We are working hard on the golf tournament - trying to make it the best ever!  If you plan to play, sponsor a hole or be a corporate sponsor, or all three, please let us know as soon as possible.  Also, we need door prizes and ditty bag prizes.   If your business would like to donate a larger prize for a door prize or something smaller for the ditty bags (100), we would very much appreciate the donation.  Items like golf balls, coupons, crackers, caps, etc. work really well  for the ditty bags. Shirts, free golf, gift cards, items such as this are good for door prize.

Thanks to the sponsors and players that have already signed up. 

Lunch and Learn
04/17/2012

Relay for Life
04/27/2012

22nd Annual Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament
04/27/2012

Glitz, Glam & Goodies
05/05/2012

The Arc North Florida Golf Tournament
05/11/2012

2nd Quarter Business Social
05/17/2012

Glitz, Glam & Goodies is under way. It will be held Saturday, May 5 from 10-3 at the Ag Center.  If you would have a business that features "girl" stuff and you would like a booth, please let us know very soon.  The booths are free to Chamber members, $50 to non-members.

Please "Like" us on Facebook, and we can get more info out to you quicker.  This in turn will also market your business.

The first quarter business social was held at Phantom Fireworks' beautiful new facility.  There were approximately 40 people attending.  Their district manager welcomed everyone and held a drawing for four $25 gift cards.    If you did not attend, stop by and get Corey or Tom to give you a tour.

Kudos to Walmart DC #6099 (and Bobby Steele) for teaching students at BCHS during the first year of the Global Logistics Career Academy.  The class consists of 25 students and they are taught by a team of managers from the distribution center here in Macclenny.

The goals for the academy are: (1) to inform all students about Logistics career opportunities; (2) to prepare the students to enter a Logistics field, and (3) to inspire the students to pursue the Global Logistics Associate industry certification or a 2 year/4 year degree in the logistics field.

The first annual communitywide planning retreat was held Thursday and Friday, February 9 and 10 at the Baker County School Board conference room.  Pat Merritt, CEcD, Manager of Community Development with Georgia EMC, facilitated the group of 20 participants.  The retreat objective was to have discussions and develop a plan to improve the economic vitality of Baker County. 

A visional exercise was done to see where the participants would like the County to be in 2022. A few common vision themes were improved transportation, planned growth, quality jobs, a new hospital, emphasis on education - college, tech school, a new high school, infrastructure - water, sewer, roads, interstate exits, by-pass for improved access to Walmart DC, etc.

The group each gave a vote on their top three priorities and the group then focused on setting some goals for the top five catagories - infrastructure improvements, leveraging public/private partnerships, open lines of communication, community education to change perceptions and committing more resources to market Baker County.

The retreat was quite informative and the Chamber plans to make this an annual event.

Our first Lunch and Learn for 2012 was held Tuesday, April 12 at the Chamber office.  Marketing your Business Through Social Media was presented by Gabrielle Bryan from JAXUSA.  Gabriella shared with us some tips for everyday posting on Facebook and Twitter.  If you would like copies of Gabriella's "cheat sheets", email me at  bblackshear@bakerchamberfl.com and we will be happy to send them to you.