One Question
Happy birthday to us! The South Bend Regional Chamber is 115 years old this year, and we continue stronger than ever with the support, input and talent of you—our members. From big economic wins over the past 18 months to our U.S. 31 freeway catalyst role back in the mid-1990s to the creation of the Convention & Visitors Bureau (now Visit South Bend Mishawaka) and Michiana Partnership (now South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership), the Chamber has been an integral part of these transformational efforts in our region’s history. We connected with several former Chamber board chairs to ascertain their response to One Question.
What should the Chamber’s role be in the community in the next 10 years? (Areas we need to focus on)
“The Chamber has multiple roles focused on attracting and supporting business growth within our region. In the past few years, the Chamber has done a great job of being the “voice of business within the region” as we confront issues and develop strategies for economic growth.
While over the next 10 years many of the current roles will continue, I see the need to emphasize some more than others. For instance, with the rapid changes in demographics and technology, I see the Chamber playing a larger role to ensure businesses have a sufficient, adequately trained workforce. Being in the health care industry, I foresee a huge shortage of adequately trained workers to care for all the ‘baby boomers’ who are currently retiring. Accordingly, the Chamber can enhance their involvement in helping businesses understand changes that will be occurring in the education of our future workforce such as more apprenticeships and work-study programs.
Furthermore, I believe businesses will have to be able to adapt more quickly than they do today to technological changes if they expect to be competitive and differentiated.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the Chamber board. I learned much and met many great people. During my term as chairperson, I led a strategic planning effort with the board resulting in the formation of YPN South Bend. Also, during my time on the board, I co-chaired with my Crowe partner, Karl King, a series of strategy sessions organized by the Chamber originally focused on attracting more technology workers to the community. The effort eventually resulted in the development of a fiber-optic network, which is now ChoiceLight. Without the Chamber that network would not exist today and most probably the recent attraction of large data centers to our region would not have been possible.”
Carl Bossung | Cofounder
Senior1Care
“The Chamber has made a massive impact over the last 10 years as a convenor of business acting as a champion for regional development and helping us to capitalize on the State's Regional Cities and READI grant programs. In the next 10 years, the Chamber's role should be the voice for business with our elected officials in South Bend and St. Joseph County, ensuring we continue to have a good business environment. It should be connecting our business community with those in talent development at local schools to ensure we are developing the workforce of tomorrow. It should serve as the ‘front door’ to those who want to live, work and play in the South Bend area acting as a ‘one-stop shop’ for guidance and collaboration. Lastly, it should be sure our business community is a strong partner with the University of Notre Dame, creating win-win opportunities for us all.”
Rich Carlton | President
aunalytics
“I really believe the Chamber needs to become even more politically active, albeit remaining as nonpartisan as possible. This would mean interviewing and endorsing candidates for every local elective office, including not only school boards but also candidates for city and county offices. Candidate endorsements need to be published or made public much earlier in order to get ahead of the ever-increasing early voting! Expanding the Chamber’s advocacy role will become even more important in the years to come so, as a community, we can increase voter turnout and, as a Chamber, remain relevant.”
Greg Downes | Retired
“Our community is currently experiencing economic growth like no other time in its history, with several multi-billion-dollar projects that are either currently underway or in the advanced planning stages. The Chamber has played an important role in this economic development. Over the next 10 years, the Chamber should continue to be an economic face for our community on such opportunities and regularly interact on similar opportunities with the State of Indiana and local government who have been so important to securing these projects. With these large projects, and others that will surface in the coming years, the Chamber should continue to focus on the needs of employers and their employees through workforce development, education, and housing development. These are critical areas to keep our community competitive.”
Philip Faccenda | Partner
Barnes & Thornburg
"With a number of transformative projects underway or in the pipeline, the South Bend region is poised for substantial economic growth over the next 10 years. As the lead economic development organization, continuing to focus on workforce development, government affairs, talent attraction and education will be crucial. With 115 years of experience, our South Bend Regional Chamber is up for the challenge."
Tim Sexton | Associate Vice President for Public Affairs
University of Notre Dame
What do YOU think? Email Jeff Rea with your response.
