2021 is off to the races and our members are rightfully focused on recalibrating their new normal. Reduced workforces, new hires, different customer service protocols, and new revenue goals are all demanding fresh effort and innovative thinking.  The West Orange Chamber of Commerce Staff and Board of Directors join our members in stepping up to these challenges and improving our individual and collective performance in 2021.  As you and your team charge on (Go Knights!), I encourage you to promote an atmosphere for feedback and dissent. In Adam Grant‘s “Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World,” he examines the value of dissent and creating a culture where standards are “stress tested over time, … [where] you have to either operate by them or disagree with them and fight for better ones.”

It is in the keeping and challenging of standards that we prove who and what we are, and evolve into who and what we want to be. This applies at every level – individual, company, community, state, etc. It is with this same spirit that our Chamber has yet again prepared our annual Legislative Position Paper communicating to our legislative delegation and our members the standards that we agree with and those we want them to fight to improve. I hope each of you will take the time to review the 2021 Legislative Position Paper and contact your Legislators to advocate on behalf of the issues we know are important to West Orange County as a whole. The prosperity of our companies and region depends on each of us not only stepping up, but also speaking up. Wishing you a strong finish for February!

Sincerely,

Camille M. Evans, Esq.