Adopted by the Board of Directors on April 19, 2012

The Chamber’s Mission:  Business is the priority.

The Chamber’s Vision:  To create and promote economic vitality for business in the south metro region.

Economic vitality results from a combination of many factors, ranging from local circumstances and activities to national and international events.  The Chamber Board generally believes economic vitality means sustained business growth sufficient to provide jobs and incomes resulting in a stable and comfortable community environment.

The Chamber the Board of Directors needs a mechanism to provide consistent and focused guidance to evaluate existing and proposed Public Policies.   

Guiding Principles for Policy Evaluation:

We envision Wilsonville as a great place to operate a business, raise a family and find engaging entertainment and culture. Our vision is to create a business-friendly place that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship, encourages business growth and supports regional partnerships and collaboration. As an economic development plan is created for our city, the Wilsonville Area Chamber of Commerce adheres to the following core guiding principles.

The Wilsonville Area Chamber of Commerce stands ready to support these core guiding principles and to work with all public and private stakeholders to see this vision become a reality. We believe this flexible and multi-faceted approach will help ensure long term prosperity for Wilsonville and the South Portland Metro region.

• Partnerships and collaboration: Leverage efforts and resources in retention, marketing, and recruitment – and address challenges together. Collaborate between local governments, the chamber, educational and research institutions, businesses, and community members.
• Business retention and growth: Help our existing businesses to thrive is a top priority, whether they are small or large, or located in urban or rural areas. Create strong, diverse and healthy business vitality for the region.
• Business recruitment: Attract strategic industry clusters and firms that have the strongest potential to thrive here, invest here and create steady, family-wage jobs.
• Planning and development: Have a reputation among the business and economic development community for being fair, consistent and timely in the review and approval processes for commercial development and business-related permits.
• Process improvement: Develop a customer-focused culture to create easy, friendly service oriented processes for business owners, developers, and citizens. Create a culture of continuous improvement that strives for zero waste and maximum customer value.
• Communication and marketing: Provide strong, effective, proactive and motivating marketing of our region’s strengths while building community pride and identity. Support networking and communications among the economic and community development stakeholders and businesses.
• Transportation and infrastructure: Plan for future infrastructure needs including transportation, water, and sewer, and others, and implement improvements within a reasonable timeframe that supports economic development and growth.
• Workforce and education: Ensure there are skilled workers available to meet the growing and changing needs of employers. Connect education to jobs in our area. Support and enhance educational institutions at all levels.
• Tourism: Tourism is an industry which employs one-twelfth of all the people on our planet. It is one of Oregon’s top industries pouring over $2 billion into Oregon’s economy. The opportunities for Wilsonville to take advantage of its own tourism offerings are on the rise. We have new dining establishments, new night-time activities, new lodging companies renovating their properties and new parks and recreational activities getting regional and national attention. Every dollar a visitor brings into our city changes hands an average of four to six times. We should concentrate on marketing our tourism activities, events and lodging properties with newfound enthusiasm.

Public Policy Decision Filters:

To further assist the board in advancing our mission and vision a set of decision filters has been developed.  These filters are intended to guide all decisions and actions of the board and its various standing committees in their efforts to evaluate public policies.

When the chamber considers supporting or opposing public policy issues, answers to the following questions will help guide and frame the decision making process and outcome:

1.       Decision Making Process:

• Does it meet the Chamber’s Core Guiding Principles?

• Is the decision making process transparent, and inclusive of the appropriate stake holders?

• Does the policy promote timely and complete decisions supporting increased economic activity?

2.       Outcomes of Policy Decisions: To further our mission and vision, the Wilsonville Area Chamber of Commerce believes it is essential to advocate for a positive business environment.  The following questions are designed to help evaluate the expected outcomes of various public policies:

• Will the policies promote local and/or regional business retention, growth and expansion?

• Will the policies take a balanced and reasonable approach that protects the environment without putting unnecessary burdens on business and economic growth? 

• Will the policies support opportunities for job creation within Commercial and Industrial zoned lands?

• Will the policies help to streamline the development permitting process, by eliminating unnecessary and unintentional barriers to desired development?

• Are development standards consistent with the building and site development needs of the intended users within each zoning district?

• Are revenue sources derived from the broadest possible base?

• Are public funds expended in a manner that results in business support and growth, while at the same time recognizing public benefit?