CommunityMatters .... because community matters!

The Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce has undertaken an initiative called CommunityMatters. The impetus for the initiative is what the Chamber perceives as a need to energize our members, and through them the larger community, in the face of the difficulties produced by current budget and staffing uncertainties at LANL. The initiative has several features to start, and more are expected to be added as the initiative progresses. Features:

• A new publication, The Essence of Los Alamos and White Rock was introduced in November and will be published bi-monthly in the coming year to highlight members and provide inexpensive marketing opportunities. Essence offers participating members the opportunity to advertise for the entire year for a one-time $100 fee.
• Videos promoting the benefits of local expenditures have been placed at the Reel Deal and on Comcast and on the web at www.shoplosalamos.com The videos communicate the benefits of local expenditures for community life and for tax-funded infrastructure and services.
• The Chamber has teamed with Locals Care to provide a customer loyalty card marketing opportunity to locally-owned businesses and a new source of revenue to participating not-for-profits. Locals Care rewards customers of participating member businesses with cash credits and donations to their designated not-for-profit organization. To launch the Locals Care program, shoppers are automatically entered into a drawing for an all-inclusive Caribbean vacation for two. For details of the contest, the Locals Care program, and information about participating go to www.shoplosalamos.com
• We have initiated a consumer feedback process to gather and organize information that can help members improve their businesses and services. An online form for feedback is available at www.shoplosalamos.com Individuals providing feedback are automatically registered for a periodic Chamber Check drawing.
• The Chamber has undertaken facilitating a community dialogue addressing community preparedness for helping people deal with effects of LANL uncertainties. To date, more than 30 organizations represented by more than 40 individuals have participated. There are four areas of work that have formed. Three of them are in areas where participants feel we already have the ability and resources to work -- they are “Public Information/Education”, “Cataloging Resources”, and “Researching Lessons Learned by other communities”. The fourth area of work is formulating community recommendations/requests to LANL & various governments that will help the community to be better prepared and better able to respond to our current situation. Action plans have been drafted and there is a variety of work on the actions already in process.