{"id":423346,"date":"2024-11-14T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=423346"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Chamber-elects-new-board-of-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Chamber-elects-new-board-of-directors\/","title":{"rendered":"Chamber elects new board of directors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce elected its 2025-2026 board of directors following its general membership meeting yesterday at the Queen\u2019s Hall of Kensington Hotel.<\/p>\n

Named by Chamber immediate past president Velma Palacios after the voting, in no particular order, are Angil Design, Inc. president Ron Smith, IT&E Government\/Community Relations senior manager Janice Tenorio, Naked Fish Bar & Grill owner and Transcend Consulting\u2019s Joe Guerrero, Bank of Saipan president and chief executive officer John Arroyo, and Docomo Pacific senior consumer sales manager Nicole Babauta.<\/p>\n

Chamber members cast their votes during and after the welcome remarks of Chamber president Joe Guerrero, the voting was officially closed, and the new board of directors was announced after the meeting.<\/p>\n

The meeting also adopted the by-laws that were presented through emails.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Shawna Babauta, Communications and Membership manager at Marianas Alliance of Non-Governmental Organization, presented a comprehensive overview of MANGO\u2019s impactful work within the community that emphasized the critical role of non-profit organizations in supporting the region.<\/p>\n

Babauta discussed MANGO\u2019s mission which is to nurture the nonprofit community in the CNMI for sustainability by facilitating their growth through guidance, training, and services. Its vision is to have a strong, stable nonprofit sector providing services to the CNMI, increasing overall community health and well-being.<\/p>\n

She also presented the services of MANGO which includes providing guidance on paperwork and guidance on paperwork and training for boards of nonprofit organizations. They also offer sustainability planning, strategic planning, and financial management services to nonprofits.<\/p>\n

Other services that MANGO provides are accounting services to support clients and organizational resource needs analysis to help non-profits. She also announced that their notary service is free for their members.<\/p>\n

Babauta also discussed the Lemmai-Mei Incubator project that was funded in 2020, a three-year project that involves a group of nonprofits. It\u2019s focused on increasing opportunities for state planning and initiatives.<\/p>\n

She further discussed that nonprofit and tax-exempt are interchangeable as she discussed today\u2019s six characteristics which are\u2014formal organizations, nonprofit distributing, self-governing, private, voluntary, and operating for public benefit.<\/p>\n

The MANGO official also discussed the history of nonprofits, sharing that non-profits existed in the Elizabethan era, with the term \u201ccharitable\u201d first used in 1601. Their activities included caring for the sick, maintaining public works, and providing education. Prisons, then called \u201chouses of corrections,\u201d were considered charitable institutions.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, she mentioned that nonprofit employment is the third-largest workforce in the U.S., following retail and manufacturing, representing approximately 12.5 million jobs, or about 10% of the private workforce.<\/p>\n

She further discussed giving voice to nonprofits through gathering nonprofit data, building data management options, and training curriculum for data management.<\/p>\n

The data sets with employment statistics, revenue and funding sources, program expenditures, economic output, and sustainable development goals,<\/p>\n

Babauta explained that nonprofit data will help inform decision-making, improve funding opportunities, enhance collaboration and advocacy, build community trust and engagement, and for sustainable development and self-reliance.<\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted in 2015 includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and those are No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work, and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Reduced Inequalities, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land, Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, and Partnerships for the Goals.<\/p>\n

The Sustainable Development Goals were created to address global challenges like poverty, inequality, and climate change.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce announced the 2025-2026 board of directors after its general membership meeting yesterday at Kensington Hotel. They are Naked Fish Bar & Grill owner Joe Guerrero, third from left, Docomo Pacific senior consumer sales manager Nicole Babauta, fifth from left, Angil Design Inc president Ron Smith, sixth from left, and IT&E Government\/Community Relations senior manager Janice Tenorio, third from right. Not in the photo is Bank of Saipan president and chief executive officer John Arroyo. Others in photo are current Chamber board members Alex Sablan of Tan Holdings, Brad Ruszala of NMI News Services, PHI Pharmacy\u2019s Joshua Wise, and IT&E\u2019s Velma Palacios.<\/p>\n

-RACQUEL FLOYD
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Shawna Babauta of Marianas Alliance of Non-Governmental Organization served as the Chamber\u2019s guest speaker during its general membership meeting yesterday at Kensington Hotel.<\/p>\n

-RACQUEL FLOYD
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce held its November general membership meeting yesterday at the Queen\u2019s Hall of Kensington Hotel.<\/p>\n

-RACQUEL FLOYD
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce elected its 2025-2026 board of directors following its general membership…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}