Action Committee and 2 members at large.  The Chamber CEO/President participates in the discussion, but has no voting rights.  All members must be registered voters in Napa County and voted in the prior two elections and not currently a public servant (elected or appointed).  Each member is not allowed to make any public endorsement of any eligible candidate(s) prior to the Board endorsement of candidates for that particular office.  We also look closely at any monetary contributions to any campaign so as to avoid any conflict of interest. 

The main charge of the committee is to endorse candidates that best align with our Five-Year Community Vision.  This has not always been easy.  As you know, someone who interviews well does not always make a good employee.  It’s important to look at what someone says, as well as what they do.  This is easier when someone has already held a public office, and more complicated when they have not. 

When all is said and done, the recommendation from the committee will come to the Board of Directors and must be approved by a 2/3 vote in order for the Napa Chamber of Commerce to actually endorse a candidate.  The purpose of endorsing candidates is twofold.  First, most of our members don’t have time to do the detailed leg work that our committee performs.  This is one of the benefits of Chamber membership; we not only endorse a candidate but explain in detail why we chose that candidate and then leave it up to our members as to what they will do with that information.  We also want to make sure the right business candidates are elected.  Over the decades leadership within the Napa Chamber of Commerce has worked diligently to ensure that we are a respected organization.  When we endorse a candidate it means something.

 

 

 

GAINING TRACTION

Katherine Zimmer
VP Marketing & Communication

Chambers of Commerce — relevance, yesterday and today

The Napa Chamber of Commerce is in its 124th year. It started with an innovative group of business leaders looking for a solution to improve roads and wooden sidewalks. Starting as the Improvement Society in 1889, this pioneering group of volunteers evolved to be called the Board of Trade and then the Chamber of Commerce.

Chambers have always worked from a position grounded in grassroots reality. They help business leaders understand the processes involved on the many levels required for business growth — from city, state and national government to local permitting and building beneficial relationships. They are the collective voice representing business to government and providing the due diligence on legislation pertinent to their business community. They also give businesses an arena to find their niche in corporate social responsibility by consulting with them to find the right alignment between the community and their mission.

Many chambers are their community’s primary visitor-serving organizations and many play support roles to destination management entities, but chambers will always be perceived as the one-stop place to call on for all types of business referrals.

Communications and business information resources are other benefits of your local chamber. Finding economical educational workshops, seminars and conferences can be challenging for small businesses. In addition to educational events, chambers provide avenues for businesses to network, access influencers and gain critical exposure through sponsorship opportunities and marketing channels. Not only do they produce many of these events, they can tell you where else you can take advantage of similar resources.

Influential business leaders know that participating in chamber activities means connecting with local leaders; creating business alliances, affecting public policy, improving local and regional communities, growing the value of your business and being engaged with the organization that is leading business in your community.

Today’s chamber industry does a great job with all of the benefits it provides, but faces challenges in communicating exactly what it does, which can give a negative perception of chambers’ relevance.

There’s a saying: “Chambers do the things that most people think just happen.” With businesses looking for quick, tangible results — jobs, more customers, and a return on investment in this fast-paced and global media world — it can be difficult to communicate the value of connecting, engaging, marketing, advocacy and sustainability. If the specific issue doesn’t touch a member business directly, they often don’t realize how the benefit that a particular position on legislation or influence at a planning commission meeting can help them.

Gone are the days of chamber pancake breakfasts and parades. Gone is the notion that you join the chamber because your grandfather did and it’s the right thing to do. Here are the days of tough economies, global impacts, and instant communication. Chambers of commerce are relevant partners. Do your business a favor and talk to your chamber.

Your success is your chamber’s business.

Reprinted with permission from the Napa Valley Register.

 

 

 

 

GAINING TRACTION

Katherine Zimmer
VP Marketing & Communication

Social media updates, Part 2: Mobile Web

 

Columnist’s note: This week’s column is written by Andrew Healy of 3 rock marketing.

So you’ve got a website for your business and that’s it. Nothing else to do but wait for people to find it and contact you through it. Right?

Wrong. The online world is changing daily, and one of the biggest changes affecting this area today is mobile web.

Mobile web traffic is growing at an astronomical rate, and depending on which figures you read, we’re talking about hundreds-percent growth year over year. So here are the questions: What is it? Why do I need to be aware of it? And how do I make the most use of it?

