Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Business Carroll Co Chamber Commerce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business Carroll Co Chamber Commerce. Show all posts

Sunday, January 14, 2007

20070112 Commissioner Minnich’s State of the County Address

20070112 Commissioner Minnich’s State of the County Address

Commissioner Dean L. Minnich’s remarks

at the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Commissioner’s

For more information, please see the Carroll County Times, Baltimore Sun and Baltimore Examiner’s coverage.

Kelsey Volkmann of The Examiner wrote “Water, economic growth, highways subjects of state of county address” on Jan 12, 2007. Read it here.

Baltimore Sun reporter Laura McCandlish wrote “Commissioners raise water, traffic concerns” on January 14th, 2007. Read it here.

Marjorie Censer of the Carroll County Times wrote an article which was published on Friday, January 12, 2007, “Commissioner talks water during address.”

Water shortages in Carroll pose a challenge to the county’s growth, but planned reservoirs could alleviate the problem, Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge said at the annual state of county luncheon Thursday.

The county’s additional residents mean it needs more water than it did in the past, and Maryland Department of the Environment regulations have limited the county’s allocations from wells, she said.

[…]

At the luncheon, organized by the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and held at Martin’s Westminster, Gouge warned that completion of the reservoirs could still be at least a decade away. Water shortages might make it more difficult to develop the county as planned, both she and Commissioner Dean Minnich said.

Gouge said the limitations on municipal water supplies could push development into farmland, while Minnich focused on their potential to affect the county’s economic development.

Read the rest of her article here.

_____

Commissioner Dean L. Minnich’s remarks

at the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Commissioner’s

State of the County presentation luncheon

Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007

Martin’s Westminster

611 words

State of the county – 2007

Carroll County’s partners in economic development efforts are the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, and the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore. We have also added emphasis over the past few years to our commitment to working with the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and other business associations in the county.

First among our priorities is to help local, existing businesses to prosper and grow. Then we work on recruiting new industry to add to the industrial tax base.

Part of that commitment shows in the development of a new “priority permitting” system to designate significant economic development projects and streamline site review processes.

Also, we developed “Enterprise Carroll,” offering grants for existing businesses in key industries. It invests in new concepts to help companies grow from concept to reality, upgrade technology, pay for research.

We make available Inc. Link, a customized software tool to help firms keep up with issues on training and workforce development, among other things.

We consolidated Four Partners with One Purpose as a small business training and resource center. EDC underwrites the cost of training at CCC in cooperation with Md. Small Business Development Center and Start-up Carroll.

Business and Employment Resource Center provides workforce development services to local business.

The expanding local economy in 2006 grew by $2 million, 2 hundred 10 thousand, 792 dollars, or 15 percent, the largest commercial/industrial base growth in the region. Nearly a million square feet of space was built or renovated, and Carroll County gained 2,533 jobs in 2005.

Spec building shows a healthy trend. More than 60,000 feet of new flex space has been constructed at the Air Business Center, and land is being graded along the Md. 97 Technology Corridor for additional buildings. The Westminster Technology Park is ready to market and several developers have expressed interest.

We’ve worked with General Dynamics and Flowserve as they have expanded, and welcomed new companies like HR Nicholson and Kellogg Snacks Jacketing. Warfield stands to provide space for the expansions and relocations of firms that will be looking for technology-based workforces.

In our publication, Carroll County Profile, stats from the Md. Dept of labor, licensing and regulation for 2005 show a total labor force of 90,928 – smallest labor force in the region, but also with an unemployment rate of only 2.6 percent, among the lowest in the state.

We are, of course, a county of commuters; in the 2000 census, 55.1 % of our workers commuted outside the county.

We’re working to reduce that percentage. There is some irony in the fact that many of our residents who must bear most of the tax burden for services have created the need for those services by moving here in search of less density, less industrial congestion, and less vehicular traffic. That same industrial congestion that contributed to the density and vehicular congestion helped pay the bills where they were.

