Thanks to a new program called the High School Transcript Program, local high school graduates in the Chattahoochee Valley can now count on their high school grades and attendance either helping them or haunting them when it comes to finding a job.

This program was started by The Partnership for Workforce Development of the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce. The Partnership is lead by volunteer Chairs Steve Melton, president, Columbus Bank and Trust Company and Helen Johnson, vice president of Columbus Bank and Trust Company, with volunteers from regional businesses, organizations and educational institutions. The Partnership for Workforce Development worked for nearly a year on developing "The Valley Promise," the commitment to developing and sustaining a highly qualified and skilled workforce in the Columbus region through education, training and dynamic partnerships.

Many high school graduates lack experience to add to their résumé. The High School Transcript Program encourages businesses in several counties around the area to request student transcripts as a résumé of sorts. The transcripts will provide students with a way to prove themselves to potential employers.

The High School Transcript Program benefits employers by allowing them to better match the right person to the right job, as well as students as it motivates them to form better habits earlier. It will also give employers a chance to speak with teachers and guidance counselors to find out what the student is really like and hear about experiences the teacher or guidance counselor has had with the particular student.

There were 10,000 envelopes, printed with funds from Valley Hospitality, Inc., and 4,000 are being sent to schools in order for students to store their records in them. The remaining envelopes will continue to be used in the future. The envelopes state the purpose of the program and also include a list of companies inviting graduates to apply for jobs.

For more information on how to get involved with the High School Transcript initiative or "The Valley Promise," contact Janeen Tucker at 706-327-1566 or jtucker@columbusgachamber.com.

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Membership Campaign largest in Chamber history

While announcing the results of the Membership Campaign, Chair Phil Tomlinson received a Fed-Ex delivery with the final new membership check that brought the total to a record $101,000. This is one of the largest campaigns in the 160 year history of the Chamber.

The success of the campaign was celebrated at the June 9 Chamber Power Lunch. There was a special surprise for 2005 Campaign Chair Phil Tomlinson; three last-minute membership applications were turned in during his victory speech taking the campaign over the $100,000 mark and making it the largest membership campaign in the Chamber's 160 year history!

(L-R) Mike Penn, Sprint - Division Chair; Kim Huddleston - VP Membership Dept.; Denise Kendust, Hughston Orthopedic Hospital - Top Producer; Phil Tomlinson, TSYS - Campaign Chair; Janet Turner, TSYS - Top Producer; Angela Wagenti, V'Roooom Technology - Division Chair; Monica Williams, CB&T - Division Chair; Debbie Seeley-Dicks, C.O.P.I. - Top Producer; Mike Gaymon, president and CEO Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Not pictured are Division Chair Stella Shulman, Jordan Company -Campaign Vice Chair, Mac McKnight, CB&T, Pino Wells-Davis, TSYS, Sheree and Pat Mitchell, Growing Room, Renee Bowles, Campaign Event Chair, Mike Mayhew, Automated Business Machines - Campaign Prize Chair, and Top Producers: Janelle Ray, CB&T, Steve Adams, CB&T, Cyndee Redmond, Synovus, Pat Mitchell, Growing Room, Laurie Smith, Columbus Regional Healthcare System, and Marion Dawson, CB&T.

"Our Membership Campaign Team did a wonderful job," said Tomlinson. "It was exciting to see the team reach a record $101,000. A campaign like this takes a whole team of volunteers who work together to tell the Chamber's story to the business community. We have a great story to tell and the results show that. From start to finish, it was exciting."

The Membership Campaign's main objective is to grow the Chamber's membership base, thus providing new volunteers and ideas to grow the community. The campaign is led by the leadership committee, headed by Chair Phil Tomlinson of TSYS and Vice-Chair Stella Shulman of The Jordan Company. The Division Chairs who were in charge of the teams include Angela Wagenti, V'Roooom Technology; Mike Penn, Sprint; Sheree and Pat Mitchell, Growing Room; Greg Gettings, Columbus Regional Healthcare System; Mac McKnight and Monica Williams, Columbus Bank and Trust Company; Pino Wells-Davis, TSYS. There was also a Campaign Event Chair, Renee Bowles, and a Campaign Prize Chair, Mike Mayhew of Automated Business Machines.

