El Segundo - Chamber of Commerce

I’m honored to serve as president of the El Segundo Chamber for 2008. I joined the Board of Directors in 2003, and I’ve seen our Chamber grow since then, not just in membership but in stature. That’s a tribute to my predecessors in this position—people like Liz West, Bill Crieger, David Herbst, Kim Krantz and Chris Powell—as well to those who served on previous boards and committees.

That’s what’s special about our Chamber: Our successes are truly team efforts. That mirrors all of El Segundo, in fact. The Chamber’s motto is “The Voice for Business,” but we’re just one of several important parts of this community – along with City Hall, the schools and the residents. The Chamber will continue its strong working relationship with all parties. We will continue to take stands on local issues—realizing not all of the parties will agree on every issue—but we recognize that each has the community’s interest at heart.

I look forward to working with the Executive Committee and the Board. We have another excellent group for 2008, one that reflects the diverse business community in El Segundo.

This year, in addition to our regular events like the Aerospace Outlook Luncheon, State of the City address, Salute to El Segundo mixer and the Holiday Parade, we want to host a new event featuring a prominent speaker discussing education issues in our state and region. We’ll also use this event to highlight the outstanding skills and talents in our El Segundo schools.

We also want to revive the Leadership El Segundo program, which helps prepare the leaders of the future for civic and community service.

I also want to say how pleased I am that Marsha Hansen is our executive director. She joined us last fall full of ideas on how to improve the Chamber, and we’re going to implement some of them this year. For example, we will refresh our web site to make it a “must see” for anyone who wants to find what El Segundo is all about. The vision is to make our web site serve as El Segundo’s “concierge” with information on restaurants, hotels, the best places to shop, and so on. We’ll sell advertising so our businesses can reach out to new and old customers while providing additional revenue for the Chamber. In addition, we’ll make it possible to download membership applications and event sponsorship forms for greater convenience.

It should be another eventful year, and with your help, I’m confident we can make it a successful one!

Jim Hart