Commerce and Collaboration Through the Chamber

By Bill Lee, I.O.M. / C.E.O. Gallup-McKinley County Chamber of Commerce

The Gallup McKinley County Chamber of Commerce worked diligently over the past year to help businesses survive the huge economic impact of the CoVid pandemic. It has been and, remains our goal to share and provide you clear, concise, correct materials from reliable sources and, to put our focus on commerce, collaboration, and community through advocacy and action.

Through a robust virtual platform, members and the entire community were invited to participate in critical meetings. Virtual programs for businesses included:

• Partnering with local banks and credit unions to bring you critical information on the loans available for small businesses through the CARES ACT and the Small Business Administration (SBA).
• Working with a partner in accounting to review and share details, facts, and options on the State and Federal tax extensions.
• In collaboration with our local medical care professionals – Doctors from GIMC, RMCH, and from a local practice came together to give the local perspective of what they were seeing and to answer questions from our community.
• Creating a compilation of shared guidelines by most states containing common strategies in our “Safe to Work” guidelines. We developed a “CoVid 19 Response Plan” and General Covid 19 Information/Materials/Stored Virtual Programs and other resources on our webpage.
• Helping to facilitate making grant funding available to businesses through both the City and County and ultimately helping many businesses secure the needed capital to keep operations rolling and payroll obligations met.

Moving forward, we have continued to provide these virtual educational meetings and have recently began business roundtables to address issues and creatively find solutions to aid in the recovery.

We have aligned our partnerships on the Federal, State, and Local fronts.

• As an active member of the board of the New Mexico Chamber Executive Association (NMCEA) we have formed a coalition of over thirty (30) chambers across the state as well as the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce. This group has already worked with the Governor’s office on multiple issues including the recent push to include vaccination percentages in the color-coded metrics that determine the opening up of our business and economy.
• We were very active during the last legislative session supporting many initiatives such as:
  • State funded grants, NOT loans, that the State can provide to immediately put cash flow back into businesses as they look to re-open.
  • Tax, regulatory, and licensing incentives to help small business and struggling families.

With the full reopening of businesses on the horizon we will continue to see the need to support our business community. The new way forward will undoubtedly be different, we have already seen small glimpses of the “new normal”. We will be here to help adapt and overcome to find continued success.

It is your support and investment in our chamber make these efforts possible. Thank you.