A Fond Farewell to The Chamber Personality Liz Leighton, 1951-2025 A little-known fact, known only to a few of the people who have worked for the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, is there is a qualification in each of our staff job descriptions: Must have a chamber personality. It is my assumption that each of [...]
Vote No Again The proponents say this initiative is for affordability. We agree our community is not affordable for many of our residents. Unfortunately, the primary thing this initiative will do is simply make things more expensive – thus decreasing everyone’s affordability. If a higher minimum wage leads to affordability, we should already be affordable [...]
Young Professionals recognized with the 2023 Top 7 Under 40 September 14, 2023 Tomorrow’s leaders are here today working in positions behind the senses and in those of prominence. The Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Whatcom Young Professionals, a chamber program, recently announced this year’s Top 7 Under 40. This is our [...]
Working Together for Additional Public Safety Solutions The Downtown Bellingham Partnership, in collaboration with the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and a group of community-minded leaders and business owners, are working together to encourage additional public safety solutions and investment in Downtown Bellingham. Since mid-2021, the Downtown Bellingham Partnership and the City of Bellingham [...]
Why "Yes for Kids" October 12, 2022 You may have seen our name as a supporter of the Healthy Children's Fund (Prop 5) to be on the ballot in November. Yes, you read that correctly. As an organization that values efficient and effective government with smart taxation, it may be a bit surprising to see [...]
Thank you Mayor Fleetwood Climate Action Fund proposal has been paused Wednesday, June 22, 2022 Last night the City of Bellingham issued a press release regarding the newly proposed Climate Action Fund levy originally scheduled to be on the ballot this November 2022. We value this prudent decision for a number of reasons. We would [...]
How NOAH concepts can help the Whatcom County rental market May 25, 2022 We hear a lot about the need for affordable housing in Whatcom County. But what, exactly, makes housing affordable? Elements such as vacancy rates, property size, location and building condition play large roles in the cost of rental housing in any community. [...]
The future of a thriving Bellingham relies on a willingness to say ‘yes’ to more pro-housing solutions Like the rest of Washington state, Bellingham and Whatcom County are continuing to recover from the human and economic tolls of COVID-19. Today, the county is outpacing the state in terms of the total population vaccinated, with 66% [...]
The A’s of Housing It is fair to say that our housing policy in this community has failed. Housing prices have increased almost 20% nationwide since the pandemic started, and many of the negative issues identified in our own community are related to housing — or to the lack thereof. Bellingham residents have repeatedly [...]
Travel COVID Testing Needs to go says Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and Surrey Board of Trade Nov 8th, 2021 at 12:55 pm The Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Surrey Board of Trade are urging the Canadian government to immediately eliminate requirements for fully vaccinated Canadians to produce a negative COVID-19 molecular test [...]
The six values that define the Bellingham Regional Chamber You can learn a lot about an organization by what it is committed to and how it conducts its business. For the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, the first is simple. We are committed to you, the members of the Whatcom County community. The chamber has [...]
Chamber Welcomes Schantell Hummel Here at the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, we’re all about connecting and getting to know the people who make up our community. We’d love it if you could get to know us as well. Schantell Hummel is our newest teammate here at the Chamber. She was hired in August as [...]
2021 Whatcom County Business Political Forum Thursday, October 14, 2021 Starting at 5:30PM Every year we hear from the candidates for City, County, and Port offices. We partnered with Associated General Contractors (AGC), the Building Industry Association of Whatcom County (BIAWC), and the Whatcom County Association of Realtors (WCAR) to produce this event. Click Here [...]
Vote "NO" on Initiative #4 As reported before, the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has officially opposed Initiative #1 and #4. There are reasons to be concerned about all four. We decided to focus on these two with extra attention on #4. Business & Organization Sign On Letter As part of our [...]
Action Alert: Initiatives on the ballot this fall On the ballot for City of Bellingham voters this fall are four initiatives that could greatly impact our business community. Generally, the initiatives cover landlord/tenant law, policing technology, labor unions and worker pay. The Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has voted to officially oppose [...]
Five ways you can leverage your chamber membership Business leaders like to have reasons for doing things. Whatever we do, we like to base it on value: What value will I bring to this effort, and what will I get out of it? Being a member of a chamber of commerce is no different. Whether [...]
A business case for investment in child care June 16, 2021 I was invited recently to be a panelist for a talk put on by the Economic Alliance of Snohomish County as part of the group’s Coffee Chat program. This particular dialogue was on child care — and, more specifically, on how access to child care [...]
June 9, 2021 This past year or so has been tough. We need to remember to enjoy life and smile as much as possible. With the recent rumors the border will be reopening to vaccinated persons, there were a number of emails on the topic. One that made me smile included this: “Will the Border [...]
116 years later, the message remains the same Hanging on the wall of my office is an article from the Aug. 26, 1905, issue of The Puget Sound American, a short-lived newspaper that was published from 1904 to 1906 right here in Whatcom County. Titled “Knocking against city becomes a disease,” the article claimed — [...]
We need resilience, not just recovery By Guy Occhiogrosso, president/CEO, Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce As I write this article, we are in the midst of our Toast of the Town: A Celebration of Community Resiliency video series. As we conducted the interviews and produced the videos, I was inspired by the many people doing [...]
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