One of the three pillars that leads our work here at the Ames Chamber of Commerce is advocacy, or our ability to publicly support or privately recommend a course of action related to a particular cause. We want local businesses to succeed, and it is our responsibility, and honor, to advocate on your behalf. This includes being your voice at the local, state, and federal levels throughout the year across a range of topics and issues.
Often times, our advocacy work includes making connections, providing information, resources, and access to individuals who need to hear from our business partners. If there are opportunities that benefit our member businesses and community partners, we want you to have that information and make informed decisions that positively impact your company and our economic region.
In today’s landscape, advocacy can be a complicated thing because there is often not one single course of action that benefits all. There are dominoes that fall on each policy issue and our advocacy on one topic may not resonate with everyone. That is okay. It is for those reasons that we have a dedicated public policy component of our organization and host a variety of legislative events throughout the year. Our team attends city council meetings across the Ames MSA because it is our job to have a pulse on what is happening. We want to help our members and business partners understand how decisions impact them at all levels of government.
We proudly have companies in the Ames MSA that operate nationally and internationally, and as a result, their scope of business and our scope of advocacy must also include that perspective. Unlike politics, the business world operates in the complicated world of logistics, operations, and personnel where not everything is black and white with one side being correct and the other being wrong. There are times when the job just needs to get done.
Through my conversations with business leaders in our region, I can say that most understand this. While they have a pulse on the topics of the day, their focus is on their business and what makes our communities better. That local emphasis allows for robust conversations because the baseline is that we are all in this for the same reason.
If you ever have any questions about our advocacy, political or otherwise, please reach out to myself or one of our team members. We are here to serve you and be your advocate.
