Indiana Chamber membership offers a valuable resource for members trying to kick up more business. Our Business Research Center provides business lists to members at no cost. You may select any six of the 33 specialty lists available in your membership year. The most popular lists include Largest Indiana Employers, New & Expanding Businesses and Indiana Companies with Foreign Ownership. In addition, you may receive up to 1,000 customized lists based on SIC codes, ZIP codes, employee range and sales volume. For more information, click here.
 
Here’s the really cool aspect of the Business Research Center: One e-mail to our research experts or a quick phone call will get your request started. Cindy Monnier, the director of Business Research, may be reached at cmonnier@indianachamber.com or (317) 264-7511. Melissa Sederoff, the research assistant, may be reached at msederoff@indianachamber.com or (317) 264-6870. 

You don’t have to spend hours at the library or online to find prospect names and numbers to call. Instead, you can spend those hours playing online Boggle or searching Wikipedia for those weird facts you’ve been wondering about since you were a kid.

My family and I were sitting around the dinner table the other night discussing summer plans. Sprinkled in among sports camps, vacation destinations and family visits was conversation about my daughter’s upcoming internship. As executive director of Indiana INTERNnet, I know the power of internships and am confident that through this first of many internships she will gain real life work experience to complement her classwork at Purdue University. 

After a few nudges from mom, my daughter created her free student account, searched for and applied to four internships on Indiana INTERNnet. Within 48 hours, she heard back from all of the employers and ulitmately was offered an internship with Scott A. Jones. 

Indiana INTERNnet’s online matching system connects students and employers for internship opportunities, and as a complement to the matching system, Indiana INTERNnet offers free internship program assessments to employers wishing to implement or enhance existing internship programs. Addtionally, employer workshops are being hosted throughout the state over the next 60 days. 

Is your company planning to host interns this summer? If so, we’d like to hear from you and your interns. Post internship comments and questions on this blog today and inspire other Indiana employers to follow your lead of keeping the workforce talent in the Hoosier state. 

"For the past half-century, free enterprise and what it stands for has been under constant attack,” asserted Walter Williams at the last Economic Club of Indiana luncheon of the season Friday.

Williams, a well-known political pundit, columnist, professor and occasional guest host of the “Rush Limbaugh Show,” presented his strong views on economic and tax policy in America today.

Williams employed obvious and often humorous comparisons to illustrate his message – at one point equivocating the federal government’s wealth redistribution programs to armed robbery with a benevolent motive. 

“We must ask ourselves, is there ever a moral reason for taking what belongs to one person and giving it to another?” Williams asked, reminding the audience that, “government has no money of its very own.”

As a promoter of individual liberty over intrusive government, Williams believes that charitable contributions and other financial transactions are most effective when people are free to participate in voluntary exchange.

Mandating what Americans save for retirement and enforcing it through Social Security taxes is just one of the ways Williams feels government is interfering with voluntary exchange.  He also asserted that the federal government has no Constitutional authority to collect taxes for three-fourths of the things it currently collects.

The next Economic Club luncheon season will begin with Eli Lilly president/CEO John Lechleiter on Sept. 24. He will be followed by editor of the The Weekly Standard (and New York Times columnist) William Kristol on Oct. 27, who will offer his political insights just before the 2008 election. Here is the current schedule, and new speakers are still being added.

The Indiana Roof Ballroom in downtown Indy was a worthy venue Wednesday night for the Best Places to Work Awards. Schmidt Associates and Edward Jones topped the list, being named the best places to work in their respective categories. However, a plethora of Indiana businesses of varied sizes were awarded at the gala, which featured a delicious dinner and a whole lotta maraca shaking.

Additionally, attendees were privy to the release of the May/June 2008 edition of BizVoice magazine following the dinner, which includes the final placing and several articles about recognized companies.

And if you’d like for your business to throw its hat in the ring for next year, click here to learn more information about the program and application process.

There is success – and then there is a "100% grand slam, we did everything we intended to do" outcome.

The latter sums up Tuesday for Indiana Business for Responsive Government (IBRG) , the political action arm of the Indiana Chamber. IBRG is in the business of electing state legislators focused on a pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda. It endorsed 16 candidates (nine in the House and seven in the Senate). All 16 were winners.

Among the highlights:
* IBRG was part of a coalition supporting challenger Wes Culver (R-Goshen) against incumbent John Ulmer, also of Goshen, in House District 49. Culver earned a most impressive 70.7% of the vote

* IBRG was active in the re-election effort of Dan Leonard (R-Huntington), who collected more than 58% of the vote in handily defeating two challengers in House District 50

* An open-seat Senate race saw IBRG help Republican Jean Leising (a former state senator from Oldenburg) collect more than 48% of the vote in a four-way battle in District 42

IBRG bases its endorsements on legislator voting records (as documented in the Legislative Vote Analysis) and candidate interviews. There won’t be too much time for pats on the back, however, as the general election awaits – as does the effort to elect legislators ready to work for an economic climate that rewards Indiana companies and their employees.

UPDATE: Indiana political blog Hoosier Access has also taken note of IBRG’s success, heralding the PAC as the big winner on election night.

Indiana Chamber president Kevin Brinegar recently discussed the Chamber’s Legislative Vote Analysis on Inside Indiana Business. This analysis outlines how Indiana’s legislators voted on key issues that impact Indiana business. Brinegar invites you to use this as a guide to either encourage your legislators’ efforts, or to let them know they should work harder toward fostering a better business environment.

Copies of the report are sent to all Indiana Chamber members, thousands of businesspersons, all legislators and other community leaders across the state.

The Economic Club of Indiana is about to close out the 2007-2008 season with Walter Williams on May 9. Our last speaker, Steven Hayward, generated more comments, prior to his talk, than any previous speaker in recent memory. I appreciate all views and remarks forwarded on. While putting differing view points on specific points and arguments may not be possible, the Club does present a general balance of opinions, ideas and theories. 

For this season about to end, we have brought in a member of the Clinton administration, two university presidents, a superintendent of a major school system, president of one of the nation’s largest not-for-profits and an advocate of tougher emission standards. As the 2008-2009 season takes shape, we will continue to promote an interest in, and enlighten to attendees on, important governmental, economic and social issues. We do so across a broad spectrum with speakers we both agree and disagree with. 

The Economic Club is highly regarded nationally for its role in bringing local, national and international speakers to our state since 1974.