Tawanda Coston-Smallwood Summer Internship Journal

Windsor-Bertie Chamber of Commerce

My partner, Karen Lea Branch and I met with the executive director of the

Windsor-Bertie Chamber of Commerce, Lewis Hoggard. We talked about

what plans he had for the Chamber and the Moses B. Gilliam Technology and

Entrepreneurial Center. He wanted us to conduct computer skills classes for

the community. There are 8 desktop stations in the technology center and a

open office space with three desks and a long conference table that will seat

10-12 people easily. The people who come into the center have access to

the internet and a printer, however, the copies are $0.25 each up to five and

then $1.00 each after five copies. The Chamber is a busy place (in a good

way). There are a lot of things that go on in Bertie County that I was not

aware of. I believe better advertisement would help out the Chamber. I see

the schools as a place where the gap between the community can be bridged

a little more. The Chamber received a $30,000 grant from Southern Bank

and have been using those funds to run the facility along with other funds.

There are two other people who work in the Chamber. Ms. Martha and Ms.

Juanita are called volunteers but they get paid. There is also a student who

works here under CADA. Mr. Hoggard also mentioned that they had not had

a newsletter since 2011 so that would be one of our tasks this summer. He

wanted it before the next board meeting on August 5. We also talked about

grant ideas since we have to work on a grant as part of our class

requirements.

Mr. Lewis Hoggard

Executive Director of

Windsor-Bertie Chamber

of Commerce

8/2/2013 9:12:00 AM

July 15-19, 2013

The technology center is pretty much self-sufficient. People just come in

and out and use the computers. They sign in on a sheet and just sit down at

a computer. A lot of them use it to check email and get on Facebook. Some

of them come in and play games. Most of the people look like they walk to

the center. It is conveniently located downtown. A lot of places are in

walking distance such as eating places, banks, courthouse, laundry mat,

police department, and other little small businesses. There are a lot of

places downtown that I did not realize was there. This may be due to the

fact that a lot of businesses do not last long or they start out downtown and

move to other places (sometimes out of the county). There was a place

called Hammerheads that a man had but he had to leave because he felt he

was not making enough money for his occupation as a chef. However, he

did return once he retired and opened the restaurant back up.

Our goal for the technology center is to get

some classes for the community up and

running. There is so much more to do with the

center rather than just playing games. We

want to get as many different computer skills

out there as possible such as taking classes

online and keeping up with their child in school.

We also want to train the two volunteers there

so that they can assist people with the

computers. We put in our grant some new technologies such as I-pads and

laptops so that the community can get a feel for different types of

technology. Although the grant for Connect Bertie did not get finished we

still believe in connecting Bertie in a different sense. We believe in

empowering people with knowledge that they can use to create a better life

for themselves and their famiies.

8/2/2013 9:12:00 AM

This week we worked on the newsletter for the Chamber of Commerce. Our

goal is to get it formatted so that the volunteers there can maintain it in the

future. We also put students as part of the grant and they also can help

keep it updated. The newsletter is really just highlighting some of the things

that the Chamber do throughout a three to four month span. It also list the

board members and their contact information. It has the new members and

their contact information as well. Anything that is going on in the county

sponsored by them is highlighted there. They also started a business

spotlight section. Here is where they look at a local business and spotlight

them. Next week we are suppose to interview the owner of Bunn’s

Barbeque. We walked around town and took pictures of the local businesses

and the hospital. We took pictures of the hospital because our grant focuses

around the health profession. It was good to get around and walk though

downtown. I want to take the walking history tour one day. I did not realize

some of the things that go on downtown. There are a lot of local businesses

that I never knew of or heard about.

8/2/2013 9:12:00 AM

This week we are putting the finishing touches on the Chamber newsletter.

We only have to put the notes from the director’s desk section and the

business spotlight section. We are going to interview the owner and get

some background information about the restaurant that we can use in the

newsletter. Then our focus will be on setting up the computer skills classes.

We will teach some basic computer skills classes. The focus of our grant is

to get people involved in taking online classes and looking up healthy

information online. We are trying to partner up with the hospital to see

what kind of support they can offer. We also wrote in our grant a television

so that while people are on the computers they can also listen to health

information. The more people are exposed to different things the better

chance they have of making better choices (in our case healthier choices).