Volume IV Issue II Third Quarter 2013

Members are the heart of any chamber of commerce. They shape the direction of the organization, and help it to grow and prosper. The McLean County Chamber of Commerce is no exception, with members who do everything from chairing committees and participating as community am-bassadors to standing on the steps of the capitol to advocate business friendly legislation. Our members are the lifeblood of the Chamber and I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to simply say thank you for everything you do!

To show our appreciation to our members the Chamber has planned several exciting social activities we’re calling the Summer Social Series! Created to broaden your relational network while spending time with your family and friends, the Summer Social Series has something for everyone and I would encourage you to visit the Chamber’s website at www.mcleanco-chamber.org to learn more.

Thanks again to all of you for your continued support and active participation with the McLean County Chamber of Commerce. I look forward to seeing many of you at the Summer Social Series and hope that each of you takes the time to enjoy the longer days, warmer weather and family vacations that make this an enjoyable season in Central Illinois.

This summer the McLean County Chamber of Commerce is changing the way that we communicate with our members. Start-ing June 10th, the Chamber adopted a segmented delivery strategy for our email communications. This effort is intended to streamline our communications to our members while minimizing the number of emails members receive. The new format features five distinct categories for: Network Development, Advocacy, Community, Featured Events, and Programs and Ser-vices. For additional details on each of the categories or to join the new mailing lists visit www.mcleancochamber.org.

The Chamber is also happy to share that we are currently working on updating our website! The new site, which is being developed by Cybernautic, will sport an updated look and improved navigation to the news and information about programs and services our members request the most. Offering an enhanced user experience, the new site will feature simplified event registration, online invoice payment and improved credit card processing. We’re also adding more photographs and video from Chamber events, so our members can see and be seen online by their colleagues and friends. Behind the scenes, the new site features an upgraded content management system that will allow the Chamber to deliver improved content to our members that our previous website was unable to provide. Make sure to log-in, adjust your profile and add a HOT DEAL to ensure that your businesses information is up to date when the new site rolls out this summer!

Messagefrom theChairman

Sherri Chinski2013 Chairman of the Board

Communications Update: The Chamber Changes How it Communicates to Members

For the third year in a row the @Midwest Social Media Con-ference drew more than 150 people to the campus of Heart-land Community College in Normal. The 2-day event which focuses on all things social media, offered attendees the op-portunity to interact with their industry peers and learn fresh ideas, tips and techniques. As businesses continue to find suc-cess communicating with their customers via social media, conferences like @Midwest have become essential in helping organizations of any size achieve the greatest return on their social media investment.

One of the primary goals of @Midwest is to bring in highly qualified experts in the social networking industry to speak about all forms of Internet/mobile technology, strategy, and marketing for small and mid-sized businesses. For 2013 the conference was fortunate to host two keynotes, actor Thomas Ian Nicholas, known for his role as Kevin in the American Pie film series, and Melissa Schenk, a successful entrepreneur/tv personality with more than 14 years of experience in on-air television and offline video production.

“We were thrilled when we found out that both Thomas and Melissa where going to be able to keynote this year’s confer-ence,” said Integrity Technology Solutions Vice President of Business Development and @Midwest Board Member, Mark DeKeersgieter. “Each year we continue to attract new talent to the event which helps us to deliver original ideas and new content each and every year.”

Pulling from his experiences as an actor and singer/songwriter Thomas Ian Nicholas kicked off the conference with an open-ing keynote that focused on his experiences with social media as a paid performer on the set of a feature film with a profes-sional social media team and his own adventures in social media as an independent musician. “The real lesson that I’ve learned in social media is how we all relate,” said Nicholas. “Through the campaigns for the films and what I do on a daily basis to promote my other projects and my music I have to think about how people relate to what I talk about.”

