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The Juniata River Valley Chamber of Commerce held its annual meeting on Monday, March 24, via Zoom. During that meeting, the nominating committee chair, Barbara Chadick, presented the nominations for board members and officers which were all unanimously approved.
The board members, who were elected for a 3-year term ending Dec. 31, 2027, are: Chris Searer, Ruth Eddy, Jonathon Cunningham, Terry Foster, Christina Calkins-Mazur, Rick Smeltz and Lois Grose. In addition, Cari Kilmer was elected to fill an open position that expires on Dec. 31, 2026.
The elected officers are: Peter Ort, Chair; Cher Harpster, Vice-Chair; Terry Foster, Treasurer; and Babara Chadick, Secretary.
Executive Director Rhonda Kelley, reviewed 2024 and gave an annual report. Kelley noted the following statistics: The chamber added 34 new members and has a total of 545 members. They had 16 ribbon cuttings, 20 tours visiting current and potential members, held eight After Hours events, one awards ceremony, two college and career fairs, one fireworks display, five entrepreneurial meetups, one wine dancing event, one leadership class, one Younity conference, and seven business breakfast clubs.
Board member Jonathan Cunningham reviewed the updated strategic plan for 2024-2026. He told the members that the chamber exceeded the metrics in all categories for 2024.
Executive Director Kelley introduced the guest speaker, Jen Gilburg. Ms. Gilburg is the Deputy Secretary, Technology and Entrepreneurship, PA Department of Community and Economic Development. She has lived in Silicon Valley and Boston and returned to her home state of PA, currently residing in Lancaster.
Ms. Gilburg gave some interesting statistics. She stated that it is estimated that age technology will be a 2 trillion dollar business over the next decade. She went on to state that the Hellman Foundation lists that 1 out of every 100 workers in the U.S. is employed by a small business in PA. Therefore, Pennsylvania is the backbone of the country's small businesses.
Gilburg is excited about the 10-year economic plan that has been put in place by PA. You can find it at pagetsitdone.com. That plan has two pillars: family-sustaining jobs for all families and innovating to win.
Several trends are emerging per Gilburg. First, a "silver tsunami" is expected in the next 10 years with a huge portion of older workers retiring and that will leave some 700,000 unfilled positions. As a generalization about those retirees, Gilburg states that they are the workers who worked overtime while the Gen Z and Millennials want work/life balance. These younger employees often seek on-demand jobs where they can choose what shifts they will take, or they want to work only 30 hours a week. This is expected to have a large impact on manufacturing jobs.
The second trend is the re-shoring of supply chain to the U.S. in manufacturing. Gilburg stated that this isn't expected for lower cost items, but could be big for some products such as the semi-conductor business and many of the defense type items.
The third trend is the increase in defense spending-products such as ships, submarines, etc. Pennsylvania could have a big impact in those areas.
Per Gilburg, with all of the potential positives, there will be challenges, and in some cases, we need to shift our thinking. It used to be that automation meant a reduction in jobs, but now it could mean that people could be moved to better jobs while productivity is increased.
One example of this concept is found in Selinsgrove. A lumber mill there had people grade wood with a marker. They found that after about an hour human workers were downgrading lumber that shouldn't have been downgraded-costing a substantial amount of money. A machine was purchased, the employees were retrained for better jobs and the 1 million dollar piece of equipment will pay for itself in 3 years.
Also in Pennsylvania, there are many great projects with AI according to Gilburg. Several programs will help companies see what processes could be automated-many of these programs utilize students for the reviews. These projects keep humans in the loop to address any issues and to evaluate where technology isn't currently advanced enough to fix the problems.
Gilburg stated that other states have been outspending Pa. in innovation. However, the current administration put 50 million dollars in this year's state budget to innovate and solve problems for businesses.
Jen Gilburg can be reached at jgilburg@pa.gov.