“A Chamber of Commerce is a resource for access to information and connections to the business community and for the business community. We play a vital role in connecting businesses to one another, to their local municipalities, and to state or federal elected officials. A Chamber of Commerce is a catalyst for business, a convener of conversations, and a connector of people, and we’re on a path to be even more so focused on those three C’s, if you will.

Here in the Tri-Cities area, we’re embarking on conversations around talent, workforce development, transportation, childcare—holding some forum-type events to really address some of the key issues or concerns for the business community. And not that those concerns are unique just to us—they’re just new things that we’re doing at the chamber to really bring that business community together for those important conversations.

Getting the behind-the-scenes tours of our local businesses is one of the best parts of working in the Chamber. We get to see what’s made, how it’s made, and hear the stories. I love it when I go on a tour and they give me safety glasses, because I know I’m in for something good! But I also get a chance to connect and that’s the best part of our profession—getting to know the business community.

We’ve been very intentional over these last two years to do a lot of member engagement visits, asking questions like what do you need, want, and expect from us as the Chamber of Commerce? What would you like to see done differently in our programming? Change doesn’t come easy, and we’ve had to relocate some events and programs that just don’t really fit with the visions our Board of Directors has for the Chamber. Member feedback has been huge for us in helping navigate some of these changes.

I use the analogy that if the community was a wheel and the chamber is the hub—you come to the middle. We partner with Lakeshore Advantage, West Michigan Works! for training programs and grants, the DDA, the five municipalities that we work with. We want to be that resource hub for business information to help connect people to whatever it is that they’re looking for. And that also goes for member-to-member connections, too. If somebody is looking for a new website company or an IT provider or a phone company—we want people to come to us so that we can make those connections and keep as much of that business here locally as we can.

What I’m excited about in the next year is seeing how our team engages in going to the next level. There’s a lot of excitement around the vision that the Board of Directors has given us, and we’re excited to carry it out. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”