Published in the January 2 – 15, 2019 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By John Horner
John Horner
As we start off the new year, we thank each and every one of you for your part in making 2018 an excellent year for the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce and for our community.
The board, volunteers and staff have gone to extraordinary lengths to educate, represent and entertain the community as our part of further improving the community we are lucky to live, work and/or play in.
Looking forward, there are still many issues and opportunities we strive to ensure balanced, sustainable and thoughtful development of Morgan Hill. We are particularly proud of the chamber’s role in better connecting local youth with the business community as students engage in the process of becoming successful adult members of the community.
The transition from child/student to active and responsible adult is very challenging, particularly in the fast-paced, changing world we live in. Fortunately, local employers are eagerly reaching out to find the employees needed to continue building their businesses. This makes now an especially opportune time to work at the intersection of business and education.
On the public events front, this past year we enjoyed records crowds for the ever-popular Friday Night Music Series and the Taste of Morgan Hill. Events such as these help build and sustain the social fabric of our community and we appreciate how enthusiastically our members and the broader community support these free events.
Meanwhile, the larger world of public policy and major projects continues to evolve with significant engagement by our organization. A few ongoing examples include building out the vision of Morgan Hill’s Economic Development Blueprint, creation of a Tourism Business Improvement District and advocacy around the major topic of the California High-Speed Rail project.
You can expect our continued involvement with those activities as well as engagement regarding the long term consequences of Santa Clara County’s recent strategic direction to begin phasing out Reid-Hillview Airport and expanding the San Martin Airport as the new center for small craft private aviation. These are decisions made outside greater Morgan Hill that nonetheless have major ramification for our community.
All that being said, we do not fear the future, but must help shape it. As always, we welcome your thoughts and participation in the conversations as we do our part to keep improving Morgan Hill. Thank you for your membership and participation. We wish you happy holidays and a great new year.
John Horner is the president and CEO of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce.
