Dear Friend,I am honored to accept nomination for the role of one of the board of directors for the Suffern Chamber of Commerce. As I have been working closely with the leadership team this year to develop a new website for the Chamber, I have encountered several problems which I feel can be corrected through hard work, debate and mutual understanding:
- The town residents, business owners and Chamber members want to attract more business to Suffern, but do not have a collective and clear vision on how to do so.
- The Chamber leadership team needs to develop a marketing plan that respects the wishes of its members, and forges ahead with modernized tried and true methods to gain additional business.
- While many Chamber members want better technology for their businesses and the town, they have not received the training, resources or attention to help receive them.
If elected as one of the Board of Directors for the Suffern Chamber of Commerce, I will work diligently to correct these problems, by doing the following:
- Gather information from all willing members of the Suffern Chamber of Commerce to help develop a clear, unified vision for attracting more business to Suffern
- Work with the Chamber leadership team and other Board of Directors to develop and refine a new marketing plan that respects the wishes of Chamber members, and introduces modernized methods
- Work to unify communications between the leadership team and Chamber members, and plan and conduct more successful:
- Seminars
- Networking events
- Street fairs and town-wide activities
Want to learn more?
7 comments:
Was the email that originated the link to this website sent to the Suffern Chamber of Commerce distribution list? If so, I feel that is is an unfair advantage to the other individuals running for the same position, most of which either LIVE or HAVE a business in the Village of Suffern. It is also technically illegal to use an existing email distribution list in this fashion. Could you clarify this issue for us?
Also, why wait till last minute to drop this website link?
I look forward to your posted response and hope this posting makes it past your "comment moderation".
Thank you for your inquiry, and the time taken to address your concern.
The email that originated the link to this website was from tom@rocklandwebdesign.com (our own business email), and not any email affiliated with the Suffern Chamber. I agree with you that is an unfair, and dare I say an uncool advantage.
Regarding the e-mail list, this list is publicly available off of the Chamber of Commerce's website, which is where I picked up the names, meaning it is public domain for all including yourself - thereby making my efforts perfectly legal.
That being said, I did take the time over the past two weeks to reach out to many Chamber members via phone to let them know I was sending out some information, such as the website and my phone number.
I invite you to contact me personally if you are still concerned about my efforts to reach out to the members of the Suffern Chamber of Commerce. Hopefully we can resolve our differences in a good way.
Thanks :-)
Tom
Great post.
I had the same question as well. So I asked around. I just heard from the current president that you were given permission to use the chambers email list.
Isn't the endorsement of our current governing board for you to use our list to promote your nomination a conflict of interest? You are, after all, the "keeper" of the data as the person who created the website for the Chamber.
Shouldn't the rest of the nominees receive the same consideration? Maybe you can help clarify this situation.
Sincerely...
Thank you for your inquiry. As mentioned in my previous posting, the data to which you refer was compiled from the website - not any internal sources. I clarified with the current President that this was legal.
The other nominees can use the website to contact the members, as well. If you are running for office, I suggest that you go to www.suffernchamberofcommerce.org, click on the members link, and copy and paste each of the e-mails into your e-mail program. You can compose a message and inform everyone of your candidacy. It's perfectly legal since you are not grabbing it from an internal data source, and you are a Chamber member so that means you are not doing unwelcome soliciting, as you've probably dealt with most of the members, I surmise.
Just as a side note...if you have more questions - call me. :-)
Tom Ossa
Rockland Web Design
(845) 271 - 4488
I am responding as one of the previous postings.
I noticed that the email distribution list that you use "yourfriends@rocklandwebdesign.com" is the main distribution list that you use for all your company's email blasts.
I noticed that this was the same list used to blast out to the newly acquired emails aggregated via the chamber of Suffern website. Are our emails now in your main email database? And, will further emails have an "opt out" option should we no longer want to be on your list for other RWD communications?
I believe how our emails are getting put into your company's database is one of the issues of concern (legally/ethically). I think this would be an issue for any company that was doing this. This is, after all, the essence of spamming. No?
Your thoughts?
Sincerely...
To clarify the opt-out issue - the answer is absolutely yes. I've had people in the past request to have themselves removed from the e-mails we send out regarding the Coaching Corner Radio show, which I co-host with Irene Gutmann of Eagle Life Coaching every Thursday at 10 am. They asked to be removed, and in each specific case we kept our word and removed those individuals from the list.
yourfriends@rocklandwebdesign.com is not a list, it is a generic catch-all email address that is used so that each of the people that do work with us are not deluged with inquiries. All e-mail inquiry, such as the correspondences we've received on this issue, go to the same inbox for review.
If you have further questions, please call me at the number listed below. Thanks for your inquiry. :-)
Tom Ossa
Rockland Web Design
(845) 271 - 4488
Well if they were publicly available I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be able to use them. I don't think it is illegal-that's an extreme point of view. Aren't the candiates suppose to market themselves and reach out to the directors? If so, then compare it to some of the other things that are being done by some of the other candidates. It's hard to say if he is wrong or not because I don't know what the norm is in a situation like this. If reaching out to the members (and he just happened to find a better way to do it) is the norm than I would say that he did nothing wrong. He's not bribing them or anything- just telling them what he has to offer and reminding them to vote.
Laura Hernandez
201-895-3100
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