Chamber Notes Archives

March 2008

Do they shoot the messenger or does he die on his own?

Earlier today, I read an article online about a controversy that is raging between two historical societies in Southern Greece to decide, once and for all, who really is the father of the modern-day marathon.

Was it Phidippides, who history tells us ran 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to report a Greek victory over the Persians or was it really Eukles, who Phidippides was often confused for, who announced the good news? The article itself spoke to a variety of legitimate points on both sides of the issue. The one point that I thought was most noticeably missing was that this whole fiasco took place in 5 B.C. and should have either been resolved by now or at the very least people should have unilaterally agreed to stop hassling one another over it.

To me, whether it was Phidippides or Eukles is secondary to the fact that the person who ultimately delivered the message died immediately thereafter. From that incident some Greek deduced that running that distance, while proving to be fatal to one determined messenger, was ideal for a new sporting event. Imagine that.

I reference this piece of fractured lore as a prelude to my own role as a messenger within a business community that is barraged by information at every turn and, I fear, has stopped listening. Or at the very least is hearing only what it wants to hear.

The most recent example of selective hearing took place in late February when The Chamber held a Forum for Retail and Hospitality businesses. We mailed a Forum invitation two months in advance to 130 Blair County retail establishments, restaurants and hotels. One month later we faxed them, then E-mailed them and finally called each one individually. In some cases, we even hand-delivered follow-up invitations.

Twenty people showed-up.

While the interaction that took place at the Forum was spirited and gave rise to further discussion, it’s still somewhat discouraging that so few businesses within those industry sectors can understand the importance of their involvement and will take the time to provide their input. For goodness sake, there was even a free breakfast involved.

As the messenger, I tried to stress the virtues of collaboration and how those would likely translate to dollars and cents. I emphasized that the Forum would not simply be a recruiting mechanism for future Chamber members. And I focused considerable attention on the stir-fried potatoes on the breakfast buffet. Sometimes you need to pull-out all the stops.

My greatest concern, beyond the fact that the opportunities for retail and hospitality businesses created by the opening of a key stretch of I-99 are already being lost, is that other equally important issues will receive lukewarm response. It was just one month ago that our Legislative Action Committee released survey results from the Chamber membership which prioritized that committee’s direction for 2008. Telling us what to do is tremendously important. Helping us to do it takes it to the next level.

The number one legislative priority was a reduction in the cost of healthcare insurance. Businesses large and small are fighting to keep ahead of the increases in premiums and many have either discontinued offering coverage or have raised co-pays and deductibles to levels where employees are having difficulty making ends meet. As messenger, we’ve held educational programming with providers so that businesses can get a better feel for the healthcare terrain. Once again, the turnout was sparse. We will attempt another program, this one with information on cost savings, later this month.

Energy costs wasn’t even a topic on our 2007 priorities survey. In 2008, it came-in at number two. The impetus was the realization that the caps on electric energy are coming off in the near future and the consequences, particularly for small businesses, could prove disastrous. We’ve already sponsored one program on what that is likely to mean and nine business people attended. That was approximately 800 less than needed to be there.

So where does the real problem lie and what can we do to address it? That will occupy the efforts of our Marketing Committee, our Chamber Board of Directors and anyone else well-positioned to carry the message. For the ongoing health of a business community with too many fragile components, the more messengers the better.

Chamber Notes Archives