The Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce hosted their Annual Volunteer Awards Luncheon on January 27 at the Omni Riverway Hotel.  The Chamber recognized and congratulated their outstanding and dedicated volunteers and County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia inducted our 2009 Board of Directors. 

We are proud to announce that in our first year we have grown to become one of the most influential Chambers in the City.  We have taken major steps toward our goal of empowering women through numerous avenues, from leadership to education to advocacy and mentoring. Stay tuned, stay involved, the best is yet to come.

Amazing things have occurred during our first year. We have blossomed into a thriving Chamber of Commerce with over three hundred member businesses. We have taken major steps towards advancing and empowering Houston women through numerous avenues – from leadership to education to advocacy and mentoring.

Our Health Series directly reached 450 women on the all important issue of preventive health. We have reached over 90,000 readers in our Chronicle Health Series Column, starting the dialogue on prevention as a key element in combating worker absenteeism and health care costs. 

Our governmental affairs committee has welcomed many of our elected officials to our meetings and events so they can see first hand how influential our membership is. Women are the largest economic force in America. And as this election year proved – a voting force as well, because women compose 55% of the voting block in Harris County.   

We are definitely not sitting on our laurels. Our agenda is expanding dramatically in 2009. In April, our Leadership Committee will be hosting the Inaugural Houston Conference for Women. Our workforce committee is reaching out to women re-entering the workforce. Our “No Parking Zone” Committee will connect Women at the Top – our stellar CEO’s at major companies – with women at a plateau in their career to mentor them and encourage them to “Ask for It!” – whether “it” is a raise or the right encouragement to open up a dream business of their own. 

Our newly formed “Spark Plug” Committee helps to educate our future generation of leaders.  And our “Live After Five” Committee hosts our networking events. Like every solid organization, the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber is only as strong as its members and our Membership Committee continues to recruit members with new ideas, enthusiasm and experience at all levels.

But, education remains our most important initiative. There has never been a time in our history where education is tied so closely to success in life.

As women who have achieved in times when job opportunities for women were limited, today we have different challenges like raising graduation rates for minority women. This Chamber’s success shows how we can do so much more. By becoming a united force for prosperity for all women, and by providing key scholarships to those with great promise, we are also creating the future leaders of this chamber and our community.  

This past election year, the glass ceiling took on millions of new cracks thanks to two strong female candidates. We now enjoy a future where the sky is truly the limit. Women have shown they are creative thinkers capable of leading American business to work smarter, faster and become more competitive than ever before.