News

The Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (Long Beach) issued the following statement in response to media inquiries concerning Assembly Bill 1998 (Brownley). The measure, which sought to ban plastic grocery shopping bags and impose a fee on consumers for paper bags, was defeated earlier this week in the California State Senate.

We commend the State Senate for voting down Assembly Bill 1998, which was an extremely ill conceived proposal that for many reasons did not deserve to become law.

Our Chamber, along with the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce and hundreds of other business groups throughout California, opposed the measure because it threatened small businesses, would have hit consumers with higher grocery costs and put more people out of work. We applaud those legislators who recognized that AB 1998 was a bill California simply could not afford.

We were especially concerned at the adverse impact this proposal would have had on thousands of family-owned markets in Hispanic and other ethnic communities.

Rather than taking such drastic steps to deny choice for businesses and consumers who want a convenient and affordable product, we believe the State should focus its efforts to promote plastic bag recycling. Such an approach would offer real benefits to the environment without further harming California’s battered economy.

Southern Region Economic Development award goes to the Regional Hispanic Institute at the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce 31st Annual Convention 
last August 13th, "to fund our newest project at California State University, Long Beach. 'CREER' To Believe!"

The Mission of the CREER Institute is: 
To Facilitate the recovery of the minority Business Community in Southern California; by involving, promoting, and retaining our minority scholars in our institutions of higher education.

LB-based Hispanic Chamber of Commerce unit focuses on development, partnerships

LONG BEACH - With new projects taking root, the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has evolved over the past 10 years into a multi-missioned leadership developer.

Based in Long Beach since 2004 after a move from the Inland Empire, the group focuses on advising small-business owners by providing them with information on how to raise capital, according to Sandy Cajas, president and CEO of the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Since the development in 2007 of the educational branch of the chamber, the Regional Hispanic Institute, student and community leadership has become the focus of the RHCC.

Aside from the Institute establishing a program that annually offers five Cal State Long Beach business students paid summer internships, the organization's newest project is CREER, the Center of Regional Entrepreneurs and Economic Research.

After recently submitting a grant application to the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to start the center, the organization is collaborating with the Small Business Development Center, CSULB College of Business Administration and 1st District Councilman Robert Garcia, Cajas said.

CREER would offer graduate business students a chance to work in the community and teach business concepts to small businesses, according to Michael Solt, dean of the CSULB College of Business Administration, who is also on the advisory board of the Small Business Development Center.

the results of a pilot program launched over the spring, Solt said he wants to continue to nurture the idea.

"I think the students were surprised in how much they learned in becoming teachers," Solt said, adding that "it definitely benefits the students and the community, so we're looking to expand this program over the coming year."

Cajas said that eventually the program would look at the "needs, strengths and weaknesses of the area to provide the businesses with tailored resources." The chamber will know in about a month if it received the grant, according to Cajas.

Richard Coronado, who was part of the Hispanic Business Student Association when he was an undergraduate student at CSULB, helped create CREER after an internship. Coronado then landed a full-time job with the Small Business Development Center, a relationship that he said would have been impossible without the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
In November 2009, Coronado and other members of the first internship class established the Junior Chamber of the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is leading the way with Coronado as president for the CREER program.

The Junior Chamber also acts as the bridge between the Institute and the internship program, in which Junior Chamber members serve as mentors to the interns.
The RHCC, part of the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, continues to work with its members as well. According to Cajas, the chamber helps members apply for loans and facilitates accreditations, networking and training.

The chamber also advocates for minority small-business owners. "Business is not about one ethnicity," Cajas said, noting partnerships with the Cambodian-American Chamber of Chamber of Commerce and the Long Beach Black Chamber of Commerce.

Cajas attributes getting Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado as the keynote speaker at last week's seventh annual Southern California Business Development Conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel to the chamber's growing list of partners.

Partnerships have been important in the RHCC's success, Cajas said, with "Success Through Diversity" frequently the theme of the chamber's annual conference.

The California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will reveal the winners of several competitions this month in which the RHCC is up for five awards, including Chamber of the Year and Chamber Executive of the Year.

The RHCC has grown to more than 400 members from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Membership is $500 annually and includes admission to all the chamber's events and individual advisory sessions.

In advancing the chamber to its current state, "I'm not saying it's been easy," Cajas said. "It's tough, but it's for a good mission."

For more information about the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, visit www.regionalhispanic cc.org.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 562-499-1283

Another area of growth noted at the forum was in international trade, which has rebounded from a severe downturn in 2008-2009.

California farmers and manufacturers are reporting increased trade with emerging markets in Asia and South America, where economies are advancing at a much faster pace than domestically and with traditionally large trading partners in Europe.

The Centers for International Trade Development, which participated in the conference, identifies telecommunication and medical equipment, food products and wine and auto parts and accessories as commodities with high export demand.

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LONG BEACH - It may be a down market, but opportunities abound in emerging sectors and markets with critical ties to Southern California.

The halting economic recovery in international trade, and tourism was the focus of an annual conference Thursday hosted by the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

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Long Beach, CA ─ Looking to save some money? Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce members can now save up to 28 percent on their express shipping courtesy of UPS (NYSE: UPS).

Covering UPS’s air and international portfolio of services, the newly created UPS Savings Program also includes a 10 percent discount on business services at the company’s more than 4,000 The UPS Store locations.

Customers wanting to sign up for the UPS Savings Program can log onto the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Web Site for more information or visit www.savewithups.com/rhcc to enroll.

The savings on shipping, which increases the more packages or letters the user sends, will be applied once enrollment is complete. 

As for The UPS Store, those who sign up for the program will receive a special Corporate Card which is good at any of The UPS Store locations.  The 10 percent discount is good on a wide array of business services, including copying, binding and other document services, mailbox services, packaging, packaging supplies, fax services, and office supplies.  (The discount at The UPS Store does not apply to shipping).

For more information on the UPS savings program, visit the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Web Site at www.regionalhispaniccc.org or visit www.savewithups.com/rhcc to enroll.


Contact Information:

Sandy Cajas

Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

562-590-7302

Long Beach:  Hispanics now have access to a new online tool connecting them to information on starting and running a business, plus national and local business resources and NHBIC’s network of Latino organizations around the country. 

As a network partner of the National Hispanic Business Information Clearinghouse, members of the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (Regional Hispanic CC) have free access to bilingual business information at www.nhbic.org.

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Senator Roderick D. Wright honored 28 local women at a celebratory luncheon on Friday, March 6th at Ports O’Call Restaurant for being "Women of Distinction" in the 25th Senate District.

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SBA Recognize RHCC as Minority Small Business Champions of the Year – Sandy Cajas
Sandy Cajas is President and CEO of the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (RHCC) for Los Angeles. Cajas has more than 15 years of expertise as a small business owner herself.

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