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Weekly Wrap-Up: April 19, 2019

 

The Weekly Wrap-Up - 4-19-19

Your MEMBER ONLY email on all things the Chamber worked on this week and that you need to know about, to get the most of your membership. Thank you for being a member. 

 

New and Renewing Members-

 

Please join us in welcoming the following businesses that joined our Chamber this week:

 

Legislative Update-

You all should have received the ACTION ALERT that was sent on Wednesday. If not please read it. The response has been huge. If you have not taken action from it please read below and do so! We need you to act NOW! 

 

TAKE ACTION- WHAT YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS/COMPANY CAN DO-

1. We have developed an open letter to submit to the Governor's office, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House and Senate Leadership.  If your company is willing to sign onto this statement and submit it to our state's leaders, please contact me ASAP. We are submitting this Monday and need you to sign on by then. We have a powerful group that has responded from Wednesday. Please add your business.

2. Contact your legislators via www.capitol.tn.gov and especially the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee below. If you have contacts at any businesses, facilities or plants in these areas below who can lend their voice, please ask them to contact their legislators. Here are talking points against the legislation that we have compiled for use. 

  • Chairman Mike Bell (R- Bradley, Meigs, McMinn, Monroe, and Polk counties)

  • Sen. Jon Lundberg (R- Johnson, Sullivan, and Carter counties)

  • Sen. Dawn White (R- Rutherford county)

  • Sen. Janice Bowling (R- Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Sequatchie, Van Buren, and Warren counties)

  • Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R- Hamilton and Bradley counties)

  • Sen. Sara Kyle (D- Shelby county)

  • Sen. Katrina Robinson (D- Shelby county)

  • Sen. Kerry Roberts- (R- Cheatham, Dickson, Hickman, Humphreys and Robertson counties)

  • Sen. John Stevens (R- Benton, Carroll, Gibson, Henry, Obion, and Weakley counties)

3. Show up in RED at next week's Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, April 23 at 1:00 p.m. to show your opposition to SB 1499 and SB 1304!  Schedules do change this time of year so watch for any updates. It does make a difference when they have to look at the people affected in the eyes as they pass this legislation. 

4. FORWARD this on and spread the word. Please take action. We need you. And STAY ENGAGED, the session is almost over but we can’t stop paying attention until it is.  

 

NFL Draft-

Are you ready?! Next week the NFL Draft comes to town Thursday to Saturday. I was on Out and About Today talking about the Draft and the NFL Business Connect Program that has benefited our members and the Chamber. 

Some exciting news, with the success that the LGBT Chamber had in getting so many members into Business Connect, the NFL asked me to announce a pick in the 7th round of the Draft on Saturday afternoon. I am really excited and will be showing some Pride while I do it. Tune in to ESPN or join me downtown on Broadway when I announce on Saturday afternoon. Just us and 100-150 thousand people. 

 

Business Connect is the NFL’s special event supplier diversity and inclusion program. The Business Connect team works proactively to create opportunities for experienced, qualified and certified business owners from local, diverse communities to compete for contracting opportunities related to NFL signature events while encouraging NFL contractors, partners and primary suppliers to source products and services from talented, local suppliers. 

This program has opened so many doors for our members and has driven the discussion around diversity and inclusion in the city. I attended the first planning meeting around Business Connect my first week on the job back in August, it is incredible to see it all come together and see SO MANY of our members included in Business Connect. We are so proud of them. The LGBT Chamber has 23 members in the guide, and 10 of those are LGBT owned businesses (LGBTBEs). Below is a list of our Members and here is a copy of the NFL Draft Business Connect Guide. A big thank you to the NFL and congrats to our members! 

You can find all the information you need on the NFL Draft here

 

Comcast Cares Day 2019-

We want to thank the Nashville Ballet, Comcast, and all the volunteers who came out to support the LGBT Chamber for Comcast Cares Day 2019 on Monday. We were very busy stuffing, addressing, and sending out stickers to our membership. 

