COMMITTEE TARGETS MINORITY RELATIONS

The newest Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce committee targets minority relations in the business community.

The committee was established at the end of 1992, and began functioning this year with the approval of the chamber's board of directors.

"We're a brand new committee so we haven't really done much yet," says John Mehner, committee member and a past chairman of the chamber's board of directors. "We only have two meetings under our belt, so we're really still in the infancy stage."

The committee has established five basic goals.

Recruit minority-owned businesses to the Cape Girardeau area.

* Increase awareness of minority business opportunities.

* Provide education and distribute information regarding government regulations as they relate to minority-owned businesses.

* Work towards a partnership with the minority business sector of the community.

* Work toward increased participation of the minority sector in all chamber activities.

"We hope to increase the number of minority-owned businesses in the chamber," says Carol Keeler, who chairs this new committee. "And overall, we would like to increase the involvement from the minority community.

"We have found very few minority-owned businesses in our area. It's a grow-your-own program of sorts. We want to help those who may want to start their own business, but feel they don't have the resources or the information to do so. We want to get the information to them.

"We have found the challenges that minorities face in starting their own business include resources and financing, which is especially difficult in a minority community."

The governor's Commission on Minority Business Development assists minority businesses in obtaining state contracts, and provides information on recruitment, bidding and the qualifying process, Keeler says.

She has been in contact with several cities including Columbia and Springfield, to see how they are accomplishing similar goals.

"Springfield is in a similar situation," Keeler says, "because they have a very large chamber, but they don't have involvement from the entire community."

Cape Girardeau's Chamber of Commerce is the fourth largest in the state, Mehner says. The more activity it can get from all types of businesses, then the better it is going to be in the long run. Minority participation could help to make it even stronger, he says.

"Right now, our chamber doesn't get participation from the different races and ethnic backgrounds in the area," Mehner says. "We have a lot of minorities in private business, and as a chamber, we would like to have representation from all. We also want these people to be active and voice their ideas and views."

To accomplish the committee's goals, they want to develop a minority-owned business list for the community, so they can make these businesses aware of the government regulations from which they could benefit.

"We also want to increase minority involvement in the chamber," Mehner says. "The chamber needs to take a role in pulling the different areas of the community together."

Currently, the committee is trying to compile a list of minority businesses, but it is not easy, Mehner says. They are seeking help from the community to accomplish this goal.

A complete list could help these businesses in gain future clients or projects. "In the case of the airport terminal renovation, they did not have a bid from a minority contractor because they didn't know who owned one."

Mehner says they also want to recruit more minority businesses to the area. "Then we want to make them aware of what the chamber does."