Letter from Phil Kirk

Reviewing a year of great progress
NCCBI’s fiscal year runs from April through March. I wanted to share excerpts from my President’s Report to our members with a broader audience.

The past year has been a challenging one for NCCBI just as it has been in your business, industry, institution or organization.

Because of strong leadership from our officers, the increased activity of our board members, and the continued hard work of our staff, we have had a good year. In fact, I would call it an heroic year.

Membership recruitment has been extraordinarily strong despite the weak economy.

Despite the challenges connected with a poor economy, we gained 256 new members last year. Fifty-one NCCBI board members brought in 151 new members. Progress Energy volunteers brought in nearly $34,000 while Duke Energy’s campaign team secured new revenue totaling slightly less than $30,000.

Eighteen board members exceeded their goal, with Kelly King bringing in 16 new members and John Forlines, 13.

I have enjoyed visiting with members in their offices and I expect to do more of that in the future. These visits certainly help me to better understand the needs of our members.

Our second main source of revenue is advertising sales. Again, we had an unbelievable year despite the economy.

Net revenue from magazine ad sales rose more than 15 percent this year over last year, which is all the more impressive considering that ad sales last year set an all-time record. This was the fifth year in a row that the magazine has turned a profit.

Legislatively, NCCBI continues to be the primary business advocate in the eyes of the legislature, executive branch and the media. We strive to keep you informed on what is going on in Raleigh and Washington. You cannot and need not be in the state capital or the national capital on a regular basis but you depend on us to represent you and to keep you informed. Through our regular weekly e-mail Legislative Bulletin, the North Carolina magazine, and blast e-mails, we do our best, but we welcome your suggestions.

During the past year we have shown that we are open to change. After our first ever membership survey, thanks to the generosity of First Citizens Bank, we made changes in the format for our area meetings and our annual meeting.

For example, we abolished the formal dinner at our annual meeting and expanded the evening reception. At our area meetings, we shortened the speeches and added a question-and-answer session.

Our legislative policy committees worked very diligently during the past year to develop the position statements which will guide us in our lobbying efforts.

We have enthusiastic new leadership in our Young Executives Forum program, which is sponsored by SouthTrust Bank. However, we need your help in promoting participation and attendance. As Bradley Thompson challenged you last year, we need each of you to pick at least one young executive from your organization and enroll him or her in the Young Executives Program. Wachovia is the new sponsor of our Small Business Advisory Board, which has a couple of vacancies.

We have had several meetings to determine how best to meet the public policy and governmental affairs needs of the 80 local chambers of commerce which are members of NCCBI.

Our progress in diversity on our board of directors continues to be impressive. When I came to NCCBI 13 years ago, we had five females on the board. Now we have 24. The number of African-Americans has doubled from four to eight, and we now have a Native American board member.

Finally I want to thank you for your allowing me to serve as chairman of the State Board of Education for the past 51/2 years. It has been a tremendously satisfying experience, and hopefully the Voice of Business has helped our schools to lead the nation in progress. But there comes a time when change is necessary, both for the mind and the body. I am pleased now to be chairman emeritus.

The past year has been one of peaks and valleys. It has been one of deaths and births involving our staff and their families and friends. But above all, it has been a year of progress, a year of teamwork, a year of growing influence, and a year filled with challenges.

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