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February 2006
  Articles on this page: • Finding the Balance Finding the Balance By David Bissaillon, Berkshire Chamber President and CEO The year is well under way and how quickly we transition from Holiday cheer to New Year's resolutions to the grind of the shoe-testing January weather and back to the seemingly unending pace of work that we left back in November. Thank goodness for all of it. It is the excitement and diversity of our lives that keeps the interest level high, the ambitions great and the results impressive. It is no different for all of us at the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce where we are certainly back in the game. An annual meeting is once again behind us (my 5th, which is hard to believe), the joys of the end of the year have been celebrated, the tallying of the results are in, new leadership is in place for the coming year, the Strategic Plan is ready to be activated, the budget has been developed, the committees are starting to meet, the events are off to a wonderful start, the burst of a new business year is upon us. Like it does for individuals, families and companies, the beginning of the new calendar marks an opportunity in which to take note of the past efforts, make some adjustments to the master plan, and to initiate another good faith effort to improve the results. We begin the year with the great responsibility of putting into motion programming, events, speakers, opportunities and advocacy efforts that will somehow have positive impact on 1,345 companies in Berkshire County that employ over 35,000 people. At the same time, these companies are toiling in hundreds of different industry sectors, all fighting hard to grab their piece of the market share that exists in their world. To the degree that we are amazed and impressed with the diversity and quality of the Berkshire business community, we are also just as committed to providing each one of them with unique benefits that justify the investment they have made in our organization. It is encouraging to see the free market success stories that have already emerged in the new year in this county with some of the headlines going to General Dynamics and Hi-Tech and the K-Mart Plaza in North Adams and the Bradlees location in Pittsfield. There are others and there will be more. Each one of them is critically important to our overall health of community. The impact of growing economic prosperity can never be taken for granted because there will always be setbacks along the way. We have a climate for good growth in this county, city by city and town by town. And, along the way, there will be questions and challenges and dialogue and frustration. But, for long term success to be in place, you need all of those ingredients. Our commitment along the way is to be a partner for success, with our members, our political leaders, our communities. Whether we are helping to hand out laptop computers in middle schools or working hard to solve our workforce challenges or welcoming prospective gubernatorial candidates to the county or meeting with our companies to ask how we can help them; the point is, we will be there, trying to make things better, while keeping it all in balance. The holidays are over, let the real fun begin.  RETURN TO TOP |
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