Wednesday, January 14, 2025 | | |
Sign Up to Participate in
Military Appreciation Day 2026
| | This interactive event is designed to show appreciation to the men and women of our military: Active Duty, National Guard, Reservists, including Retirees, and their families. Military Appreciation Day includes an information fair for new service members coming to our community in 2026. The general public is welcome! | |
January Membership Luncheon
Wednesday, January 21, 2026, 11:00am
| | Be Featured in the Chamber's Trusted Map | Advertising in the Chamber Map builds credibility. Customers recognize Chamber-endorsed businesses as trusted community partners. Your business will be featured in the official print and interactive digital map. | Greater Kitsap Chamber & Leadership Kitsap: 2026 Kitsap Women's Summit | | |
The Kitsap Women's Summit planning committee is proud to present Kitsap Women's Summit 2026: Breakthrough. Join us for our 3rd annual summit where we're diving into topics meant to create and sustain momentum - breaking through limits, beliefs, transitions and noise. This day-long gathering is curated for women, by women, and was brought to life by the need for real space for conversation, community, connection, and personal and professional development, amplifying women's voices and experiences across Kitsap County.
Business Health Trust is proud to serve as our 2026 Visionary Sponsor. For more information on how you can join them in sponsoring this event, please visit our website at www.greaterkitsapchamber.com/kitsap-womens-summit.
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RECAP: Ribbon Cutting
Anytime Fitness Silverdale
| | Congratulations to Anytime Fitness Silverdale on their January 10th ribbon cutting! Since opening in November, their team has created an inviting space where members feel supported as they work toward their health and wellness goals. | | |
Accessible Healthcare with NICE
Business Health Trust Has You Covered
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Benefits: Not sure what changed? Start with one first stop.
After benefits updates, hesitation is normal. People are not sure what’s covered or what it will cost. With BHT, Nice is your first stop for care.
Nice Healthcare removes that pause. $0 care makes it easier to get help sooner, often same-day or within a day. For many common needs, starting with Nice can replace an urgent care visit. Nice also includes 550+ common medications at $0 when prescribed by Nice, with pick-up at most major pharmacies.
🔗 Webpage Link: https://businesshealthtrust.com/products/nice-healthcare/
Questions? Contact BHT!
(425) 201-1972
nice@businesshealthtrust.com
Not a BHT member? Are you ready to build a better benefits package?
Visit bhtquote.com to learn more and get a free quote.
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Renew your membership today to ensure your benefits as a member of the Greater Kitsap Chamber! Questions about when to renew or how to upgrade your membership? Need a new membership window cling or digital badge? Contact us now!
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Missed a previous edition of the Chamber's Community Connections?
View all the past issues on our website HERE.
| | New Members - Welcome to the Chamber! | |
My Furry Valentine
Now thru February 14, 2026
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Sip, Swap, & Socialize
Thursday, January 29, 2026, 5:00pm
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NEW OFFER: Free Jacket for New Members
Courtesy of Unique Experience Custom Embroidery
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Changing Faces, Changing Places
Share your business news today
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Has your team recently welcomed a new hire, celebrated a promotion, or marked a retirement? Kitsap Business magazine's Changing Faces, Changing Places section highlights the people powering our local business community. Chamber members are invited to share their staff updates for inclusion in an upcoming issue.
Send your announcements to news@kitsapbusiness.com and let us help you recognize the faces behind your success.
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The Greater Kitsap Chamber is proud to recognize Ward Media as our January Member of the Month. Serving Kitsap County with creativity and expertise, Ward Media has become a trusted partner for businesses looking to grow, connect, and thrive. Their team specializes in marketing solutions that make an impact - from website design and SEO to social media strategy, branding, and advertising.
Where Marketing Meets Community
Ward Media’s influence extends beyond individual businesses. Through their flagship publication, Kitsap Business magazine, they shine a spotlight on the innovators and leaders shaping our local economy. Each issue delivers stories that celebrate entrepreneurship and strengthen the bonds within our community.