Awards were given to the top teams and individuals. The top ten campaign producers received a lava lamp-shaped trophy in keeping with the disco theme of the campaign and prizes ranged from gift certificates to local restaurants to vacations worth $1, 500. The top five teams were TSYS with $17,500, Columbus Bank and Trust Company with $17,493, Growing Room with $9,645, Columbus Office Products, Inc. with $9,065 and Hughston Orthopedic Hospital with $7,075. The top five individual winners were Janet Turner of TSYS with $16,624, Pat Mitchell of Growing Room with $9,645, Debbie Seeley-Dicks of Columbus Office Products, Inc. with $9,065, Janelle Ray of Columbus Bank and Trust Company with $7,090 and Denise Kendust of Hughston Orthopedic Hospital with $6,880.

New members from March 1-April 15 were listed in April 25 issue of the Chamber Express. Click here to see the new members from April 16-June 9. For more information about the Membership Campaign or if you would like to participate in next year's event, please contact Kim Huddleston at khuddleston@columbusgachamber.com or 706-327-1566.

Columbus State University opens Cunningham Center

(L-R) Dr. Frank Brown, president Columbus State University, Dr. Champ Baker, chair, CSU Foundation Board of Trustees, Rev. Johnny Flakes, pastor Fourth Street Baptist Church, Dr. Carmen J. Cavezza, executive director, CSU Cunningham Center for Leadership Development, Mayor Bob Poydesheff, Mike Gaymon, president and CEO, Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Michael Baker (the late Cunningham's accountant) and Jimmy Yancey, chairman of CSU's Capital Campaign cut the ribbon to open the Cunningham Center for Leadership Development June 16.

"We are very excited to make this beautiful new facility available to our campus, and to the community," said CSU President Frank Brown. "It's a unique building that will continue our tradition of fostering community and economic development in this region. It will have several different functions for different audiences all under one roof, but we believe the overriding goal of each is to provide growth and leadership development opportunities for Columbus."

The 67,500-square-foot building, which has a final price tag of about $10 million, started with a gift and a bequest to the university from John Cunningham, a lifelong salesman who possessed a true passion for the sales profession and learning. He never went to college, but believed that the best legacy he could leave was to provide a way for others to help themselves. He died in 2002 and his gifts to CSU totaled about $4 million for the development of a sales institute.

Dr. Carmen J. Cavezza, executive director, CSU Cunningham Center for Leadership Development, talked about the center's broad reach in leadership development, the John Cunningham Sale Institute, business development through the Information Technology Innovation Center and the CSU Center of Quality Teaching and Learning Conference Center.

Overseeing the building is Carmen Cavezza, former Columbus city manager and a former Army lieutenant general who commanded Fort Benning (as well as Fort Ord, Calif. and Fort Lewis, Wash.,) and served as the chief of infantry. In addition to helping outfit the building for completion, Cavezza has been developing the programming for CSU's new leadership development institute. Cavezza and Brown believe that Cunningham would be pleased with the finished building and the goals of the programs it now houses.

"This is the job I have been preparing for my whole life and the one that I would have developed for myself if I had been able to design my own path," Cavezza said. "I think this is very important for the Columbus region. I have learned that I can't solve all of the problems out there, but I'm dedicating the rest of my career to helping develop the future leaders who can."

About $2 million additionally from the campaign is dedicated to the Information Technology Innovation Center. That has combined with a $500,000 grant from OneGeorgia Authority to the Valley Partnership Joint Development Authority, for a project expected to incubate, on average, eight entrepreneurial companies each year, creating up to 720 new jobs in the next 10 years. The project represents a collaboration of both private and public organizations including CSU, the Valley Partnership Joint Development Authority, OneGeorgia Authority, the University System of Georgia, Columbus Consolidated Government, Georgia Institute of Technology, Columbus Water Works, Development Authority of Columbus and the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

Leonard Crain, from Better Business Bureau, looks at the materials in the Information Technology Innovation Center during the tour of the Cunningham Center of Leadership Development June 16.

The Information Technology Innovation Center, housed in the Cunningham Center, was the culmination of an idea stemming from the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce Inter City Leadership Conference trip in 1999 to Austin, TX. Participants saw how Austin transformed their oil-based economy to a technology-based economy by creating an incubator for start-up technology companies.

The Cunningham Center was designed by 2WR/Andras Architects of Columbus and built by Denson Construction of Columbus. For more details about the facility, please visit http://cunningham.colstate.edu/.