Your Voice is Needed

This is my last blog for 2023… can you believe it?  Next week we are all hopefully sharing time with people we care about, and recharging for 2024. So today I want to reflect back on 2023 and talk just a bit about what’s ahead for 2024.
 
Our 2024 Annual Meeting theme is “Building a New Table.”  Last year we talked about “Investing in Tomorrow.” The themes build on one another – this idea that future economic success for this region and state depend on us finding ways to work together as we usher in tomorrow, and doing so with new ideas, new voices, new approaches.
 
I recently had the opportunity to meet with Kurt Zellers of the MN Business Partnership. We talked about this as well, in the context of policy work. As we prepare for the 2024 legislative session, it is critical that the employer community align ever more intentionally. And find ways to connect productively with our legislators. Because we have much to wrestle with: rent control, environmental permitting reform, employer mandates, a potential fifth-tier tax increase, and more. Your chamber and regional/state partners will work on this together. And the new table? Inviting YOU to join us.  More than ever, your unique voice will be critical in communicating your priorities and concerns. Those of us who would prefer to leave the tough conversations to “someone else” no longer have that luxury. So look forward to being invited in, asked to contribute your voice to our work in 2024 and beyond.
 
Wishing you all a blessed holiday season, and looking forward to more important work together in the new year!
 
See you in the trenches,

​B