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Nine Awards Bestowed Across Five Categories The Bend Chamber is proud to announce the recipients of the 2022 Business Excellence Awards, sponsored by US Bank and The Bulletin. These awards celebrate the outstanding achievements made by Chamber members in 2021 across three categories: Innovation, Inspiring Workplace, and Community Stewardship. Awards categories of Emerging Leader and Lifetime Achievement recognize individuals for their contributions to their places of business and the community at large. “It is inspiring to see all of the amazing work that is being done in our community. As we continue to grow, our local businesses and non-profits are contributing to the infrastructure and success of our future,” shared Finn Leahy, Bend Chamber Events and Programs Lead. The Bend Chamber Business Excellence Awards is the evolution of our historical annual business awards event. In the past, nominees were announced ahead of time, with award recipients being revealed during the award ceremony. This year, awardees are being shared ahead of the ceremony in order to focus more on celebrating the accomplishments of the award recipients versus the big reveal. “I want to congratulate all of the nominees and winners for this year’s Bend Chamber Business Excellence Awards. In any given year, being nominated for an award like these in each one of these categories is quite the honor. However, to be nominated during 2021, a time of great perseverance, is truly remarkable. Thank you for all that each of you do to lift up and support our community. Well done,” said Coby Horton, Regional President at US Bank. The community is invited to join us in person for heavy appetizers, drinks and celebration on Thursday, March 3, 2022, at the Riverhouse Convention Center. During the awards ceremony, attendees will hear more about each award recipient’s inspiring accomplishments during a difficult and trying pandemic year. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at https://bendchamber.org/bend-event/2022-business-excellence-awards/. 2022 Business Excellence Awards Recipients  Innovation Award  Small Organization: Synergy Health and Wellness Large Organization: OSU-Cascades Innovation Co-Lab Inspiring Workplace Award Small Organization: Volunteers in Medicine Large Organization: Stahancyk, Kent & Hook Community Stewardship Award Small Organization: Latino Community Association Large Organization: Mosaic Medical Emerging Leader Award Co-Recipient: Tyler Fix Co-Recipient: Brittania Leja Lifetime Achievement Award To be announced January 26 — stay tuned   Information about each of the awardees can be found here: https://bendchamber.org/2022-business-excellence-awards/#awardees     The Bend Chamber of Commerce strives to create an environment where businesses, their employees and our community excel together through collaboration, advocacy, resources and leadership to meet Bend’s business challenges.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Eleven members of the House of Representatives have added their support to a resolution opposing "any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge" on local broadcast radio stations. The Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA), which signals members of Congress's opposition to any potential legislation that imposes new performance royalties on broadcast radio stations for music airplay, now has 208 cosponsors in the House and 24 in the Senate.

Ringing in the new year with Modernization Program progress   As we begin a new year, the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Division (WCD) is taking this opportunity to tell you about some of the modernization process improvement projects we are working on. In 2021, WCD selected four projects for division improvements as part of the Modernization Program. Each of the projects is now in various stages of planning and execution. Our goal is to complete all four of these projects in 2022. Since each of the modernization projects will affect our external partners, we encourage you to read the project summaries below to learn what changes you can expect in the coming months: Project one: Allowing insurers to receive reports electronically Over the years, the workers’ compensation industry has moved toward a primarily electronic reporting process. Given this industry trend, insurers have requested that the division explore electronically sending reports as opposed to mailed paper reports. Reports sent in an electronic format allow our stakeholders to use the information contained in the report more effectively. For example, electronic reports allow for data to be copied and downloaded into stakeholder systems so stakeholders can identify and obtain missing information or to investigate a reporting issue. Currently, WCD paper reports do not allow for these benefits of electronic reports. Also, information contained in the reports cannot be integrated into our partners’ systems. During this project, we will determine the best way to provide reports electronically to stakeholders. We will use the Quarterly Claims Processing and Performance (QCPP) report as a pilot to document this new business process. The QCPP is a report that is published by our audit unit to outline insurer performance with respect to claim reporting. Moving forward, we will also document this process and provide recommendations to the WCD Leadership team for how best to transition additional reports into an electronic format in the future. Project two: Streamlining communications to injured workers and employers Input from you, our external partners, tells us that injured workers and employers sometimes feel inundated with communications during the claims process. With this project, we will review and analyze currently required notice language to determine if it is necessary and to evaluate the wording to improve readability with the goal of providing shorter notices and publications that are easier to understand. Project three: Developing cross-training plans and collaboration tools This project is an internal initiative to increase WCD’s institutional knowledge by developing strong cross-training plans throughout the division. The goal is to provide uninterrupted services and excellent customer service even during staff transitions. This project will also include research to identify the best way for our hybrid teams to collaborate as we incorporate more work into our permanent infrastructure. Project four: Electronic document submission This project is a joint effort between WCD and the Department of Consumer and Business Services Information Technology and Research Section and will be using the current portal. More details about this new process are still in development, but WCD will provide more specifics in future articles as the project evolves. Your input matters! We look forward to sharing more information about these projects and our other Modernization Program activities in the coming months. As always, please contact Heather Williamson with any questions or to learn more: WCD.Modernization@oregon.gov.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- New National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt shared his vision and outlook for the organization and the broadcasting industry in a virtual town hall for NAB members today. LeGeyt was joined by members of NAB’s policy team for a briefing on legislative and regulatory issues facing broadcasters, as well as an update on the association’s work to support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the industry.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) today announced the hire of Bradford Caldwell as vice president of Member Experience. Caldwell, who starts on February 1, will report to Executive Vice President of Industry Affairs April Carty-Sipp.