It’s another beautiful day in Monroe, Louisiana March 13, 2023
It’s a BEAUTIFUL day in Monroe, Louisiana and all-over Northeast Louisiana. WOW - what a beautiful week we have ahead of us as well.
Monday Night (tonight) our Young Professionals gather at the Lotus Club for a long awaited Mixer. Thanks to Troy and our friends at the Lotus Club for hosting this and our monthly member mixer.
Tuesday is a special day - first its equal pay day. If you don’t know what “Equal Pay Day” is………
Equal Pay Day is the symbolic day dedicated to raising awareness of the gender pay gap. In the United States, this date symbolizes how far into the year the average median woman must work in order to have earned what the average median man had earned the entire previous year. The exact day differs year by year.
To coincide with “Equal Pay Day” ULM is hosting their annual Women’s Symposium. I am honored this year to be a guest panelist on the “Building Male Allies” roundtable.
The Women's Symposium seeks to empower, motivate, and encourage girls and women from all backgrounds and all educational and professional levels to pursue their passions and seek leadership roles in their desired career paths. To embrace the support of both men and women for the betterment for all.
Here are the details for Tuesday’s event.What: Women's Symposium
When: Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Time: 12pm-4:30pm. Networking Social to immediately follow (4:30-6:30).
Location: Bayou Pointe Event Center - 100 Warhawk Way, Monroe, LA 71201
Personally, I feel it’s outrageous we still have to recognize a day of gender inequality, we have work to do. If you can please come to one of the sessions or encourage some of your employees attend.
Wednesday, we welcome John Robert Smith to town. John Robert will be our Keynote Speaker on Thursday at our annual banquet. John Robert is the Chairman of Transportation for America. Part of his talk will be discussing trains and the impact on Monroe.
We have a related press release in this newsletter from Amtrak.
John Robert is also the former Mayor of Meridian, Mississippi. He led the revitalization of their downtown and will speak to why Monroe’s revitalization efforts is so important to our city and region.
Additionally, our friend Jimmy Cusano from “Your Chamber Connection” will be back in town to help us celebrate the chamber and our GREAT city. I promise this won’t be your typical Chamber banquet.
We will also be honoring two Community Heroes and Champions as we announce the 2022 Rambin/Silverstein winner and The Kitty Degree Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in Business winner.
We will also recognize our Ambassador of the YEAR!
You will also get a sneak peak of 2022 Annual Report and Strategic plan.
There is still time to get tickets or a table.
Thursday Morning, we host our monthly Coffee & Conversation at Tower Place (8:00AM). This will be a little different as we play our first Monroe Chamber Jeopardy. You won’t want to miss this - come test your chamber and city knowledge for prizes.
Finally, The Chamber will be rolling out a new Member benefit package for all members this week.
More information to follow.
A special shout out to our friends at Flying Tiger Brewery. Earl, David, Robert and all the team. We had one of the BEST ribbon cuttings I have been too in a long time last Friday for Victory Pizza – special recognition to Nell Calloway (Chennault Aviation and Military Museum.)
Here is the flyer for the Annual Banquet.
And the good news is ….WE’RE JUST GETTING STARTED.
