President’s Message
Close to a month has already passed since we started this new decade. Your Beaver County Chamber of Commerce is off to a solid start on its intentions and plans for this coming year, in order to bring the great value to members they have come to expect. In 2020 we intend to grow our membership from ~550 members at year end 2019 to over 600 twelve months later.
One key ingredient in achieving this goal is to provide top notch quality events and programming, with a blend that suits the need of our varied Chamber membership. In this month’s column, we will delve deeper in to the various and numerous events and programming offered by the Chamber. In addition, we’ll let you in on a bit of our secret sauce for driving and retaining membership: our Chamber’s Membership Committee.
A quick review of January showcases the breath of Chamber offerings:
- Jan 8th was the year’s first monthly lunch-and-learn session held at CCBC’s (Community College of Beaver County) new library maker’s space. This lecture followed by Q&A session addressed common causes of low back pain and sciatica and steps to quick and natural healing. The Chamber will hold lunch-and-learn meetings each month going forward. Contact the Chamber if you have an interest in presenting a topic!
- Jan 16th was the Legislative Welcome Reception, held at the Hilton Garden Inn. With a record setting nearly 100 participants, we welcomed local government officials to their either newly elected or re-elected positions. A picture of elected officials in attendance is shown here.
- Jan 17th was the 5th monthly session of the 2nd cohort for the Beaver County Leadership The 15 enrolled participants dug deeper into the topics of effective meeting management, financial literacy and leadership in the field of health care. Soon we will begin to accept applications for the 3rd cohort, ready for launch in September. This program’s aim is to develop the next wave of leadership in / for our county.
- Jan 23rd was our Speed Networking event, held at The Lodge at Penn State’s Beaver campus. 50 participants shared their elevator speeches and had the opportunity to strengthen and add to their network. The room was positively abuzz, and it is likely we’ll plan for another such event later in 2020 given the strong response.
- Jan 10th and 24th saw Breakfast Club meetings held at the Chamber’s offices in downtown Beaver. Both events had a great turnout ranging from 15 to 20 people, allowing for a more intimate opportunity to network that our smaller businesses in particular express high appreciation for. Presentation topics were the upcoming census and event marketing 101.
Looking ahead to February and March, in addition to our routine programs, we’re thrilled to offer the following major events:
- February 4th is the Annual State of the County Breakfast, held at the Fez from 8-10 AM. This event features our Beaver County Commissioners Dan Camp, Jack Manning and Tony Amadio, moderated by KDKA – TV’s Jon Delano.
- March 14th is the Annual Gala & Auction, held at The Club at Shadow Lakes starting at 5 PM. Get ready to make a splash! This year will have an underwater theme that is sure to intrigue and please.
Check the Chamber’s website at www.beavercountychamber.com or call us at 724-775-3944 for additional details and other events.
I mentioned earlier that we have some secret sauce! The Chamber’s Membership Committee does a marvelous job at driving new membership and retaining current members. This committee consists of volunteer members Chairperson Brittney Golden (Hilton Garden Inn – Beaver Valley), Rebecca Miller (Miller Agency), Tracy Plevel (Gateway Rehab), Maria Corradi (Brown, Corradi & Guandolo Wealth Management of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC) & Robert Riggins (World Kinect Energy Services) who are helping Kaitlyn Poleti (the Chamber’s Marketing & Membership Director) to plan and execute key initiatives. I would like to do a ‘shout out’ to Tracy Plevel, who many of our members know as the person behind the highly popular, short video clips we have been posting on the Chamber’s social media pages. Check them out! We appreciate everyone involved in making our Chamber come alive through this creative tool.
It our hope and aim to serve and delight our current and prospective members to the Chamber with all that we offer. We all remember Fred Rogers asking, “Won’t you be our neighbor?”. We’ll rephrase for our purposes and say: “Won’t you be our member?” We invite you to join our / your Beaver County Chamber of Commerce!
This important community update is brought to you by Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, 1st Consultants, Strassburger, McKenna, Gutnick & Gefsky, Ambridge Regional Chamber of Commerce, Skerlec Contracting, and NovaCare!