The largest employer in the county is the public school system, with 3,342 people. Carroll Hospital Center is the largest private sector employer, with 1,438. Springfield Hospital Center, often overlooked as an economic entity, has 833 workers, and Random House, 830. County government, excluding the Sheriff’s department and the courts system, has 650 employees.

Others with more than 300 employees include McDaniel College, Fairhaven, Joseph A. Bank Clothiers, Northrup Grumman, English American Tailoring, EVAPCO, General Dynamics Robotic Systems, Inc., and Carroll Lutheran Village.

The department of economic development is actively engaged in the comprehensive plan update with the department of planning. We have selected Parsons Brickerhoff as a consultant to analyze our industrially and commercially zoned lands and recommend changes in infrastructure and funding strategies that will help us lay the footprint that today’s prospects require.

In short, we have broadened the scope of participation and cooperation, inside the county government, between governments and private sectors, and sharpened our focus on specifics in developing a strategy to make the most of the best resources we have – a high-quality pool of potential employees.

We have made incremental progress, we continue to strive for consistency, balance and preservation of the quality of life that our residents seek.

####

Thursday, January 11, 2007

20070111 Best shoes at the Chamber State of the County luncheon

January 11th, 2007

The competition was tough, but the shoes pictured above won out.

(Best dressed was former Commissioner Perry Jones – but that is almost a forgone conclusion at these types of public events. He looked rested and it was good to see him. One friend, who shall go un-named called him “Man Candy.”

Okay, after that outburst… moving on.

(Giving Commissioner Jones a run for his money was Kelsey Volkmann.)

Oh the State of the County presentations?

Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge talked about water issues and growth – the Comprehensive Plan update initiative… Commissioner Dean L. Minnich talked about business and economic development and Commissioner Michael Zimmer talked about traffic safety issues.

Now to the important stuff - - shoes.

Well, maybe not, I’ll take a nap first and then I’ll get back to shoes.

Oh, all the journalists who attended the event appeared to subscribe to the parameters of the Washington Examiner dress code (q.v.: “20060330 Always Dress better than expected”) – darn it.

I enjoyed chatting with Kelsey Volkmann, Katie Jones, Marjorie Censer and Josh Mackley. I did not get a chance to talk with Laura McCandlish – she was very serious…

Mr. Mackley said that the State of the County presentations will be aired on Ch. 19 (on Comcast cable in Carroll County only) throughout January and February on Saturdays in at noon and Sundays at 8 PM and Tuesdays at 1:30 PM and 10:00 PM.

More about the shoes and the State of the County later.

####

20070110 Richard Haddad and former Chamber presidents

Richard Haddad and former Chamber presidents

Mr. Haddad and former Chamber presidents and chairmen 1932 through 2006

Carroll County Chamber of Commerce former presidents and chairs
1932 through 2006

Posted January 10th, 2007

I saw Carroll County Chamber of Commerce CEO Richard Haddad at a community event Wednesday evening, January 10th, 2007.

In the course of our conversation, we briefly touched upon the history of the Carroll County Chamber.

I asked if he had a list of past Chamber leaders and practically before I got home, it was in my inbox.

This is not exactly surprising, considering my impressions of Mr. Haddad. This gentleman and community leader is perfect for the leadership of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and we are lucky to have him.

For more about Mr. Haddad, award winning Carroll County Times journalist, Carrie Ann Knauer wrote an article about in March of 2006.
Go here to read it.

For a bit of
history on the Chamber – go here.

For more posts on the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce on “Soundtrack,” click here.

