On the Web:www.ffsc-chamber.com

SEPTEMBER 2010

Voice

The

OUR MISSION:

IMPROVE THE LOCAL ECONOMIC BASE THROUGH ACTIVE ADVOCACY AND PROGRAMS TO ASSIST OUR MEMBERS.

FAIRFIELD-SUISUN CITY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

CHAIRMAN’SCLUBPRESIDENT’SCLUB

•Anheuser-Busch

DIRECTOR’SCLUB

•Copart•Hilton Garden Inn•Lewis Planned Communities•MV Transportation•Solano Garbage Company •Sutter Health (SRMF/SSMC)

DIAMONDCLUB

•B &L Properties•Bay-Tec Engineering, Inc.•Bryan-Braker Funeral Home•Credit Bureau Associates•Daily Republic•First Northern Bank•Gaw Van Male•Holiday Inn Express-Cordelia•PRIDE Industries•RE/MAX Gold Elite•Rexam Beverage Can Co.

PREMIERCLUB

•Costco of Fairfield•Emeritus at Westwind Gardens•Fairfield Chevrolet Auto Village•Goodrich UPCO•Kaiser Permanente•M2 Mail•Pacific Gas & Electric•Potrero Hills Landfill•Raley’s Super Store•Solano Athletic Clubs•Solano First Federal Credit Union•Wal-Mart•Westamerica Bank

9.13

Joint Mixer with VacavilleChamber

9.29

Delta RealtyGroup

UPCOMINGEVENTSIMIXERS

Green, green, we’ve gone

Green

. . . with E-Sheets!

The Fairfield-Suisun Cham-ber of Commerce is beginning our journey of creating ways toensure all kinds of opportuni-ties for recycling while giving you the visibility you need.Paper waste is abundant inthe business world. There aretoo many mock-ups, colortests, drafts and extra finishedproducts that could be con-served or eliminated. Each un-necessary piece of paper cre-ates more waste to be dealt with and increases the costs fordoing business. Although paper is recyclableand it may not be the bestthing to eliminate, we as busi-nesses need to evaluate how touse paper for each task in the workplace. We need to controlpaper waste. The world gener-ates way too much trash!California is faced with thechallenge of managing nearly 14 million tons of postcon-sumer paper generated annu-ally. In 1997, only 31 percentof that paper was recoveredfor recycling, with the remain-der (approximately 9.5 milliontons) disposed – primarily in landfills.

Profiles begin on Page 3

See

Green

, Page

Don

McDonald

RE/MAX Gold Elite

John

Ray

Sutter Health (SSMC/SRMF)

Ken

Brock

Brock Law Group, APC

Meet our newest

MEMBERS

OF THE

BOARD

BOARD OF DIRECTORS2009 - 2010

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Kevin Johnson

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chair

Hilton Garden Inn

Barry Young

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chairman Elect

Solano Athletic Clubs

Christopher Barto

. . . .

Vice Chair/Treasurer

Copart Inc.

T. Burt McNaughton

. . . . . . . . . . .

Vice Chair

Daily Republic

Sue Vaccaro

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Vice Chair

Solano Garbage/Republic Services

Anand Patel

. . . . . . . . .

Immediate Past Chair

Holiday Inn Express - Cordelia

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Andy Anderson

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

Travis Credit Union

Ken Brock

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

Brock Law Group, APC

Randy Dawson

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

Premier Commercial

Kevin Finger

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

Anheuser-Busch

Jim Immer

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

Lewis Planned Communities

John Jamison

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

Jelly Belly Candy Company

Steve Lessler

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

The Lessler Group

Ron Marlette

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

Mission Solano

Don McDonald

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

RE/MAX Gold Elite

John Ray

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

Sutter Health (SRMF/SSMC)

Bridgit Strachan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

NorthBay Healthcare

Anthony Russo

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

B&L Properties

David Welch

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Director

David L. Welch, CPA

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS

Harry Price

City of Fairfield Mayor

Pete Sanchez

City of Suisun City Major

Jacki Cottingim-Dias

FSUSD, Superintendent

Jowel Laguerre

Solano CC, President

COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Chief Ambassador

. . . . . . . . . . .

Mike CortezChair, Business Issues

. . . . .

Chuck Wood IIIChair, Education

. . . . . . . . . . .

Darrin BerardiChair, Membership

. . . . . . . . .

