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The past ten months have been a brutal time for many businesses across the South Metro Regional Chambers area. Government mandated closures, limited operating hours, social distancing, PPE and many more terms have become ingrained in our daily lives and culture. While this has been an incredibly difficult time it has required many of us to re-examine how we can continue to operate, develop new business models, utilize technology to support our operations and find ways to keep our employees and customers safe. Vaccines are starting to be deployed to assist in the return to normal at some future point. How can the South Metro Regional Chamber help you through this time? The Chamber continues to be a resource for you including our Safety Council, the SOCA Health Plan, Legal Shield-ID Shield, Workers Compensation Program, Human Resources Management Program, Prescription Savings Card Program, Dental Care Program and one of the best items – networking opportunities! Call me ‘old-fashioned’ but one of the best ways to network is still the face to face method where not only the verbal exchange occurs, body language also conveys so many messages that get lost in other ‘contactless’ methods. Not trying to say the social media methods are in anyway bad, they can be useful for many tasks and are a great way to stay in touch with customers during this challenging time. Are there better ways to get your message out to customers and business associates?
One of my concerns is how well we all handle the stress and pressure of not only the pandemic but our recent political climate. The volatile situation we saw in the past couple of weeks in our Nation’s Capital is hard to fathom. Have we lost the ability to agree to disagree without resorting to violence? I have faith that we can rise above the divisions and find common ground to work from to solve many of the pressing issues our country faces. One of the ways we can solve problems is to communicate openly with each other which is one of the great things our Chamber can foster. While networking has been a challenging endeavor over the past several months, we look forward to the time when we can resume our programing to bring together our members for this great forum. None of us are in this alone – if you need to talk to someone for ideas or suggestions, we are here to help you. While Julia and the staff are not working fulltime in the office, they can check messages and respond to any needs you may have. I’m sure your other Chamber members are available to help you, we all are only a phone call or e-mail away.
We all look forward to a prosperous 2021 and a return to a more normal work environment, educational opportunities and civic life. Continue to look for communications from the Chamber as the year progresses and we can begin to offer additional programs and services. The web site (https://www.smrcoc.org) is always open and available to provide information on the member benefits mentioned above as well as other useful items.
Don Gebele
Director, Operations
Dayton Power & Light
Board Chair
937-604-5631
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Guest Column Opportunities
If you have a positive example of workplace success or problem solving during the pandemic and would like to share it with others, please send your response to info@smrcoc.org.
Please keep the articles to a 1,000 words or less, suitable for publication. They must be signed with name, business name, type of business and contact information. You will be notified to discuss content if the article is under consideration.
THANK YOU!
Let’s rally for the good of each other!
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