uschamber.com Magazine August 2005

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• Cover Story: Chamber Protects Fax Use: New Law Prevents Costly Fax Regulations
  Following a long, intensive lobbying campaign by the Chamber, Congress overturned regulations that would have required businesses to obtain prior written permission from their established customers before they could start sending them commercial faxes.
• In Your Backyard
  News across the nation.
• Event to Recognize Good Corporate Citizens
  All U.S. Chamber members are invited to attend the 2005 Corporate Citizenship Awards Dinner on November 8, 2005, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The event will be held in conjunction with the U.S. Chamber board of directors’ dinner.
• Face Off: Who Can Best Provide Broadband Services? The Private Sector or the Government?
  Walter B. McCormick, Jr., President and CEO, United States Telecom Association and Donald J. Borut, Executive Director, National League of Cities debate best broadband services providers.
• In Your Corner: Call 911! Health Care Emergency: SBHPs Would Mitigate High Costs
  As the owner of a small construction firm, the rising cost of materials—steel, concrete, and fuel—makes me uneasy. But it is the soaring cost of health care for our 60 employees that really keeps me up at night.
• ECON 101: The Midyear Budget: a Pleasant Surprise
  Over the last few years, the federal government’s fiscal status was an area that most economists generally avoided if looking for good news.
• Small Business Matters: Save Money on Health Care: Understanding and Implementing HSAs
  Among the many and varied challenges that small businesses face, few are as complex and expensive as health care. One way to save money on health care is to offer High-Deductible Health Plans with Health Savings Accounts (HDHPs and HSAs).
• Tech Tools: Disaster Recovery Planning: Prepare for the Unexpected
  How would your business recover if you lost your computer systems or data? Having a good disaster recovery plan lets you gauge how long it would take to replace any lost systems and how much of your information you could recover.
• Strategies for Growing Your Business: An Interview With Consultant Michael Treacy
  Businesses searching for advice on how to expand and distinguish themselves from the competition have a friend in Michael Treacy, chief strategist at Gen3 Partners, Inc., a product innovation consulting firm in Boston.
• NASDAQ and Reuters to Aid Small Businesses
  The U.S. Chamber recently welcomed news that two well-respected organizations have reached an agreement to provide independent research and analysis of smaller firms listed on the stock exchanges.
• Chamber Fights for Free Trade: Small Businesses Help Advance DR-CAFTA
  Amid heated rhetoric and last-ditch efforts to derail the vote, the Senate and a key House committee approved the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) on June 30. The U.S. Chamber applauded these actions.
• Volunteer Network Taps Companies for Expertise
  Volunteerism-key to the fabric of our nation--needs to be rekindled. The number of people who volunteered dropped from 55% in 1998 to 28% in 2004. Volunteerism spiked upward in the closing months of 2001 but then quickly reverted to preSeptember 11 levels.
• Success Insight: A Chamber Member’s Story: Conveying the Benefits of Trade
  International trade can seem overwhelming for many small business owners, but often all it takes is one sale on foreign soil to get started. That’s what happened to Leon Trammell, CEO of Wichita, Kansas-based Tramco, Inc.
• Working For You: Working the Tech To-Do List
  Mike Zaneis has something in common with many members of the small business community: His to-do list at the U.S. Chamber is almost as long as any business owner’s. "The breadth of issues that I cover is truly the most challenging aspect of my job."
• e-sources August 2005
  Links of interests for the August 2005 edition of uschamber.com