But Ward Media is more than a marketing agency—they’re a connector. For nearly a year, the Chamber has partnered with Ward Media to feature our newsletter content in Kitsap Business. This collaboration ensures Chamber news and resources reach a wider audience, helping members stay informed while supporting Ward Media’s mission to amplify local voices.
Local Expertise, Lasting Impact
Ward Media’s approach is simple: combine technical excellence with a deep commitment to Kitsap County. Whether it’s helping a small business build its online presence or sharing stories that inspire, their work reflects a passion for community and economic vitality.
Visit their website or pick up the latest issue of Kitsap Business to see how they’re driving growth across Kitsap County.
| | Legislative Day & Hill Climb 2026 | | Business & Professional Development Committee | | Member Education & Training Resources | | |
SCORE: How Local Service Businesses
Stay Discoverable
Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 1:00pm
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Search is changing fast. Customers are no longer finding local service businesses only through Google, they’re increasingly asking AI tools who to hire.
In this practical, non-technical workshop, you’ll learn how local service businesses can stay discoverable as search evolves from traditional Google results to AI-powered search and answers. We’ll cover how Google Business Profiles, websites, reviews, and structured content now feed both Google and AI systems and what simple steps you can take today to future-proof your online presence.
Using real-world examples from home service businesses, you’ll walk away with clear, actionable guidance to improve visibility, earn trust, and attract more customers without chasing buzzwords or complex tools.
Registration Fee: $10
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Business Education Support & Training
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
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SCORE: Relationship Marketing 101
Turning Contacts into Customers
Thursday, January 22, 2026, 10:00am
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Marketing today isn’t about chasing sales. It’s about building trust over time. In this introductory session, you’ll learn what relationship marketing really is and why it’s the foundation of sustainable business growth. We’ll explore the key channels that support long-term customer relationships including email, text messaging, social media, websites, reviews, loyalty programs, and lead magnets and how they work together to create a cohesive customer experience. You’ll leave with a clear understanding of how consistent connection drives repeat business, referrals, and social proof, plus a preview of how modern tools and AI can make relationship marketing easier to manage, even for small teams.
Registration Fee: FREE
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SBDC: Building a Business Plan That Works
Thursday, January 22, 2026, 11:00am
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Build a practical business plan you can actually run your company with, not one that just sits on a shelf. This session walks you through the core pieces step by step so you leave with a plan that’s clear, usable, and ready to put into action.
Presented by:
Steve McCaslin is a Washington SBDC Certified Business Advisor and is located in Coupeville, WA. Steve is a retired Naval Flight Officer and has spent 20+ years in the corporate world in sales, strategy and business development, business consulting, corporate training, and leadership development training, mentoring, and coaching. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a BS in Agriculture, where he majored in Poultry Science.
Registration Fee: FREE
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OC: Airbnb Hosting - Get Guest Ready
Wednesday, January 28, 2026, 6:00pm
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Whether you're new to Airbnb or looking to level up your hosting game, this hands-on workshop will walk you through the essentials of preparing your home for international guests—just in time for summer soccer visitors. Learn how to create a standout listing, communicate clearly with travelers, and streamline your cleaning and turnover process. Discover how to showcase your local flair while meeting guest expectations—and maximize your bookings while you're at it!
| | Business News & Resources | | |
Supplemental Budget Proposal
Highlights Fiscal Approach
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Published in the Washington Retail Association, January 8, 2025
Photo courtesy of WRA
Governor Bob Ferguson has released a proposed two-year balanced supplemental budget totaling about $79 billion. The plan represents a 1.5 percent increase over previously enacted budgets and comes as the state faces a projected $2.3 billion shortfall tied to lower-than-expected revenue and critical agency requests.
