As promised in last month's issue, I'd like to continue addressing the comments made on the Membership Survey we took last Fall.
The Comment:
I think the Chamber can do a better job of reaching out to the community, both GRAND PRAIRIE Chamber members and non-members, I see the Chamber as being more reactive than proactive to the community.
Response:
I so agree with this comment. We do need to reach out to the entire community for a number of reasons and in varying ways. Here's what we are doing:
Hopefully you've noticed over the last 12 months that the chamber has expanded the reach of events and City Partnerships. We are doing that in two ways.
First, remember that the Chamber is a Membership Organization. Members join the Chamber to promote strengthen and build the business community, but let's face it - most join to grow their OWN businesses and the business community by extension. We offer many opportunities for our members to grow their businesses, but we need to reach further into the City and build a sense of community so that we can better support our business membership. The sensitive area is in supporting Grand Prairie businesses in general when the organization is funded by member businesses. So the payoff here is that we can fund chamber programs better when we create a larger support base by including the entire community.
Secondly, when programs like the GAMES of Grand Prairie or the Taste of Grand Prairie and Community Spotlight are put into play, grow and become successful, we are able to build community spirit, while supporting the Chamber and promoting the City. These events allow businesses to participate and bring them face to face with the Community.
In the case of the GAMES, we want to bring people from outside our City to participate, bringing new tourism revenue to the City. "Putting heads in beds" and bringing people to our restaurants. If we accomplish that, we will be serving the Grand Prairie business community in general by exposing the public to our great City.
The Taste of Grand Prairie and Community Spotlight is also a great example of the chamber promoting ALL businesses while reaching into the community to bring customers face to face with our fine businesses.
And now, this year we are testing feasibility of 2 other projects. The first is a Series of Business Seminars that are free to ALL Grand Prairie businesses - members and non-members alike. We are willing to do this because we had sponsors step up to fund the program. These seminars will present topics that will benefit all businesses. One Series will be hosted by Ramona Logan, previously an anchor on NBC 5 news and the other Series by our own City Manager, Tom Hart who is a much sought after motivational speaker.
The other project is "Sabor a la Main Street" that will focus on downtown Grand Prairie and the businesses there. This is also open to ALL GRAND PRAIRIE BUSINESSES in the Main Street corridor.
All of these projects, or their current format are new to Grand Prairie over the last 12 months. Have we been reactive rather than proactive? Perhaps. Will we continue on that path? No.
Stay tuned for more because at the Grand Prairie Chamber of Commerce
"We Mean Business"
Lynn