Presidents

1932-39 Edwin S. Gehr
1939-45 J. Pearre Wantz, Sr.
1945-46 Truman B. Cash
1946-49 Charles D. Schaffer
1949-51 K. Ray Hollinger
1951-52 Herman M. Rosenberg
1952-53 Arthur M. Zile
1953-54 Quintin C. Quintal
1954-55 Frank H. Libman
1955-56 E. O. Weant, Jr.
1956-58 C. O. Fishpaw
1958-59 Stanley H. Tevis, Jr.
1959-60 Walter H. Haschert
1960-61 Russell H. Morgan
1961-62 Henry H. Himmler
1961-62 Frank J. Battaglini
1963-64 Paul K. Dell
1964-65 Lloyd M. Elderdice
1965-66 Edwin W. Shauck
1966-67 Daniel I. Welliver
1967-68 Vernon E. Beall
1968-69 Ralph E. Culler
1969-70 Robert L. Leese
1970-71 Carl C. Rosen
1971-72 William E. Miller
1972-73 James J. Schwartz, Sr.
1973-74 Walter T. Haines, Jr.
1974-75 Kenneth L. Bohn
1975-76 C. Lee Freeman
1977 J. Lee Foltz
1978 Robert M. Bare
1979 L. Albert Beaver
1980-81 Edward D. Leister
1982 Daniel S. Dulany
1983 G. Melvin Mills, Jr.
1984 Paul Dell
1985 Frank Wanken
1986 M. Lee Primm
1987 Georgia S. Hoff
1988 James Melhorn
1989 Dean Minnich
1990 Dwight D. Dingle
1991 Thomas F. See
1992 R. Wayne Barnes
1993 Dottie Wells
1994 Lee Depot
1995 Paul Denton
1996 Lori Walsh-Graham
1997 Richard Seaman
1998 Elmer Zepp
1999 Louna Primm

Chairmen of the Board

2000 David Bollinger
2001 Linda Mielke
2002 Robert Holmes
2003 Faye Pappalardo
2004 H. Eugene Eyler
2005 James A. Mayola
2006 Michael J. Shank

Friday, January 05, 2007

20070103 Carroll County State of the county address next Thursday

Carroll County State of the county address next Thursday

January 4th, 2006

The Carroll County commissioners will delivery their state of the county addresses next Thursday, January 11th, 2007, 12 o’clock – noon, at Martin's Westminster, 505 Jermor Lane in Westminster.

The annual event is put on by the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce.

For a previous post on “Soundtrack” that includes some history of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, go here. Or go here.

This year’s event is sponsored by the Bank of Hanover and the cost is $25.00 per person.

To make a reservation, please call the Chamber office at 410-848-9050 or fax your reservation to 410-876-1023. Cancellations accepted 48 hrs. prior to event.

For more information from the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce – go here.

Meanwhile, Kelsey Volkmann, writing or the Baltimore Examiner, published a preview of this tear’s state of the county address:

Politics: State of county address to focus on water, faster Internet access

Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner

Read more by Kelsey Volkmann

Jan 3, 2007 3:00 AM

Carroll County - The Carroll County Chamber of Commerce expects commissioners to focus on securing water sources and expanding high-speed Internet access during their state of the county address.

“Each commissioner gives a talk on where they see the county today, where it’s going, and then there is a question-and-answer section,” said Richard Haddad, president of the chamber, which has been hosting the addresses for at least three decades.

Read the rest of her article here.

####

Saturday, March 11, 2006

20060306 Richard Haddad named new leader of Carroll Co. Chamber


Richard Haddad named new leader of Carroll County Chamber of Commerce

March 6th, 2006

It was recently just announced that Richard Haddad has been named President – or is it Executive Director of the
Carroll County Chamber of Commerce.

I had the pleasure of working with Mr. Haddad when I was the mayor of Westminster and many of us are expecting great things from him taking over the reins of this venerable organizations of business and community leaders.

For a bit of
history on the Chamber – go here.

For more posts on the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce on “Soundtrack,” click here.

Carrie Knauer, who has won numerous journalism awards, (
here and here,) has written a “Question and Answer” piece with Mr. Haddad. Her article appeared in the Carroll County Times on March 6th, 2006.

The
Carroll County Times unfortunately does not use hyperlinks, so the entire piece, which belongs to Ms. Knauer and the Carroll County Times, is pasted below.

For more work
from Ms. Knauer, click here. Or enter “Carrie Ann Knauer” in your favorite search engine.