Steve LesslerChair, Technology

. . . . . . . . . . .

Mike CortezChair, TRAFC

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sandy Person

CHAMBER STAFF

Leslie Fay

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

President &CEOMark Creffield

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Vice PresidentTim Ridosh

Membership/Marketing DirectorMelissa Manry

. . . .

Administrative Assistant

The Voice

is published monthly by the

Fairfield-SuisunCity Chamber of Commerce

1111 Webster StreetFairfield, CA 94533707.425.4625707.425.0826 / Faxreception@ffsc-chamber.comwww.ffsc-chamber.com

Printing by:

Daily Republic

For advertising call:

425-4646

Mixers a Great Social MarketingOpportunity

By Kevin Johnson

Business News

Calendar

Chamber Events

New Members

FAIRFIELD CITY MANAGER

Another SuccessfulBack-to-School Fair

By Sean Quinn

Stand Up To AnEconomic Downturn

•

Ed Lippstreu

76-77

•

Ray Schoch

94-95

•

Ben Huber

98-99

•

Kathy Parsons

01-02

PAST CHAIRS CIRCLE

From the desk of

President/CEOLeslie Fay

ne of the most important parts of my job is to participate in the WACE(Western Association of Chamber Ex-ecutives) Programs in Sacramento.The WACE is not only an educationalexperience, but a time to network withmy colleagues from Arizona, New Mexico, Col-orado, Washington, Oregon, and, of course, Cali-fornia. I attended the Academy Plus program that was geared for veteran chamber executives, in-cluding those who have graduated from the Academy and those like myself, who have gradu-ated from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Insti-tute of Organization Management. Lifetimelearning goes on without anything else being said.The speakers were excellent and that is why I want to share a few good tips with you. Our firstspeaker was Dr. Barbara Weaver Smith, Founderand President of The Whale Hunters. She spokeabout how to create a disciplined sales cultureand then use the steps and tools necessary to op-timize the ability to successfully find, land, andharvest “whale-sized” accounts.The Whale Hunters Process is a unique andpowerful method of thinking about businessgrowth expressed through the metaphor of thecenturies old Inuit whale hunt. Dr. Smith spokeabout the phases of scouting, hunting, harvesting and assessing how we all are working. She spokeabout the importance of making the business of our chamber into a fast-growth culture with goodprocess design, which turns into good habits, andultimately, good instincts – making it truly sus-tainable. A very good conceptualization when you think about the hunt and how a whale canfeed a village for one year.Dr. Smith talked about bringing all the peopleto the table, and bringing them to the table at theright time. Those at the whale company who willbe affected by your company’s solutions are rep-resented by the positions at the table. You should have polar bears at the table; they are the target decision-makers at the whale com-pany who can say “yes” or “no.” Caribou shouldbe at table because they are members of the buy-ers’ table who provide technical advice, such asrepresentatives of finance, IT, legal, marketing,etc.Eels are the gatekeepers, deal spoilers, and thenaysayers at the whale company who work toprevent any sort of change. The harpooner is thesalesperson who leads the hunt. Oarsmen are your technical and/or operational SME (subjectmatter experts). The harpooner typically lines upacross the buyers’ table with one or more Cari-bou. The Shaman is the sales leader in your or-ganization – and the chief is the leader of your or-ganization.Interesting concept, huh? It made me think about our organization and about all the compa-nies that are our clients, trying to make sales! Inthe whale analogy, one whale feeds an entire vil-lage for an entire year. The Inuit whale hunt isfraught with danger and difficulty. Century uponcentury, this has been done. But when the hunt ison for smaller fisher, seals, walrus, the Inuit canonly eat for a day or a week or two . . . there mustbe some balance in the way we hunt and what wecatch.It is my intention to bring to your minds theanalogy and perception of growing business, andgrowing your companies with these simplethoughts and fundamentals.Feel free to contact me if you would like toread more about this concept.

www.ffsc-chamber.com

Voice

The

SEPTEMBER 2010

The official newsletter of the Fairfield-Suisun City Chamber of Commerce

Here’s a whale of a story!

