Newsletter for July 2008 The Lakewood Chamber’s 5 Core Missions: Promoting the community Providing networking opportunities Representing the interests of business with government Political action Creating a strong local economy Click to exit to the Chamber Web Site

What's Inside Message from the Chair of the Board Get Your Share of the Military Market! August Business After Hours Ambassadors of the Month Quick Takes   Local, State and Federal Issues   2008 Golf Classic - Wrap Up   2008-09 Board Members   AM Chamber Network - please note date change!   Avoid schedule conflicts on the day of your special event   Is Your Summer Dress Code Heating Up?   Annual Commencement Bay Cruise August 20th - Sign up today! August General Membership Luncheon New and Renewing Members! Ten Things Politicians Can Do To Make America Energy Independent Check out the Photo Gallery!!   Calendar of Events

Thank you Momentum Sponsors!

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Business After Hours at

Marymount Academy!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

4:30 - 6:30 pm

325 152nd Street East - Parkland

(These cars are just a sample of the LeMay Car Collection)

Cruise over to the home of the LeMay Car Collection...  Chamber Members and guests will step back in time to check out hundreds and hundreds of vintage, classic and specialty automobiles, trucks, and motorcycles. 

In addition to the awesome car displays, Members can enjoy casual networking, refreshments provided by Costco, and good ol’ rock ‘n roll!

Cost to attend is $5 for members and their guests

$15 for non-members

RSVP Please!  Call 582-9400 with your reservations today!

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Message from the Chair...   Summer is here – and things are heating up with your Chamber.  Our June General Membership Luncheon was devoted to recognizing outstanding business students from our high schools in Clover Park School District and our two colleges, Clover Park Technical College and Pierce College.  The scholarships were funded directly by our Annual Chili Cook-Off and Auction that was held in February.   These students are the brightest academically and are community service oriented.  These recipients represent our future business leaders and they are being developed right here in Lakewood.  Congratulations to all the winners, their families and the institutions that developed their talents and prepared them for this award. Lakewold Gardens hosted our June Business After Hours.  Great networking, food, fun and door prizes were enjoyed by the crowd who attended the beautiful garden estate. Our Annual Golf Classic was held last Friday at the Oakbrook Golf & Country Club.  The weather was spectacular and comments from the golfers was very positive.  We thank Oakbrook Golf and Country Club for hosting our event, our golfers, our numerous volunteers and most importantly - our sponsors. We’re having a break in July – no General Membership Luncheon due to it’s proximity to the 4th with many folks planning to take a long weekend.  Our next Luncheon is slated for Thursday, August 7th at the Great American Casino, beginning at 11:30 a.m.  Back by popular demand, Brad Worthley will speak to Chamber Members about  "Outstanding Leadership in a Service Culture." As we head into July and the celebration of our Nation’s founding on the 4th, please remember in your thoughts and prayers, the many members of our community and nation serving abroad and in the Middle East.  The sacrifices made are what help make our country great.  Happy 4th of July.  Have a great summer and don’t forget the Chamber works because you do.   Mike Stevenson, CPA, CMA, MBA Brink & Sadler, CPA’s 2007-08 Chair of the Board	Next AM Chamber Network Please note that the next AM Chamber Network will be held the 3rd Tuesday of the month - July 15, 7:30 a.m. in the Chamber Board Room.   Let's get to know each other in a casual format.  Bring your business cards, brochures, samples for a fun show and sell opportunity.  A terrific way to shamelessly promote your products and services - at no cost to members!  Strong coffee and refresments will be served. ______________________________________   Board Approves 2008-2009 Slate for Chamber Board of Directors The Chamber Board of Directors voted in the following new Board Members to serve a three-year term on the Chamber’s Board, effective September, 2008: Donna Haines, CoinForce.com Ernest Nieto, Wal-Mart They also voted the following current Board Members to serve their second three-year term on the Board: Charlie Maxwell, LeMay Enterprises Rick Stevens, GEICO All Board Members will be sworn in at the Chamber’s Annual Meeting & Installation Banquet on Thursday, September 4th. ______________________________________ Avoid schedule conflicts on the day of your special event Check out the Chamber's web site at www.lakewood-wa.com and click onto "Community Calendar."  Our web site lists upcoming events submitted by other clubs and organizations in the greater Lakewood area, so you don't have to compete with a slew of other events.   And remember, make sure you notify us of your special event so that we can include it for others to compare dates. ______________________________________ Be a Hero to Your Employees! Nationwide is offering free quotes to Chamber Members and your employees -- that can help save their hard earned cash. Nationwide offers all Chamber Members in good standing an opportunity to help lower your employee's rates. You can call Capital Financial Group to obtain easy-to-fill fax forms to include in your employee's payroll envelope. Or they are happy to come to your next staff meeting, or visit your staff lounge to introduce this member benefit to your employees and answer questions – with no pressure. Want to know more? Call 253-476-8100 and find out how you can be a hero to your employees ... at no cost to you!
There will be no General Membership Luncheon in July.  Happy Independence Day! August General Membership Luncheon Thursday, August 7, 2008 Great American Casino 11:30 a.m.  Cost of Lunch is $20 prepaid - $30 at the door (cost is set regardless of attendees acceptance of a meal) Please RSVP to 253-582-9400 Back by popular demand, Brad Worthley will speak to Chamber Members about  "Outstanding Leadership in a Service Culture." Are you the kind of leader that asks: "Did my employees do what they were supposed to do today?" or are you the kind of leader that asks: "Did I do what I was supposed to do today, so that my employees could do what they were supposed to do?"  Brad offers thoughts on how we can change our behavior just slightly, in order to greatly impact the people we lead.  This session is a must for a strong company culture.  This session is targeted to anyone, from any industry that supervises people.  Some of the topics covered will include: ·   All Eyes Are On The Leader ·  Rethinking Your Role as Manager ·  Managers vs. Leaders ·   Reactive vs. Proactive Leadership ·   People Don't Fail as Much as Systems ·   Body Language as a Leadership Tool ·   Personal Action Plans ·   Weekly Praise Lists

