School Is Back In Session

By Jim Wright

Q. What do you do if a teacher rolls her eyes at you?
A. Pick them up and roll them back to her!

School is back in session. Remember the feeling you had when school started up again after a "too short" summer vacation? Some kids loved it, but not me. I was made for vacation...not for learning. My parents, on the other hand thought back to school was great - no more Jimmy around the house all day long.

One of the reasons I disliked school was the number of rules each teacher had for his or her class. There were rules about everything-no talking, no gum chewing, no laughing, no cheating (darn). Our hair had to be two fingers above our eyebrows, girls dresses had to reach the floor when they knelt down on their knees, blue jeans could have no holes in them and on and on and on! In one elementary school, in case of fire you would have to line up quietly in single file from the smallest to the tallest. What is the logic? Do tall people burn slower?

Teacher: Give me a sentence with the word "fascinate" in it.
Student: If I had a sweater with ten buttons and two fell off, then I would only have to fascinate (fasten eight)!

Things haven't changed much since our school years. Now we are in business - talk about rules and regulations! The Chambers' Public Policy and City Relations Committees under the guidance of Gene Maggard and Hardy Washington have prepared a call to action to increase the Chamber's voice when responding to ordinances and legislation that continue to stifle business growth and competition. Here is what they have stated:
With all the recent news coverage and debate the nation's ever increasing debt and the subsequent downgrade of U.S. debt rating by Standard and Poor's, the Chamber has received more and more information about how failure to get the federal debt under control could increase the cost of doing business to all sizes of companies. Now it will be more difficult to get loans for business expansion and interest rates will be higher. The federal government doesn't have a lock on the ability to increase business costs. Roadblocks can happen at any level of government with legislation and regulation that make doing business more difficult and costly. The City of Kirkwood, for example, is currently considering legislation that would regulate electronic signs by setting limits on utilization of this newer technology. While no one knows what the final piece of legislation might look like, the Kirkwood Patch reported whatever the standards end up being, the city has decided that the business owner would have to bear all the costs of proving compliance before the city will approve the sign. In other words, you are guilty until you can spend enough to prove yourself innocent.
This example and others remind us that we need to pay attention to politics and elected officials at all levels of government and do what we can to elect representatives that understand the importance of business in the community. They need to know that running a business is difficult enough without governments piling on more costs, rules and regulations. Businesses are the lifeblood of any community and a healthy business environment is essential for success and to generate revenues communities need to provide necessary services.

The Kirkwood-Des Peres area chamber of Commerce takes its role as the area's leading business advocate very seriously, and wants to work with city, county, and state leaders to maintain a business friendly environment in the chamber's service area. A key to making this a reality is by electing individuals to represent us in local governments who understand the vital role of business and support efforts to help the business community thrive. One way to do this is to get a good idea of how candidates for office will vote if faced with business issues and then inform the chamber membership and the community at large of our findings. The same would apply to incumbents who have a voting record that could be analyzed to help determine their inclination on business oriented legislation. Another way is to recruit candidates who understand and appreciate the importance of business encourage them to run for elected office in various levels of government. Others may be encouraged to apply as business friendly advocates when board and commission vacancies open up.

The quality of the business environment in our communities is vitally important, and we seek the help and input of every chamber member. You can help by making sure you vote for business friendly candidates or consider running for office yourself because you understand the need for less regulation and ordinances that are business friendly. If you would like to help out in any way, please call or e-mail Jim Wright at jim@thechamber.us or 314-821-4161.

Remember, "We're business and we vote".