The Chamber’s mission — generating economic development — is a lot like solving that puzzle with each side representing one of our goals and each square a strategy for achieving those goals.

Because our mission is complicated, interpreting it to the community is not simple. Ask 10people what the Chamber does and you will probably get 10 responses related to economic development.If you then ask how the Chamber supports economic development, you’re likely to getall sorts of answers — along with a few blank stares.

Since community support is critical to the work of the Chamber, we try to make our complex task as clear as possible.

Economic development means increasing our ability to compete toe-to-toe with other cities for new business. It means working with public officials to ensure business-friendly governance. It means bringing enterprises and educators together to determine how to prepare our children for 21st Century jobs.

Business recruitment, public policy advocacy and strengthening public schools are three of our goals, three sides if you will, of the Chamber’s Rubik’s Cube. Another side is nurturing start-up businesses through the Business Development Center and our Center for Entrepreneurial Growth.

The components of the Chamber’s Cube include support for small business through area councils, community engagement through leadership programs, and a higher community profile through national speakers for our major events and our proactive public relations campaign.

Indeed, the Chamber is engaged in so many different kinds of efforts, many people see us as the obvious choice for leading all sorts of new programs. I get calls every day asking us to broaden our endeavors. After all, anything undertaken to improve the community is a gain for economic development.

Unfortunately, the Chamber is a small organization (we have about 30 employees) with limited resources. Like any organization, we cannot be effective if we do not maintain our focus. For that reason, we are committed to projects that directly affect job growth in our community and that serve our member-investors by helping them connect with one another and the community.

By focusing on the basics — the sides of the Chamber’s Cube and all the squares on those sides, as it were — we have already begun to establish a strong track-record of results. It is only by maintaining that focus that we will continue to see more.