On Friday evening, November 14, the Greater Cazenovia Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual dinner at Hubbard Hall on the campus of Cazenovia College.
The successes of the past year were summarized by outgoing chairwoman Betsy Powers. A summary is available by clicking here.
Ms. Powers praised incoming chair Paul Brooks, and he returned the compliments as he thanked her for her two years of focused, dedicated service. Powers, said Mr. Brooks, was the driving force behind the Chamber's push toward economic development and its increased focus on member services.
New board members were nominated and outgoing board members thanked. The latter group included Frank Gallucci, long-time treasurer of the Chamber, who was called to the podium by Ms. Powers and thanked for his years of service.
The featured speaker was Vito Sciscioli, former director of operations for the city of Syracuse and a respected economic development voice in Central New York. Mr. Scisioli spoke of the Richard Florida book, The Rise of the Creative Class, the message of which is that young creative professionals (in disciplines from art and music to engineering and science) often choose the communities in which they live based on non-traditional factors. As he related these factors to Cazenovia, Mr. Sciscioli identified several community attributes attractive to young professionals and suggested that these be cultivated and managed properly. Among his suggestions:
Mr. Sciscioli stated that Cazenovia Lake is the town and village's most critical asset. Besides being such an obvious geographic feature, property values of homes on the lake support excellent services and schools for such a small and rural area, he said. He suggested that preserving the quality of the lake and the community's environment was the single most important factor in Cazenovia's economic success and growth. He also said that while the Cazenovia area's planning process (CAPP, etc.) has been excellent, the region needs to do a better job of acting on those plans.
Turnout for the meeting appeared to be well over 150 people. Besides Chamber members, Cazenovia village mayor Tom Clarke and Cazenovia town supervisor Tom Dreisbach attended the meeting. Betsy Powers announced that the town, village, and chamber will be forming a team for "visioning sessions" in 2004 to help shape policy and economic development issues. Ms. Powers thanked all of the participants for a successful meeting and a successful year.
After an entertaining and informative evening, everyone headed into the wet snow and thirty degree temperatures for their journey home.
Posted by jimj at November 15, 2003 11:10 AM | TrackBack