President's Message at Inauguration 2017

Magandang gabi sa inyong lahat, Distinguished Guests, FilAmChamber Members & Friends,

Let us please take a moment of silence to give appreciation and give gratitude for all that we have been blessed with during these times of uncertainty of socio-economic and environmental circumstances for many. It is with great pride to announce our 30th Anniversary FilAmChamber General Elections & Reunion Dinner. With great hope and intention that our business community comes together during these challenging times for both socioeconomic and environmental catastrophes by supporting the process to evolve our local FilAmChamber of commerce. Only together can we achieve this goal. We’ve learned early on that Pagkakaisa is strength in numbers. Each and every business entity in this room is a spoke in this wheel to drive this vehicle. If you are not a current active member, I ask why have you hesitated. Do you not believe in your product or service? We can always reinforce the notion that it’s often, “who you know and/or what referral resources you can access in order to close the deal at the end of the day”.

The opportunities for you to build your book of business and network are at your disposal not only in the traditional sense but rather progressive with IT mobile apps and technologies to connect internationally through integrating social media digital marketing communication. The FilAmChamber now offers connectivity to prospect leads, preferred vendors, legal counsel, and access to elected officials throughout San Diego County, the State of California, and Federal levels of administration.

Our network is complemented and accelerated with our commitment and dedication to the Federation of Philippine American Chambers of Commerce (FPACC) which includes at least one FilAmChamber in every metropolitan city. While others are talking of building of walls, our focus is building bridges, digital bridges that is. Now time to harness and embrace technology to leverage optimal communication, trade, and commerce for the purpose of Bayanihan. Reaching out to the Philippines and UAE-United Emirates would allow for leveraged strategic partnerships within the Republic of the Philippines (Republika ng Pilipinas) and The American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines - AmCham Philippines. We can now embrace the ability to connect and collaborate for International transactions of business.

The vision of being One Filipino starts with communication. In the past 4 years of my experience with the FilAmChamber, I have accessed and identified areas needing rehabilitation and redefined structure to support our core membership. In order for our organization to move forward, we must first know our baseline and have our finger on the pulse of our FilAm business communities.. Census data is stale and dated and not meeting the needs to forecast and plan ahead appropriately.. Having migrated to a digital platform, we can now survey to strategically plan for the needs of our members. The infrastructure for the FilamChamber has migrated to a digital foundation with community partner, Member Planet. A platform of tools groups of any size can use to communicate, process payments, and manage their members. This will allow for Group Text Messaging -Fund Raising - Payment Forms - Photo Sharing - Event Registration - Websites - Social Sharing - Announcements - Event Tickets & Payments - Discussion Boards and more... Donation Campaigns, Events & RSVP's, Online Survey, Email Marketing. All this and more on a robust, safe, secure and private communication network for our business community to thrive and evolve supporting our mission and vision with transparency and accountability.

With the availability of access to appropriate funding and applications in place, our new digital home is built. It is up to each and everyone of us here in this room to engage with one another to build out the infrastructure to have your industry be represented. Build the relationships to connect and share referral resources. Connect to collaborate on special projects, programs and services. Nurture the dreams and give guidance and structure for the novice. And finally share in the opportunity to help and support Veteran Small Business start up in our communities to sustain themselves.

In Conclusion, we welcome your participation and look forward to you sharing your project and/or service. Tonight we celebrate 30 years of FilAm Business community. Maraming salamat po. Mabuhay!

William Peetoom, 30th President & CEO Filipino-American Chamber of Commerce of San Diego County