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Table of Contents
From the Desk of
Laura Crawford
From the Chairman of
the Board
Wake Up Call
Breakfast: Superior Customer Service in 5 Easy Steps
First Swing!
Annual Golf Classic
Boosting the Economy
Small and
Medium-Sized Businesses Footing the Bill
Protecting Your
Reputation Online
Save the Date:
Chamber & EDC Grand Opening
Grand Opening a
Success!
Do More With Your
Marketing Dollars
Thank You!
Members in the News
From the
Desk of Laura Crawford...
Your Chamber of Commerce is celebrating this month and
we hope you’ll join us! Every once in awhile, we all
need to step back, reflect and appreciate the fruits of
our work. We are blessed with a very, very hardworking
Chamber Membership. We are thrilled to be able to
recognize those Members who helped us pack up the
downtown office, knock down, build out and clear out the
new office and then helped us moved in to 2001
Butterfield Road.
Please join us on April 17th at 5:00 p.m. for
the Grand Opening celebration of your Chamber and the
Downers Grove Economic Development Corporation. We’re
also welcoming our new tenants and co-sponsors, J.
Murray & Associates and Wilson Rental. We’ll be
entertained by the jazz sounds of the Sal Salvano Trio.
Emmett’s, Sam’s Wine and Liquors and Sweet Retreat Maui
Wowie will be presenting their refreshment specialties
and several businesses will feature their mouth watering
cuisine. Bobak’s Signature Events, Parkers' Ocean
Grill, Skuddlebutt's Kitchen, Events by Tommy R’s,
Olive Tap, Sara Lee and DoubleTree Guest Suites &
Conference Center and others will delight your tastebuds.
Your Chamber office is designed to serve you better.
Positioned in an area that brings business to your
doorstep, you’ll be able to check out the Huddle Room
and Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital Chamber Conference
Room (available to any Member for meeting space). Most
of all, this is a celebration of what this Chamber is
all about – businesses that are committed to this
community and impacting positive change. Won’t you
please join us?
lcrawford@downersgrove.org
630-968-4050 x14
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From the
Chairman of the Board
Valerie Bruggeman, AT&T
As many of you know, I recently
accepted the role of interim Chairman of the Board.
It has already been an exciting few months as the
Chamber completed its move to new office space and Laura
Crawford celebrated her one year anniversary. My
goal in 2008 is to engage all the Board of Directors and
the Membership as we finalize the strategic plan for the
Chamber. We will be continuing the vision of John
Randall to create a strong, vibrant, impactful Chamber
when we roll out the plan in October. Some of the
working plans include a Board review of all programs and
operations. You'll be hearing about our progress in
upcoming columns.
My role at AT&T as Director of
External Affairs and Government Relations is to manage
AT&T's communication with external clients and
stakeholders including elected officials, community and
civic leaders, and members of the media. I have
been privileged to serve on a number of
civic and philanthropic boards including the Downers
Grove Area Chamber of Commerce & Industry Board, Greater Oak Brook
Area Chamber of Commerce Board, Illinois Republican
Woman Lincoln Series, Greater DuPage MYM, and DuPage
Convalescent Center Foundation. In 2000, I was
appointed to the West Chicago Fire District Board as a
Trustee and the DuPage Workforce Investment Board.
I would also like to introduce you
to Bill Murphy of Maclyn Group who is the incoming
Chair. Bill will step into the Chairman role
during FY2009-2010. A graduate of Drake
University, Bill is a principle of Maclyn Group and
Maclyn Interactive. He has been active in the
Chamber for many years, especially with the Young
Professionals Network. Married to a Downers Grove
teacher, they are expecting their first child in July. Bill
tells me he is looking forward to building the best
Chamber in Illinois.
Going forward, you will be asked
how you want to shape the Chamber. This is
your Chamber - let's build it strong.