By Carrie Ann Knauer,
Times Staff Writer Monday,
March 06, 2006

Q&A
Name: Richard Haddad

Age: 64

Residence: Westminster

Title: Carroll County Chamber of Commerce President

Last book read: "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Richard Haddad started his position as president of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Feb. 27. Haddad was a member of the Carroll chamber for a number of years, and as a volunteer, he chaired the chamber's business and education committee and also served briefly on the organization's board of directors. Haddad said he is excited to take this position toward the end of his career so he will be able to apply much of the management skills he has learned at other positions to help his local community.

Q: Where are you from and how did you come to Carroll County?

A: Brooklyn, N.Y., born and raised. I had been pretty well on in my career, I was maybe 30 and working at Citibank in New York, and I was doing EEO program development [Equal Employment Opportunity] for Citibank at the time. I was their first EEO officer, and this was like in 1969.

There was a utility down here in the Washington, D.C.-area that had a lot of EEO problems and was looking for an EEO officer. I was interested in leaving New York, and I wound up taking that job. That's how I came down to Maryland, and that was in 1971 when I finally moved down here.

I lived in Howard County for about 25 years and then moved to Carroll County about 10 years ago.

Q: How do you see your role at the Chamber of Commerce?

A: I think that there's what you might call "back at the ranch" roles and then just the public roles. The back at the ranch roles basically include the management of the office and the operations and just making sure that everything moves smoothly and that sort of thing. Also very importantly, working with the staff, supervising staff, helping them develop potential, encouraging them to talk about issues, so that we can work together and congeal as a team. And that is the stuff that the public very rarely sees, that businesses just take for granted that somebody takes care of those sorts of things.

The out-in-the-public-eye roles are basically acting as a spokesperson for the chamber, and maybe most importantly for the chamber's long- term health, is working with the board to develop a vision for the chamber and then developing planning for that vision, that we have a step-by-step process for achieving where we want to go and that sort of thing.

And that's one of the things that really interested me in the chamber job because I have background in strategic planning, and so I was really excited about that. I did consulting here in Carroll County for a few years and did strategic planning, some of the board members knew about that, so they were anxious to bring that expertise here.

Q: What do you see as the chamber's role in the community?

A: Carroll is not like a county that's filled with Fortune 500 companies that recruit people from all around the world, and they put in their five or 10 years and then move on to somewhere else where they get another opportunity, where you have a lot of turnover and flow and no one's really invested in the community.

We're overwhelmingly small business owners; men and women who not only live in our community but send their kids to our schools, they attend our churches, they belong to our service organizations like Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions and that sort of stuff. These people have an important stake in the health of the community. There's not going to be the clash between what's good for the business climate and what's good for the community because they are such a part of the community that they're the same. So, they will work to create a strong business climate, and that in turn makes for a stronger and healthier county. I mean that's the way that I see things, no conflict at all, everything blends very well.

Q: What have you learned from your experience at other chambers?

A: First and foremost that a good staff is very important, but that a lot of involved volunteers is critical. A chamber is as good, is as active, is as effective as its volunteer members want it to be. And I firmly believe that we can be anything that we want to be. We can be the finest chamber in the country if we want to be. We've got the talent, the skills, the energy - it's all here. The question is how can we project ourselves to the community to get those people to bring all that stuff to us, so we can bring it all together.

That's something that I get excited thinking about, bringing that all together, and I've seen a little bit of that. I've chaired committees, with this chamber and other committees. You throw a new idea on the table, people go "we never thought of that before," and suddenly you're pulling people in who have never been involved with the chamber before because they like that particular idea.

The job shadow program started that way. It was existing all around the country but we had not done it in Carroll, the schools were doing it, and we started a job shadow program to see if we could match businesses with students who were interested in doing that kind of stuff. And it turned out to be one of the chamber's biggest events. We have a couple of hundred kids involved. It's a feel-good event also for the business community, doing something for the kids.

Q: There's been a lot of turnover with the staff and the board of directors at the chamber. Why do you think that has happened and how do you think this can be improved?

