Sioux City has been the home for two of the National Championship women’s events for the NAIA. For the past 14 years Sioux City has proudly hosted the NAIA Women’s Division II Basketball National Championships. Over that time the tournament has grown to be the premiere championship experience for the NAIA, players, and fans. Each March, 640 players and coaches, along with fans from the area and around the country, come to Sioux City to watch great basketball in an exciting environment. Sioux City is able to showcase our community to people from all across the country and provide them with memories that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Our community’s support of the basketball championship was so great that the NAIA awarded Sioux City the NAIA Women’s Volleyball Championships. For the past 3 years we have hosted the volleyball championships and we look forward to extending the volleyball championships for many years to come. Coaches, players, and fans from all across the country are excited to come to Sioux City each year and enjoy Midwest hospitality and they are impressed with the way Sioux City embraces the championships and makes the experience a special one for players, coaches, fans, and everyone involved.
THE NAIA WANTS YOU!
Here is your chance to make a difference! Join other local businesses that are already part of the championship experience. Get involved and enhance the National Championship experience for players, fans, and YOU! Meet other sponsors at a Sponsor After Hours social event at Bob Roe’s on August 25, from 5:30 to 7:30. Find out how you can be a part of the NAIA National Championship events in Sioux City.
Please contact Mike Skaggs at 224-6476 or by email at mskaggs@sioux-city.org to RSVP or to learn more about how you can become part of the Sioux City NAIA Championship experience.
Who knew that our Chamber Ambassadors aka Green Coats could sing and dance for Sioux City. In this RAGBRAI video these dedicated chamber volunteers rocked out along with other community members to help promote the annual bike ride across Iowa. This video is a great testament to the community and shows that Sioux City is full of fun (and funny) people!
My assignment for this week was to interview the people behind Quality Telecommunications. Little did I know that my afternoon would be filled with laughing, story-telling and games. After an hour with the Zanter’s, I felt like part of the family! And that’s exactly what this business is about; family. Each member has their own unique talent and role within the company, but I’ll get to that later because it’s very interesting to learn how all of this began. It all started 40 years ago when Rich was working for a phone company. However, after a job transfer and a few bumps in the road, Rich and Diane moved to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa and began their own telecommunications company right from their basement! Diane said their first “office” was “a room about nine feet wide by twelve feet long, and all it had in it was a fax machine, copier, file cabinet and two desks.” They ran the company out of their basement for about five years before moving to the current building that they are in now. Now, with a bigger building and more clients, they obviously needed more employees.
Diane said that they always figured that their son, Lee, would work for them. She said, “his first time of helping us was in the second grade!” His first time on the job and he was perfect for it! Because he was small, they decided he was perfect for climbing up into a vent with the supplies needed to do the job. When he got older he continued to work for his parents during the summer months while he went to school in Ankeny. Lee has now been with the company for five years, and just recently had a little one of his own!
Ryan, Rich and Diane’s other son, has also been with the company for ten years. Ryan also worked at the family business during the summers while he attained a business degree from Iowa State University. He’s known as the company’s engineering and technical guy. This was great for me that day because I was having some camera issues. Now, most people would have the camera and memory card thing figured out before they get to the interview, but not this girl. It took us four takes on the video for this interview before Ryan finally helped me delete things in order to have more space. This of course, wasn’t until I changed the memory card twice and still couldn’t figure it out. So, thank you Ryan for helping make this possible.
Now, the “last to join forces” with the company, as she said, was Darcy. Before coming to Quality Communications, she worked as a sales representative for Gateway. Because of her excellent work in sales, it was an easy transfer for her to because the marketing representative at her parent’s company. If there’s any type of sales call that needs to be conducted, Darcy is the one they go to, but of course she brings her entourage too, just in case they have other questions. Darcy said, “Usually I’ll bring Ryan because they have tech questions that I can’t answer, but I also like to bring Dad just because he knows everyone!”
