Presidents Message

(Following are the remarks of the 2012 Incoming Chamber President on 21 January 2012)

In January each year we celebrated the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Who can forget his memorable speech, “I HAVE A DREAM.”  He was committed to making his dream a reality.  King served and sacrifice for a cause he believed in.

To achieve any goal, there are three steps.  You must:

1.  Have a Vision

2.  Believe you can achieve the vision

3.  Be willing to Serve

1.  THE VISION

We lost one of our Noble leaders in January.  Rick Vanderburg, Senior Pastor of Covenant Church passed away unexpectedly.  His daughter spoke at his memorial service.  She told us that Rick absolutely loved Noble and believed Noble has a great destiny.  Many of us have the same vision as Rick.

Envision the Noble of your dreams.  What does it look like?

I see an attractive and vibrant downtown. 

I see places to shop for everything I need within a short distance from my home.

I am driving down streets that are attractive and in great repair.

I see sidewalks. 

I see children walking, riding their bikes and playing. 

I see the kids crossing the streets safely.

I see friendly laughing people.  They wave at me as I pass.

I see parks where children are laughing and playing.  The parks are easy to get to from their homes.

I see families spending time together.

Do you see it?  That is a Noble we can all be proud of; a Noble where everyone wants to live and raise their families; where people want to work; where people want to do business.

Having a clear vision is the first step.

2.  BELIEVE

The next step is to believe we can achieve the Noble of our dreams.

Do you believe it is possible to grow Noble into the City you envisioned?  I do! 

Noble has incredible assets.

Our location is close to Metro Area, close to the University of Oklahoma and close to transportation corridors.

We have land available.

We have a good work force.

We have nice places to live at reasonable prices.

We have a great school system which is on the grow.

We have a great relationship with the City and Schools.

Noble’s BIGGEST ASSET is our people.

All of our other assets will be important.  But the key to achieving our vision is to Bring Out the Best…the Noble people.

Together…we can do this!

It starts with a few.  These are the people take the bull by the horns and put out the effort to make a difference.  I am talking about many of you in our Chamber.  Because of you, Noble has done incredible things in the last eight years.  Let me name a few of things we have accomplished or are underway:

Dane Park Splash Pad and Community Gardens

Ken King Park Recreational Trails, Pavilion and Disc Golf Course

Downtown sidewalk and lighting project

Safe Routes to School

Rock digital sign at Etowah and Main Street and new rock signs at High School

Addition to Hubbard

New field house

New cafeteria and Commons Area at High School

Housing projects

Historical Museum

New water wells

Newly painted water towers

Through the efforts of a few, the fulfillment of the vision has been set in motion.  Like a large rock rolling down the hill, we need to pick up momentum

Change is coming to Noble.  Norman is growing south. 

Our population has expanded by 1,200 people in 10 years.

Highway 77 will be four lanes from Lexington to Norman.

Our school district is busting at the seams.

Noble will change.  The only question is whether the change will result in the fulfillment of our vision.  Or are we just going to let change happen to us?

3.  In order to achieve our dreams, we must take the third step.  We must serve.

Not just the handful of people who have been carrying the load. 

We must Bring Out the Best.  We must mobilize our community. 

We must ask them to serve.

In March we will conduct Community-wide Strategic Planning Meetings.

We will describe our Vision as a community.

Then we will plan the specific steps necessary to make the vision a reality.

By doing this, we will instill the belief necessary to get commitment to serve.

The Chamber will create a Task Force to focus on our Mission and use this Mission as a filter for all of our activities.  As a result of the work of the Task Force we plan to have a stronger organization with a clearer picture of our future.  This work requires us all to roll up our sleeves and get involved.

Together we have the vision.  We believe we can accomplish our goals.  We will step up to make it happen by serving our Chamber and our community. 

Together we can Bring Out the Best…Noble!