Chamber season: Chase our dreams
Published 8:47 am Monday, January 15, 2018
It’s chamber of commerce season and don’t roll your eyes.
We’ve attended the Nederland Chamber’s annual banquet and Port Neches and Groves and Greater Port Arthur aren’t far behind.
Somewhere over the Rainbow, Bridge City is planning theirs.
Not everyone fully embraces chamber of commerce thinking but not everyone fully understands it. The smallest chambers promote better towns and ardent civic-mindedness; the best and biggest chambers are visionary and more broadly focused.
They seek not just new business and jobs and tax breaks — those things can be darn good in themselves, of course — but they also build pathways from the present. They seek regional cooperation and promote shared goals. They peer into the possible. Someone’s gotta do it.
Our local chambers do that to the extent possible. They promote the interest of their businesses and they promote what’s good for the whole.
So, yes, they’ll tout the individual strengths and myriad products of hometown business owners who make payrolls and pay taxes and bankroll children’s softball teams. There’s nothing wrong with that. They’ll remind consumers to “shop local.”
But they’ll lobby lawmakers and study transportation routes and weigh infrastructure projects to support higher education, promote trucking travel or build better ports. They do that as a unit because few people can accomplish such missions on their own. They build the momentum for such grand tasks at morning coffees and in collaboration with local leaders and, yes, at annual banquets.
Transitions in chamber leadership bring new energy, new ideas, new opportunities. At Nederland, in his printed and distributed message, new chairman Roger Hensley reminded chamber members that, “We must seek to strengthen our relationships if we are to continue to grow and prosper.” In small towns, people need people.
That’s not less so for larger communities.
In Port Arthur, the best-laid ’17 plans were in part jettisoned after 60 inches of rain rolled over our terrain. Membership drives and networking coffees were set aside as chamber leaders, themselves beset with problems when their homes flooded, looked to the good of the whole and encouraged business and industrial efforts to help our forlorn population.
An education initiative drove donations to Lamar State College and doled out funds to help Port Arthur and Sabine Pass Independent School Districts rebuild classrooms and supplies and assist teachers.
Now, like Nederland, other chambers await their rebirth. Greater Port Arthur’s chamber will promote funding for a deeper ship channel and, its incoming president says, provide new opportunities for minority and women entrepreneurs. Why not?
It’s the launch of a new year and hope springs eternal. Dreams don’t come true without dreamers. Optimism breeds optimism.
We encourage a new wave of enthusiasm as we wade past the floods of 2017 and into the future. Onward, ever upward.