Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome,
hideous at time now for our community connection and we're gonna connect with the
Chamber of Commerce, Cherry World. How are you doing today, I've been
great. It's spitting rain, so I'm a happy camper. Push a townpour.
I'd be really happy. I'd be a chamber of commerce kind of day
rain, you know, once rain would be a chamber of commerce kind of
day. Oh, I love that. I love that sentiment, you know.
It was one of those things. And woke up this morning, I
saw a couple of drops on the sidewalk, couple on the road. I'm
going, well, at least it's in the right direction. Yeah, it's
not burning up hot, but yeah, we need rains, so hopefully we'll
get some the next few days. How are we doing with the chamber.
Lots of things popping, lots of things happening. We just had a very
successful golf tournament last Thursday. Beautiful weather. We were kind of sweating it,
but I would have taken well. I didn't want rain that day.
But anyhow, we had a we had a really good tournament that was a
fundraiser for our chamber maintenance fund. Because it's his old building, so lots
of maintenance issues nineteen o nine, lots of fun um but anyheah, that
went really good. And then we are hopping into May a lot of several
major events that are going to I think really be good. We're actually ending
April with our last women in Business luncheon for the year. Our fiscal year
starts July first, so this is our last one for the year, and
it's going to be a really good one. I'm excited about it. It
is women's safety, don't be a victim, and it's our own Bartslo Police
Department. We have two female we have Corporal Jessica Pitts and officers Sierra Compton,
and they're going to be talking like self defense, situational awareness, things
to do, not to do, that kind of thing. So I think,
just really good reminders. I kind of thought about this topic after the
whole little hate you know, the Lows incident, was you know, that
person tried to grab somebody out of the store, and I we just never
know, you still think things like that will ever happen to you, but
especially especially in Bartle's value, is something that kind of thing will happen,
But you just never know, so I think it's just going to be some
really good reminder. It's probably some things that we already know, but just
to rethink. And any how, we're excited to be able to feature our
own police department and that will be this Thursday. So if you have some
females in your office and you'd like to send them, you can register online
Bartlesfield dot com and it is at Hillcrest from eleven thirty to one. And
like I said, I think it's gonna be a really good program. So
we're excited about that. That's a very a very practical topic. I think
good reminders for all of us to avoid being a victim of a crime.
Indeed. And then May fourth is our next business after hours and it is
going to be hosted by Express Employment Personnel and First Investment Corporation. They go
together and do it. It's hosted at First Investment, but they always do
a really nice one. It's always right around Cinco de Mayo, which is
the very next day, So I'm not sure they'll have Mexican vood again,
but they usually have in the past. But that's just a great way for
our members to be able to connect it's very informal. Make those connections,
connect your business up, let people know you know what your business is,
what you do, and it's just it's a free event for our members and
encourage you to come out for that. It's from four to five, so
it's a great way to in your day. Just hop over. And it's,
like I said, free for our members if you just want to kind
of check it out and see maybe we always welcome guests, no problem,
but it is, like I said, a free event for our members,
so wonderful. And then you're gonna keep going. And we need to take
a little bit of a break here because we got a lot more to go,
and we're gonna take this little time out here and we're going to be
back with more of our Chamber news with Sherry Wilt after these words from le
More and Nat Camp at Funeral Home on k one, the one you tries
the first conversation I have with someone's loved one, I don't care if it's
three o'clock in the afternoon or three o'clock in the morning. That first conversation
is mister X. This is Tim How with Arnold Moore and Knee Camp Funeral
Home. First of all, sir, let me say I'm very sorry we're
having to have this conversation right now. And to the nth degree, those
people always appreciate you taking a moment to just pause and say I'm aware that
someone you care about very much has just left you, and I'm sorry that
we have to do this, but we have to do this. And if
it's three o'clock in the morning, I try to be brief but concise and
say, do you have any questions or anything I can do for you right
now before we meet at our arrangement conference. And sometimes I say, you
know, can you call my priest? Can you call my pastor? And
I don't mind doing that. It'll be all right. We'll walk through this
together. Arnold Moore and knee Camp Funeral Home, seven Dewey Martels of It.
We will walk through this together. Alrighty, it is eight thirty eight
where we share. We walk with the Chamber of Commerce, and we had
we got some new businesses that have popped up here recently. We just and
out to In fact, I ran into your your husband Mike out at hto.
