-- by Christopher Lee, R.E. Lee & Son,
2008 Chairman of the Chamber Board of Directors

Businesses join a Chamber of Commerce – our Chamber of Commerce – to build their business and build their community. 

Our Chamber has been helping to build businesses and this community since 1913 – 95 years.  The Chamber has been doing a great job of this for a long time, but the business climate constantly changes and there is always room for improvement.  So as your Chamber’s Chairman for our Chamber’s 95th year, I invite you to join us in initiating a multi-year effort to help rekindle some of the dynamic enthusiasm and activism of our Chamber and our community that defines Charlottesville.   While building successful businesses and non-profit enterprises can be challenging, it is also inspiring and rewarding.

This year is a very good time to review our operations and renew our commitment to achieve goals set in previous plans.  In 2013 – now just five years away – our Chamber will celebrate 100 years of member enterprise and community service.   Over the next five years and certainly on the occasion of our first century of service we will rededicate our Chamber and ourselves to an even more successful second century of achievement.   

I believe that any Chamber of Commerce needs to be the shining example of a great enterprise – an enterprise which members and the public are proud to be associated because they always find courteous service provided by the best people.  Our Chamber sets very high standards and yet I expect that our Chamber can be an even better example of wise governance, great leadership, and organized operations.

In 2008 we will begin a process to evaluate and determine where we want to be and what we want to do in 2013 – our 100th anniversary.  This process may have two components: 1) how to improve our governance, leadership, and organization; and, 2) what initiatives do we need to begin now to be ready for our 100th celebration.  This will require a team effort.  I hope to have the support of the Chamber Board of Directors and the membership as we work together to find better ways to deliver on our vision.  Collectively and individually we all need to find ways to improve everything we do to achieve our goals.

Our goal then, today and into the future is to sustain our Chamber as “an innovative, financially strong business alliance built for the 21st Century.”  Our mission will continue to be that we are “dedicated to representing private enterprise, promoting business, and enhancing the quality of life in our Greater Charlottesville communities.”

We have stayed on that course, resolute in our conviction that successful enterprise is the foundation of successful community.  And with the 100 year mark just ahead, now it’s time to focus our planning and preparations for that important year and the second century of success.

Thank you,

Christopher Lee