Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership

Chamber Confidential

www.metrochamber.com
 August 17, 2005

Volume 2, Number 27 
Department Updates

Upcoming events and Membership news, click here.

2005 Major Events! Click here to view the current schedule.

ChamberPlus, Inc. news, click here.

Governmental Relations news, click here.

Workforce Development news, click here.

Economic Development news, click here.

Community Development news, click here.

Leadership Jackson news, click here.

Updated list of new members, click here.

New Photo Gallery Pictures, click here.

Did you know that the Chamber could save you money on Office Products? Click here to find out how!

Receiving bad checks?  Click here to find out how the chamber can save your business time and money on check recovery!

Click here to view the 2005 Executive Committee & Board of Directors

Special Thanks to our Diamond Level Investors

    Platinum Level Investor

Top Five Keywords Searched for the Week:

  1. Employment

  2. Lodging

  3. Entertainment

  4. Dining

  5. Education

 

 

Memo from President Duane O'Neill

AIR SERVICE ESSENTIAL TO ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

The news of Delta Airline’s continuing financial woes is a major concern for the MetroJackson community.  Their sale of Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Inc. to Skywest is not expected to be enough of a monetary boost to avoid the possible protection of bankruptcy.  We all can feel Delta’s pain when it comes to high fuel costs.   The airline will spend 875 million dollars more than expected on fuel this year.  Add this cost to other issues such as interest payments, pension contributions, security measures and competition from low cost carriers and the situation intensifies.

Delta is not alone.  All other carriers are bearing the burden of high fuel prices.  Northwest has a mechanics strike looming.  Southwest continues to fight for the repeal of the Wright Amendment.  Additionally, it is not just the airlines, but also even the airport facilities themselves that face these challenges.  Jackson-Evers International Airport is currently adding the much needed additional parking.  However, to accomplish this progressive initiative, the inconvenience to the traveling public is a continuing headache.

So many negative factors would beg the question “Can this industry survive both locally and globally?”  The answer is an emphatic “YES”!  In fact the economists predict that Airports are the Interstate Highways of the future.  To prosper as a great community in the days ahead, a world class airport with world-class service is an absolute necessity. 

Thus, we all should pray that Delta survives their dark financial days.  We need to work to support Southwest in their attempt to gain the freedom to fly the same routes as their competition.  And we need to utilize the service that we now enjoy.  Anyone can predict what will happen if we as a community don’t use the service currently being provided by these carriers and others.  Sure we have all complained about ticket prices to Atlanta, or the lack of certain westbound flights.  But the bottom line is that we need every carrier that currently serves JIA to stay profitable and to contribute to the economic potential of the area.  Only then can we be recognized as an emerging progressive metro area. 

Finally, the same support we offer to the airlines must be extended to the airport itself.  We must be realistic and understand that the aforementioned parking issue is PROGRESS.  Like any highway project we have endured and now enjoy, the pain of the construction barrels at the airport will soon be just a memory, and we will once again park more conveniently than 95% of passengers at other airports in the country. 

We need a successful airport.  Please support all of our air carriers.  Please offer your support to Dirk Vanderleest, JIA executive, and the Airport Board in their progressive work to insure a quality facility.
Governmental Relations Update                          

Lewis Slater, Senior Vice President

        

CARE Awards Luncheon Scheduled for August 30 "Sold Out!"

The Chamber’s 2005 CARE Awards Luncheon is scheduled for Tuesday, August 30, at the Country Club of Jackson. We are pleased to announce that this event is already a "sell out!"

 Small Firm Honorees (under 250 employees)

Coopers’s Country Meat Packers

Diversified Technology

Eyevox

IMS Engineers

Large Firm Honoree’s (over 250 employees)

Jackie’s International

L-3 Vertex Aerospace

Neel-Schaffer, Inc.

Miskelly Furniture

Modine Jackson

The chamber began the CARE Awards program in 2006. The purpose of the CARE Awards is to recognize member firms of the chamber that have achieved excellence in one or more areas of their corporate activities. CARE stands for “Chairman’s Award Recognizing Excellence.” 

This event will be an enjoyable and educational event for those who have planned to attend. In making preparations for this event, I had the opportunity to visit all of the honorees with our video production crew as they shot footage that will be the main part of the program.
 

You will be amazed at these success stores, impressed with what these firms do and where they do it, learn what they have done to solve workforce issues, and have your heart warmed by what they do in giving back to our metro community. Every firm that was nominated was worthy of recognition. However, only a few could be selected as honorees in a given year. 

Our chamber has many outstanding firms whose achievements in excellence deserve to be told. I hope that you will nominate a firm when the 2006 nominations are requested early next year.

Top 40 Under 40 nomination period opens

Prestigious recognition program back for 13th year

One of Mississippi’s most prestigious awards programs is back and taking nominations for the 13th consecutive year. Top 40 Under 40 recognizes the state’s 40 up-and-coming business leaders under the age of 40.

In order to qualify for consideration, individuals must have been born after Dec. 1, 1965, and have lived and worked in Mississippi for at least two years. Nominations should be returned to the Mississippi Business Journal no later than Sept. 7, 2005.

Individuals selected as recipients of the Top 40 Under 40 award will be profiled in a special publication in January 2006. A luncheon will be held in their honor Jan. 18, 2006.

The Top 40 Under 40 program seeks to identify and recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to Mississippi’s overall economic progress, often working at their own local levels.

“We believe the Top 40 Under 40 program is a wonderful way to salute the achievements of Mississippi’s young business leaders,” said Joe D. Jones, CPA (retired), publisher of the Mississippi Business Journal. “Through the Top 40 Under 40 program, we are delighted to help pay tribute to up-and-coming businesspeople for their contributions to Mississippi’s economic progress. These are the people who are going to help lead Mississippi into the future. Top 40 Under 40 has become the standard by which successful, innovative young Mississippi businesspeople are identified and recognized.”

      Since its inception in 1993, the Top 40 Under 40 program has recognized hundreds of Mississippi business leaders who are playing active day-to-day roles in moving the state’s economy well into the 21st century.

However, Top 40 Under 40 is anything but a single-business awards program, said Jones. Recipients have come from virtually every walk of life.

“The key to the program’s success is that individuals are nominated by friends or business associates who best know their professional and civic involvement,” he said. “We have found that all of the Top 40 Under 40 recipients have involvement that go well beyond normal working hours. Their days are extended by a large number of civic and community activities.”

After the Sept. 7th deadline, all nominations will be screened by an independent committee, first, to be sure they have not yet reached their 40th birthday, and, secondly, for their business and community involvement.

The luncheon for the Top 40 Under 40 award recipients will be held in conjunction with the 2006 Mississippi Business EXPO in Jackson. EXPO 2006, Mississippi’s largest business-to-business trade show slated for Jan. 18-19, 2006, will feature the latest in products and services.

For additional information about Top 40 Under 40 or EXPO 2006, please visit MBJ Online at www.msbusiness.com and click on “Special Events.” You may also call (601) 364-1015 or e-mail events@msbusiness.com.

To send any comments regarding this e-memo, click here.