Yeah, hopefully they will be a chamber they are a chamber member.
Yes, so we have their ribbon cutting. I think it's it's Friday this
Friday, so they'll have been opened officially a week and we will be out
there. Oh gosh, eleven thirty I think it is, but we'll be
doing a ribbon cutting for them. And yes, they joined right right away,
and we appreciate that. Especially chain restaurants and things like that. That
really does mean a lot because so many of them chain wise just just don't.
But it's our locally owned businesses who support the chamber. And I don't
want to make a blanket statement that's that's not fair because we do have um,
you know lows as a member in different chains. But anyhow, and
they're all important. They all contribute to the tech space in the owner of
this franchise has plenty of ties to Bartlesville. Oh yeah, we're really happy
to have them as new neighbors. Other things are going to be popping up
out of the ground soon, but the BDA has been kind of surprising us.
They're always popping so every time something pops there, that'll do good.
We got cracking over here well in May, like I said, we're gonna
have a very busy May. I was starting off with the business after hours
on May fourth. The next day, Friday, May fifth, That morning
is our next Eggs and Issues breakfast. UM, and this one will feature
our congressman, our new Congressman, Josh bra Keene. Of course, you
know, with the redistrict and the redrawing of lines, we lost Kevin Hearn
and Josh has our new congressman, so it'll be interesting to hear from him.
I've just got off the phones and he told me to tell you Hi.
I'm sure he didn't. You can't wait for eggs anything. Well,
get it's uh, but like I said, it's Friday morning, it's seven
thirty to nine, it's a hot breakfast. It's our sponsor for this and
our host sponsor is Tri County Tech, so it'll be in their Events center
and they do a beautiful job for us. So we like hosting these events
because we want to give our members an opportunity to interact with our local officials.
And UM he'll take questions from the audience. Obviously give some comments and
things, but also filled your questions as a business owner, is you know
your whatever your interests are. UM and opened up for questions as well.
So that will be Friday UM May the fifth and then the next week I'm
super I guess it's the next following week. But May eighteenth is our fifth
of the sixth in our forum series, we do six major forms a year
over the lunch hour, and this one is I'm very excited about. Everybody's
always you know, what's the what's the forecast? Economically, everybody feels like
you're kind of just you're just you're just kind of waiting. Then you're like,
oh, UM. And so we were able to get Mark Sneed.
He's an economist and UM owns a company called Region Track and that's what they
do, and he will be given an economic forecast for UM Oklahoma. I'm
sure he'll do national Oklahoma and then kind of our region and really drilled down
a little bit. UM. We had him interestingly up we had him in
UM February of twenty nineteen, great forecast, and then the world changed in
March to twenty twenty or yeah, my team anyhow's right after you know we
had him in then COVID hit. So anyhow, we're gonna have him back,
and that is UM smart or May the eighteenth. Once again. Tri
County Tech is our sponsor for that our host sponsor and presenting sponsor and um
it will be held at Tri County Tech eleven thirty to one. And he
does a great job. He's easy to understand. He doesn't get way out
there where you're just kind of like what, you know, what a talking.
He's easy to understand. But I mean very very very knowledgeble. Like
I said, that's what he does. He's an economist and excited about that
one. I think that's gonna and that one may sell out, so if
you're interested in that. UM it's once again. You can register for any
of these online at Bartlesville dot com at our website and just click on the
chamber calendar and he'll take it or the box it has the events listed UM
and you can register online. But UM, it's important we try to bring
topics speakers that are relevant to business or to what's you know, how it's
affect the community, the region. It's important you want to know as a
business owner, what can I expect. I mean, he doesn't have a
crystal ball per se, but there's a lot that goes into analyzing, you
know, the future, and so I think I think it's very beneficial for
businesses. And I was excited to be able to bring that to us.
Remember he used County. He uses real science, real data, not the
magic gall exactly. So anyhow, excited about that, and then we are
working already. I'm excited about June sixth, that's kind of we end up
our year. We have another been after that, but June the six is
our annual gala, and this is where we do our awards, community awards.
We honor several individuals, several companies, our leadership Barswool class graduates.
In fact, they have their last session in a few weeks Arts and the
Tourism, and so they graduate, and we hear from the young professionals,
from our incoming outgoing chairman. It's just a really it's an inspirational night.
