Over the course of the year the Indiana Chamber distributes more than a few communications — from electronic newsletters and legislative updates to regulatory compliance publications and BizVoice magazines.

An always popular offering is the annual Legislative Vote Analysis. The 2008 edition will be released later this month. It will include scores for all 150 state legislators on their support of the Chamber’s and its members’ pro-business, pro-jobs agenda. Indiana Business for Responsive Government, the Chamber’s political action committee, uses the voting percentages as a factor in determining election endorsements.

The numbers always prove interesting. You can take a look back at the 2007 edition and look forward to the 2008 results within the next two weeks.  

Many companies are finding that improving employees’ personal wellness can help save on health care costs by reducing illness and medical claims. Companies are also finding that wellness programs can be a lot of fun. 

The Indiana Chamber’s wellness program includes a variety of activities, including - for the second season - organized kickball. The Chamber competes against other teams on Wednesday nights. The season lasts approximately eight weeks, including playoffs, and does a great job of fostering teamwork among employees.

All Chamber wellness activities are completely voluntary and offer rewards, including the opportunity to earn a paid day off, to participating staff. 

The Indiana Chamber announced today that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has signed on to speak at the 19th Annual Awards Dinner to be held Thursday, Nov. 6. This celebrated event will be held in the Indiana Convention Center’s Sagamore Ballroom in downtown Indianapolis.

Gingrich served as Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, and was named as Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 1995. Gingrich now works as a political analyst and consultant, and his latest book, Real Change: From the World that Fails to the World that Works, hit stores in January.

The 2007 Annual Awards Dinner speaker was Rev. Martin Luther King III. To register for the dinner, please visit the Indiana Chamber’s online registration page.

A Wednesday Indianapolis Star article in the Careers section highlighted a quintet of the Best Places to Work in Indiana companies for 2008. They — and the 61 other companies to be honored at the May 7 awards dinner – deserve the recognition.

But the actual rankings won’t be revealed until the May 7 Indiana Chamber event. The only clue is the late February press release that identified the companies (in alphabetical order).

It’s the third year of the Best Places to Work program. The biggest awards celebration and most special edition of BizVoice magazine (all dinner attendees will walk away with a copy in addition to the 15,000 regular recipients) will cap the program in 27 days.

There’s always next year. Applications will open in July. Stay tuned.

Forty-nine percent of students seeking a bachelor’s degree at Indiana University-Bloomington earn that diploma within four years. The number increases to a still lacking 72% within a six-year period. But the flagship IU campus is far ahead of the state’s other public higher education institutions in those statistics.

Timely graduation is just one focus of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s developing strategic plan. The title is Reaching Higher: Strategic Directions for Higher Education in Indiana. The other areas of emphasis are access, affordability, college preparation and contributions to Indiana’s economy.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, employers must reasonably accommodate the religious observances of its employees unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. But what does it mean to "reasonably accommodate" an employee? For that matter, what exactly is an "undue hardship?"

In one instance, a union agreement only allowed a teacher to take three paid absences per year for religious observances. However, the teacher’s religion required him to use approximately six per year, and he was forbidden from using personal days for additional religious observances. His employer then allowed him to take unpaid days off to fulfill his religious obligations. Do you think the Supreme Court found this to be a reasonable accommodation? The answer lies on page 23 of the Indiana Chamber’s Religion in the Workplace, which was written by a team of attorneys from the Indiana-based law firm Ogletree Deakins.

IndianaNet, the Chamber’s one-stop-shop for legislative information in Indiana, recently finished compiling data from a customer survey. More than 91% of survey respondents rated their overall experience with the bill-tracking service as “very good” or “excellent.” I am pleased with this and other positive findings of the survey but there is always room for improvement. The survey generated both qualitative and quantitative responses that will help us evaluate and improve the system to best meet subscribers’ needs.

IndianaNet will be closely following the State Legislature’s Interim Study Committees occurring throughout the summer months. Much of the legislation and policy discussions debated during the next legislative session will be formulated during these meetings. All related materials, including meeting minutes, will be available on the IndianaNet web site as committees meet.

Political information, including contribution data and fundraising calendars, is also available. IndianaNet users will notice an increase in the frequency of political information updates as more information is available during the upcoming election season.

Learn more about the IndianaNet system here.