By Brian Calley
The great reputation and hard work that SBAM puts into maintaining and building strong bipartisan relationships was on full display at the Leadership Council’s winter meeting.
Our council members benefited from an extensive agenda featuring wide ranging policy discussions with most of Michigan‘s top policymakers. The Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader both made time to discuss important issues facing small businesses today with us. Both the House and the Senate Democratic leaders went out of their way to express a strong desire to to work together on small business issues.
We were also fortunate to receive visits from two brand new statewide office holders. The Attorney General and the Secretary of State were part of our speaker line up, and both specifically extended invitations to work with the Small Business Association of Michigan and its members on issues important to us.
Supreme Court justice Elizabeth Clement spent time helping members to demystify the court process, which was especially timely given that there are some very critical decisions affecting small businesses before the Supreme Court today.
We even received a visit from Governor Whitmer’s appointments team describing how our members can be considered for gubernatorial appointments.
Are you part of SBAM’s Leadership Council? It is a unique gathering of only business owners. We meet three times each year, and always have a worthwhile, productive time together. The programming is great, but even more importantly, it’s one of the best networks around.