Signaling a plan to become more engaged in public policy, particularly as it relates to local businesses, the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce has scheduled a State of the County address for next month, with County Manager Chris Knopf scheduled to speak.
This is not the first such event the chamber has hosted — it has held several “state of” talks in recent years, particularly before the COVID-19 pandemic, with city, county and state leaders schedule giving presentations about the general state of affairs in their respective jurisdictions.
But this one will be the first in a series of such events in 2023, and is a signal that the chamber’s public policy committee plans to become more active, according to chamber leaders.
“For 2023, our public policy committee is the driver behind using lunches to engage with the membership (of the chamber),” said Jordon Edwards, events director for the chamber. “The 12 members on that committee who are business leaders, they are the driver behind wanting to see the public policy committee more active in 2023…public policy wasn’t pushed as much in 2021 and 2022 as they wished it would have been.”
The State of the County lunch is set for Feb. 9, from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. at White Sulphur Springs. It is the first of several such events slated for this year. Edwards said a State of the City event focusing on Mount Airy is scheduled for Aug. 10 at White Sulphur Springs, and chamber officials are hoping to have one which includes state officials in November at Big Creek Lodge.
“The public policy committee is looking at doing town hall-type forums, maybe bring in county commissioners, city commissioners, people from parks and rec, planning… to do a larger, more fluid open forum,” Edwards said of other potential events. “Maybe a downtown merchant meeting so we can find out what are the issues the merchants are interested in.”
She said similar events could also be slated for Dobson and Pilot Mountain.
Tonda Phillips, chair of the chamber’s public policy committee, said she is new to the position and still getting her feet under her, but she sees the chamber being able to do more in regards to public policy. Of particular interest, she said, is to learn about what public policies might directly affect businesses in Mount Airy and Surry County.
“Public policy has never been on the forefront of the committees, as far as what they did in the community,” she said. Phillips said she would like the committee to help lead the chamber in taking a more active role in disseminating information about state and federal laws and policies to business owners and the larger community of Surry County.
”I think this event …will give us some broader information about things going on in the county,” she said of Knopf’s upcoming address. “This will be a fairly general, good overview of business and policies on a county level.” The more such information the chamber is able to find and distribute, the more it can be an advocate for its members and take a role in “things that affect business in the community.”
“I hope there are some topics we can bring to light, we can educate the public, the business owners, leaders in the community, things that bring us together and help us understand policy and procedure. Our committee can be a good resource to clarify issues or bring an educational platform to businesses…in an unbiased, neutral, nonpolitical place where we’re not taking a side or creating opinions, we just want to give good information.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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