Put simply, mobile web refers to the use of the Internet from mobile devices, which include any smartphone or tablet computer, like the iPad. More and more visits to your website are coming from mobile devices and your website needs to be optimized for these visits. There’s a huge difference in screen size between your desk or laptop computer and any of these mobile devices, and within the mobile devices screen size varies hugely, too.

You want to make sure that the people who are looking at your website are seeing it in all of its glory whether they look at it on the phone, tablet or computer. That’s why having your website optimized for mobile is so important — you don’t know where and when people will come across it. You do know, however, that you want them to have an optimum experience, as this reflects on your business. Think of it as a first impression and we all know that you won’t get a second chance to make this.

Google and other search engines are giving better search rankings to sites that are optimized for mobile, and as everyone is trying to get further up the rankings, it’s almost a no-brainer to be looking at mobile optimization for your existing website.

Like everything in the world of web, there are lots of options to get your website optimized for mobile. If you’ve been thinking ahead and have your website on a content management system platform like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc., there are existing plug-ins that can be used. If you’re thinking about a new website for 2012, you need to include mobile optimization in your request for proposals so you can have the mobile optimization work done in tandem with your native site. And if you like your existing site and want parts of it to go mobile, that’s possible too, with a standalone mobile URL.

If you’re not thinking about getting this work done, you should be. Being part of the evolution of the World Wide Web should be an essential part of your business’s marketing strategy, because “time stands still for no man,” woman or business.

Andrew Healy is the chief social officer of 3 rock marketing, a Napa Valley–based marketing company that specializes in social media and online presence. Contact him at andrew@3rockmarketing.com or 227-4273.

Reprinted with permission from the Napa Valley Register.

 

 

 

 

Chair's Focus: Exciting Decisions for a Bright Future

by Debra Dommen,
Vice President,
Government and Community Relations,
Treasury Wine Estates

2012 Board Chair, Napa Chamber of Commerce

This year has already been a busy one!  Over the past few months of transition, the Chamber’s extraordinary staff and team of volunteers have paved the way to achieve greatness in 2012. We are happy to start our year with a new President & CEO, Chris Messina. 

While we are poised to do great things, the path that got us here was both challenging and exciting. I’d like to take this opportunity to walk you through our journey.

Last fall, a great team of volunteers agreed to form the “Search Committee” for our new President/CEO. The core team consisted of Board members Ryan Gregory, Cherie Knox, Pamela Gleeson, Kathy D’Angelo Holmes and I. In addition, we brought on past Chair Connie Anderson. We met over twelve times and put in countless volunteer hours, so first I’d like to extend a big thank you to this “A Team.” 

Our process began by reviewing the current job description, our policies and discussing what qualities we wanted our new leader to possess. Many descriptors were used: figure head, agent of change, possessing that “wow” factor, mentor, leader, seasoned CEO, etc.  After placing ads and combing through over 200 resumes, we narrowed our list down to fifteen candidates. 

The next step is what we referred to as “speed dating.” You know, when you first meet someone, not sure if you want to commit to dinner, but coffee seems appropriate? So we met, either by phone, Skype or in person, with fifteen candidates for thirty minutes each.  We had a strict agenda, getting through our questions while giving them an opportunity to reveal more about themselves and ask us questions as well. 
After discussing the interviews and going through our notes, we went from fifteen to five.  At this point we decided to broaden our team to keep the Board informed and involved. We added Board members Paul Hicks, Jaime Penaherrera and Past Chair Jeff Gerlomes to our team. They were great assets, and quite frankly, validated our process and decisions.

The next step, final interviews. We spent over an hour each with five top-rate candidates.  While all were fabulous, and could have come in and hit the ground running, Chris clearly rose to the top. 

We could not contain our excitement and put the process on fast track in order to introduce Chris to our members and the community at our Annual Dinner. If you could not make it, I encourage you to reach out to Chris and introduce yourself. He’s excited to jump in and meet as many members as possible.

One of the questions we kept asking ourselves during this process was “do we want an experienced Chamber CEO or someone who will come in with a fresh perspective to really bring value to our members?” We think we got both, a seasoned Chamber President/CEO that knows we can no longer conduct business as usual. I look forward to this year’s journey into success with Chris and all of you.