Forty percent (40%) of the Chamber membership joined the Board of Directors for the revealing of the new website and logo!! The meeting was held at Creekside Restaurant on 4th Ave. where members enjoyed fish and chips or chicken strips and chips. I also heard a few stayed for dessert! Thank you ALL Creekside employees for your service and dedication!

The Board of Directors each stated pertinent information regarding their service to the membership. Members were asked to volunteer in order to strengthen the good of the whole. President, Allen Gamel said “we have a fabulous opportunity for growth in Kuna, and I believe we will soon be 300 members strong.” (There are currently 110 members in the Chamber.)

I didn’t want to take up too much time, so I thanked all members for their support and said I am humbled and happy to respectfully be the Kuna Chamber Executive Director. I will be utilizing member input regarding the organization and will also utilize several surveymonkey.com surveys in order to complete a needs assessment plan which I will present to the Board of Directors. Again, I thank the Board and Members for the kind comments I have already received, and thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Renee Jones briefly covered the strategic planning process which the Board of Directors recently completed. She explained the SWOT work plan which brought the board to agreement regarding Chamber direction. She explained the Board worked through the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats concerning the organization. The product outcome is the mission statement, vision, and theme of the Chamber which is reflected on this web site.

Brian Critchfield took the membership through a thorough presentation including more information on the experiential SWOT analysis, psychology of the logo, and psychology of the web site. Brian and staff at BlueLine Grassroots Marketing gave this project their 110% effort. Thanks to ALL of the staff.

I’d like to thank all the July 20th attendees listed below for supporting the Kuna Chamber of Commerce.

Ada County Commissioner - Sherry Huber
Amsoil Synthetics Lubricants Distribution
Bank of the Cascades
BlueLine Grassroots Marketing
Brenda Blitman, CPA
Capital Educators
Castle Gardens
Civic Member - Steven Ricks
Edward Jones Investments
Idaho Power
Idaho Properties, GMAC
Idaho Web Company
Johnson Architects
Kuna City Council Members
Kuna Melba News
Pauls
Pro Reality Real Estate
Randal Land Development
Rehab Authority
Swan Falls Storage
UPS
US Bank
Vic’s Family Pharmacy

Sincerely,
Vicki Smith
Executive Director

The first six months of 2007 has been active for the Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Information Center.

The month of January logged 23 visitors’ signatures in the logbook. A family from Missouri were here visiting Family.

The month of February, brought us 28 visitors with Chicago, IL on our logbook.

Bird season was approaching in the month of March, consequently we saw our logbook count spike to 48 visitors. March signatures included NY, Texas and New Mexico visitors.

The Month of May records 76 signatures in our logbook. Thirty-eight signatures were a school group experiencing a birds of Prey Expedition. How Fun! Another signature of interest in May traveled from Canada.

June of course is ending up to be a great month of visitors from all over. We had visitors from Maine, Tampa Florida, Indiana, Washington, Nevada, California, Texas and Ohio. So far 56 visitors have signed our logbook. I met someone from Nova Scotia, Canada. They had family here and had not been back in the area for 15 years. They said things had changed a great deal and they hardly recognized the area.

This is my brief to date first and second quarter report. The Visitor Center as well as Chamber is a busy office all the time. People from all over are traveling here to obtain information.

Kuna is truly a great place to live and work!

The Chamber will reveal its new logo, website, and positioning on July 20th at the monthly business meeting. Community leaders as well a the general membership are invited to come and see the new direction of the Chamber and contribute to its sucess.

The new website is meant to be a hub of information for the community at large as well as serve the membership of the chamber in new and innovative ways.