And good morning.
Welcome to community connection here on K one and fourteen hundred f M ninety three point three ninety five point one, also on Facebook Live right now and at K one tv dot com. Have one of my favorite guests on today, and she actually is my neighbor as well, Cherry Wills with the Bartlesheil Chamber at comm or Sherry, how are you today?
I am good, good morning to you, neighbor. Absolutely a lot earlier than I think.
That's great?
Are you radio people get up at like what four in the morning?
Even earlier?
Yees?
Godly, Yeah, I was up at three o'clock.
I was proud that I got up at six.
Well, whenever I get up tomorrow morning, whenever I drive by your house, I make sure to wake you and Mike up, just just to know I'm passing by.
Hey, Now, that not at all, not at all.
Well. At the Chamber, you know, the Chamber is always a great organization. I know it's kind of the summertime when we're kind of taking a break from really large events, but that doesn't mean the Chamber stopping working for its.
Members right right summer, just with all vacations and people's schedules, we do kind of slow it down a little bit July particularly, and it's what we do a lot of planning for the new year. We're trying to nail down dates for different things, and we did just get one nailed down that I'm really excited about. August nineteenth. We have a forum series. We do six major forms a year, and our first one of the season is going to be an economic forecast form and it's featuring Mark's need
with region track, which we've used before. Haven't had one done in a couple of years, but I mean, just with everything going on, I mean, I think this will be a very well attended one track. County Tech is our host. We are limited seating wise, so if that one's an interest, you know, I would go ahead and well it'll be on our calendar, it's on our website, Barswell dot com. You could go ahead and register. But
he I love what he does. He starts off and he gives a national spends a lot of time on kind of the national overview, but he drills it down to Oklahoma and then he drills down a little bit into just the region, not necessarily specifically Bartlesviield, but our region northeast Oklahoma and gives an out, you know, an economic forecast on kind of just drilling down like that. So he's he's really he's easy to listen to. You know, sometimes you get bogged down and you're like, oh, what
are they talking about. I'm not you know, I'm not I'm not tracking with you. He's he's he's good for layman people and just really giving a really good well hopefully it'll be a good overview. But I mean he's easy to understand.
Yeah, that's that's important, Sherry, because you know in college where I took some economics right over my head just like okay, either that or I was falling asleep in the close exactly.
So he's interesting and like I said, very so it will be a good one. And like I said, that's August nineteenth. I know that's in the future, but like I said, those are the kinds of things we're working on. Is trying to nail down some dates for different events and things like that. Another one in the future, and I know this one we'll sell out is our business Expo, and this was held in September. We do it in conjunction with our September Business after Hours, so it's from
Ford about six o'clock and businesses. It's at the Hilton Garden End. They host it for us and so there's food and drink. But we have about fifty to sixty boosts set up. Businesses for seventy five dollars can have a space, there's a table and then they can display talk and last year it was great. We're going to add to it a little bit. We kind of looked around like what could have had some more in here, but it did sell out last year. I think we had fifty so it's like I said, seventy five dollars.
But people just made great connections. It was just a really fun evening, easy for people to come out, easy for the Boosts to set up, and just some really good, good connections that happened and just a was a really good time. So once again that is September the fourth. Once again, that's already on our calendar. You could go ahead and register and reserve a spot if you're interested in that as a business. So and it's it's opened any kind of business. We had everything from nonprofits to
service organizations, you know, retail, it's anybody. So yeah, that's one of that's one of our fun one of my favorite events, one of my all time favorites. Do you tell me when we have to take a break, I will go on and on?
Okay, So is I like talking with you because.
I will go on and on. Leadership Bartlesville. That is one of the top programs we do. It is a great, great program, but it's by application. You have to apply, go through an interview and be accepted. But this will be class thirty five, so it has it's been started back in eighty what was it three? Maybe there was a couple of years where they did two in one year,
so you can't technically go by the years. But great program and the applications for that closed June thirtieth, so just you know, Monday at midnight they will close and then we'll go from there. But it is you take a day a month and it's a full day out of the office. So you have to be committed in that regard, and your employer has to be committed if you're not the one going through. And each day focuses
on a different aspect of the community. What makes up this community start off with the nonprofits community services in our community, and that's always an eye opener. It's one of the favorite days. Do a lot of tours. That's one thing I like, you get behind the scenes that a lot of places that the normal person may not
necessarily get to tour. People are always blown away. It's like you drive past Walmart distribution center or the supply chain whatever they call, and they actually get to tour that. You get to go in the freezer section. I mean, you see how that whole logistics works because you just drive by that and it's massive. I mean, that's just an example of kind of a behind the scenes thing that's on large business day. So there's healthcare, there's education,
criminal justice. That's always interesting. They tour the jail, they learn all sorts of things because for most of us that's not you know, we're not familiar with that world. Not do we really want to be that. It's what you walk away from that day. You realize so many in our community, including our law enforcement, are judges. All of them work so well together. Their goal is not
to just slam somebody in jail. If they can do something through through drug court, mental health court, and you learn what those are because a lot of people, I had no idea what drug court was So I went through leadership Oklahoma on a state level and I came back, I'm like, do we have drug court here? I mean, it's a great, great program and it has helped so many people. And so anyhow, each day focuses on a
different aspect of our community. You meet with the leaders, the people that are making the decisions, and it's just
it's it's very very eye opening. It's always fun because at the end the last day they do a capstand presentation, you know kind of what they got out of it, what they expected, and you know what they how they want to plug in because that's the whole goal is you take this wealth of knowledge and then you're able to plug into your community even more so and in a more in depth way than you may haven't or you know, are currently so. But people that have grown
up here, I love it. Oh, I already know the community. I grew up here. I know everything. It's like every one of them I had no idea. I did not know. I just you know, it blows them away. Obviously, people that are new that you expect that, but it cracks me up because every you know, you always have people that have grown up here or spent a large, large majority of their career here and they think they know the community and they really do.
