By Dan Flaherty, Oil Region Library Association
As a frequent attendee of the Shift. Sustain. Succeed. virtual meetings, I’ve been able to gather a lot of useful information. I am thankful that the Chamber launched this series to provide businesses with relevant resources and useful tools to make more informed decisions. During this time—full of confusion, frustration, fear, hope, and change—it’s critical that we have a local source to bring everyone together and provide this information.
What has been most encouraging for me is the highlight of local. These sessions have brought a worldwide pandemic and applied it to a local level, addressing local concerns with local professionals. The fact that we have a group of local leaders who have the capabilities to share this information and provide real answers is a testament to the skillsets we have in our region. Combining this with the large group of local individuals and businesses that continue to seek guidance from these sessions shows the strength and desire we all have to come out of this stronger than ever—together.
These sessions have included a wide variety of relevant topics. You will find that your front line staff, your CEO/Executive Director, and everyone in between will find material that directly concerns their roles at work and in the community. The combination of behind-thescenes topics that your customers may never see (like loan opportunities and insurance concerns) to the public image (like marketing and direct services) highlights the wealth of offerings. Mixing in updates from our local officials and personal tips for the individual helps define our path forward—in the moment and down the road.
As always, The Chamber is looking for your input to help guide these discussions to work through our local concerns. By doing so, they are continuing to prove their willingness to be inclusive an responsive to local businesses. It’s up to us to utilize these tools as a collective unit to reach our aspirations and get through this together. I look forward to upcoming sessions and encourage you to join in on the conversation.
Visit venangochamber.org/shiftsustain-succeed to find recordings of previous sessions and to register for future sessions.
This article was published in the Venango Chamber’s June 2020 VenangoWorks! Newsletter