CITATIONCLUB

•Amos & Andrews, Inc.•AT&T•Ball Corporation•Cache Creek Casino Resort•Charles B. Wood II•Creegan & D’AngeloEngineers•Emeritus at Rancho Solano•enXco•Fairfield Tourism Association•Favaro, Lavezzo, Gill, Caretti &Heppell•Food Maxx – North Texas•Food Maxx – West Texas•IHOP of Fairfield•Meyer Corporation•Paradise Valley Estates•Taco Bell•Umpqua Bank•Video Pro Productions•Watson Auto Body, Inc.•Wells Fargo Bank•Westfield Solano•Yin McDonald’s•Yocha-De-He Golf Club atCache Creek

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

trust everyone had a wonderful and prof-itable summer here inFairfield-Suisun. As weslip into the fall and school re-turns to full form, we now haveto concentrate on our busi-nesses and marketing oppor-tunities. Once again, I am rec-ommending the Chamber of Commerce as one of the vehi-cles that you should be in tohelp in that direction.So far we have discussed theopportunities that exist withina Chamber membership, that we have a referral plan that of-fers a $100 one-time discounton new members that are re-ferred by an existing Chambermember should they choosenot to use the discount on re-newing their own member-ship. As we head into the fall, Ifeel that it is a perfect opportu-nity to discuss some of the so-cial marketing opportunitiesthat the Chamber offers via the

www.ffsc-chamber.com

Voice

The

The official newsletter of the Fairfield-Suisun City Chamber of Commerce

SEPTEMBER 2010

Mixers a great socialmarketing opportunity

Kevin Johnson

Chairman of the Board

See

Johnson

, Page

Opportunties tobuild business relationships

As a corporate transactional attorney, Ken cur-rently provides a wide array of general businessservices, such as mergers, business acquisitions andcounseling clients on general corporate governancematters. In addition to general business services,Ken also has significant experience in assisting clients with the protection of their intellectual prop-erty rights and health care regulatory compliance.Specifically, as the lead intellectual property attor-ney for one of the nation’s largest online tax prepara-tion companies, Ken has negotiated a significantnumber of intellectual property licensing transac-tions and has resolved numerous intellectual prop-erty disputes without the need for costly and time-consuming litigation. He also counsels and advisesbusiness clients in matters pertaining to health careregulatory compliance and has delivered numerouslectures to various civic and business groups regard-ing the recent federal health care reform legislation.Ken is presently a member of the American Intellec-tual Property and Health Lawyers Associations, as well as the Chamber of Commerce Business IssuesCommittee. He is also a member of the Fairfield-Su-isun Rotary Club and a graduate of the Chamber’sLeadership Today Program, Class of 2008.Don McDonald is a managing partner withRE/MAX Gold Elite and a take-charge professional with exceptional follow through abilities. Don prideshimself on being a dynamic negotiator and effectiveat achieving results. With his love for the city of Fair-field, Don believes that there is no reason we as acommunity cannot build this city into a destinationfor all.RE/MAX Gold Elite has been ranked as the No. 1Sales Offices in Fairfield and No. 1 Sales Team inNorthern California. According to Wall Street Jour-nal, RE/MAX Gold Elite was ranked as No. 63 in SalesTeam of all real estate teams.It is no surprise that Don McDonald has a passionfor success and his community. Don is involved within various community organizations in Fair-field. A Board of Director for the Fairfield-SuisunChamber of Commerce, a member of Fairfield’s City Planning Commission, and Chairman of the Fair-field-Suisun Unified School District 7-11 FacilitiesCommittee are just a few organizations that helpshow Don’s dedication to Fairfield.John Ray serves as Division Executive of the Sut-ter Medical Foundation-West Division. In this role,Mr. Ray is accountable within the Sutter Health Sys-tems for the strategic development and operation of Sutter-affiliated medical group practices in SolanoCounty. Prior to joining Sutter Health in 2003, Mr.Ray served as CEO of the Shoreline Medical Groupin Mountain View and as CEO of French Health Planin San Francisco.In the early 1980’s, Mr. Ray spearheaded thestatewide expansion of Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound through the development of networksof community physician networks in three Washing-ton State markets.Mr. Ray earned a Masters of Healthcare Adminis-tration Degree from the University of Washington in1980, graduating first in his class with a concentra-tion in economics and finance. He was the recipientof the 1980 Advanced Fellowship in HealthcareLeadership sponsored by the American Hospital As-sociation and the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Associa-tion.

Don

McDonald

John

Ray

Ken

Brock

Meet our newest Members of the Board

cont. from page 1