After an afternoon filled with breakout sessions and panel dis-cussions Melissa Schenk rallied the crowd for her afternoon

keynote. Keeping the focus on customer engagement Schenk highlighted three touch points for customer engagement: Pas-sion, Values and Expertise. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it,” exclaimed Schenk. “People may not remember exactly what you said or did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”

After the event attendees flooded the @Midwest hashtag, #atMW, with thoughts and comments on the events of the past two days. Fortunately we were able to track down Leann Seal, VP of Sales and Marketing for The Snyder Companies so we could get a quote that was slightly longer than the Twit-ter limited 140 characters. “I’m going back to the office with pages of new ideas and relevant knowledge that will benefit me and my company,” said Seal. “The speakers were fun and interesting and had a passion for what they do. I’m already looking forward to going back and watching the programs on-line that I missed and also coming back next year.”

For additional information on @Midwest you can visit their website at www.atmidwest.com.

Television personality Melissa Shenk and actor Thomas Ian Nicholas shared their social media experience and expertise at the 2013 @Midwest Social Media Conference.

Social Media Conference Brings Digital Content Creators Together

Buying Local Helps More than Just Businessesthe initial purchase, business to business transactions and the effects of payroll.”

One example of the economic impact of local spending is the amount of tax dollars generated by local hotels. “In 2012 hotels in Bloomington-Normal hosted more than 260,000 visitors and paid more than $730,000 in taxes,” says Sports Marketing Manager for the Bloomington-Normal Area Con-vention and Visitors Bureau, Matt Hawkins. “The economic impact of which is an estimated $5.9 million.”

Hotels are only one of the thousands of industries and busi-nesses who call McLean County home. By shopping where you live you can help keep our unemployment rates low, our municipalities funded, and our business community strong. Make Your Money Mean More is looking for businesses to step up to the plate and help us spread the word that every dollar spent locally adds to our quality of life here in McLean County.

All local businesses have the opportunity to participate in this campaign and show their pride in their community. And a business doesn’t need be a member of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce to be a part of the campaign. For more information about the Make Your Money Mean More campaign, go to www.makeyourmoneymeanmore.org and to share your “Shop Local” stories, log on to www.facebook.com/makeyourmoneymeanmore

Most “buy local” campaigns primarily focus on shopping at locally-owned businesses, but Make Your Money Mean More, the buy local initiative championed by the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, wants everyone to realize the importance of spending our dollars at any business in McLean County. While a larger percentage of your shopping dollar stays in the community when you trade with a local-ly-owned business, chain retailers and big box stores also contribute to our local economy with their local sales and property taxes and by paying their employees who live and shop here. To discover more about the benefits of keeping our money here in McLean County we sat down with some of our community’s economic advocates to see what really happens when we make our money mean more.

“There are different layers of impact when somebody pur-chases goods or services from a local source,” says Ken Springer, Director of Research & Client Services with the Bloomington Normal Economic Development Council. “Those dollars don’t just sit and whither at a business. That business is going to buy uniforms from somewhere else, or fill their delivery trucks up with gas, etc. So there’s a layer of business to business spending that comes from the initial input of dollars. There is another layer of impact when you make a purchase and the store pays its employees and those employees go out and spend their paychecks in the com-munity. In total we realize three layers of economic impact,

32%of the City of Bloomington’s

General Fund is derived from sales tax...

As local retail sales and related sales tax revenue increase, the burden on individual tax payers is lessened

Keeping money in the local economy means your pot holes get filled, your child’s soccer team gets a sponsor and your home is more likely to retain its value.

...while property taxes only account for

19%

In early 2013 the Department of Health and Human Services issued their final regulation covering the essential health ben-efits (EHB) of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These certain health benefits that are deemed “essential” must be offered by non-grandfathered individual plans and non-grandfathered fully insured small group plans offered both on and off the exchange beginning on or after January 1, 2014. These plans must limit member out-of-pocket expenses for EHBs (in-net-work) to $6,350 for individual plans and $12,700 for family plans. The reformed regulation also states that plans of all siz-es that cover benefits designated as Essential Health Benefits, including self-funded plans, must cover these benefits with no annual limits or lifetime maximums.