The proposal addresses the gap through a mix of strategies, including roughly $800 million in spending reductions, $425 million in fund reallocations, and a $1 billion transfer from the state rainy day fund, which is projected to hold just over $2 billion for the 2025 to 27 biennium.
While the Governor states the budget does not rely on new taxes, it does repeal or modify several tax preferences. These changes include ending a sales tax exemption for replacement data center servers, adjusting the preferential tax rate for prescription drug wholesalers, and modifying how certain insurance-related taxes interact. Together, these changes would generate additional state revenue.
During the budget rollout, the Governor also reiterated support for a potential income-based tax on high earners, though it is not assumed in the current proposal. Analysis is ongoing, and stakeholders continue to review the potential impacts on the business community.
Read the article here
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Seeking Input for Kitsap County
Childcare Provider Licensing
| | The Greater Kitsap Chamber is proud to serve as a resource partner with the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Stay tuned to this section quarterly for education, resources and more from L&I. | | |
Changes Affecting WA Workers' Pay
& Improving Workplace Safety
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State law requires the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) to calculate several wage standards, including the minimum wage, each year. The department makes the calculations using the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).
State minimum wage going up
Washington’s minimum wage will rise to $17.13 an hour on Jan.1, 2026. That’s 2.8 percent higher than the $16.66 an hour minimum wage in 2025.
Employers may pay 85 percent of the minimum wage, or $14.56 an hour, to 14- and 15-year-old workers.
Local governments are allowed to set minimum wages that are higher than those of the state minimum. Areas with higher minimum wages include Seattle, SeaTac, Tukwila, Renton, Bellingham, Everett, Burien, and unincorporated King County.
The L&I website includes information about the minimum wage along with details about overtime, rest breaks, meal periods, and how to file a wage complaint. The minimum wage information is available in 15 languages online.
New tower crane safety requirements
Starting Jan. 1, prime contractors must obtain a permit and follow manufacturers’ instructions for the operation, assembly, disassembly, or reconfiguration of a tower crane. L&I will consider a prime contractor’s history of safety and health violations as part of the application process for a permit.
Information about the new crane tower requirements is on L&I’s website.
Overtime-exempt workers
Certain types of employees are considered exempt from rules requiring they be paid overtime if they are paid on a salary basis, perform work consistent with Executive, Administrative or Professional duties, and are paid at, or above, a certain salary that L&I calculates.
For 2026, all employers must pay overtime-exempt workers at least 2.25 times the minimum wage. That means to be exempt an employee must be paid at least $1,541.70 a week ($80,168.40 a year). The rate for exempt computer professionals who are paid by the hour will be 3.5 times the minimum wage, or $59.96 an hour.
Pay for rideshare drivers
The minimum pay rideshare drivers will earn goes up on Jan. 1:
- For trips within Seattle, it’s rising to 70 cents per passenger platform minute and $1.63 per passenger platform mile, or $6.12, whichever is greater.
- For trips outside of Seattle, it goes up to 40 cents per passenger platform minute and $1.38 per passenger platform mile, or $3.55, whichever is greater.
Non-compete clauses
L&I is also responsible for calculating the minimum annual salary required for a non-compete clause or employee contract to be enforceable. In 2026, the threshold for employees will be $126,858.83. For independent contractors, the minimum will be $317,147.09. A non-compete clause or employee contract for a worker earning less than these amounts is not enforceable.
Wage complaints
L&I enforces the state’s wage-and-hour laws and investigates all wage-payment complaints. A worker rights complaint can be filed online, downloaded and mailed to the agency, or at a local L&I office.
| | Nonprofit News & Resources | |
Vanity Metrics Versus Donor Intent:
Why Engagement Isn't Fueling Fundraising
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Published in NonprofitPRO, January 7, 2026
Photo: iStock/AndreyPopov
As a nonprofit leader, your team may be showing you dashboards that look great. Social engagement is up, as are email opens. Still, something’s off because the revenue isn’t coming in. Despite visits to your site, traffic and activity aren’t converting. When you ask for retention rates and major gift pipeline reports, your fundraising team struggles to provide clear answers. The journey to the answer is to realize that the disconnect and poor results don’t necessarily mean there’s a lack of execution or commitment.