Yeah, it's it's incredible, Sherry, because I had a conversation with one of your Leadership Class thirty four members, Kelsey Walker, who is the assistant communications director for the city. She also she and I used to work together as well at another media outlet, and it was I talked to her about it and.
She's like, I learned something new.
She's like, and you would think being in the news business, you guys really do know a lot. And so yeah, it's a perfect example.
Yes, it is.
Yeah, and it just our own calab Potter has has been through Leadership Artesil Tammy Brinkman as well, and they talk very highly of that program. So again, applications are.
Due April or April okay, Lord June thirtieth.
Next Monday, okay, so okay.
And all the information for this the date, so you can need to clear your schedule, make sure you can you know, commit because there's an attendance policy. I mean, it's a it's a well designed program. But all of the information can be found online Bartlesweil dot com at the home page. There's little like circle icons, and there's a Leadership Bartlesville circle icon on there and you can just click on that and it's all on there right right.
We're talking about Sherry Wells at the Bartlezeil Chamber of Commerce, Sherry Leadership Bartlezhil. Not only is it for you know, locally centric experiences, but you also have the day at the Capitol and that I've been to that personally myself, not as a member of leadership that probably need to do leadership pork.
You do, we talk to talk to your boss. I'm listening.
Hopefully they're lost things anyway.
But the day of the capital, you guys take a big bus down uh where all class members go there and spend the day there.
Uh. It's actually like Barlowsill Day.
It is what we call it bartswal Day at the Capitol, and we usually get all the top leadership you know, whether you like him or dislike him, but that's who is you know, leaning the state.
Uh.
This year, the only one we were really missing was Lieutenant Governor. He was out of the state at the time we were there, and he's my favorite speaker.
Oh yeah, I.
Love Matt Fanel anyhow, but we had all the rest of the leadership, you know, top leaders that we had the governor come in personally address our group. That's where the morning started off, and he fielded questions. We the Speaker of the House, you know, Senate pro tem, we had one of the Supreme Court justices speak. I mean, so it's a good over. And then we actually had somebody that talked about kind of a little bit of the history of the capitol because he was in charge
of the Capital restoration, Trey Thompson. Yes, and so it's very and then we have lunch with our local delegation. It is a really good day. We take a really nice charter bus down, so it's a comfortable ride down and seven o'clock for you that would be sleeping in. You can sleep in that day, you know.
What, that you can sleep on the bus too.
That's true. But usually they're they're talking in a lot of camaraderie. But it is a really good day. And that's one thing we one of our pillars for tell me when we need to take a break.
Yeah, we are all yeah, let's let's go and take a break now and then come yeah, we'll come back and we'll we'll talk more. We're listening to community connection here on K one, brought to you today by Arnold Moore and Meek Camp Funeral Home.
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Welcome back to community Connection here on K one A fourteen hundred FM ninety three point three ninety five point one, as well as on Facebook Live. This morning in K one t the dot Com, Nathan Thompson in with Cherry Will to the Bartleziw Chamber and during our commercial break, if you're watching our list stream, you can see we were we were having a great conversation. Well, no, no, it's fine, it's fine. They're probably all wonder what we're
talking about. But we're just talking about neighborly things.
Neighborly things. We have a great neighborhood, Sherry.
We do love where we live.
Yeah.
Absolutely, we're not going to disclose where that is not it's a little oasis if you will. So anyway, so, uh, Bartlezil Chamber again, Really, I know we talked about being connected and being a vibrant community. How is it that the Chamber of Commerce fits into that puzzle piece?
