Friday Five: Chamber honored with inaugural Pathfinder Award

By Doug Loon
President and CEO
Minnesota Chamber of Commerce

We’ve had a terrific week at the Chamber, but today I want to reflect for a minute on a recent conference that I attended for state chambers of commerce from across the country. The Association of State Chamber Professionals held its annual conference last week, and I’m so pleased to report that the Minnesota Chamber was honored during the program by the Association made up of our peers with its inaugural Pathfinder Award.

This recognizes the extraordinary service of a chamber during the past year. The award highlights chambers that go beyond traditional roles to convene people, solve problems and bring communities together around common solutions.

This recognition is especially meaningful given the uncertainty that businesses and communities faced over the past year. The Minnesota Chamber did its part and stepped up, not only for our members, but for the broader public good, helping provide a voice for business and bringing leaders together around some of Minnesota’s most pressing challenges.

Now, clearly, I am very proud of the overall work of the Chamber. This includes the Chamber’s advocacy programs and services, as well as the Chamber Foundation’s work around its reports and data that help our overall Chamber programs be more successful.

So, we’re quite pleased to be receiving this award, but it’s also in recognition of what we did during Operation Metro Surge to bring together business leaders as well as elected officials toward a common solution to bring deescalation to the situation.

I want to thank our peers around the country for this recognition, and thank you to all of you for your ongoing support of the Chamber.

Now, a few other things I want to mention that are coming up. We’ll be announcing soon the newest class of Leadership Minnesota participants, one of the Minnesota Chamber Foundation’s signature leadership programs.

This program brings together leaders from across Minnesota to build relationships, better understand the challenges facing our state and develop the leadership skills needed to help move Minnesota forward.

Speaking of Leadership Minnesota, we are excited for the Inaugural Minnesota Chamber Foundation Leadership Cup on Monday, September 21, at Rush Creek Golf Club in Maple Grove.

This is a golf event that brings together Leadership Minnesota and Leaders Lab alumni, along with the Foundation Board and member companies and investors in the Chamber Foundation. It will be a fun day of golf and networking, as well as reconnecting with fellow business leaders.

Whether you’re there to compete for the roaming trophy or simply catch up with your Leadership Minnesota network, it’s a great opportunity to connect with some of the state’s business leaders while supporting the Minnesota Chamber Foundation’s work in economic growth, workforce research and leadership development.

Leadership Minnesota and Leaders Lab alumni, Foundation board members and investors can register today on our website at mnchamber.com. And if you’re not part of those groups, there are always opportunities to get involved through event sponsorship.  

Once again, thank you for being with us. Congratulations to the Chamber team for being recognized by our peers around the country with this Pathfinder Award. We’re very proud to be Pathfinders, to help Minnesota be successful into the future and help solve problems every day on behalf of the business community.

I hope you have a great weekend and look forward to catching up with you on next week’s episode of the Minnesota Business Podcast. Have a great weekend!