A; I'm not aware of unusual turnover on the board. I know there's been an isolated case here and there of somebody dropping off and that sort of thing.

I am aware that there's been a big issue with the staff. When I was in New York, I did a turnover analysis program for Citibank, that's what one of my responsibilities was as employee relations manager. And I learned there that there are lots of reasons why you can have [turnover] - you don't make assumptions about turnover.

The assumptions that most people make is that you're paying too little, and that's usually the wrong assumption - it's not what drives people in and out of organizations. Distribution of work, particularly in a small organization, is extremely important, and working conditions that you create, the kind of rapport with all the staff involved and that sort of thing.

We are now 100 percent staffed with newly restructured positions, and what I really want to do is keep my employee relations eye on the situation. I've already had conversations with the staff members. It's extremely important to me that they share problems, frustrations, that we work together as a team. But it's basically good communication, working together and being very open and honest with each other. I'm just going to try to see if we can do that and take it from there.

Q: What are some goals you would like to accomplish here at the Carroll chamber?

A: I love this community. I'm happy first of all to be here and I want to help to do something for this community. I'm very anxious to use all of my skills that I've picked up in my management career to basically try to apply them to specific situations here in Carroll to see what I can do to help improve things.

There's the routine ones, like grow membership, increase revenue, that sort of stuff, and obviously we need to do that to be a healthy chamber and to continue to growing. We've got a tight budget right now, and one way to relieve that budget is to bring in more money. So I've got to figure out ways to bring in more money and loosen that up a bit.

But that's an example of a situation in which I've faced a lot of problems like that in previous jobs. So I go back into my data bank, and I go "what would apply in this situation?" I just want to have an impact, and I think I can.

Q: What will be the next opportunity for the general membership of the chamber to meet you?

A: We have networking breakfasts, we have member luncheons where we have speakers, and there's a business fair that's coming up in March. The ones where I get the most interaction with the membership are the breakfasts and the luncheons and the mixers. And those are on the chamber Web site. I make it a point to get there and just introduce myself to as many people as I can.

####

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

20051116 Business Associations, Marines and Veterans

Business Associations, Marines, and Veterans

(Includes a brief history of the beginnings of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce)

This column first appeared in the Westminster Eagle on November 16, 2005

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=978&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1147786&om=1

This version is only different in that I added the footnote for the July 25th, 1924 Democratic Advocate article that I reference in the column…

November 16, 2005 by © Kevin Dayhoff (646 words)


There have been several events in the last several weeks that have kept me busy answering questions. In this short amount of space I’ll try and answer everyone’s questions.

“When did the Chamber of Commerce begin?” The first meeting of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce took place on Wednesday, July 23, 1924. This organization became the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce on January 1, 1973.

According to an article in the Democratic Advocate on July 25, 1924
[1], T. W. Mather, Jr., Charles W. Klee and C. Edgar Nusbaum called a meeting of “75 citizens” at the Westminster Fire Hall on Wednesday afternoon, July 23, 1924 “to consider and hear the views of the business men as to the advisability of forming a Chamber of Commerce for this city.” Officers elected during the meeting were: President, C. Edgar Nusbaum; Vice President, Miller Richardson; Executive Committee, Joseph Mathias, Carroll Albaugh, D. S. Gehr, W. H. Davis, William N. Keefer, Joseph E. Hunter and T. W. Mather, Jr.

Yes, according to a history of the Chamber written by Diana Scott, the Chamber did, at one time, maintain an office in Westminster City Hall. I should also note that the Carroll County Public Schools also maintained their offices in City Hall many years ago.


More research is needed as to what was the first “business association” in Carroll County? The Chamber was formed 26 years after another business organization in Westminster called the “Retailers' Association of Westminster, Maryland” formed on April 6, 1898 “for the purpose of the development and growth of the city and for mutual protection” against the railroad.


On April 9, 1898, the Democratic Advocate mentions that after the first meeting of the Retailers’ Association, a second meeting was to take place Monday, April 11, 1898. Of note is the fact that members of the “Merchants and Manufacturers Association” were invited. Apparently this association pre-dated the Retailers’ Association? A quick review of a Westminster directory published on January 1, 1887 by the Democratic Advocate, has no mention of any merchant’s association.

