Regular Meeting, October 29, 2008

(Dallas Bond, Executive Director of the Keweenaw Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, answers questions after his interesting presentation)


Attendance at the meeting was unusually light this week with only 14 members and two guests. Guests were Linda Grahek and Dallas Bond, our speaker.

President Kevin made three announcements: (1) He reminded members of the December 17 Christmas and Awards Dinner and added that a sign-up sheet will soon be circulated. Save the date. (2) The second reading of proposed membership for Susan Hallwach. (3) Kevin paid a dollar to advertise his "Big Buck" fund-raising contest held each year the details of which escaped your not-so-alert editor for which he will pay a fine next week.

Dallas Bond spoke mainly of the Community Partnerships which are the outgrowth of chamber committees of the past. Specifically there are six major partnerships which the chamber supports: 1) KEDA (for economic development), 2) the Keweenaw Convention and Visitors Bureau KCVB (for tourism), 3) Superintendant's Round Table (for Education), 4) The KPCC itself for chamber developments, 5) Health Care Professionals and 6) Community Service Organizations such as the CLK Rotary and others.

For this presentation, Dallas focused on Tourism as his theme and revealed many plans to bring large groups to the area such as the annual Lake Superior Performance Rally and perhaps a new organization, Horizons Unlimited, which is composed of hundreds of responsible Harley motorcycle owners and riders. Also, he pointed out that between June and October there were 0ver 3,000 walk-ins at the chamber office in Houghton, some coming in several days in a row to get more and more information.

Finally, he announced that chamber's goal is to make their new website a one-stop shopping experience for tourists wishing to visit othe Copper Country.

A lively question and answer period followed the presentation.

Next week, is our monthly business meeting. With many important decisions to be made by the memership, we hope most of you will takem the time and opportunity to attend. The food is great (yes, I'll pay another fine) and the fellowship greater. Please be there.