We’ve had an extremely good start to our summer concert series. People are enjoying coming together and having a good time!
As requested, we hope that our concert guests will only put out chairs and no other items to reserve their space.
Having a blanket, tarp, caution or do not cross tape is really not necessary and we ask for your assistance with this.
Let’s be good neighbors and community hosts.
Esther Kenyon is working closely with Director of Public Works Sean Crumby at the city on installing a visitor information kiosk at the police sub-station at the pier.
I continue to have regularly scheduled strategic meetings with our City Manager Jill Ingram and our district one Councilwoman Ellery Deaton.
We are looking at ways for the chamber and the city to work closer together. We want to keep Seal Beach a quaint little town while at the same time engage the community in events and improvements to make Seal Beach an even better place.
Chamber changes ahead
The Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce will be having elections soon. Our nominating committee has worked hard putting together a slate of candidates that wanted to serve.
Ballots for the election and nomination forms for Best Male and Best Female chamber member run business of the year were mailed out to our membership so they could vote.
We’ll be having our annual inauguration dinner on Sept. 15 at Old Ranch Country Club. Seth Eaker will be rotating off the board and I’ll be rotating to the role of past president and will be working closely with the new president as directed.
The chamber is growing very rapidly. As a result, the board of directors is always looking at ways to make changes to accommodate our growth.
These changes aren’t always easy, but the board tries to do what’s best for the chamber as a whole.
People come up to me and say that they joined the chamber and didn’t get anything out of it.
I ask them how many meetings they went to, how many mixers they attended, what events have they participated in and volunteered for?
Did they call other chamber members to network outside of the monthly meetings? I am met with a blank stare and then a voice that says well I don’t do any of those things. I’m too busy.
My experience is the more you put into the chamber, the more you get out of it. If you want to really have the chamber work as an external sales force for your organization, then getting involved and participating is something that you’ll need to do.
It’s like saying you want to be a parent and subscribing to a monthly parenting magazine.
Nine months later you’ll have a nice stack of parenting magazines. I invite you to come to the mixers, the events, and volunteer—there are always things you can do to be more active in the community. People who participate are very visible. People do business and refer business to people they trust. If chamber members don’t have a chance to get to know you, then how can they trust you?
As a quick snapshot of the Chamber calendar, we wanted to highlight a few dates moving forward:
• Summer Concerts from 6 – 8 p.m. every Wednesday night through Aug. 31
• Sept. 15—Annual Chamber Installation and Recognition dinner
• Oct. 31 will be Trick or Treat Main Street (Sidewalk Sale around this time as well, on a date to be determined)
• Nov. 24—Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner produced by the Chamber and led by Pastor Tia Wildermuth of First United Methodist
• Nov. 26—Annual Tree Lighting event
• Dec. 2—Annual Christmas Parade (big news, it will actually extend around PCH this year and loop back to the Greenbelt)
• March 17, 2012 – Health and Fitness Expo (Shops at Rossmoor)
• April 28, 2012—Annual Car Show 25th Anniversary year!
Enjoy the rest of your summer and I look forward to seeing you around town.
Erik Dreyer-Goldman is the president of the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce.
