Milestone achieved!

And the crowd goes wild!

The Chamber has officially received it's 100th member. What a huge accomplishment in such a short matter of time. Six months ago we launched the Chamber, and already we have 100 members?! A big thanks to all those that volunteered their time and resources to make this organization a huge success. This growth has far surpassed our expectations and goals for our first year. It's refreshing to know that the dream of 8 individuals to have a stand alone Gurnee Chamber, is thus far shared by 92 other members.
Keep up all of the hard work, and let's see how fast the next 100 comes!

Shop Gurnee

Enter the contest to win a $1200 shopping spree. Check out the details here.

Holiday Train 2009 in the books!

The Holiday Train was a HUGE success. 1000 attendees enjoyed the train and the festive atmosphere and got to enjoy the generous snack donations of some local Chamber members. Thanks to Caribou Coffee, RinkSide Entertainment, Salutos, Whole Foods, Great America, and Outback Steakhouse.

$90,000 of corporate donations were received, and a yet to be determined amount of collected canned foods.
Thanks to all of the volunteers and sponsors for another successful event. If you want to learn more or help out, go to Gurnee Chamber of Commerce to contact us.

Muti Chamber Event

The Gurnee Chamber of Commerce hosted the first ever Multi Chamber Networking event. Six local chambers participated in the well attended speed networking program. Waukegan Business Association, Lake Villa/Lindenhurst Chamber, Grayslake Chamber, Deerfield/Riverwoods/Bannockburn Chamber, and the Gurnee Chamber were the Chambers in attendance.
Over 170 attendees got the opportunity to share their "story" and business cards with other participants. The format allowed for 1 minute "commercials" to 9 other attendees at a table. After the 10 minute session was completed, attendees moved to a preassigned new table and repeated the process. After three transitions, attendees got to present their story to 30 different business people. Some attendees like Tim Kobb of JDK Concepts gave out promotional items such as pens and sticky note pads. Nothing like going the extra mile.
Look for another version of this event as the response was an overwhelming "Yes, let's do it again" from those in attendance.

State of the Village

It's more of the same; huge attendance! 90+ business owners attended the first ever State of the Village meeting hosted by the Gurnee Chamber. Police Chief Bob Jones, Fire Chief Fred Friedl, Village Administrator Jim Hayner, and Mayor Kovarik were some of the featured speakers. The message of open communication and proactive department management was the theme. With the budget challenges presented by a sagging economy, each department head has been hard at work to cut cost, but also to improve services.
The Mayor encouraged businesses to join the Gurnee Chamber to get involved in the process. The chamber offers an excellent sounding board for ideas from businesses to be delivered to the Village leadership.
Congrats to all those involved, for another successful event!

Lunch & Learn a HUGE success!

Wow, 61 attendees at our first Lunch & Learn. Brandon Johnson, life skills coach and motivational speaker provided the "entree" for today's event. With membership at a strong 80 members, having 61 attendees is a spectacular turnout. For those in attendance, it goes without saying that this was a benefit that a member could be happy to have received. If you somehow weren't motivated, then you probably weren't paying attention! If nothing else, you had an opportunity to pass your card out to 60 other people to promote your business.
Tune in next week for our monthly membership meeting, State of the Village. Details can be found here.

Chicago Tribune article

We continue to move forward and are making a huge impact on the business community. The State of the Village event on Sept. 23rd 8am at Keylime Cove should be another well attended event. Village Hall sent out invites to the business community, and reservations are already flooding in. Hope to see you there! www.gurneechamber.com

Chamber story

The Chicago Tribune has picked up coverage of our chamber. With coverage from one of the biggest papers in the country, membership looks more enticing by the day!
Click here for the story.

Working for local businesses!

The Gurnee Chamber is working for local businesses! We successfully worked with the Village Board to ease the 14 day limit on temporary signage. We felt that businesses needed as much help as possible promoting their sales and specials during this tough economic climate. The limit has been extended to 90 days. Thanks to the Village Board for your wisdom and seeing this through. The story can be read here.

Upcoming event

The next meeting for the Gurnee Chamber is Aug. 19. Details can be found here. Membership continues to grow at a rapid pace. Over 70 businesses are now members of the chamber. Be sure to sign up if you haven't already at our website.

Not a "Waste" of time...

The first official membership meeting is in the books for the Chamber. With 52 businesses signed up as members in the first month, the 30+ in attendance was a great crowd. The topic of commercial waste hauling, although seemingly unappealing, is a necessity for any business owner. Cutting costs in any facet of your business is a great idea; and the speakers gave the audience plenty to digest in cost cutting propositions for your waste. Business owners in attendance agreed that the idea of saving as little as $50 per month, up to thousands of dollars per month, was very interesting.
Check out our info on the Aug. 19th meeting at Gurnee Mills.

