Ward leads Chamber of Commerce

William “Tojo” Ward was recently elected president of the Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce.
Ward graduated from Mamou High School in 1965. He completed his pre-dental and earned a bachelor of science in chemistry from Northeast Louisiana University, now the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He graduated from Louisiana State University’s dentistry school in 1973. Ward practiced dentistry in Evangeline Parish for about 25 years before retiring in 1997.
Ward also sits on the Acadiana Economic Development Council, which is affiliated with One Acadiana, and Ward is the past president of the council.
Question: Why did you join the Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce?
Answer: I have been with the chamber since 2005. The way I got attached to the chamber was I am chairman of the Evangeline Parish Industrial Board. That board is what we call the EDO of the parish — the economic development organization. We are appointed by the Police Jury, and so the way that I became affiliated with the Chamber was that the jury has a permanent seat on the chamber board. So I represent the jury on the chamber of commerce board.
My chief function really is chairman of the industrial board. We do all of the economic development work here in the parish.
Q: What are your long-term and short-term goals as chamber president?
A: Some of the projects Renee Brown, who I am succeeding, started with economic development, it’s a tie-in to the economic development portion of what we do. I want to continue on some of the work she began.
We had a little mini retreat with some of the parish business people to formulate a game plan involving more of the businesses and exposing more of the businesses. What I did about two months ago, I did a radio program hosted by Cafe Vermilionville in Lafayette. It was called “Lunch with Acadiana.”
We had representatives from T-Boys and Jack Millers Barbecue Sauce. We did a live radio broadcast, and they got to tell their listeners some history about those two great companies. That type of thing (publicity) just gives more exposure to the parish. I’d like to continue along that vein, exposing the parish from an economic point of view as much as possible, to point out what we have to offer here.
That would be my long- and short-term goal.
Q: Why is the chamber important to the community and parish?
A: Number One, I would have to say is’s a centralized organization to establish networks for the entire parish. The Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce, we call it the Ville Platte Chamber, but it is essentially the Evangeline Parish Chamber because it represents all of the parish itself.
People coming into our parish want information for potential business that want potential sites. The chamber itself does a tremendous amount of work in helping people find real estate, For these people who are moving into the parish, it serves as a forum of interesting speakers and topics that are important to all of the businesses in the parish.
I know when we work with businesses, we are always trying to get new businesses to come into the parish, there is no question about that, you always want to hit a home run, like Cameron Iron Works or Ville Platte Iron works.
Second, and as important as it is, I think it is as equally important, is to help maintain and grow the businesses that are already established here in the parish, to make sure those guys have opportunities to expand if they need to.
We are always helping with workforce training alternative financing, business model development, those types of things that aid our businesses that are already established here in the parish. The chamber plays a critical role in that.
To me, the chamber is the epicenter of the parish. People can get information and assimilate information about a variety of things going on.
I know Camille Fontenot and Sonia Ardoin (with the chamber) get bombarded on a regular basis by businesses or some tourists coming through. They do a wonderful job.
Q: In your opinion, what is the most important thing the chamber has done for the parish?
A: The chamber does a magnificent job. Their primary interest is tourism.
The information gathering aspect of it, they information the have generally about just about anything that is critical to the parish, whether it be tourism or business development.
Politics, they keep up on that. They have forums on politics. In political years, they sponsor these forums where the candidates can speak to the public.
I think it’s (the chamber) the central brain trust of the parish. That’s how I view the chamber — just a centralized organization that’s really, really important.
I work with so many chamber people like One Acadiana and the Acadiana Economic Development Council, they wear a lot of hats, chamber people, they have to do a lot of different things.
Q: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the chamber?
A:Membership. That’s always a critical aspect, to have enough involvement. We are looking into doing some things that would perhaps increase membership. We meet in Ville Platte and I would like to see some satellite meetings in Mamou, Turkey Creek, Basile. Get more interest, get more membership. It has to be self-sustaining. That’s always a problem in a small parish.