I really enjoy it. And it's going to be at the Hilton Garden End,
And like I said, it's June the sixth, Tuesday evening, and
it's there's a cocktail reception from six to six thirty and then the doors open
at six thirty and we're out of there by by nine o'clock, so you're
not you're not out too late on a Tuesday night. So that it's just
a very very nice event, and like I said, it's it's just inspirational,
celebrating our community, celebrating our chamber year and that kind of thing.
So lots of work, lots of details go into that, and we are
we're in the throes of working on that right now. So June sixth,
all right, very good. People have questioned sometimes about a local Chamber of
commerce. Do you have to be a retailer to be a member of the
chamber. You don't have to be a retailer. We have members all over
I should have grabbed that sheet. We just analyze that they We have members
all of all industries. So whether you're a supplier, whether you're you know,
a manufacturer, we have a lot of manu you know, most of
our manufacturers, a lot of service industries, consultants, oil and gas,
um, just they're finance, you know, it's not just banks, but
financial industry. So this is sol over the map. I mean a lot
of times people just think, you know, retail because we like to promote,
you know, shopping local and supporting local and that kind of thing.
But we have businesses all in all industries. So what's the cost to sign
up if you that's if you're just a typical small business, which I wish
i'd would have grab that sheet. We would just dantaizing this. Over eighty
percent are small business less than twenty employees. A lot of them are one
to five employees or less. But let's just say you're a regular for profit
business, not nonprofit because they have their own right, but a regular for
profit business, small business. It's two fifty a year and every now and
then someone to go, we'll say two fifty per month. I'm like,
um, okay, yeah, no, no, no, no, two
fifty a year. So it's a very minimal expense. And there's so many
different things you can take advantage of and um to promote your business, to
get your name out there, to make connections. It kind of depends what
you're looking for, but there's a lot of ways that we, like I
said, can help promote your business, help connect you, keep you informed,
give you opportunities to meet with like I said, like our our our
leadership in our community, meet with leadership on a federal national level. So
there's just lots of things. It kind of depends what a members you know,
looking for, what they're after. But um, anyhow, we would
love the opportunity to talk to anybody. Um oh, there comes an ambulance.
UM would love the opportunity to talk to anyone if they are interested,
or if you want to just slick around on our website, which we are
getting ready to change over to a new website because we're getting new software.
And that's a whole other story. Oh boy, oh my gosh. And
we do when we made this decision, I've not told staff and we all
I said, okay, you guys know. And in two months and we're
in the throes of those we're going to be knocking our heads on the wall
on why did we do this? But we all know once we get through
it, Um, it'll it'll be good. It'll be a good transit.
There's just so many advantages for our members of the of what this new dat
our new program can do membership by So we're excited about that. We just
got to get through the training and it's taking a lot of time and a
time when it's super busy for us. But um, anyhow it hies in
with our websites or we're getting get a new website. But I love our
website, our current website as well. But brilliance done a wonderful job for
us. And anyhow, all the information is on there. I just encourage
people go kind of poke around see what you know. It is easy to
navigate and you can get you can just kind of see if if, if
you would be interested in joining, we'd love to have you. We have
over seven hundred and fifty businesses and individuals, nonprofits, different organizations, and
so we're a strong voice for the community, for the business community, and
that's one thing we take seriously and really look at. And in fact,
we have a border treat coming up made the ninth with our incoming board members
and our current board, and that's one of the things we're gonna be looking
at. Is you know, look, we represent seven or fifty people,
seven hundred fifty business is you know what voice do we need to carry forward?
What is it we need you know, what do we need to I
guess fight for look you know, look after and how can we help with
different you know, issues in the community and that kind of thing we're gonna
be bringing to different community leaders and hearing from them. So anyhow, wonderful
is he busy? Is he crazy? Time of year? Sherry, thank
you for being with us. Today. Absolutely, we appreciate the radio station.
I just want to give a shout out to y'all and the great job
you guys do covering covering our community in the news. Thank you to our
news source. Appreciate that. Folks, you've been listening to Sherry Wilt with
the Bartlesville Chamber of Commerce right here on Our community connection has been brought to
you by our More and Nicamp Funeral Home right here in k one, the
one you trust.