Letter from the President
Larry Knudsen May 2006
Visit Larry at www.myspace.com/indigenousinternetchamber
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Larry Knudsen, Member of Ho Chunk, Omaha, Ponca Nations |
Welcome back to the Indigenous Internet Chamber of Commerce (IICOC).
I am happy to give you an update on what's happening at the Chamber. The Month of March and April were busy for us. We attended the Science Museum of Minnesota "Indians and Science" and "Science Fusion" as well as the Rotary District Conference at the Hilton in Bloomington, Minnesota.
All three events went well as planned, hundreds attended all the events.
The best news today is, the IICOC will be attending the 2006 Rotary International Convention, in Copenhagen Denmark, June 9 - 15. The IICOC will be showing our Chamber of Commerce programs, "Start a Chamber of Commerce" and our Diabetes program "Susan Laflesche Amputation Reduction Network, Featuring Dr. Kham Vay Ung".
The IICOC will represent the Minneapolis South Rotary Club and Rotary District 5950. We are the only project to be selected from our District. The exposure given to us at this event will be invaluable. | Chambers of Commerce have been around for over 100 years, starting here in the United States. They have been very successfull and lucrative to the communities they serve. As Indigenous Nations we have not kept up with this opportunity to market ourselves and our products as our couterparts have in the Western Hemisphere. Somewhere we just missed the boat on this one. We can help change that.
Now is the time to take action and help our Indigenous Nations start their own Chambers of Commerce, make new parterships with our surrounding Communties, Towns and Cities and build new relationships which will help support your infrastucture.
If you're wondering how can we get our Indigenous Chamber into Central and South America? IICOC is a Minneapolis South Rotary International Project. With Rotary already well established in Central and South America we will have no problem getting the word out. Rotary is a service organization which has done hundreds of humanitarian projects for our People. Rotary has saved our lives, and has touched us and our families. Our partnership is just beginning. You may be wondering Who and What is Rotary? Rotary isn't recognized here with the American Indians of the United States because of our Sovereignty. We're going to change that.
Look forward to next month, we're going to dedicate a page to Rotary projects which are taking place today, I want to tell you the stories of how they are helping our People. This should help answer your questions of, "Who and What is Rotary?" and, "What can they do for me?"
We have been getting good reviews concerning our Newsletter "Indigenous In The News", encouraging us to keep up the great work. Please feel free to submit nominee's to us as well.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the IICOC at or call me at 888-729-1965.
K. Larry Knudsen
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