Our April Top Ten List
In lieu of our typical (long-ish) main newsletter story, this month we have 10 quick updates for members on various topics:
* Attention Seasonal Chamber businesses: please let us know when you will be officially opening this year, we look forward to sharing that good news with the membership. It's another reminder that nicer weather is on our doorstep, which is especially welcome this year.
* Earth Day is coming up on 4/22 - hope you can make it a memorable one by perhaps volunteering (for example, with the City of Saco's park clean-up effort led by the Rec. dept.), or just making some conscious decisions to incorporate positive changes in your work or home life to conserve resoures and in general live greener for a healthier planet.
* We are planning to launch a Young Professionals Group within our Chamber this summer. We have two members who have volunteered to spearhead this new initiative. More details will be coming soon, but if you want to be part of this effort from the beginning, please let us know and we'll include you in the initial meeting.
* As a reminder, late last year we developed a custom Chamber 401(k) plan that combines the economies of scale of a cost-effective national provider with local expertise from Pension Professionals. If you'd like to learn more about this Chamber member benefit, whether as a new retirement benefit option for your employees or a replacement for an existing one, please let us know.
* Also, our Chamber Healthcare Plan offerings have evolved from just our prior Chamber Blue option to also now feature a new self-funded program specifically designed for small businesses with 3 or more employees that could provide your company with savings and annual premium rebates. If you'd like to learn more, just reach out to us here for more information.
* Look for a date to be announced soon for our annual Chamber Biking event, this year on the Eastern Trail. Our goal will be to just enjoy our great local trail system with fellow chamber members and socialize informally outdoors, for all biking skill levels - details and timing TBD.
* We've had members ask about when we will be scheduling live Business After Hours again. As much as we all love Zoom ... we'll be thrilled to begin these again in June with two members already planning to host these much-missed networking opportunities. Please let us know if you are nterested in hosting a Business After Hour sometime later this year.
* Three cheers and kudos to the entire team at The Ecology School as their transformative and cutting-edge construction project for their campus at River Bend Farm in Saco nears completion! They are such a great resource for our area in educating both local students and children from all over the country about the natural world and the critical importance of environmental and ecological sustainability.
* WOW in the last month or two it feels like scores of our members are ramping up their hiring efforts for more employees - which echoes the pre-pandemic trend of many companies needing more employees in our area to fuel their ongoing growth. This is a strong indicator that our local economy is growing once again, a welcome sign after this past year of heightened uncertainty.
* We hope every business and non-profit organization that can apply for a PPP Loan has done so already... it could yield forgivable funds for your business! The recently extended deadline to apply for this round of a PPP Loan is now May 31, 2021.
That's our top 10 - it actually ended up being kinda long-winded, sorry :).