As for the many questions about Veteran’s Day: For this column, all this writer has to say about protesting for or against any war is that such protests are a cherished American right, for which men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice. Our First Amendment rights are their rights, too.

On Friday, October 3, 1862, The American Sentinel wrote a lengthy editorial commenting on the number of Carroll citizens who were seeking medical deferments to avoid the Civil War draft. The Sentinel referred to this phenomenon the "Democratic Anti-War Fever" and remarked: “It has never been known to prove fatal, nor even affect the appetite, but always resulting in a total destruction of the organ of patriotism.”


On the other hand, it was in April 1898 that the tension over the fate of Cuba erupted into the Spanish-American War. In an April 19, 1998 article in the Carroll County Times, Jay Graybeal wrote that “local reformer” Mary B. Shellman, Georgia Buckingham and Denton Gehr promoted the cause of “Free Cuba” in 1898 “in a play at the Westminster Odd Fellows Hall.”

As for a question about the U.S. Marine Corps birthday: it is the day before Veteran’s Day. On November 10, 1775 the Continental Congress commissioned Samuel Nicholas to raise several Battalions of Marines. Nicholas established a recruiting station at “Tun Tavern” in Philadelphia.

Yes, Carroll County does have a place in Marine Corps history. According to a July 7, 1996 article by Jay Graybeal in the Carroll County Times, on June 11, 1898, the first Marine killed in the Spanish-American War was from Carroll County. Sgt. Charles H. Smith was killed during the capture of Guantanamo Bay and “… buried with full military honors in Deer Park Methodist Cemetery near his parent's home in Smallwood…. More than 2,000 people attended the funeral.”

Next question?

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster. E-mail him at:
kdayhoff@carr.org


####

[1] To Have Chamber Of Commerce—At the call of T. W. Mather, Jr., Charles W. Klee and C. Edgar Nusbaum, well known business men and boosters of Westminster, about 75 citizens from this city gathered at the Firemen's building, Wednesday afternoon to consider and hear the views of the business men as to the advisability of forming a Chamber of Commerce for this city. The meeting was opened by electing William T. Mather, Jr., temporary chairman, and J. Thomas Anders secretary. The chairman asked for the men to express themselves on the subject, which brought forth opinions of a number, which lead to the election of officers. The officers elected are to make plans and set the wheels in motion for a successful beginning of the organization. They are President, C. Edgar Nusbaum; Vice President, Miller Richardson; Executive Committee, Joseph Mathias, Carroll Albaugh, D. S. Gehr, W. H. Davis, William N. Keefer, Joseph E. Hunter and T. W. Mather, Jr. Democratic Advocate, July 25, 1924.

Wednesday, January 30, 2002

20020130 Carroll Technology Council inaugural event Feb 20 2002


Wednesday, January 30, 2002

Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Invites You to the Carroll Technology Council's

February 20, 2002 from 4:30 - 6:30 pm,
83 E. Main Street in Westminster. $10 per person. Reservations required.

See what's been done with the Old Post Office...It's New Again!

BECOME A CHARTER MEMBER
Join that night and become a CHARTER MEMBER of the Carroll Technology Council
Get listed in the new directory
Meet people who can help you develop your business
Hear brief remarks about the CTC and the unveiling of their NEW LOGO
Be a part of Carroll's biggest new development
Receive discounts for the upcoming BIZtech Exposition
Enter to win a new CELL PHONE!
Enjoy food and drink

Please FAX or mail this form to Bonnie Grady at Carroll County Chamber of Commerce P.O. Box 871, Westminster, MD 21158(FAX: 410-876-1023) to reserve your spot.


Name_______________________________________________
Address_____________________________________________
City_____________________State______Zip_______________
Phone___________________E-mail_______________________
Credit Card: Visa - M/C - AMEX
No._____________________________Exp. Date____________