How would you like to have every other Friday off during the summer or a paid month-long sabbatical after a decade of working for your employer? How about an option to telecommute to work, take your children to the office or a chance to do community service during business hours?

There are companies like these in the Birmingham region and 12 of them recently won a national award for their flexible work options. The 2008 Alfred P. Sloan Award winners were honored Sept. 11 at reception at the Matt Jones Art Gallery in Lakeview. The 12 award winners exhibited exceptional practices in workplace flexibility, which has proven to be a key employee recruitment and retention tool. The Sloan Award Winners in the Birmingham Region are:

• Concept, Inc
• Allstate's Technical Services
• Barfield Murphy Shank & Smith ITAC Solutions
• Birmingham Metropolitan YMCA
• AQAF
• Doster Construction Company
• Resources Global Professionals
• Ernst & Young
• One Stop Environmental
• Sellers, Richardson, Holman & West
• Deloitte

To learn about their outstanding policies and how your company can recruit and retain employees better, click here.

Night of the Living Dead
5-7 p.m. Oct. 21
Hill Arts Center

HealthSouth came as close to a "near-death" experience as a corporation can. Find out how it survived as the company's president, Jay Grinney speaks at Night of the Living Dead Oct. 21.

This is your chance to learn from others' mistakes in business so your business will be better prepared for whatever the future may bring. This FREE event will be from 5 p.m. -7 p.m. at the Hill Arts Center, Alabama Theatre’s new event space. To receive your e-ticket, contact Kellie Harper at 241-8110 or kharper@birminghamchamber.com.

Diversity Summit
7 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Sheraton Birmingham Ballroom

Do you understand how your company’s administrative assistant or CEO feels? Do you feel that they understand you? One of this year's Diversity Summit workshops will feature Broadway-trained director, Keith Cromwell, and certified organizational development expert, Duane Wade, as they lead participants to find and exercise their empathetic muscles.

Come to the Diversity Summit for this and several other workshops that you can easily replicate in your company or organization. The event will be Nov. 21 at the Sheraton Birmingham Ballroom from 7 a.m.- 5:30 p.m.

This full day workforce diversity conference – the largest of its kind in the state of Alabama - brings employers, business owners, nonprofit leaders and others together for a full day of learning and sharing information related to workforce diversity. Last year, 800 professionals and executives attended throughout the day. You don’t want to miss this experiential conference where you not only get to learn and share about workforce diversity but you also get to experience it! Go to www.birminghamdiversitysummit.com to register today.

11:30 a.m. Oct. 28
The Club

The annual Governor’s Luncheon allows Chamber members the opportunity to have a private audience with the Governor and to hear his plans and initiatives that will directly affect Central Alabama in 2009. Space is limited for this popular event. Reserve your table or seat today! Contact Libba Miller for more information or to register.

Congressional Forum
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
The Club

The Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce will host the 2008 Congressional Forum sponsored by Verizon Wireless. This fall’s luncheon features Representative Spencer Bachus who will brief the Chamber on the very latest from Washington DC. Your participation is important to us and we hope that you will attend the 2008 Congressional Forum. Contact Libba Miller for more information or to register.

Magic City Classic Scholarship Breakfast
The Harbert Center
Oct. 24
Registration/Breakfast: 7:30-8 a.m.
Program: 8-9 a.m.

Celebrate business and scholarship with Alabama Power Company along with the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce African American Business Council during the Magic City Classic weekend. The Chamber shows annual support for the Classic by providing scholarships to students attending five HBCUs, including: Alabama A&M University, Alabama State University, Lawson State Community College, Miles College and Stillman College. Each student, one from each institution, will be presented with a check on the day of the scholarship breakfast. So far the Chamber has provided over $34, 000 in scholarships to HBCU’s.

The Magic City Classic is one of the largest, longest running sporting events in the Birmingham region. The game represents a great tradition as well as a $22 million economic boost for our region. Show your support for this tradition of excellence in collegiate athletics and academic success by supporting this event! Our featured speaker will be the Honorable Larry Langford, mayor of the city of Birmingham.

Tickets:

• $280 Corporate Table of Eight (Deadline for Corporate table reservation is Oct. 17)
• $20 General Admission
• $15 Chamber Members
• $15 Alumni/Students

For more information, call Niki Anthony at (205) 241-8112, or nanthony@birminghamchamber.com. To purchase tickets please contact Kellie Harper at (205) 241-8110 or kharper@birminghamchamber.com.

Download the Birmingham Screen Saver Installer (about 4 MB).

If you received an error message during install, you probably do not have sufficient rights to install applications on your computer. You may need to download this file, and manually install. Follow these instructions:

1. Installing the Flash Player
   Please run the mm_fl_sw_installer.exe to make sure you have the latest version of the Flash Player. If you are certain that you already have the Flash Player installed, you may skip this step.
2. Installing the Screen Saver
   Copy the birmingham.scr file into your Windows directory, usually located at c:\Windows\system32.
3. Activating the Screen Saver
   Open Control Panel, and choose Display, then choose Screen Saver tab on the top of the window. Go to the pull down menu to choose a new screen saver, and you should be able to see your new Birmingham Screen Saver there. Select it and hit apply to activate it. There are no configurable options on this screen saver other than those offered by Windows.

If that doesn't work, contact your system administrator and they should be able to install the screen saver for you. Tell them "I want my Birmingham slide show!"

If you have additional questions, contact us at pmattison@birminghamchamber.com.