 

Membership Stickers-

Those membership stickers are hitting mailboxes! Lauren will coordinate with our Silver and above members to have their framed sticker delivered next week. We want to see these beautiful stickers in use. Snap a picture of your new membership sticker and use the hashtags @nashLGBTcc #openandequal #proudmember2019 #nashLGBTcc on your social media post. Let’s show everyone that Nashville is truly setting the tone for LGBT life and business in the South. Open and Equal. 

When you are putting up that sticker you can also put up- 

 

Safe Place Decals-

Metro Nashville Police Department’s LGBTQ liaison Officer Catie Poole launched the Safe Place Program last week, where persons can safely wait as a police officer responds to a reported hate crime call. You can apply for one of these Safe Place decals! Interested parties can fill out the application. Officer Poole will hand deliver! Put it up next to your Chamber sticker! 

 

April Brewing Up Business-

We hope everyone had a great time at our April Brewing Up Business hosted at BATL Nashville with STF Events & Catering doing the food. Our guests were able to try their hand at throwing an ax and we were impressed! You can see photos from this event on our Facebook page. Thank you Out & About Nashville for your photos

 

SAVE THE DATE- May Brewing Up Business: Meet the Metro Candidates that will be running in all races, it will be held on Thursday, May 16th from 5:30-7:30, location TBD. If you would like to host for 100-150 people let us know. 

 

Dining Out For Life Lunch with the Chamber-

The LGBT Chamber hosted lunch at The Mockingbird for Dining Out For Life 2019 benefitting Nashville CARES. We saw many new and familiar faces at this event. Thank you to everyone who showed your support and ate lunch with us! And also thanks to those that ate out for breakfast or dinner and supported CARES. Our President, Ron Snitker, ate out for all of them all day long! Good work Ron! ;-)

At our lunch, we had CEOs all around. It was wonderful to meet Nashville CARES new CEO Amna Osman, and say congrats and wish well to Former CEO, Joe Interrante, who has done an incredible job serving CARES and the Nashville community for 25 years. We welcome Amna Osman and wish Joe all the best in retirement.  

 

2019 Excellence in Business Awards-

Have you bought your tickets for the 2019 Excellence in Business Awards yet? You only have 2 weeks! 2 weeks from today!! 

We have many deserving finalists for this year’s awards. Watch this video we created to congratulate and recognize them. 

Winners will be announced during the program for the following categories: Corporate Diversity, Small Business Diversity, Entrepreneur of the Year, Business Leader of the Year, Ally Award, Community Service, and Leadership in the Arts. 


Thank you to the following sponsors:

Presenting Sponsor: Curb Records

Title Sponsor: HCA

Award Sponsors: AllianceBernstein, Asurion, Dell, Waller

Gold Sponsor: MediCopy

 

Gather your group and buy your tickets today! We have half-table and full-table sponsorships available as well. 

 

13th Annual LGBTQ Community Survey-

The Nashville LGBT Chamber is again partnering with the CMI (Community Marketing and Insights) in bringing the 13th Annual LGBTQ Community Survey. This survey gives important feedback to our LGBTQ community media and organizations and provides valid data to companies interested in serving our community, sponsoring our charities, and supporting their LGBTQ employees. Last year this survey had over 45,000 participants from 150 countries!
The survey should take 12-15 minutes to complete. Everyone who completes the survey by May 31st, 2019 may enter into an optional drawing to win one of twenty US $50 cash prizes, or if you win, you can designate a charity to receive the $50. Additionally, CMI will donate $1,000 to the Trevor Project to support their work with LGBTQ youth. Take some time to grab a coffee and take the survey this weekend!

Way Late Play Date-

Thursday, April 25 from 6:30 - 10 p.m.

From our friends at Adventure Science Center: Join us for an evening of Fantasy Fiction! Channel your inner Jon Snow or Gandalf, grab a drink and join us for a night of 21+ crazy science fun. Tickets include three drink tickets, access to our amazing exhibits, hands-on fantasy fiction themed science experiments and an improv performance by Third Coast Comedy! Use the coupon code PARTNER19 at checkout for a discounted rate!

 

Joe Woolley

CEO

 

Lauren Bland

Membership Manager

 

 
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