John Maxwell says that "Momentum is a leader's best friend." When you take into account the Chamber's motto "Chamber serving businesses, businesses serving the community", how do you motivate an organization to continue in a positive direction? First you start with good people. Our chamber is blessed to have the best members, chairman and board of directors, staff, volunteers, governmental partners, school partners and media partners in the world. Second, you focus on programs that help people. When you look at the Chamber's Program of Work, you will only find programs that help others and increase our quality of life. Third, you have team members who are willing to boldly take a chance to be great and who believe they can accomplish great things.

Over our proud 85 year history, our chamber has accomplished many great things that some thought were impossible. We have helped bring industry to our community when there were no jobs. We've come together to move Bartow Forward and build a facility that has become a point of pride for all of us. Now we've launched a bold initiative to actually do something about our business environment and to help those who are not employed. "Ringing the Bell" has generated so much excitement in our community. Citizens are understanding the value of "Buying Bartow", and as of Thursday, eighty-five people have rang the bell. "85 x $22,018 (per capita income) = $1.8 earned in new wages." The real value of this program is to the momma or daddy who now has a job that was not employed in December. We invite Bartow County residents who have been hired by a local business since Jan. 1, to call the Chamber to sign up for a time to "Ring the Bell." Please do all you can to encourage everyone to support our efforts and to keep the momentum going. If we all believe we can make a difference, we can!

Joe Frank Harris Jr. is President and CEO of the Cartersville-Bartow County Chamber of Commerce and can be contacted at 770-382-1466.