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Wake Up Call Breakfast: Superior Customer Service in 5
Easy Steps
Grab your coffee and
your notebooks for an engaging
morning discussion of
how to deliver
superior customer
service in five easy execution strategies with
Deborah Chambers Chima, president and CEO of
Chambers Consulting Group. Join us on Friday,
April 4 from 7:30 to 9:00 am in the Chamber
Office. This workshop is designed for
participants who want to enhance their knowledge on
how to deliver superior customer service in a way
that is fun and engaging. You will learn how to
create the opportunity to wow customers every time,
deliver the level of customer service that keeps the
cash register ringing, and influence the decision of
the customer to choose
 your
services. Sponsored by the Downers Grove Downtown
Management Association.
Fee: $15 Members; $25 Non-Members.
Visit HERE to register.
Deborah Chambers
Chima is the co-author of Choose to Lead: Advice,
 Tools,
and Strategies for Women, from Women, and a
featured columnist in The Business
Ledger. A certified Leadership Coach, Deborah
comes from a 24- year career in the retail industry,
and more than 20 years with McDonald’s Corporation.
She is the 2007-2008 President of the National
Association of Women Business Owners and winner of
the 2006 Business Ledger " Influential Women in
Business" Award.
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Y? Connecting Generations: How to Attract, Engage,
and Lead Young Professionals General Membership
Luncheon
How can you reach future generations and encourage
them to get involved and develop their skills? What
can you expect from the Gen Y as colleagues? Join
us on Wednesday, April 9 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm
at the DoubleTree Guest Suites & Conference
Center (2111 Butterfield Rd., Downers Grove) for
an engaging lunch sponsored by Accurate Document
Destruction. Differences in the way generations
 work,
prioritize their time and communicate can cause
workplace conflict and deplete organizational
morale. Beyond the basic generational differences,
learn practical techniques to reach and engage the
evasive Gen Y and encourage harmony between
generations. In this presentation, HR expert Mary
Lynn Fayoumi, GPHR, CAE, SPHR, President & CEO and
Monica Zborowski, HR Analyst of The Management
Association of Illinois will share their
cross-generational experiences. Fee: $25 Members,
$40 Non-Members.
Visit HERE to register.
 Mary
Lynn is the President and CEO of The Management
Association of Illinois. Her 18-year tenure at the
950-member, $3.0 million, 110-year-old employers’
association began in 1990 as a consultant/trainer.
During the past eighteen years, Mary Lynn has
established an excellent reputation due to her
expertise in the field of human resource management.
Many organizations around the country have benefited
from her experience as a trusted advisor consultant,
writer and trainer. Due to her broad-based
experience, she is quoted frequently in the
Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times,
and Crain’s Chicago Business.
Hosted by the
Young Professionals
Network.
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First
Swing! Annual Golf Classic
It's time to pull out your clubs and get ready for
the Annual Golf Classic on May 12 at Seven
Bridges Golf Club in Woodridge. The
Chamber has created valuable sponsor opportunities,
a variety of golf options, and more. Don't
miss this chance to participate in one of the first
golf outings of 2008!
Visit HERE to see all the
details!
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Boosting the Economy
By Thomas J. Donohue, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber
of Commerce
March 25, 2008
Last week I delivered a speech in Michigan, a state some
are writing off as an economic basket case. I told an
audience of small and mid-size Michigan businesses that
I couldn't disagree more with that assessment. In fact,
I said there were two things that could not only help
lift up the Michigan economy, but the national economy
as well.
The first may surprise you--trade. Few Michiganders
appreciate the positive role free trade plays in the
state's economy. In 2005, exports supported 220,000
manufacturing jobs in Michigan. That same year, more
than 200,000 Michigan workers were employed by foreign
companies. Nationally, trade is equivalent to 12% of our
gross domestic product, with exports supporting millions
of good-paying American jobs.
Most workers and consumers benefit from trade. That's a
fact. But we must recognize another reality--some
workers are dislocated. They deserve our support. That's
why Congress should reauthorize the Trade Adjustment
Assistance program so that America's workers impacted by
trade have access to the education and job training
tools they need to return to work quickly.
