About

Mapping a New Future for the Filipino-American Community

It is our privilege to serve you, the Filipino-American community and our many friends here in the Pacific Northwest, as the new president and vice president of the Filipino Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest. As long time business owners and community activists, we have witnessed the vitality of our community. There are literally hundreds of Filipino-American entrepreneurs creating jobs and wealth for families here in the Pacific Northwest . As a community, we celebrate our roots in Filipino customs and celebrations. And we are an increasingly respected voice in civic affairs and politics here in the Pacific Northwest.

Your Filipino Chamber of Commerce for the Pacific Northwest is poised to grow and better serve you. We aim to be a stronger voice for Filipino-Americans. We will deliver valuable services to our members, such as group purchasing of insurance. We will help Filipino-Americans connect with business opportunities, both here and in the Philippines. And we will earn respect for the Filipino-American community amongst the mainstream society’s institutions, elected officials and the broader business community by being a constructive partner in building a better America.

But building a better community and a stronger Filipino Chamber of Commerce takes more than good intentions and words. It will require hard work. It means involvement from all of our Filipino-American community, not just those who own businesses. And it requires us to look beyond the first and second generations of Filipino-Americans. We must teach our children about their heritage and responsibilities, but more importantly about the opportunities that being in a free enterprise society affords them.

As your Chamber of Commerce leaders, we are committed to working hard. Among our first projects are the following:

• Writing a charter and by-laws for the Chamber.
• Development of a five year strategic plan for the Chamber.
• Designing a series of value-added services and benefits for being a Chamber member.
• Offering training in how to access capital to grow your business, no matter what size your business is.

We will call upon you, whether you are a Chamber member or not, to help. We need volunteers to help write our charter. We want everyone’s ideas on new services the Chamber can offer. Experienced businessmen and women are needed to counsel our newest entrepreneurs and inspire our young people to get involved. So when we call upon you, please open the door and join us in building a stronger Filipino Chamber.

Every great organization has a unifying mission. We seek everyone’s ideas on what the Filipino Chamber of Commerce’s mission should be. From our personal perspective, we envision a Chamber that empowers economic and human development for the Filipino-American community. The Chamber should foster the creation of wealth in our community. This is wealth, not just as measured in monetary gains, but in cultivating our young people to be leaders in society. The Chamber should create wealth, not just by helping Filipino-Americans start businesses, but by helping them access capital and the tools to grow our businesses into significant economic engines in our society. And much like our counterparts in the Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean communities, we need to learn how to pool our resources to lower our cost of doing business.

We desire to recast the image of the Chamber. The Chamber and the entire Filipino-American community are global players. Beyond preserving the heritage and distinct identity of being Filipino-Americans, we seek to be constructive partners in growing the Pacific Northwest . We are partners with the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and other mainstream organizations in making our region the premier place to do business and raise a family. When the Prosperity Partnership seeks out opportunities to create 100,000 new jobs in five years, the Filipino Chamber of Commerce for the Pacific Northwest will be there with them. As a Chamber with one foot in the Pacific Northwest and another foot in the Philippines , we will actively promote trade and investment that can build a stronger Filipino homeland.

We will be an active voice on public policy issues at the state and federal level. As your representatives to the world, we will herald the significant contributions of Filipino-Americans to North American society. Did you know that after Mexico , the Philippines are the second largest source of legal immigrants to America? We share not only a common language with North America, but a close bond that dates back almost one hundred years and casting off the bonds of colonialism.

We will advocate for a better quality of public education for our children. We will fight to make healthcare affordable and culturally attuned to the needs of first and subsequent generations of Filipino Americans. We will call for closer ties between Canada , the United States and our homeland of the Philippines. And we will argue for more North American investment, both private and government, in the Philippines.

A very wise man once said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” That’s a large part of how we choose to live our lives and why we still work long days and nights at growing our own businesses. As your Chamber leaders, we hope to inspire all of you to achieve great things. We are enthusiastic about what the future holds.

While we share a heritage in the customs and values of our homeland, Filipino Americans also share the dream that is so uniquely American ? to make a better life for ourselves, to dream big and to strive to make a better world for our kids than we knew growing up. But like so many other ethnic communities, we also share the challenge of empowering ourselves, our families and our Filipino-American community. We want more than just what we can achieve for ourselves – we want to rise up our brothers and sisters, both here and in the Philippines .

To do so, we must rededicate ourselves to the hard work and sacrifice that it took our parents and other first generation immigrants to put down roots here. We can get engaged in electing Filipino-Americans to office. We can become leaders in our local community. We can speak out against the exploitation of Filipinos who must leave their homeland to find work to support their families back home. But no matter whether our personal aim is righting social injustice or simply upward mobility in society, empowerment relies upon creating wealth. And there is no faster way to create wealth than through entrepreneurship. The Chamber is first and foremost about helping any Filipino-American who wants to achieve their dream of starting or building their business.

Filipinos by nature are friendly and outgoing. We’re optimistic and we value education. These are all qualities that argue for Filipino-Americans not just to assimilate in America, but to achieve. Let’s all put the Chamber of Commerce to work to help us achieve great things.

FCCPNW 2008 Event of the Year!

April 26, 2008 Partnering Works Gala

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