Daily Herald article

Click here

GRAND AVENUE EXIT RAMP TO REOPEN

Westbound Grand Avenue Bridge Now Open;
Southbound Exit Ramp to Eastbound Grand Avenue Opens Wednesday

The reconstructed exit ramp from the southbound Tri-State Tollway (I-94) to eastbound Grand Avenue will reopen to traffic on schedule and on time on Wednesday afternoon, July 1, as part of the mainline Rebuild & Widen Project between Half Day Road and Grand Avenue. The westbound lanes on the Grand Avenue Bridge over the Tri-State Tollway (I-94) opened to traffic this afternoon; the eastbound lanes are scheduled to open on Wednesday afternoon, July 1
The project to rebuild and lengthen the Grand Avenue Bridge allowed the Tollway to widen I-94 underneath Grand Avenue to provide congestion relief and reduce travel times. The massive rebuilding and widening projects along a nearly 45-mile stretch of the Tri-State Tollway (I-94/I-294) from O’Hare International Airport to the Wisconsin State line launched in 2007 and are on budget and scheduled for completion this year as part of the Illinois Tollway’s $6.3 billion Congestion-Relief Program – Open Roads for a Faster Future.
All Lanes Open on Grand Avenue Bridge
In addition to reopening the southbound exit ramp, bridge reconstruction work will be complete on Wednesday, July 1, with two lanes open in each direction as well as the additional westbound lane for traffic entering and exiting at I-94 on the newly reconstructed bridge. Reconstruction work began in summer 2008 and one lane in each direction on Grand Avenue was maintained throughout construction to minimize the impact to local traffic.


Know Before You Go
The Tollway offers a variety of ways for drivers to get the latest information on construction and traffic on our roads.
www.illinoistollway.com – Construction Section – for details by road
1-800-TOLL-FYI – daily lane closure info
http://www.gcmtravel.com/ – travel times
Sign up for E-mail updates
Up-to-the-minute traffic by road – http://www.nbcchicago.com/
Construction eNewsletter – www.illinoistollway.com

Part of Tollway’s Congestion-Relief Program
The North Tri-State (I-94/I-294) Rebuild & Widen Project is part of the Tollway’s Congestion-Relief Program, Open Roads for a Faster Future, which will reduce travel times by rebuilding/restoring nearly the entire system, widening/adding lanes to many miles of existing roads, converting 20 mainline toll plazas to barrier-free Open Road Tolling, and extending I-355 south to I-80 in Will County.

About the Illinois Tollway

The Illinois Tollway maintains and operates 286 miles of interstate tollways in 12 counties in Northern Illinois, including the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88), the Veterans Memorial Tollway (I-355), the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) and the Tri-State Tollway (I-94, I-294, I-80/I-294). Tollway customers save time and money with I-PASS electronic toll collection - Get I-PASS & Get Going!

Libby Collins Show

Listen to Libby Collins tomorrow morning, July 1st, on WKRS 1220am at 7:00am as she meets with Vice-Chair Craig Hathaway of Churchill Photography to talk about your new chamber. Find out how the chamber was formed, upcoming events and how you can participate in this exciting new organization.

Upcoming Event

Our next event will be July 15th, 8am at Gurnee Mills showcourt. Continental breakfast will be provided by Norstates Bank. The Village of Gurnee will be the featured speaker along with Dave Wahl of Veolia, so you won't want to miss this event. Every business in Gurnee, and the surrounding area needs to know what's on the agenda at Village Hall. The topic of discussion will be Commercial Waste Hauling, "How to negotiate with your waste hauling provider."
Get a chance to personally meet the Mayor, and the Village Trustees. Our connection to the Village is one of the things that makes our Chamber unique.

Kickoff Event a Success

The first ever event for the Gurnee Chamber was a huge success. Over 175 businesses attended the kickoff meeting to see what the new chamber has to offer. Mayor Krysti Kovarik and Village Administrator Jim Hayner featured a summary of the partnership between the Village and the Chamber. They made it clear that the Village supports the chamber and will work closely with member businesses on any and all issues they may have. Never before has the Village stood behind a business organization like it does with the Gurnee Chamber.
Also featured as a speaker was Webmaster Tony McFarland of Guidance Development. He outlined the website project and upcoming additions to the newly built website. His web design skills and expertise, assure businesses that they will be prominently displayed on all search engine results. Being the first listing on a Google search page isn't easy to do. What a huge bonus for $125 promotional rate membership. Check it out! www.gurneechamber.com
Check back here and the website frequently for more news and updates.
Look for us on LinkedIn, and Facebook.
The next meeting is July 15th at Key Lime Cove, 8am. The Village of Gurnee will be the headline speaker and will talk about the Commercial Waste Hauling.