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Memo to American Chambers of Commerce:Why Your Country Shouldn’t Forget YouCHRIS MEADSVP, ASSOCIATION OF CHAMBER OF COMMERCE EXECUTIVESSEPTEMBER 9, 2014WEBINAR FOR WEBLINK INTERNATIONAL

Chris MeadAuthor of The Magicians of Main Street

Senior Vice President, Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives

Executive Director, Community Growth Educational Foundation

BA in English, Oberlin College

MBA, Stanford University

A Race Through History

13 Reasons You’ve Been Forgotten

25 Things You Did

Four Things You Can Do Today

13 Reasons People Forget What Chambers Have Done

1. Shared credit

2. Shared achievements

3. Individuals get the limelight; Napoleon v. his troops

4. Starting but not always finishing things

5. “Rich boy makes good” seen as boring

6. Business people best known for their business successes

7. “It was inevitable."

13 Reasons People Forget What Chambers Have Done

(Continued)8. A sea of nonprofits

9. “Just local”

10. No clear ideology

11. Neither saints nor villains

12. Based on something you can’t touch

13. Sometimes overshadowed by the U.S. Chamber

25 Things You Did25 Things That Local, Regional, or State Chambers:

Thought up

Started

Funded

Helped get funding for

Sustained through years of lobbying and support

Or otherwise helped make happen.

Support of Washington and Hamilton in Effort to Avert War with England in 1795

Slight Mistake in the Mississippi Valley, 1873-78

“The Lion of the Vigilantes”

The Fight Against “Free Silver,” 1870s - 1896

New York City Subway System

Spreading of Commission and City Manager Systems of Local Government

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1912

Federal Reserve System, 1913

Community Chests and Reforming Charities

Miss America Pageant, 1921

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 1921

The Spirit of St. Louis, 1927

Bad for Business

National Cherry Blossom Festival, 1934

Hoover Dam, 1936

The First American Superhighway, 1940

Grand Coulee Dam, 1942

Hollywood Sign, 1948

Stars and the Walk of Fame, 1960

Civil Rights, 1960s

First Major Voucher Program for Schools, 1992

Setting Up Hundreds of Airports

Helping Site and Support Dozens of Military Bases

Starting (or Occasionally Snatching) Scores of Colleges and Universities

The Olympics

And that’s only the Cliff Notes version

Chambers are an indelible part of American life, culture, and history

Take out chambers from our past and the country would be almost unrecognizable

Four Things You Can Do Today1. Learn what your chamber has done.

2. Learn what other chambers have done.

3. Explore what this means for your chamber today.

4. Tell your members and the public.

Questions/contactsChris Mead, SVP

ACCE

(703) 998-3545

cmead@ace.org

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More information at:

www.magiciansofmainstreet.com

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