Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce Member of The Year Acceptance Speech

Hello,

I have had several request for copies of my Chamber Member of The Year Award acceptance speech. So I am posting it here. Thanks to everyone for an unforgetable evening!

Terri Miller


I would like to thank my fellow Chamber members for presenting me with this great honor. It truly is one of the highest achievements one can attain as a business owner and member of our community. I feel humbled and privileged especially when I think of my predecessor Don Burton, whose commitment and dedication to our community and our children is inspiring.

As I stand here tonight I reflect on the fact that just four years ago I sat out there. I knew just a few souls, in fact I sat with Dennis Fenton and his lovely wife, who I didn’t know, but who treated me like family just the same.

I am often asked why should I join the chamber? What’s in it for me? I would like to counter that by asking what’s in it for WE? Your Chamber of Commerce is working to make our community stronger and better. We take up the common cause of how do we grow our business, prepare our workforce and promote our community. We network together to do business with our trusted friends and colleague and pool together our wide breadth of knowledge to tap into each other’s creative energies.

Your modest dues are going to help pay for our Executive Director, Megan Beeler, who is a dynamic advocate and coordinator for our business community. She provides us with vial information and keeps our business in the forefront.

Your Chamber of Commerce is growing and evolving to tackle today’s new business challenges. We are listening to your needs and want to hear from you. If the chamber isn’t meeting your expectations, if we aren’t delivering you value, if there is something we are failing to address or you have a great idea or have a problem and don’t no where to turn, you are exactly who we want to hear from. We want your ideas, criticism and leadership. We want you at our monthly membership meetings; we want you emailing the membership and board for answers and with suggestions. Get involved and participate! Without an active membership we lose our effectiveness as well as our power to sustain momentum.

It is our choice each day to decide what kind of culture we want our community the embrace. Do we see the tremendous gifts our community has to offer or do we only dwell on what we don’t yet have? Do we make our own fortunes by prudent planning and committed execution? Or do we sit on our hands waiting for some agency or someTHING to change our fortunes? Do we make our own destiny by seizing the advantage at every opportunity? Do we want our greatest treasure, our children, to grow up strong and full of promise, only to fulfill it someplace else? Do we want to hear a parent talk full of pride about how their child graduated from college, and moved away, and how glad they are that they “Got Out of Here”?

I believe the chamber is a magnet for forward thinkers and an incubator of leadership and prosperity in our community. We must all work together and do what we can to create an uncommon belief that bucks conventional wisdom and expects to succeed.

I look around the room this night and see the faces of so many people I have gotten to know and who have welcomed me with open arms. The business community and its heart and soul, the Chamber, is alive and well in Hillsboro and waiting for you. Who out here tonight is willing to accept the challenge to lead our community in cooperation, innovation and prosperity? I believe it is all of us!