2019 is set to be a big year here at the Chamber. It’s our 120th Anniversary of serving our community. While we honor the strong history of our organization, we are constantly looking forward to ensure that we are meeting the current needs of our business community. Below are a couple of important items about the future of your Chamber to which I want to draw your attention.
- As you know in 2017, we affiliated with the Richland Community Development Group (RCDG) and have combined efforts to advance economic, workforce and community development for our region. We are now 19 months into this new structure, and we have made some great strides, but continue to make more. You may have read recently, that we are rebranding jointly under the name “Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development.” We felt that it was important to display our joint work to the public and align under one broad banner. Behind the scenes all three of our organizations still exist (Chamber, RCDG, Chamber Foundation) but publicly you will see us using that name more prominently. See our new logo below.
- Modernizing the Chamber dues structure to ensure that we are meeting the needs of today’s businesses and supporting the work of all of our organizations with ‘one ask’ was a high priority item for our Boards of Directors. To that end, in 2018 we convened a diverse group of members to serve on a task force to help us craft a new dues structure. After months of effort, we are finally ready to unveil the new system. The new model is value-based and designed to better meet the needs of our diverse group of members. Added programming and benefits enhance the 7 different tiered levels, and it has been designed with our members in mind. We have received strong support from some early adopters of the new model and will begin a full implementation in March.
- To that end, I want to personally invite you to attend our Membership 101 breakfast on Friday, March 1st, 2019 from 7:45am – 9:00am at the Mid-Ohio Conference Center. Not only will you have a delicious breakfast catered by The Vault, it will be almost entirely focused on introducing the new membership model to you. Please sign up here…there is no cost to attend thanks to generous support from our partners at Medical Mutual.
As always, there is a lot of work that is going on behind the scenes. It’s truly an honor for me to lead a hardworking and passionate team as we work to ensure that your Chamber remains a relevant and impactful organization for the next 120 years! I hope to see you for breakfast!