Not only does Rich know everyone, but he’s also known as the one who “does-it-all” because of all the experience he’s had with this type of business. As you’ll see from the YouTube video, he’s also a self-proclaimed bad joke teller. But this business probably wouldn’t be what it is today without Diane. She is the office manager and the one who keeps track of the books and the bills. But telecommunications wasn’t always her line of work. Diane was once an RN nurse at the Rochester Mayo Clinic and before entering the world of telecommunications, she was a Home Health Care nurse.
“So what’s it like to work with your family every day” is the question that the Zanter’s always hear. I have never heard it put into better words than when Darcy described it. She compared it to playing at a music rehearsal or playing a sport. She said, “when you do those types of things, you want to do well and succeed but when you work with your family, you want to do your best because you don’t want to let your family down.” She also said, “It’s amazing to work with your family every day because you get to see them work with expertise. It’s also a great way to see their families!”
Although Diane said they never expected their children to work for them, it has become a “way of life.” Everyone has the opportunity to do different things every day, especially with the ever-changing technology, and because of their family run business in a smaller town, customers soon become good friends. This is how Julie, the receptionist at Quality Communications, came to be “part of the family.” Julie’s mother was the previous receptionist and upon retirement, decided Julie was the perfect fit for her position. However, like Diane, this would be a huge change of scenery for this once massage-therapist but she has embraced the change and still does massage therapy for fun. Julie has two kids and has been married for 17 years and says she is “content right now” and feels like just another member of the Zanter family.
While I was there, I decided to have the family play a little game. However, one member, Lee was missing from the action but we still had his picture there for reference. This company has an amazing family dynamic, one that has made it the successful business that it is today. It’s a rare thing to find a family that can not only work together but still want to celebrate holidays! I had a blast doing the interview and I hope that you get a little chuckle from the video!
There is no denying that Facebook has changed the game in many aspects of web related communications, but now it is looking to seep into the rest of your web surfing experience. Recently, Facebook announced changes that they argue will make the internet a more sociable place. The “like” button interface usually relegated to the Facebook program will be popping up all over the place. When you push the button it will automatically post to your profile, and may become visible to other Facebook users depending on your privacy settings. One downside of this is that the your profile photos and the profiles photos of your friends will start showing up on websites as well. These will indicate when people you are friends with on Facebook have “liked” a page you are visiting. These indicators will show up whether or not you are logged into your Facebook account. Also, the browsing habits of your friends can influence what material you are presented with.
The creators of Facebook see this as an excellent opportunity to further connect people through the internet. It’s opponents see it as an invasion of privacy. What do you think?
For the full breakdown of the changes to Facebook, and instructions on how to change your privacy settings click on the following link:
A holiday greeting from all the staff at the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce. “Dancing” below are (left to right: Beth Trejo- Director of Investor Relations, Barbara Sloniker-VP of Govt. Relations & Transportation, Chris McGowen- Executive VP,Siouxland Initiative, Joseph Wright-VP of Technology Transfer, Siouxland Intiative, Debi Durham, President.
About two weeks ago, as we were rigorously working down at the Chamber, we noticed a cat prancing around outside the windows.
We thought nothing of it, until all of the sudden four kittens followed…
Instantly, the women in the office hearts melted and we have been searching for someone to give them a home ever since. As you will see in the video they are lovable, playful kittens in the need of a home.
Barbara Sloniker and Teresa Rosenboom occupy the offices where the kittens can be seen playing. As of late, they have noticed something…
One of the kittens has disappeared. This only tells us that time is of the essence, so if anyone would love three adorable kittens and a mother please come down to the Chamber and give them a home.
Why is Social Media so important to us here at the Chamber? Social Media is changing the way we interact as a chamber, business, and a community. Don’t believe us? Take a look.
To be able to go forward we first must look back and see how far we have come. Take a look at what the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce has been up to in the last year…
In the last post of our series on economic development, Virginia Anderson, Sioux City Growth Organization, talks about her role as a young professional in helping to grow Siouxland.
In part five of our series on economic development, Lance Hedquist, City of South Sioux City city administrator, speaks about the importance of growing the workforce.
A holiday greeting from all the 
This only tells us that time is of the essence, so if anyone would love three adorable kittens and a mother please come down to the Chamber and give them a home.