Free trade is fundamentally about fairness. We have one
of the most open markets in the world. Yet when we ship
our products and services overseas, they are subject to
high taxes known as tariffs. FTAs are the crowbar we can
use to pry open those markets and eliminate those
tariffs.
There's something else that would be a godsend to
Michigan and the nation--a modern, refurbished
infrastructure system. But by nearly every measure,
Michigan's infrastructure is deteriorating. Thirty-eight
percent of Michigan's major urban roads and 29% of its
bridges are in poor or mediocre condition. The state is
below the national average in broadband penetration.
While energy demand is skyrocketing, Michigan hasn't
built a new power plant in two decades.
Failing infrastructure could tremendously hamper the
state's ability to conduct cross-border trade. It is
already sapping productivity, polluting the environment,
and costing lives.
These infrastructure failings are not limited to
Michigan--the entire nation faces similar challenges,
and they must be addressed. More money must be part of
the solution, and it should come from three places:
private investment, public-private partnerships, and
consideration of an increase in the gasoline user tax
fee, which hasn't been raised in 14 years. And the money
must be spent wisely. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is
committing significant resources to building support for
trade and infrastructure. Michigan is a perfect case
study in how they can be the twin engines that help
drive our economic growth and financial security for
years to come.
Originally published 25
March 2008. Reprinted by permission, uschamber.com,
March 2008.
Copyright©
2008, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Footing the Bill
A report from the Illinois Chamber
Illinois Covered
Legislation Could Emerge Upon Senate’s Return
Movement on the
Governor’s proposed Illinois Covered program this year
has been virtually non-existent since Blagojevich first
resurrected the proposal in his FY 2009 budget address
back in February. That could change in the coming
weeks, however, as legislators return to Springfield
next week to try and wrap up the spring legislative
session by the targeted May 29th adjournment date.
Last year, the Senate
was the only chamber to take up the Governor’s Illinois
Covered proposal legislatively, although the legislation
ultimately failed to generate enough support for
passage. Senator Dave Koehler was, at that time, one of
the major champions of SB 5, which contained the
Illinois Covered provisions, and he is expected to once
again take on primary sponsorship of the proposal this
year. Although no bill has been identified to house the
proposal, the Chamber anticipates that the provisions
will mirror those of SB 5 to create the costly Illinois
Covered Choices, Rebate, and Assist portions of the
program.
SB 5 also included the
3% payroll tax that the Governor has once again targeted
as the primary revenue source for the Illinois Covered
program. This tax would be forced upon employers with
at least 10 employees or more who spend less than 4% of
their payroll on health insurance coverage for those
employees. This means that small- to medium-sized
businesses would be responsible for funding a $1 billion
healthcare expansion program.
The Chamber will
continue to monitor this issue closely and provide
updates as necessary. In the meantime, the Chamber has
prepared a
summary of the Illinois Covered Choices, Rebate, and
Assist provisions, as they were presented last year
under SB 5.
To see a copy of SB5:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=5&GAID=9&GA=95&DocTypeID=SB&LegID=27215&SessionID=51
To contact Illinois
Senators:
http://www.ilga.gov/senate/
IDOR Income Tax
Rulemaking Efforts Begin
Senate Bill 1544 and its
trailer bill SB 788, passed last year by the Illinois
General Assembly, contained some significant changes to
the Illinois Income Tax Act, particularly in the area of
income apportionment--i.e., how companies that do
business in multiple states divide their business income
for taxation purposes. While retail and manufacturing
industries continue to apportion their income by using a
single sales factor apportionment method, many service
industries including telecommunications, transportation,
financial services, broadcasting, and utilities, to name
just a few, will be required to change the way they
apportion their income this 2008 tax year.
