Press Release

For Immediate Release	Contact: Michael De Groote
07 November 2005	801.328.5056

Bestselling Author/Comedian Andy Andrews to speak at Chamber Annual Meeting, November 10

Chamber to honor Legislators of the Year, Chamber Champions, and outgoing Board members

SALT LAKE CITY—The Salt Lake Chamber is proud to bring Andy Andrews, an internationally known speaker, novelist and comedian, to speak at the Chamber’s 103rd Annual Meeting Luncheon on Thursday, November 10, 2005 at the Salt Lake City Marriott-Downtown. Andrews’s combined works, including the New York Times bestseller, The Traveler’s Gift, have sold millions of copies worldwide. He recently completed a two-hour PBS special entitled Andy Andrews: The Seven Decisions. The master of ceremonies for the event is news anchor Keith McCord of KSL 5 Television. Lane Beattie, President & CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber and Clark Ivory, Chamber Board Chair, will also make brief remarks at the luncheon.

The Chamber’s Annual Meeting will also honor eight Chamber Champions for their hard work in supporting the Chamber’s programs. Outgoing members of the Board of Governors will be recognized and thanks will be extended to Mark Howell of Wells Fargo who served as Chamber board chair for the 2004-2005 fiscal year ending June 30. For the second year the Chamber also will honor several legislators for their outstanding work. See a listing of the honorees below.

The November 10 luncheon will be held at the Salt Lake City Marriott-Downtown, 75 South West Temple. It begins at 11:30 a.m. prompt and ends by 1:30 p.m. The cost is $60 per person and $600 for a table of 10. Interested persons should RSVP no later than November 8 at www.saltlakechamber.org, email annualmeeting@saltlakechamber.org, or call (801) 328-5050.

Sponsors of the Annual Meeting
The Salt Lake Chamber extends thanks to the sponsors of the Annual Meeting:
Ivory Homes is the presenting sponsor--and sponsors the scheduled keynote, best selling author and comedian, Andy Andrews. Major event sponsors are Christopherson Business Travel, Granite Construction Company, Salt Lake County, Stoel Rives, Utah Power, ZERO Halliburton and Wells Fargo. In-kind sponsors are O.C. Tanner and DesignWerks. At the event, a special video produced by Avalanche Studios will be shown that features the honorees. The Chamber also thanks The Summit Group Communications for its work on the invitation and program and Bailey Montague for their work on the Chamber’s 2004-2005 Annual Report.

Chamber Champions
Chamber Champions are those volunteers who give extensively of their time and energy to help fulfill the Salt Lake Chamber’s mission. They make everything the Chamber does possible. Each contributes to the betterment of our community. The Chamber Champions for 2005 are as follows:

Lloyd Carr, Carr Printing
Jack Ford, Utah State Department of Corrections 
Richard T. Hazel, Camco Construction, Inc.
Carol Hunter, Utah Power/PacifiCorp
Bryn F. Ramjoue, The Storey Agency
Elaine Schlehuber, Zions Bank 
Chris Tunis, The Enterprise Newspaper Group
Matthew H. Wilson, Riviera Insurance Services

Legislators of the Year
The Legislators of the Year 2005 are those legislators who recognize business as a positive and essential element of Utah’s continuing growth and success. They are more interested in solutions than posturing. They respect the voice of business while being responsible to their constituents. Their tireless efforts are appreciated and are worthy of emulation by other legislators. The Legislators of the Year 2005 are as follows:

Greg Curtis, Speaker of the House (R) Dist. 49
Sheldon L. Killpack, Senator (R) Dist. 21
Dan R. Eastman, Senator (R) Dist. 23

Outgoing Chamber Board:
Members of the Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors generally serve a three-year term. The Chair of the Board generally serves in that position for one year. This year we honor Mark Howell of Wells Fargo who served as Board Chair for the fiscal year of 2004-2005. 

The Chamber also thanks the volunteer efforts and support of the following outgoing members of the Board of Governors:

Gary M. Purk
Bruce T. Reese, Bonneville International Corporation
Mary Kay Griffin, CBIZ FPG Business Services, Inc.
Randy Okland, Okland Construction Company, Inc.
Jeffrey L. Gochnour, The Boyer Company

About the Speaker
Andrews lived a relatively normal life until the age of nineteen, when both his parents died—his mother from cancer, his father in an automobile accident. “I took a bad situation and made it much worse,” Andrews says with a rueful smile, referring to choices he made during this tragic period of his life. Within a span of several years, the young man found himself literally homeless (“before that was even a word!” he says), sleeping occasionally under a pier on the gulf coast or in someone’s garage.

It was at that time when Andrews asked the question that would focus his search for what would ultimately affect millions of people. The question? “Is life just a lottery ticket, or are there choices one can make to direct his future?” The young Andrews finally determined that there were seven characteristics that each person had in common. “What will happen,” he mused, “if I study these seven common denominators and harness them in my own life?”

The rest is history. “The Seven Decisions,” as he calls them, were the engines used to carry Andrews’s life in a different direction. And twenty-plus years later, these same Seven Decisions became the outline around which he built the story of The Traveler’s Gift and the basis of his PBS Special.

Over one thousand colleges and universities twice voted a somewhat younger Andy Andrews “Comedian of the Year” in 1985 and 1986. Also in 1986, these same members of the National Association for Campus Activities named him its overall “Entertainer of the Year.” And therein lays the answer for those who wonder how a serious novelist and corporate guru could ever hope to list “the main rooms at Caesar’s Palace and The Mirage in Las Vegas” as credits. It was while touring as a comedian with such stars as Joan Rivers, Garth Brooks, Cher, and Kenny Rogers that Andrews began to shift his onstage focus. He started by sprinkling his material with life principles—specifically The Seven Decisions—and audiences ate it up.

Andrews’s best-selling book, The Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success, is an international sensation, remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for four and a half months and being translated into nearly twenty languages. The Traveler’s Gift has become a publishing phenomenon, coexisting simultaneously on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com. And in a stunning, unheard-of display of such wide appeal, The Traveler’s Gift was placed (again simultaneously) on these lists as fiction, nonfiction, business, religion, self-help, and literature! 

The Traveler’s Gift is also used extensively in corporate climates all over the world. In fact, some critics have hailed The Traveler’s Gift as “the business book of the century!” With a disarming grin and humble shrug, Andrews notes, “Well . . . it has been a very short century!”

About the Annual Meeting
The purpose of the Salt Lake Chamber 103rd Annual Meeting is to review the past year while laying out plans for the new year. Each year an event theme is chosen to add some fun to what has become one of the Chamber’s more entertaining gatherings. This year’s theme explores the “High Seas of Business” with a Chamber Cruise theme.

About the Chamber
The Salt Lake Chamber is Utah’s largest business association and Utah’s Business Leader™. With roots that go back to 1887, the Salt Lake Chamber has been standing as the voice of business, supporting its members’ success and championing community prosperity for over 100 years. The Salt Lake Chamber is a statewide association of 1,863 member firms representing approximately 350,000 workers. It shortened its name in 2001 from “Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce” to “Salt Lake Chamber.” In 2003 it merged with the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance, which operates as an affiliate of the Chamber. 

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