The Department of Health and Human Services has stated that its goal with EHBs is to balance comprehensiveness, af-fordability and flexibility by standardizing coverage choices. While most of the EHBs are services already covered by most health plans, such as ambulatory patient services or hospital-ization some of the new required benefits such as habilitative services or pediatric oral and dental care, are not commonly covered and represent a coverage expansion.

Essential health benefits under the Patient Protection and Af-fordable Care Act will include the following ten general cat-egories:

• Ambulatory patient services• Emergency services

• Hospitalization• Maternity and newborn care• Mental health and substance abuse disorder services

(including behavioral health treatment)• Prescription drugs• Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices• Laboratory services• Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease

management• Pediatric services, including oral and vision care

“With the implementation of the es-sential health benefits the small busi-ness owner can now consistently compare the plans that are available to the small group market. It also al-lows the insurers to have some flex-ibility when putting together benefit packages,” says ECHI, Business & Re-lationship Manager, Brian Thede. “On the other hand it is likely to increase costs due to there being benefits that are now part of the plans that weren’t

there before. Over history we’ve seen years when it was com-mon for health insurance premiums to go up by 20-30%, or more. Only time will tell if these new plans can avoid those types of increases.”

State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, brought friend and Edgar Fellow classmate, Representative Christian Mitch-ell, D-Chicago, to a round table discussion hosted by the McLean County Chamber of Commerce on March 22 in an effort to bridge the gap between Chicago and Central Illinois. The pair fielded questions and comments from local busi-ness leaders on topics ranging from minimum wage to state pension reform.

“There are a number of issues facing us here in Illinois,” said Chamber President & CEO Charlie Moore. “Bipartisan understanding is the only way to address these concerns and find solutions that work for the good of the entire state.”

Leadership McLean County, a program of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, graduated 36 members of the class of 2013 on Friday April 5. The full day event held at the Holiday Inn & Suites – Airport Hotel included an alumni breakfast with keynote speaker Roger Hunt, group presenta-tions by the graduating class and a graduation dinner.

With over 600 alumni in its history, Leadership McLean County has worked to build our community into a stronger place to live and work through the development of commu-nity leaders.

“Leadership McLean County is a great opportunity for busi-ness leaders to learn more about the needs in our com-munity and how they play an integral part in making McLean County a better place to live, work and play. The effort given by the Class of 2013 has not only improved our community but the leadership skills of this

year’s participants as well,” proclaimed incoming Leadership McLean County Board Chairman AJ Zimmerman.

Brian ThedeECHI

Christian MitchellIllinois Representative

Jason BarickmanIllinois Senator

AJ Zimmerman2014 LMC Chairman

Health Care Reform Update

Leadership McLean County Congratulates the Class of 2013

Barickman and Mitchell Workingto Build Bridges Not Burn Them

Presented by

In early June Fitch Ratings lowered its rating on Illinois’ out-standing general obligations bonds from “A” to “A-“ with a negative outlook. The negative outlook means that further reductions could be in Illinois’ future without action to reduce the state’s overwhelming pension burden.

“These ratings shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone,” says Illinois Senator Bill Brady. “We’ve been warned for months that downgrades were imminent if we failed to act on pension reform.”

Fitch Ratings described the state’s long-term pension liabilities as “very high,” with the report stating the credit drop

was a result of “The ongoing inability of the state to address its large and growing unfunded pension liability.” The report noted the unfunded pension liabilities and expenses are “un-sustainable” and said that, “…failure to achieve reform mea-sures, despite the substantial focus on this topic, exacerbates concern about management’s willingness and ability to ad-dress the state’s numerous fiscal challenges.”

Illinois now has the lowest general obligation bond rating of any of the 50 states. Though California also has an “A-” rating, it has a “stable” outlook. Illinois’ “negative” outlook places the state at the very bottom of all state credit ratings.

In his State of the State address in February, Governor Pat Quinn proposed increasing the Illinois minimum wage from $8.25 to at least $10.50. The McLean County Chamber of Commerce asked its members their opinion on this proposal to gauge how this proposed change would impact the region-al business community.