The Illinois Department
of Revenue is currently in the process of drafting
regulations to implement the new laws. The Illinois
Chamber Tax Institute, members and staff, will be
working with the Department of Revenue to help review
drafts and further develop these industry specific
regulations. Preliminary or working drafts are
currently under discussion for the telecommunication and
financial services industries.
The regulations for
telecommunication providers are intended to provide
guidance for determining when gross receipts from the
sale of telecommunications service or mobile
telecommunications service are attributable to Illinois
for income tax purposes. Similarly, the draft
regulations for the financial services industries
attempt to determine when gross receipts from financial
transactions are attributable to the Illinois
marketplace in order to compute a financial
organization's Illinois income tax liability.
To view a summary of the
Governor’s proposed 2009 budget, click here:
http://www.ilchamber.org/Government_affairs/About_gov_affairs/CPR_archives/
GovernorsFY09budgetsummary.doc
We will
keep you posted as these rulemakings further develop.
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Protecting
Your Reputation Online
Build Positive Web
Presence
Caroline Melberg
President and CEO Small Business Mavericks
www.smallbusinessmavericks.com
Anyone can go online and
anonymously post something about you or your company on
one or more forums, blogs, or user-generated Web sites.
A single comment can do more damage to your business
than you can do yourself through poor customer service.
Consider these two real-life
examples: A construction contractor fires an employee
who retaliates by posting negative comments on a popular
forum online. The comments appear in the results of an
online search above the company's Web site. In another
instance, a small business owner, who is also involved
in charitable work, comes under attack from a blogger
and former customer. Both the charity and the business
owner are criticized.
Offline, such comments could be
considered slander, but online they can be made
anonymously and can influence potential customers to
stay away from your business. Once the damage is done,
it is hard to reverse.
The good news is that you can
manage your online reputation with an online marketing
strategy that is inexpensive and fast. You can do it
yourself, or you can hire an Internet marketing
consultant. Either way, online reputation management is
an absolute must for every small business owner, even if
you do not have a Web site or do business online. Here
are a few strategies:
-
Sign up for a Google
alert. Use your own name, your company name, and
your Web site URL as keywords. This way you know
what the people are saying about you and when, and
you can head off repercussions from erroneous or
negative comments before they get too entrenched in
the search engine databases.
-
Start a company Web
site if you don't have one already. Try to have your
personal and/or company name as part of the domain
name. Include links to highly respected Web sites in
your industry.
-
Proactively build your
online presence. Start your own blog and post daily.
Post on other blogs and forums related to your
business. Distribute company press releases online.
Consider "article marketing," the act of publishing
guides and tips showing your business expertise and
encourage others to take advantage of your
knowledge. Create profiles at popular social
networking sites such as LinkedIn or MySpace and
participate in community discussions. Bookmark
online content at popular social bookmarking sites
such as Digg and Del.icio.us and bookmark others'
contributions.
Online marketing strategies are an
extension of traditional marketing. The essence of
online reputation management is to ensure that positive
reflections of your business appear in as many places as
possible online, as often as possible. To learn more
about online reputation management, talk to an Internet
marketing consultant.
Originally published March 2008. Reprinted by
permission, uschamber.com, April 2008.
Copyright©
2008, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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Save the Date! Chamber & EDC Grand Opening
Come celebrate with us as we welcome Members, the
community, and our Esplanade neighbors to our new
offices with a Grand Opening on Thursday,
April 17 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Mark your calendars
for this don’t miss event sponsored by the DoubleTree
Guest Suites & Conference Center, Hamilton Partners, J.
Murray & Associates, and Wilson Rental! We’ll feature
the fine cuisine of our Member businesses with a wide
variety of appetizers, desserts, and beverages. Network
with colleagues to the tunes of the Sal Salvano Trio. Congratulate our Building Business
Partners who have contributed so generously to making
the new space happen. The Chamber is thrilled to offer
more opportunities for Members at 2001 Butterfield
Road. Please mark you calendar to come visit your
new Chamber office.
Visit HERE to RSVP.
