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The third episode in our “Chamber of the Year Finalist Series” features Joe Unterreiner from the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce in Montana. Joe highlights the two programs that they submitted on their application for Chamber of the Year. One program was based around infrastructure while the other was based around workforce.
The infrastructure program involved going after and winning a federal build grant which was a national competition for highway projects. Kalispell is near Glacier National Park and sees a large increase in tourism, with numbers around 3 million visitors, during the Summer months. Kalispell is 120 miles North of the nearest interstate. This build grant is targeted to expand their main highway from 2 lanes to 4 lanes.
This campaign really started to grow because of the Chamber’s grass roots effort. The Chamber has approximately 750 members but there are around 4,500 reps within those member businesses. The Chamber reached out to all 4,500 member reps to build the momentum and to inform the community of the need for this highway project. The Chamber led a task force of 14 locals from Kalispell to travel to Washington D.C. and lobby for this 12.75 million dollar highway project.
The other program Joe discussed focused on manufacturing and innovation in relation to the workforce in their community. Kalispell is known for their wood products and their timber industry both of which are reasons why Kalispell is so attractive to tourism. Kalispell also has manufacturing plants for food, electronics, machinery, and many others that offer good pay, full benefits, and provide for a strong tax base.
The first Friday in October is celebrated as National Manufacturing Day. The Kalispell Chamber has really latched on to this day to conduct tours and forums with respect to all the possible manufacturing career opportunities. They encourage educators and school counselors to bring awareness to the great careers in manufacturing where graduating students can earn a good living wage without a 4-year degree. Joe pointed out that manufacturing is not necessarily a blue collar career any more. With technology increasing faster than ever before, much of manufacturing now requires more IT and high tech skills.
If you would like to connect with Joe Unterreiner about how he is doing things at the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, he can be reached by email at joe@kalispellchamber.com or by phone at 406-758-2804.
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