ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 23, 1996 TAG: 9611250128
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Nobody doubted that those attending the 44th annual membership dinner meeting of the Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce would get a good meal Thursday night.
The dinner was catered by the Marriott HealthCare Division of Columbia Pulaski Community Hospital and the guest speaker was Chuck O'Dell, president of Marriott Management Services. =r5 Appropriately, the thrust of O'Dell's remarks was the need in today's business climate to please the customer.
"And tonight I sit here in front of 150 or 200 critics who just ate our product," he said.
He got no complaints.
Odell Mayberry, a retired businessman who has served on the county Board of Supervisors and in many other civic capacities, was chosen as the chamber's 1996 Business Executive of the Year at the meeting, held in Edwards Hall at New River Community College.
Eddy and Jeanette Stephens received the chamber's 1996 Fund-raiser Award, and Jeanette Stephens, who operates C&S Galleries in Dublin, also got the 1996 Chamber Excellence Award.
Barry Matherly, economic development director for the town of Pulaski, received the 1996 Membership Sales Award; Marry Ann Wise, the 1996 Medical Volunteer Award, and Evelyn Alexander, the 1996 Southwest Times Civic Honors Award for her work in the community.
Chamber President Christopher Dux, chief executive officer at Columbia Pulaski Community Hospital, handed the gavel to his successor, Edwin Barnes, president of New River Community College.
"This is not exactly something that I wanted to do," Barnes confessed, having told his wife he would shed some of his time-consuming responsibilities beyond his regular job. "I've resigned two of my four commitments to the New Century Council But [chamber Executive Director] Nancy [Bowman] with the help of some others have convinced me that, if I didn't do this, they'd have to close down the Chamber of Commerce," he joked.
When his wife asked him why he was being seated at the head table, he said, he told her "Well, I'm kind of an officer in the chamber."
Other new officers are Pulaski County Administrator Joe Morgan, vice president for internal affairs; Hiawatha Nicely, a business consultant, vice president for economic development; Joe Bane, manager of Pulaski's Heilig-Meyers store, as vice president for community development, and Carol Brockmeyer, a Pulaski Signet Bank executive, named for what Barnes called "the sucker of the year award." She is the president-elect for 1998, as Barnes was for 1997.
O'Dell, who became president of Marriott Management Services six years ago, recalled that it took him and other executives some nine months to come up with the 39-word vision statement for the division. "When I got there, we didn't have one vision, we had 100,000 visions," he said, referring to the number of people working under that division.
"A vision is what we want to become. It is not where we are If you are an organization that is customer-driven, then you had better continuously improve. And, if you want to continuously improve, you had better have individuals who are empowered to do it," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines KEYWORDS: 2DAby CNB