Where do you start? So let's let's take connected. Let me just give a quick example one issue because we try to really focus on and this is the intangible side of the chamber that people don't normally see, but we try to tackle issues. And we're in a unique position because we were present about seven hundred and fifty businesses anywhere from the little one man, you know, one person shop maybe moorphing out of their home, to you know, obviously the large corporations. But so we we can bring
whoever to the table to solve certain issues. So let me just take the latest one was, you know, childcare. That affects workforce. Anybody out there that's an employer and has employees looking for daycare. It's challenging, particularly if you have infants. And anyhow, we formed a child care task Force and went through anywhere from I mean, we kind of started analyzing, oh my gosh, we need to building an eight million dollar, you know, just huge daycare like
some communities have, and it's like, well, that's in you know. Anyhow, we really studied it, step back and all that to say, so right now, let's say you have an employee who is looking you're looking for daycare. On our website we can connect you and it's got information under the tab why Bartlesville and under education and I think it's under employment or working in Bartlesville, but it's in two locations. But it gives you information on how to find the
latest up to date they keep it. It's live of who has openings, when are those openings coming? You know, may not be until August, but we know they've got openings coming. So that's how we can connect our businesses to a to a need that they have. So, I mean, that's just one example. We also going back to Bartleol day at the Capitol advocacy a lot of people, you know, you're busy running your business. It's hard to track legislation
and keep up with it. And during the legislative session, you know May or February through May, we track legislation. Now we're following bills that pertain the business, that would affect business. We're not tracking everything coming down the pike because there's some strange things that come down the pike. Yes, you though, we may mention the funny ones and the quirky ones, you.
Know, but your husband, by the way, Mike does a very good job.
With that that's it's right off his alley. He loves to he's a great writer, but he puts it in a nutshell that is so easy to read and just tracks that as a former legislator comes natural. But anyhow, we put that out every Monday, and it's a great way to keep up with what's happening. How's it gonna affect your business? Why is this important? And it may not specifically be your industry, but so many things. You know, let's take healthcare. Something that's gonna affect healthcare that's going
to trickle down to your business. So anyhow, there's just a lot of things kind of behind the scenes, those intangible things. Because I can talk events and things you can attend, take advantage of. You know that you can see those you can take advantage of. And I think that's what so many people think of with the chamber, which is great, but there's just a lot of things.
In fact, I talked about this yesterday. We have an event called Pastries and Perks, or we go through all the different things and I always end with the intangible, just reminding our members that's really what we hope you're investing in, is how the things that we're trying to move forward in the community to make it the better community, the strongest community possible, you know, to fight for whatever
it is we need to be fighting for. One more quick example, when COVID was you know, the throes of COVID, and I'm not going to get political, but you know, our board spent a lot of time on that. We did a lot of things to help businesses through kind of the COVID, given them resources, all sorts of things. But it was time for businesses we felt to be able to make the decision to open. We're not saying
you have to open. If you're not comfortable opening, stay closed, but if you needed to, you know that business was either going to go out of business, and you know you have employees and families really lying on you if you wanted to open. We felt it was important and we had a resolution that we were ready to present to city Council because it was going to be coming up if they didn't vote to kind of U shudder
and let the community get back to business. And we were one of the earlier communities to be able to do that, and I think that's why we survived like we did. Luckily. City Council voted correct, you know, in our opinion, correctly and let businesses open and if you weren't comfortable going out, that's fine, that's you know, but we're not dictating where or the other. But we're given a business freedom to do business as they see best.
And so you know, that's just another just kind of that intangible where we're representing seven hundred and fifty businesses and it's important for him to be open. So now that's from COVID, but I mean it's just another example of kind of that intangible thing that we try.
To and the advocacy that the Chamber doesys you just talked about, and you know, I think it was Lieutenant Governor Matt Pannell who said this about our chamber, your chamber that you run it is in his opinion. I think he said so. Well, I know he might be he might have been kissing up a little bit. No, I'm kidding, Lieutenant Governor, Please don't take that personally. But I mean, we really do have a top notch chamber.
We do. I'm very very proud of our chamber and we have a really good reputation around the state, and I'm proud of that and that comes from just great people that we work with. I mean, it's not my leadership or we'll take a little credit, but it is. We've got a very strong chamber. We've got great people that work staff and then just board, just people that in the community that we work with. It's we've got
such a good, good community. I mean, there are things we need to work on, and things are being addressed. Things are I mean, I'm really impressed with some things that are happening, and so things just don't especially some of the issues we're trying to tackle. They don't happen overnight. And it's not going to be totally ever one hundred percent probably solved. But there are good things happening in the community.
There always are, and unfortunately a lot of the time is the bad news exactly against the most attention, and especially when we have social media.
And I just stay off social media will be fine.
Well anyway, Well, Sherry, we're coming up on the end of our time here again we're with Sherry Welt.
The Borrow's Old Chamber.
If a business, individual organization wants to become a member, what is your website or how can they do?
Absolutely I would encourage you to check out our website. Don't answer a lot of your questions, but I'd really I encourage you to contact us. As for Judy, she does our membership, but some people I know you don't want to because then you feel obligated. It's like when you get a bit at your house. I always feel obligated I have to use that person. But you know, she'd love to sit down, just talk to you, go through some things, and then you know it's up to
you if you'd like to join. We'd love to have you. Like I said, it is an organization that represents all sizes, all different kinds of businesses, and we'd love to have you.
So absolutely absolutely Cherrywell, bartlesviill dot com.
There you go, bartolesil dot com.
Easiest website in our area to get information. Cherry Well, President and CEO of the bartziw Chambier of Commerce, thank you so much for coming.
In with me today. Thank you, thank you all right, that was your community connection.
We have the overcomers and as well as the words of inspiration coming up next on K one