The Morris Chamber Continues to Serve Our Members Virtually

Summer 2020
The world has changed in a matter of months. On behalf of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce, I extend my heartfelt sympathies to all who have lost loved ones during this pandemic. The coronavirus is first and foremost a public health crisis that has also become an economic crisis. Like our members, the Morris County Chamber faced the uncertainty of the impact the coronavirus would have on the organization. The chamber team and board were committed to continuing to fulfill our mission and to serve you, our members, now more than ever.   

To accomplish this, we quickly realized we needed to become a virtual chamber. I am extremely proud of our chamber team, volunteer leaders and our members for quickly adapting to the new circumstances. The engagement of members has been extraordinary, with active participation in the more than one 100 events we have held, including networking events, committee meetings, professional development seminars, government affairs presentations and COVID-19-related information sessions. The chamber has recorded many of these events and posted them on the video library on our website, found here: https://www.morrischamber.org/video-library.html.  ​

I am also proud of the chamber for forming a task force in partnership with Senator Bucco focusing on safely reopening businesses as soon as possible. Facilitated by Mike Stanzilis, our vice president of membership, and chaired by Bruce Groves of Emilcott, the task force generated a risk-based assessment with practical and policy recommendations for businesses and government to consider when reopening during the COVID crisis. The document can be found on our website at https://www.morrischamber.org/coronavirus-news.html. 

This is certainly not how we expected 2020 to roll out. However, during this challenging time our members have stepped up in extraordinary ways, supporting each other and the community. They continue to do business with each other, have raised funds to purchase food for front-line workers, made masks and patronized local restaurants. Our members are resilient in rethinking business models to add, expand or modify services.
  
In addition to online events, the chamber is proud to continue to serve and support you by providing timely, relevant and useful information through our website and weekly newsletters. We also are providing a variety of marketing opportunities to connect you with each other and our larger network of followers, which has increased by almost 1,000 since March. These offerings are either already included with membership or for a reasonable fee and can be found listed here: https://www.morrischamber. org/marketing-opportunities.html.  

Thank you for all the work you are doing to guide your businesses through this crisis. Since public health is vital to a successful economy, we are cheering on the scientists in New Jersey, including members Pfizer and Novartis, who are working around the clock to develop therapeutics and a vaccine. We look forward to a time when we can bring everyone back together face-to-face, as we miss the energy of the chamber’s in-person events. Until then, we will continue to provide virtual programming and more opportunities to connect, share and learn from each other.  

We are excited we are offering virtual conferences on critical topics with noteworthy speakers, including Hans Dekker of the Community Foundation, who spoke at the Not-for-Profit Conference in June, and U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who will speak at the Washington Update in July. I look forward to seeing you then!

Read Business Edge Summer 2020 Edition