The numbers never lie

     I am not a numbers guy.  Every math teacher that has ever been exposed to my mathematical wizardry has suggested that I avoid all career choices that might require me to count.
     Data, however, does fascinate me enough to draw conclusions that actually seem reasonable.  When you’re looking for validation, there’s no better feeling than to throw some big numbers at your harshest critics and have them nod approvingly.  “Confuse them when you can” was something that Mark Twain would have said if he was running a chamber of commerce.
     I am fortunate enough to have a staff replete with people who can count and who have a high degree of credibility.  When they provide me with data, it’s the real stuff.  They often go into great detail about its value, hoping that I won’t distort it.  They understand that my biggest source of frustration, even after twenty-three years, remains the fact that not all Blair County businesses are Chamber members. So they ply me with information that supports my point-of-view and then they cross their fingers.  The perils of uncertainty are really not for the faint of heart.
     What I received from our Marketing and Membership staff recently was a statistical analysis of what our Chamber accomplished during 2019.  In a few cases, like Leadership Blair County, the numbers were a compilation that included previous years to show the incredible level of participation enjoyed by that program.  So let me throw some hard numbers in your direction:

• In 2019, between Leadership Blair County Adult and LBC Youth, 46 people reached graduate status.  That brings the total number of graduates to 1,003 since the program began in 1995.  What the data shows is that our county might lack a lot of things but leadership is not among them.
• Also in 2019, we partnered with the six Rotary clubs in our county to help 1,156 high school sophomores learn more about career possibilities.  That runs the overall numbers for that annual event to more 6,000 students over a five-year period.  Couple that with our Career Shadowing event, which had 424 high school juniors participating (more than 3,000 over its nine year duration) and you can see the impact the Chamber makes in helping young people to prepare for what comes next.  And by exposing them to our local businesses, it at least plants a critical seed for seeking employment close to home.
• Among the other numbers that might not resonate quite as emphatically are the 22 trips that Chamber staff took to Harrisburg and Washington, D.C. to advocate on behalf of legislation benefitting the local business community; the 48 networking events that the Chamber hosted to provide members the opportunity to identify and pursue an additional customer base; the 37 ribbon-cuttings that we conducted to recognize the births or expansions of local businesses; and the fact that we now have five businesses that have been Chamber members for 102-years each, a tribute to outstanding loyalty.
• My favorite statistic of all is one that blows me away each time I stop to consider it.  And it makes me wonder what more we have to do to get the attention of businesses that are looking for exposure but are reluctant to invest in Chamber membership.  That statistic is this: In 2019, the Chamber’s Online Directory of its members made 13,889,259 referrals.  Thanks to modern technology, we are able to segment those referrals and we provide those numbers to each member on an annual basis.

     In conclusion, while I would hope that those businesses that are not members would be impressed by what we do to the extent that they would consider joining, I am hoping even more that those who have invested in our organization would feel a sense of pride that, through their investment, good things are happening here and will continue to happen.
     You can count on that.