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 Quick Takes

A note from our insurance broker, GHB Insurance / Integrated Benefit Strategies.

On August 1st, all individual plan premiums through Regence Blue Shield will be increasing by about 18%.

In addition, Group Health is now offering very competitive individual plans, where you can see any doctor! 

If you would like updated individual medical quotes, please take our survey online.  Visit www.ibsbenefits.com and click on the survey link. We will have a representative call you to provide you with options that fit your specific needs. 

It can take you up to 6 hours to research options through different insurance carriers. Let our broker do the work for you – for free!

Promote Your Business to New Army Personnel

Let us promote your business at the Fort Lewis Newcomers Orientation in the Lakewood Chamber booth, reaching approximately 500 new personnel and their families each month for only $200 a year!   Increase your businesses’ foot traffic with coupons and giveaways.  You are encouraged to provide items that are useful and imaginative – discount coupons, magnets, rulers, calendars, etc. will be of more interest and use than a simple brochure.

For details, contact Scott Jonson at 253-582-9400 at the Chamber.

Lakewood United’s July Programs

The Lakewood United group meets at 7 AM every Thursday at Burs Restaurant, which is located at 6151 Steilacoom Boulevard SW in Lakewood.  The events for the next four weeks are as follows:

July 3, 2008 – Happy Fourth of July - No meeting due to long holiday weekend

July 10, 2008 – Crime Stoppers – Lauren Wallin, Public Media Relations, Crime Stoppers

July 17, 2008 – Learn About Our Sensational Local Team – Tacoma Rainiers – Josie Wilkes, Director of Marketing and Community Development

Lakewood United website: http://communities.southsound.com/main.wsi?group_id=138

We’re Fishing for Ideas…YOURS

Yes!  We’re interested in what’s going on with your business.  And so are other Chamber Members. 

Please pass this along to the person who maintains your mailing list and ask that they add lsmith@lakewood-wa.com to your mailing list for story inclusion in the Chamber Newsletter.  Thank you!

State Topics

Senate Ways and Means Committee budget outlook — Now a $2.7 billion shortfall

Bad news from the Senate Ways and Means Committee: A new outlook from the committee shows the effects of the June revenue forecast. Unfortunately, the budget hole has deepened to about $2.7 billion. According to Ways and Means staff: “As they have done in past, it is anticipated that the Governor and the Legislature will use available reserves and implement spending reductions and/or revenue changes to balance the 2009-11 budget.  What we’d like to know is what those “spending reductions and/or revenue changes” will be.  Stay tuned.

Court deals a blow to employers by expanding UI coverage for voluntary quits
On June 19, the Washington Supreme Court issued a decision in the Spain v. Department of Employment Security case that challenged Washington’s law identifying the 10 (now 11) “good-cause” reasons under which an employee who voluntarily quits his job may be eligible for unemployment insurance. The plaintiff argued that the list is not exclusive and that the department has discretion to determine “good cause,” allowing them to decide on a case-by-case basis whether an individual who voluntarily quits his job qualifies for unemployment benefits.   The Association of Washington Business filed a friend-of-the-court brief on this issue, recounting the agreement reached after many months of negotiation between business and labor representatives that specified that the list was exclusive — the 10 good-cause reasons were to be the only situations under which an employee who voluntarily quit their job could receive benefits. Unfortunately, the court ruled in the plaintiff’s favor, indicating that the law is vague and does not expressly limit UI eligibility under a voluntary quit situation to only the reasons identified in the list. This ruling allows an employee to quit for virtually any reason and individually plead his case to ESD in order to gain UI benefits. AWB will be looking at options for addressing this situation to restore reasonableness and predictability to the granting of UI benefits, as well as to protect employers from the whims of disgruntled employees.