The issue is that the metrics you’re seeing are the wrong ones. Social media has created the illusion that frequency, visibility, and the almighty engagement are everything. But these are vanity metrics. And like vanity in general, they don’t mean much — and they don’t reliably correlate to giving behavior.
Why Vanity Metrics Are Comforting, But Not the Right Metrics
Marketing at nonprofits is under constant pressure to perform for leaders who focus on return on investment, the bottom line, and how social metrics correlate with revenue. As a result, it’s a mistake for teams to present likes, shares, comments, and impressions as the primary measure of success. Most executive leaders and board members won’t be impressed with vanity metrics unless they’re driving an increase in contributions.
When you look more closely at vanity metrics, they can offer reassurance about the story you’re telling and how visible your organization is. Still, comfort isn’t the same as intent. Social engagement signals awareness, but it doesn’t indicate emotional investment. Optimizing visibility alone isn’t the same as maximizing your nonprofit’s value.
Read the article here
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WA Gets $181 Million to
Support Rural Health Care
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Published in The Kitsap Sun, January 12, 2026
Image: Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun
Washington state was awarded over $181 million last week through a new federal program aimed at improving health care in rural communities, which state leaders argue will be helpful but ultimately fail to offset anticipated revenue shortfalls from Medicaid cuts.
The large sum comes from the Rural Health Transformation Fund, a $50 billion program added to the so-called One Big Beautiful passed by Congress in July. The fund was designed to allay worries about the legislation's record-setting cuts to Medicaid and how they would impact rural hospitals.
Medicaid, a government insurance program that covers Americans with low incomes or disabilities, is a crucial funding source for all hospitals, especially in rural areas. Mason General Hospital in Shelton, for example, gets nearly a quarter of its revenue from Medicaid patients. For hospitals on the Kitsap Peninsula, St. Michael Medical Center and St. Anthony Hospital, that rate is closer to 15%.
Cuts to Medicaid take effect next year and are expected to put over 600,000 Washington residents at risk of losing insurance coverage, according to the state health care authority, driving up uncompensated care. The investment from the rural health program, though large, is not expected to backfill this revenue loss. It was estimated last year to cover about 37% of that revenue loss in rural areas, according to an analysis by nonpartisan health nonprofit KFF.
Read the article here
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WSF Says Bremerton - Seattle
Will Have 2 Boats by Weekend
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Published in The Kitsap Sun, January 12, 2026
Image: Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun
Washington State Ferry routes into Seattle from terminals on the Kitsap side are moving back to normal service levels, after a series of issues in early January forced changes.
WSF announced Jan. 12 that the Tacoma would return to Bainbridge Island-Seattle that evening, with the 202-car boat restoring capacity by replacing the 124-car Kitsap, which had been on the route for about a week along with the Wenatchee, which also has a capacity of 202 cars. The Tacoma had an issue with a stern tube seal that needed repairs when it was pulled Jan. 3, according to WSF, though the route has remained on two-boat service since Jan. 6. Work was completed Jan. 10-11 and the Tacoma passed sea trials necessary to begin carrying passengers and vehicles again.
The boat's return means the Kitsap will move back to the Mukilteo-Clinton route, and the Triangle Route, between Southworth, Vashon Island and Fauntleroy in West Seattle, will have its three-boat weekday service restored, with two boats operating as part of the winter service schedule. The Triangle Route had been on two-boat service since Jan. 2, when the Kittitas was pulled for a repair, though it was able to return to service on Jan. 6.
WSF also announced that the Bremerton route will be back at two-boat service into Seattle by Saturday, when the Seahawks are set to host the San Francisco 49ers in an NFC Divisional Playoff game, which will either play at 1:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. The specific details about Bremerton service have not yet been announced, according to the email from WSF.
