Published in the January 18 – January 31, 2017 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By John Horner

John Horner

A thriving business community is essential to the overall health of Morgan Hill. As individuals, we often take businesses for granted and assume they will just be there providing interesting jobs, affordable basic needs, medical attention when needed, lifelong education, entertainment, housing and more. Sometimes we think of business owners and managers as heroes and sometimes as villains. In all cases they are, however, just people.

Our role is to work to understand what makes it possible for the many businesses to function at a high level and provide the experiences, goods and services we all rely on and look forward to. Building the overall community by strengthening the business community is a mountain we climb knowing we will never reach the top. There is always more to do and further to go. Choosing how we spend the available time and other resources is both an art and a science. The art comes in listening to the hopes and frustrations of our business community and learning from other business communities throughout the region, state, nation and world. The science comes from analytical work based on information available from sources like the U.S. Census Bureau, Joint Venture Silicon Valley and other recognized data gatherers.

Absorbing all of this input and distilling it into the daily activities of our organization is both exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time. On Jan. 13, the Morgan Hill Chamber Board of Directors spent the day going through this process and formalizing our priorities for the rest of 2017 and beyond. We are fortunate to have a diverse group of well informed, big hearted and tough minded individuals from both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors at the table grappling with these questions.

We know our efforts will include better addressing professional job retention and growth in Morgan Hill, supporting additional educational initiatives, supporting the creation of a dedicated and funded tourism promotion organization and promoting local businesses as places for our residents to work, shop and play. Your board members are always interested in hearing your thoughts. Feel free to express yours.

John Horner is the president and CEO of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce.

2017 Board of Directors

• Robert Airoldi, Morgan Hill Life
• Matthew Bowen, Real Estate Solutions
• Phil Couchee, Recology South Valley
• Rich Firato, Firato Janitorial
• William Gardner, Silicon Valley Relo Services, LLC
• Rachel Hill, Bank of the West
• Sunday Minnich, Mushroom Mardi Gras
• Ken Murray, Retired
• Fawn Myers, MHUSD Dusty Perryman, Associate
• Brittney Sherman, Leal Vineyards, Inc.
• John Varela, SCVWD
• Charlene T. Lai, Sunlight Property Management
• Ashis Roy, Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites
• Diana Wood, Wood Motivation