Chamber Office Closed Monday for Holiday
The Blair County Chamber Office will be closed on Monday in commemoration of Martin Luther King’s Birthday. The office will re-open on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. For information on The Chamber or to register for a program or event, visit The Chamber Website.

Make Your Reservations Today for The Chamber's Annual Meeting!
On Friday, January 27th, The Chamber will hold its 2012 Annual Meeting & Awards Presentation beginning at 7:30 a.m. at The Casino at Lakemont Park. The event will include the swearing-in of The Chamber Board of Directors as well as the Board of the Blair County Chamber Foundation. Awards to be presented that morning are the Athena Award, the George Award, the Joseph P. Rosenhamer Chamber Spirit Award, the GRYP Impact Award, the Donna D. Gority Servant Leader Award and the Small Business Person of the Year Award. The Agricultural Community Excellence (ACE) Award, presented last October, will be re-presented at the Annual Meeting. The cost to attend the Annual Meeting & Awards Presentation is $20 for Chamber Members and non-members. To make reservations, call The Chamber at 943-8151 or register online.

"Green Drinks" is Tomorrow at Jack & George's
Do you care about ways to help preserve the environment but can’t seem to find people with that same passion? Have we got an event for you! “Green Drinks,” sponsored locally by The Chamber’s Coalition on Sustainability, meets each month to create an informal, non-threatening forum for discussion about anything “green.”  The next Green Drinks will be held tomorrow, January 17th, from 6:30 p.m. until you feel like leaving at Jack & George's, 2400 Fourth Avenue in Altoona. There’s no need to register – just show-up.

Foundation Board to Orientate New Members
The Blair County Chamber Foundation Board of Directors will meet on Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. at the Devorris Center. Among the agenda items will be the orientation of the Board’s two newest members – Jim Kilmartin and Patricia Steward. The Foundation is the funding mechanism for all educational programs operated by The Chamber including the Leadership Blair County Youth program and BASICS (Businesses And Schools Investing in Cooperative Solutions).  For further information, contact Cindy Cessna at 943-8151.

Chamber Board Meets Thursday at the Devorris Center
The Chamber’s Board of Directors will meet Thursday morning at 7:30 at the Devorris Center. This will be the first meeting of the Board that was elected last November and which also contains three appointments made by Board Chair Ron Muffie. To address the Board, contact Chamber President Joe Hurd no later than Tuesday at noon. The contact number is 943-8151.

Bill Sell's Bold to Host Thursday's GRYP Networking
Under the age of 40 and interested in sharing business ideas with others in that same age group? The Chamber’s Growth and Relationships of Young Professionals (GRYP) might have the perfect venue for you. GRYP will hold its monthly networking event on Thursday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Bill Sell’s Bold, located on Eleventh Avenue in Downtown Altoona. If you are a GRYP member, there is no cost to attend. Non-members can attend for just $5.00. To register, call The Chamber at 943-8151 or register online.

Highmark Once Again Signs on for Chamber Golf Classic
The Chamber is pleased to announce that Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield has once again signed on for naming rights to The Chamber’s Golf Classic scheduled for May 14 at Iron Masters Country Club. It is not too early to start putting your teams together. Team and sponsorship information will be sent to Chamber Members in the upcoming weeks. For more information or questions on the Golf Classic, please contact Stacy Hoover at The Chamber, 814-943-8151.

Dale Carnegie Training Moves Starting Date
The Dale Carnegie “Skills for Success” training has been moved back one week to a new starting date of February 2nd. The eight-week program is being done in partnership with the Blair County Chamber. “Skills for Success” will provide attendees an extensive background on things like effective networking, relationship building, stress management and leadership development – just to name a few. Sessions will be held at the Comfort Inn Hotel in Duncansville. For more information or to register, contact
Jeff Davis at (814) 931-1963.

Safety Program to Focus on Contractor Management
On-site contractor management is a key component of a strong safety program. Rules should be put in place to keep your contractors safe as well as keeping your company from incurring needless liability. To get everyone onboard, The Chamber’s Safety Committee is sponsoring a “Safety First: Managing On-Site Contractors” program on Friday, January 20th from 7:45 to 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Express in Altoona. Featured speakers are: Attorney Tom Finn of the Law Office of Wagner & Finn; Tom Churbock of Appleton Papers; Kathy Lenhart, RN, BSN and Sue Wertz of Altoona Regional Health System. The cost to attend is just $10 for Chamber Members and $15 for non-members and includes a continental breakfast. To register, call The Chamber at 943-8151 or register online.

GRYP Sponsoring Competitive Blood Drive
The Chamber’s Growth and Relationships of Young Professionals (GRYP) is sponsoring a Blood Drive on Wednesday, January 18th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the ABCD Board Room, located in the Devorris Center for Business Development, 3900 Industrial Park Drive in Altoona. GRYP members have challenged all other Chamber Members to see which group can gain the most blood drive participants. All blood donors will be entered into a drawing to win a door prize. To schedule a time to donate blood, contact Jessica Meck at 943-8151.

Economic Development is Focus of LBC Adult Session
The fourth monthly session of The Chamber’s Leadership Blair County Adult program will be held this Friday from 7:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. at the Devorris Center for Business Development. The focus of this session is on Economic Development in the county and features a variety of speakers and panelists. Making a presentation on the “Big Picture” of economic development will be Patrick Miller of Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation and Lee Slusser of the City of Altoona’s Planning & Community Development division. A panel of experts to offer several perspectives on economic development includes: Marty Marasco of ABCD Corporation, Susan Whisler of Southern Alleghenies Workforce Investment Board, Jennifer Fleck of the Allegheny Mountains Convention & Visitors Bureau and Philip Kulp of Kulp Family Dairy.

Informational Meeting on Bahamas Cruise Set for January 25th
The Chamber’s first trip of 2012 will be a cruise from Baltimore to the Bahamas from March 18-25 on Carnival Cruise Lines, visiting Port Canaveral, Nassau and Freeport. An informational meeting on that cruise will be held on Wednesday, January 25th at 7:00 p.m. at the Devorris Center for Business Development, 3900 Industrial Park Drive in Altoona. If you’d like to attend that meeting, please call The Chamber at 943-8151. There is no cost or obligation associated with attending the meeting. The Chamber is coordinating the cruise through Heritage Travel. The second Chamber trip, from October 7-14, is “Italy’s Great Cities” with Classic Travel. The trip includes visits to Rome, Pisa, Florence, Verona, Venice and Ferrara. Call Classic Travel at 696-3558 for more information. An informational meeting about the Italy trip will be held in February.

Canstruction® Competition Entry Deadline Extended
The Blair County Home & Garden Show is pleased to be hosting its third Canstruction® competition to help fight hunger in Blair and
surrounding counties, one can at a time, during the 42nd Annual Home & Garden Show to be held March 2-4 at the Jaffa Shrine. 
Think you have what it takes to design and build a structure made with nothing more than canned food, ingenuity and luck? Deadline to register your team has been extended to January 20th. Get creative, help stop hunger. For more information, please contact Stacy Hoover at The Chamber, 814-943-8151.

Congratulations...
 . . to The Chamber’s Vice-President of Programming & Membership Education, Judy Juda, who observed her 20th year of employment with the organization last week.
. . . to the Chamber-member businesses that were designated as being among the Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania by PA Business Central newspaper. Those businesses are: Edward Jones, NPC Inc., Sheetz, Inc., Concurrent Technologies Corporation, Wessel & Company, 1st Summit Bank, Keller Engineers and Phoenix Rehabilitation and Health Services.