Read the article here
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Planetarium Shows at Battle Point Observatory
Saturday, January 17, 2026, 12:30pm
| Drop by Battle Point Observatory for an all-ages short Planetarium Show! Learn what's up in the night sky and get a peek inside the Observatory. Shows offered at 12:30 pm and again at 2:30 pm. | |
32nd Annual MLK Day Celebration
Monday, January 19, 2026, 10:00am
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Making Room for Pollinators in Your Backyard
Saturday, January 24, 2026, 10:00am
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Learn how to make your garden and yard more appealing and beneficial to our native pollinators like bees, beetles, butterflies, and moths. Even small areas can provide important food sources and nesting sites. We'll talk about the value of native pollinators, learn about their life cycles and habitat needs, and share resources for learning more about these wonderful - and threatened - creatures. By the end of the session, you'll have a plan for creating or enhancing your own pollinator garden.
$25 fee per person per class
Kathryn Owen is an Ambassador for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, an international nonprofit that protects the natural world through conservation of bees, butterflies, and other invertebrates & their habitats.
*January 15th class is cancelled.
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Pints for Pets @ Ridgeline Brewing
Saturday, January 24, 2026, 3:00pm
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Enjoy local brews at Ridgeline Brewing with $2 from each pint donated starting at 3 p.m. We will be hosting raffles and merchandise sales, with new merch hoping to make its way down to the pub! Leashed, respectful pups are allowed on the patio.
Celebrate pets and community, surrounded by pets and community!
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Masks Still Available
Free at the Greater Kitsap Chamber & Visitor Center
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The Greater Kitsap Chamber still has some supplies available if your local business is in need of KN95 masks. Pick up your supply at both GKC locations today. Available while supplies last.
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Clearwater Casino Presents:
Randy Linder - Creedence Clearwater Tribute
Friday, January 16, 2026, 8:30pm
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Chicago Tribute Authority - Chicago Tribute
Saturday, January 17, 2026, 8:30pm
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The Music of Van Morrison @ The Admiral
Saturday, January 17, 2026, 6:30pm
| Backstreet Jellyroll is a celebration of the powerful music from one of the most revered and significant songwriters of the rock era. Covering more than five decades of hits, this 11-piece band delivers music that ranges from a whisper to a roar, with a voice that is simultaneously gruff and ethereal. | | |
The Roxy Theatre Presents:
Dan Rosenberg and His Funny Friends
Saturday, January 17, 2026, 7:30pm
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Catch Dan Rosenberg and friends live for a night packed with good vibes
and even better jokes!
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NW D'Lux @ The Roxy Theatre
Thursday, January 22, 2026, 7:00pm
| The brainchild of acclaimed drummer D’Vonne Lewis, NW D’Lux takes you on a musical journey through the legendary sounds of the Pacific Northwest. This dynamic ensemble of Seattle’s top musicians celebrates the region’s rich musical history, from the groundbreaking rock of Nirvana and The Sonics to the timeless grooves of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, and Ernestine Anderson. The band also honors D’Vonne’s grandfather, the renowned Seattle organist Dave Lewis, bringing a personal touch to their impactful performances. Featuring D’Vonne Lewis on drums, Josh Rawlings on keys, Dean Schmidt on bass, and the soulful vocals of Ayesha Brooks (“The Voice”), NW D’Lux delivers a vibrant, genre-spanning show that’s equal parts homage and high-energy celebration. | |
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in Central Kitsap by checking out and liking the
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Have something to share? CLICK HERE to submit stories and
events for our weekly Community Connections!
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Office (360) 479-3579 | 705 Pacific Avenue in Downtown Bremerton
Silverdale Office (360) 692-6800 | Kitsap Mall
PO Box 1218 Silverdale WA 98383
If you need assistance, please contact us directly.
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