Guest speaker ignites chamber meeting

Annette Rummel, president/CEO of the Saginaw County Convention and Visitors Bureau, challenged members of the Rogers City Chamber of Commerce to discover innovative ways to promote their community at their annual meeting last Wednesday. Rummel is a graduate of Delta College and Northwood University in Michigan and received her Master of Science degree from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. She is currently working on her Ph.D. at Michigan State University. Her previous experience as president/CEO of the Frankenmuth Chamber of Commerce was highlighted in her presentation at the Rogers City Area Seniors Center.

Rummel noted the similarities of the chamber’s “Look Here First” campaign and one used in Frankenmuth to encourage residents to shop at home. “That’s how we have our residents and business people helping one another to go to the local shop instead of driving 40 or 50 miles to try and find a product. Investigate your hometown first,” she said. Rummel told the crowd to look around the room and make a mental list of everything that is the color red. She then asked everyone to close their eyes and see if they could recall things that are colored green.

THE PURPOSE of the exercise was to point out how people overlook things that are right in front of them while they are thinking about something else. “It’s the same thing with an attitude. When you are looking at your community with a positive attitude you tend to see the good things but if you are looking only with a negative attitude you miss these things,” she continued. “Tonight, my job is to lead you through a process where you are only going to see the good things about Rogers City.

“I am not suggesting we only look at our community through rose-colored glasses, I have faced different crises and challenges in the past, but I truly believe if you have a positive attitude the majority of the time, you tend to go a lot further, a lot faster, and you are a lot happier,” Rummel said. The next exercise had each table of guests jot down positive things about Rogers City. After a few minutes to think about it and create the list, a spokesperson for each table was asked to read an item from their list. As this was done, Rummel would ask the other tables if the item being read aloud was also on their lists. The similarities of the lists indicated that residents and business people all shared the same positive images of the town. She then talked about how to focus on these positive images to create an effective development strategy.

During the question and answer session, Rummel was asked to describe how Frankenmuth became so successful.

SHE GAVE a brief history of Frankenmuth, noting that it works the same way as an orchestra; even though many people come from different perspectives they can succeed by working toward the same goal. “In 1957, the number one industry in Frankenmuth was plywood. It was the plywood covering of the hotels, the plywood covering the restaurants and stores,” she said. When Interstate 75 was completed, it meant traffic was drawn away from the highway that ran through the city. “The city responded by coming together and asking themselves what were the main positive things about the community, noting that they were a bunch of Germans who had originally come to teach Christianity to the Chippewa Indians. That was the foundation for the community,” Rummel said.

THE CIVIC leaders were not going to pretend they were something that they were not. They decided to look at their own identity and build their city around that. Then they brought in an architect from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who designed the first section to what is now the Bavarian Restaurant. “The Zehnder family was a poor farm family of 12 children who sold their farm to buy the old hotel that is now Zehnder’s Restaurant. “That was in 1959 and it was also the first year they celebrated the Bavarian Festival in Frankenmuth. “It has taken many, many years to develop the town to the point where it is today but you don’t want to be a Frankenmuth, you want to be Rogers City. “There are many things you can learn from Frankenmuth but there are also many things Frankenmuth can learn fr

om Rogers City.

“Be proud of who you are. Develop what you are. Be true to your nature and you will be successful,” Rummel said. Rummel summed up her remarks by saying she felt very comfortable driving into Rogers City because her father spent a considerable amount of time hunting and fishing in the area. “My dad is no longer with us but he passed on to us what a wonderful place this is,” she concluded. The chamber also conducted its annual business meeting with the re-election of directors William Dempsey and Anne Belanger. A new director, Becky Hanson, also was elected to the board.

The Chamber will co-sponsor a meeting with the Cool Cities committee and the Travel and Visitors Bureau at the library on November 17 at 7 p.m. to discuss future events in Rogers City. The public is invited to attend.

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