We call it "Breakfast with Brinegar," but for this first time event at the world’s most famous racing facility, we just might call it "Bacon at the Brickyard" for a day. Local Indiana Chamber members are encouraged to join us Tuesday, May 13, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Joie Chitwood, President of the IMS, will speak briefly about the excitement of this year’s Indianapolis 500. With the IRL and Champ Car merger, along with Danica Patrick’s first IRL win, the buzz is as hot as ever regarding the 2.5 mile oval. Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber, will discuss Chamber programs and services and you will have an opportunity to network with other Indiana Chamber members. A Q&A session will be held for Kevin, as well. 

The breakfast is free for Indiana Chamber members and $19 for non-members. Please contact Abby Hamilton at (317) 264-3793 or ahamilton@indianachamber.com to RSVP for this fun and educational event.
 
Sounds like a great way to start a Spring day in the month of May in Indianapolis. You may even be lucky enough to bump into A.J., Mario or Little Al. But I promise you won’t have to listen to me sing "Back Home Again in Indiana."

Students will be bringing home their final report cards over the next few weeks as the school year comes to a close. Members of the Indiana General Assembly received their 2008 grades yesterday with the release of the Indiana Chamber’s 24^th annual Legislative Vote Analysis.

Numerous headlines regarding global climate change appear in newspapers around the world every day.  Former Vice President Al Gore and other leading environmentalists have been warning that we are headed for a man-made global catastrophe if our interaction with the planet doesn’t drastically change. More recently, environmental experts such as April 29 Economic Club of Indiana speaker Steven Hayward, have publicly disagreed with Gore and company.

Hayward, an environmental researcher holding numerous prestigious fellowships and an adjunct professorship at Georgetown University, starred in a film rebutting Gore’s claims of pending disaster as a result of climate change.  Hayward is of the belief that the planet goes through natural periods of warming and cooling and is not tremendously influenced by the activity of human beings.

His position on the issue, shared by an increasing number of scientists – such as MIT’s Richard Lindzen – has earned him both criticism and praise. Hayward plans to present his research, "The Unseriousness of Climate Change Policy: Confronting the Economic and Energy Realities” at the Economic Club of Indiana luncheon on April 29.   

Agree or disagree? Either way, you should hear what Hayward has to say. It’s from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29 at the Indiana Convention Center.

I know, I know. You’re sick of hearing about companies "going green." But here at the Chamber, we’ve recently launched a program that makes small, albeit noteworthy strides in this area.

I’m chairing an initiative by our Wellness Committee called the Workplace Wellness Project. The goal of the project is to make the office more environmentally-friendly and help conserve our resources. Here are a few of the things we’re doing:

* Remove Styrofoam cups from the break room and supply paper cups, although we encourage staff to use their own mugs

* Recycle cans in the break room, as well as collect poptabs for the Ronald McDonald House

* Recycle office paper through a local trash company (which we’ve been doing for years). The Chamber also has a publications department, so we’ve recently started recycling old pubs through Indianapolis Recycled Fiber. They will actually come pick them up.

* Educate staff with an environmental speaker at a staff meeting

* Kick off the project with a Pizza Party on Earth Day, which is April 22. Those who wish to attend must sign the Green Commandments, which are 10 suggested behaviors encouraging eco-friendly behavior such as shutting off lights when not in use, recycling when possible, not printing materials when e-documents suffice, bringing lunch in reusable containers, using pens until they are out of ink, etc.

We even have a cartoonish mascot to rally behind named Stan Arbor, the Workplace Wellness Wallaby (oh, the joys of Microsoft Publisher).

These are just some ideas to consider if you’d like to make your office more eco-friendly, help your bottom line and boost morale through a green project.

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.  

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.