FWKCC: ‘You have to have healthy conflict’
Blaylock, Chamber president/CEO, recalls Mayor Leonard interaction during her address to RCF; sponsored Japan trip
Among FWKCC’s “five pillars” of integrity, excellence, stewardship and enterprising also is “inclusion.”
“We welcome dissent,” said Blaylock, herself an RCF member for several years who addressed the club during its regular noon, Wednesday meeting in Fox Den Country Club June 11. “Now, who here likes to argue? … I don’t really like to argue; conflict is not my favorite thing, but you have to have healthy conflict, differences of opinions, voiced in a professional way to make forward progress, and we welcome that. That’s inclusion for us.
“And then, of course, enterprising: sometimes we have to be creative,” she said. “Sometimes we have to be resourceful. Small businesses have to be resourceful and very creative a lot of the time.”
History
About seven years after Town of Farragut was founded (1980), “there were several local business owners and there were municipal officials” interested in forming a Chamber, “including Mayor Bob Leonard, who I did have the pleasure of meeting in 2012 before he passed away,” Blaylock said about Farragut’s first mayor.
“And my favorite thing about meeting Mayor Bob was I was very new in the Chamber, and I was told to call him to invite him to the grand opening of Costco,” she added. “And it started at 7 in the morning. And my one interaction with Mayor Bob was, I said, ‘Mayor, I’m Julie and I work at your Chamber and I want to invite you to Costco’s grand opening.’