“With this move, the Chamber is uniquely positioned to
enable easy access for our Members and to provide even
greater value for their investment dollar. We are
incredibly grateful to all our Building Business
Partners who gave so willingly of their time and efforts
to create a truly impressive space.” - Laura Crawford,
President & CEO
Enjoy the fine products of these featured Members:
Bobak's Signature Events
Carlucci
DoubleTree Guest Suites &
Conference Center
Emmett's Ale House
Events by Tommy R's
The Olive Tap
Parker's Ocean Grill
Sam's Wines & Spirits
Sara Lee
Skuddlebutt's Kitchen
Sweet Retreat Maui Wowi
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Grand Opening A
Success!
The Chamber and the Downers Grove Economic Development
Corporation welcomed more than 300 guests to their joint
Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting on April 17. We
wish to thank all our Members for their support
especially:
Mayor Ron Sandack for his gracious toast.
Hamilton Partners and Gary Mori for their generous
support and beautiful space.
The Boards of Directors of the Chamber and the EDC for
their enthusiastic support.
Tom Romano and Events by Tommy R's for producing a
sparkling event.
Our terrific vendors - Bobak's Signature Events,
Carlucci, DoubleTree Guest Suites & Conference Center,
Emmett's Ale House, Events by Tommy R's, The Olive Tap,
Sam's Wines & Spirits, Sara Lee, Skuddlebutt's Kitchen,
and Sweet Retreat Maui Wowi.
Our wonderful sponsors - DoubleTree Guest Suites &
Conference Center, Events by Tommy R's, Hamilton
Partners, J. Murray & Associates, and Wilson Rental
Robert Kelly Studios and D'Lara Photography for their
professional photography services.
Our cheerful Ambassadors that welcomed everyone -
Ken
Koger, Wachovia Securities
Jennifer Murray,
J. Murray & Associates, Inc.
Bill
Timmins,
College Financial Planners of America
Cindy
Wunderlich,
Ledonia Consulting
Phil
Bremser, Ahlfeld & Associates
Joe
Marchioretto, The Entrepreneur’s Source
Neil
Olson, Expetec Technology Services of Naperville, Inc.
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Do More
With Your Marketing Dollars
You may have noticed the new color mailer,
info@downersgrove.org, in your mailbox this month.
We are thrilled to offer this new publication to Members
along with a host of advertising opportunities.
Consider including your ad or insert!
Visit HERE to see all the options available.
Questions? Contact Heather Prince at
hprince@downersgrove.org or 630-968-4050 x13.
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Thank You!
Thank you to ScotPress for hosting the quarterly
Ellsworth park task force group.
Thank you to Deborah Chambers Chima for a fun and
interactive presentation on customer service.
Thomas Cunningham of Exodus Technology
Services for offering his expertise on databases at
the March Non-Profit Network meeting.
Michael Peters of Abacus Rex for his
informative presentation on accounting practices at the
April Business Roundtable.
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Members in the News
Nicor Gas announced that in 2007 more than $1.8
million in corporate and employee donations and
thousands of volunteer hours benefited more than 1,200
causes in communities in northern Illinois.
Lisa Rasin of Business Machine Agents was
honored by the Indian Boundary YMCA with a distinguished
award recognizing her many many hours of volunteer
service.
Ballydoyle Irish Pub won the following NiteLife
Magazine's Best of the Burbs Awards:
Best Casual Dining, Best
Irish Pub, Best Overall Restaurant,
Best All-Ages Venue, Best Bus Boy, Best Waiter, Best
Open Mic, Best Shot, and Best Reuben
Kory Atkinson has been named to the board of
trustees for the College of DuPage.
Winfree Business Growth Advisors celebrate two
years!
Downers Grove Moose Family Center #1535 donated
twenty four Tommy Moose dolls to the Downers Grove
Police and Fire Departments to offer comfort to children
in traumatic situations.
William Jochum has been appointed vice president
of Citizens Financial Bank.
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