Letter from the President

Thank you for your continued interest and support for the Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce.  My name is Howard Collens and I am so very pleased to say that I am the President of the Greater Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce.

Our Chamber operates on a breakneck pace day in, day out all year round.  Today, we pause and assess the State of the Chamber.  How are we doing?  What have we accomplished?  What remains to be done?  What challenges and opportunities lie ahead?

Outgoing President Andrey Tomkiw shepherded our Chamber through challenging economic times.  He has seen us through the hiring of a new Executive Director and the redevelopment of the basic structures of the Chamber through the creation and implementation of our new bylaws.  Andrey leaves the Chamber in a much more stable position than he found it and we are all the better for it.

2011 offered our hard-working staff the opportunity to shine.  Our staff is the face of the Chamber to our members, prospective members and the community at large.  They are innovative – offering new approaches to new and old situations.  They are the can-do crew who is behind making our events come off without a hitch and worked together to produce a grand total of 67 Event Opportunities for our Membership, working a clip that averaged one event every 5 and a half days.

In 2011, our Chamber was a vigorous participant in the business, communal, social, and cultural fabric of Royal Oak.  2012 shapes up no differently.  We will continue to make strides to be a critical and central force to enhance the life of our community.

It has been said that Royal Oak is one the most attractive communities in the Midwest for establishing a business.  The Greater Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce is an important part of creating and maintaining that belief and supporting that reality. The business of the Chamber IS business.  We can best help our members bring new business into town, expand existing facilities, or innovate on a creative entrepreneurial endeavor by improving our relationship with City Hall.

These times call on us to strengthen our partnerships with our elected officials, department heads, and city contacts in order for us to seize the economic and business opportunities for Royal Oak. Through our new Community Relations Committee, we hope to reinvigorate the discussion between City and Chamber, working together to reopen lines of communication and explore our areas of common interest.

As we get our relationship with the City on more solid ground, the Chamber will also expand its outreach to our fellow local associations.  I look forward to a more unified approach and greater collaboration with the DDA, the Restaurant Association, the Retailers Association, 11 Mile Has It All and Woodward Avenue Action Association.

A second area of focus this year will be on growing the ranks of our retail members.  Currently, retailers constitute about 18% of our membership.Expanding our quantity of retailer members will help both the Chamber and the retailers themselves.  Our retailers are the most visible face of business to much of the community at large.  A Chamber window sticker in every retailer provides strength and stability to both the retailers and the Chamber. We support our retailers – Shop Local, Shop Royal Oak matters.

Third, as a Chamber, we continue to leverage technology for the betterment of our members.  We have a newly revamped interactive website.  We are engaging using social media.  We have an active presence on Facebook and Twitter.  Our Monday Morning Memo email reaches an ever-widening circle.  We have made the transition to an electronic delivery of our newsletter.  Videos further showcase our members and the uniqueness of our Chamber.  We will continue to find ways to interact with our members and the community at large in the coming year.

Fourth, we are innovating in ways to better connect members with members.  In the recent past, we started two different initiatives.  Royal Oak Media Artists, known as ROMA, is a consortium of Chamber members in the creative fields who have gathered together to highlight the benefits of locating new, dynamic businesses in Royal Oak.   We also now have two thriving Business Referral Groups that meet regularly to pass business.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, because of the efforts of many over the last year, we have grown our stability as a Chamber on several fronts.

We have had a significant uptick in membership.  Despite the challenges in the economy, we have increased our total membership by smashing our goal for last year.  We enter 2012 as a Chamber with just under 600 members.  I have a good feeling about our prospects for continued growth of our member numbers. I encourage each one of us to participate in bringing in new members to our Chamber.  Our March Membership Madness is a fun way to grow those ranks.

Our finances are as stable as they have been in years.  Our Finance Committee has taken great pains to be practical, frugal and forward thinking.  They have set us up to be able to take advantage of opportunities that may present themselves in the short and long term.

Our financial stability has enabled us to make repairs and improvements to our building. Due to our successes in the last year, we have been able to start to address our current and future needs.  If you haven’t stopped by the Chamber office lately, I encourage you to do so to see the transformation as it happens.

Through the creativity of our members, staff and friends, it will be possible to move forward with this vision for what we can and should achieve this year and going forward.

Our members are our lifeblood.  If you have an idea to help move our Chamber ahead, I encourage you to share it with me, through a committee, the Board or the staff.

We have been good, we even have been great.  However, we must continue to live up to our name.  We are the GREATER Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce.

Together, we have a significant opportunity to make real change this year.  I thank each one of you for your efforts.