Of the 155 responses received by the McLean County Cham-ber, 83.6% are opposed to the increase while 15.1% are in favor of it.

“In my opinion it’s a simple formula,” says Rich Zeller, Presi-dent of Avanti’s Italian Restaurant in Bloomington and Nor-mal. “When employee pay increases, business owners have to make up for that pay increase, which is usually reflected in a price increase to the consumer, and many of those consum-ers are those who would be receiving the minimum wage increase.”

The current minimum wage increase proposal is SB68. If passed the bill would increase minimum wage 50 cents per year until it reaches $10.50 which is estimated to be compa-rable to the minimum wage when it was first passed in the 1960’s. It would then increase annually based on the Con-sumer Price Index.

Mark Monday, July 22 on your calendar and make plans to join us for the 2013 Annual Stroker Golf Classic. The Annual STROKER Golf Classic is a great way to get to know your fellow Chamber members at the best conference room avail-able: the golf course!

The Golfer’s Package includes green fees, cart fees, use of the driving range with range balls, golf towel, and a sleeve of new golf balls, drink tickets, box lunch and Steak Dinner prepared by Alexander’s Steak House. New this year is a “steak dinner only” option available for members who prefer not to golf.

Foursomes are available for $550 or single players pay just $150. Discounts are available for Members of Distinction. For additional details, rules of play and to register your team visit www.mcleancochamber.org or call 309-829-6344.

Chamber Golf OutingChamber Honors Former Bloomington Mayor

Bill BradyIllinois Senator

Sherri Chinski and Former Bloomington Mayor Steve Stockton stop for a photo following Stockton’s presentation during the May 16th Board of Directors Meeting.

Minimum Wage Pension Reform

The McLean County Chamber of Commerce would like to thank former Bloomington Mayor Steve Stockton for his eight years of public service. Mayor Stockton was honored at the Chamber’s Board of Director’s meeting on May 16 where he shared his perception of achievements and interactions with the Chamber during his administration. “Mayor Stockton has always been a friend to the Chamber and its members,” said Board Chairman Sherri Chinski. “We greatly appreciate the sacrifices he has made over the years to help make our com-munity a great place to do business, and we wish he and his wife Linda all the best.”

McLean County has some of the lowest unemployment levels in the state. But there are still positions available at many of the top businesses in the county. On Thursday, June 13, the McLean County Chamber of Commerce and the Black Business Alliance played host to the Bloomington-Normal Career and Volunteer Fair at the Illinois State University Alumni Center in Normal.

Sponsored by COUNTRY Financial, Illinois State University, The Pantagraph and the Bloomington Normal Human Resource Council, the Bloomington-Normal Career and Volunteer fair featured more than 15 employers seeking full and part-time employees. In a day when applying for a job is done mostly online or over email the Career and Volunteer Fair offered applicants the opportunity to stand out by speaking face-to-face with recruiters.

The event, which is in its first year, was also unique due to the inclusion of profit agencies. Nearly 20 were in attendance recruiting for volunteer positions.

Job Seekers Promote Their Skills to Area Businesses

Participants discover new opportunities at the Bloomington-Normal Career and Volunteer Fair.

On the Cover: (from top to bottom) Ken Solem (Moe’s Southwest Grill) and Robin Juhler (Mid-Illini Credit Union), Charlie Moore (Chamber) and Ed Rust (State Farm), Habeeb Habeeb (Benefit Planning Consultants), Chamber members enjoy Business After Hours at LRS

Senator - Jason Barickman

Axline Advanced Pharmacy

Gill Street Sports Bar & Restaurant

Alter Metal Recycling

Integrated Work InjuryNetwork

Brio Cove Salon & Spa

Holiday Inn Express & Suites

Commerce Bank - Uptown

Shoppes at College Hills

Duckygirl’s Resale

Heartland Foot & Ankle Associates

Keller Williams Realty

Synergy HomeCare

Char Huff’s Property Shoppe

Homes of Hope

The Digital Store

2203 E Empire StreetBloomington, IL 61704www.mcleancochamber.org

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