Is hiring and employee retention an issue for your business? How about logistics and transportation? Would you like to hear more from business leaders in the area over breakfast, lunch, or an after work session? Maybe online training is the way you roll.
“We need your help to help you,” said Vickie McClatchy, a mortgage lender with Supreme Lending and UBCC member.

We’re canvassing the membership (did you take the survey yet??) to gather relevant information to bring in experts able to share what they know to move your business forward and meet your goals and needs.

The survey is open now and posted on the UBCC website. If you haven’t taken it yet, visit the link www.ubcc.org and take it today!

McClatchy is part of the Membership Committee. She said the surveys are an important resource tool for 2019 and beyond.  “We’re taking the survey very seriously, and we want to make it a big part of our program planning,” she said.

What challenges does your business face and do you know where to find the tools to overcome them? Would others have the same questions you have?

“This is a valuable tool and a way to have your voice be heard,” said Corey Armideo, a partner of PBR Productions in Perkasie. Armideo is also a Membership Committee member.

Bob Podraza of Edward Jones Quakertown is the chairman of the Membership Committee. He believes the New Year is a great time to look forward and consider change, and a fresh approach.

“I think the survey reflects a renewed commitment to understand what members want and to further introduce our new leadership,” Podraza said.

UBCC Executive Director Danielle Bodnar took the reins from long-time Executive Director Tara King, who retired in October 2018. Bodnar’s experience and perspective will influence the Chamber’s direction. At the top of her “to-do” list is increasing membership engagement. She credits the Membership Committee with discussing and drafting topics they believe would appeal to most members for the survey.

McClatchy said UBCC had all the ingredients to become the go-to professional resource for Upper Bucks County and beyond. “We want members to come out to mixers and events because they’re afraid they’ll miss something if they don’t,” McClatchy said.
She believes creating that kind of urgency to make UBCC “the most important event at the top of the business social calendar” will attract new members and give existing members a vigorous reason to participate.

Made up of local business owners and leaders, UBCC’s Membership Committee meets monthly to support the UBCC staff and facilitate the Board of Directors goals to further the Chamber’s growth and sustainability.

What came out of the committee’s early morning meetings last year was the need to go directly to YOU, our membership, to see what topics you have the most interest in learning more about, as well as when those programs best meet your needs.

“Business is done differently now and businesses need to learn and grow. They want to stay relevant,” Podraza said.

Sales and marketing? Social media? Leadership? Webinars or simulcasts of national talent brought directly to your desktop?

If you don’t see a topic that fits your needs, write it in the Other space provided.  
​
You decide.

Find and take the survey on our homepage at www.ubcc.org.  For more information on the Membership committee visit www.ubcc.org/committees.

After the confetti clears and the champagne glasses are put away, there’s nothing like a new year to inspire a fresh start.

Maybe it’s the clean slate and forward-thinking vision of 365 new days, filled with possibility.

We’re inspired by New Year’s Resolutions - both big and small.

From losing weight - that’s one of Hotter Painting Owner Chuck Hotter’s - to growing or expanding your business, we caught up with some UBCC members and staff for a peek at what made the list for 2019.

“I’m excited about working with the executive committee on future events and programs,” Hotter said. He’s also looking forward to recruiting new members to UBCC and helping retain existing ones through fresh education and ways to connect.

For Nancy Strauss helping her clients achieve success is her top priority for 2019.
 
Strauss is a certified lifestyle coach with Optavia, a product lifestyle/life cycle company based in Baltimore Maryland.

“My goal is to be laser focused and intentional about helping my clients and health coaches get what they want...which will ultimately help me get what I want,” Strauss said.
 
For Teresa Senatore, UBCC administrative assistant, it’s consistently honoring healthy eating habits.
 
Growing his business is what Shane Peeve of Sunset Pest Solutions, Inc. listed as a top 2019 resolution.

And expanding his business is one of Joe Wingert’s New Year’s resolutions. “Transforming” his family’s weekly Lahaska –based newspaper into a regional media outlet is Wingert’s professional resolution.
Wingert is the incoming UBCC Board of Directors president and publisher of Bucks County Herald. He also wants to travel to England this year.

Outgoing UBCC board President Jason Wehrung wants to “slow down and appreciate life as much as possible,” and Tracy Kline, UBCC operations director, wants to make more time at least weekly “to do something I enjoy.”

Brett Fischer, owner of Fischer’s Tuxedo in Quakertown, wants to quit smoking.

And UBCC Executive Director Danielle Bodnar said she realizes how single intentional small choices create big ripples of change.
With this mindset of small changes moving Bodnar said better personal organization was at the top of her to-do list.
“I want to work on being the strategic organizer I know that I can be when it comes to my desk, my ‘to-do list’, [my] inbox etc.,” Bodnar said. That “found” time can go toward pursuing interests she’s intrigued by, or those that get lost in the shuffle of everyday work and living. Cultivating both internal and external self-awareness is another of Bodnar’s resolutions.

What’s my New Year’s resolution? I’m Melinda Rizzo and as a UBCC member, freelance writer and the chamber’s blog, content and annual directory writer, I want to use technology more effectively to streamline my writing processes.
What’s your New Year’s resolution?

Let us know- email [email protected] and if we have enough responses, we’ll share another post!!

Did you know there’s nothing like it anywhere else in Bucks County?

Our annual Community Profile and Membership Directory provide more than a snapshot of the area.

It lists every single UBCC member. It’s a venue for advertising your business in print and online. It showcases our natural resources and destination amenities, and its outreach is crafted to cater to residents, business, educators and visitors alike.

Focused serves a three-fold purpose: A consumer “one stop” resource, a community outreach and advocacy platform and a visitor’s tourism resource.

We’re proud of the fact it’s unique, and we create and produce it ourselves.

The 2019 directory’s theme is water – and you can just about hear it tumbling over rocks and bubbling along crevices on this year’s cover.

Upper Bucks is rich with this essential resource, and we wanted to pay tribute to it.

Throughout Upper Bucks County’s 21 municipalities – which we define as Palisades, Pennridge and Quakertown Community school districts, you’ll find water everywhere.

Streams, rivers, ponds and swamps, you’ll see – and hear it in gullies, water worn ravines threading along the sides of our country roads.

From the vast water resource that is Lake Nockamixon to those back roadway trickles, our water tables are high, clean, and mighty.

Deep beneath the surface natural scrubbers like black shale rock, quartz, limestone and clay silt beds inform our water’s taste and mineral content, keeping it pure and unique, just like us.

Abundant water allows residential and business communities to survive and thrive.

Supporting the area’s business community is our prime directive. We want you, our business members to thrive, too.

Advertising dollars pay for the creation, production and distribution of the annual directory so it’s free to our end users.

This year we’re printing 7,500 copies - another record, and once again the directory will have a mirror image available online to anyone in the world, from an internet click away.

If you haven’t advertised before make sure to check it out when it arrives in late January.

Ask us questions about the book, its look, feel and its mission.  And support UBCC’s directive to help grow your business footprint by becoming an advertiser.

If you’re already an advertiser, thanks! We value your support and we couldn’t do it without you.

Again, look for the 2019 directory in January, and let us know what you think!