U.S. Supreme Court strikes down California union neutrality law
On June 19, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law imposing so-called “union neutrality” requirements on employers in the state. The law limited what employers could say about union organizing campaigns in the workplace. The high court’s ruling should be the final stake in the heart of a similar union-backed proposal here in Washington, since Gov. Chris Gregoire took the issue off the table last legislative session pending the outcome of the California case

Workers’ comp benefits will go up 5 percent on July 1
The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries announced that workers’ comp wage and pension benefits will go up a little more than 5 percent starting July 1 as a result of wage inflation. State law requires the recalculation of benefits each year to reflect the change in the state’s average wage from the previous calendar year. The timing of this announcement underscores the difficulty with Washington’s labor-friendly wage calculation system. Using wage data from the previous calendar year, and including high wages in industries like the tech sector — which have comparatively little workers’ comp claims experience — creates skewed results. At a time when consumers are anxious, the state and national economy is slow, unemployment is rising, and companies must consider trimming payrolls, does a 5-percent increase in benefits seem justified by current economic realities? Washington already has among the highest workers’ comp benefits in the country. And with higher benefits come higher payroll taxes for employers.  

National News Bits

The Economy

Inflation shot up in May at the fastest pace in six months, fueled by rising costs for gasoline and energy, the Labor Department said.  Consumer prices jumped 0.6 percent last month, the biggest one-month increase since November.  Gasoline costs were up by 5.7 percent.  The report came on the heels of an indication from the Federal Reserve that its biggest concern has changed from the threat of a recession to worries that inflation could get out of control.

Energy

Energy ministers of advanced nations expressed "serious concerns" about soaring oil prices and urged producers to lift production through greater investment and provide more transparency on oil supply data.  A joint communiqué by the Group of Eight ministers, also signed by China, India and South Korea, stopped short of the tough language demanded by Kevin Rudd, Australia's prime minister."  The ministers said: 'Current high oil prices are unprecedented and against the interest of either consuming or producing nations.' The producers among the G8 said they would seek to raise production and called on other producing countries to increase investment to keep markets well supplied. The meeting in Japan placed more emphasis on raising efficiency in consumer countries, with nations promising to form an international partnership for energy co-operation.  Here’s more from the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

Unemployment Benefits

A measure to extend unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 39 weeks passed the House on a second try Thursday but the bill still faces numerous hurdles.  The Bush administration is opposed to the proposal and it is unclear if Democrats will be able to win the support they need to get beyond an expected Republican filibuster in the Senate.  Here’s more from CNNMoney.com, the New York Times, The Politico and the Wall Street Journal.

Transportation

There's new evidence of how high gas prices are driving Americans to mass transit.  The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) said ridership is at the highest level since 1957 – passengers took 10.3 billion trips last year on public transportation.  Congress hopes the public will use it even more – recently approving $15 billion in funding for Amtrak over 5 years, and another $1.5 billion for Washington's Metro system over ten years. The legislation is considered veto-proof.

Funding America's most critical transportation infrastructure projects will be difficult, if not impossible, because of a conundrum:  Not enough money is available to pay for all projects in the next few years, yet no system exists to rank the projects. Some decision-makers in and out of government are pushing reforms to resolve the funding dilemma, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce taking the lead. In the absence of such reforms – or of a substantial shift in public spending priorities – federal and state appropriators will keep spending money on less critical projects that have the virtue of being affordable

110% Club!

Add an additional 10% of your annual dues to belong to the 110% Club. We thank the following businesses for their support!

Bohns' Biz

City of Lakewood

Columbia Bank

Huntington Learning Center

James Guerrero Architects

Liberty Tax Service

Nation Wide Insurance

Northwest Abatement Services, Inc.

Peaceful Atmosphere Massage

Signsations, Inc.

Members & Visitors Served in June

398 Chamber Members Served – Calls & Walk-Ins

June

Ambassadors of the Month

Platinum

Jutta Stevens

Brink & Sadler

Gold

Cindy Sims

Navy Federal Credit Union

Silver

David Lobban

Lobban Photography

Photo Gallery

Blue Ribbon Cutting at Homescape Pro

Blue Ribbon Cutting at Honey Pig Korean BBQ!

General Membership Luncheon honors

Business Scholarship Students of the Year &

prez Smith's 10th year with Chamber

  

 

 

Business After Hours at Lakewold Gardens

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July Events Calendar