Happy 2023!
I can’t believe a new year is already here. 2022 was a good one for your Chamber of Commerce and business community. We saw new developments, growth in our workforce, your Chamber was accredited as one of the top Chambers of Commerce in the country, and so many more positive outcomes for our business community.
And as many of us officially enter into the 2023 work week today, we’re thrilled to be by your side as we tackle a new year with new challenges, new growth, and new opportunities for the business community.
Starting with our new five-year strategic plan called Partnership 2027.
We’ve mentioned before that last fiscal year under the leadership of Chamber Chair, Laura Moore, Mike Fernandez (Texas National Bank) led a group of Chamber member volunteers to conduct an “audit” of all of the Chamber programming. We called this group the “Program Taskforce” and over the course of nine months, these individuals took a deep dive into all that we do. From the results of the Program Taskforce, the results of our annual survey to membership, and the outcome of our Chamber Board planning retreat, our team developed Partnership 2027.
Approved in November by your Chamber Board of Directors, Partnership 2027 is a five-year strategic plan for your Chamber. It’s our roadmap to ensure that we’re living up to our five-star accreditation and providing you, our partner, with the best ROI in our organization.
I won’t bore you with the details, but if you’re interested, you can take a deep dive HERE.
But one thing I wanted to point out this morning specifically is the revamp of a few of our Chamber programs such as our morning networking event – Wake Up Wednesday.
For years our team has met with you at the Abilene Woman’s Club for morning coffee and connections. We love the opportunity to have a good cup of coffee, mingle with business leaders, and set the path for the month of our networking goals.
However, we think we can take this program one step further. Challenged by our Program Taskforce and the results from our annual membership survey, we’re rebranding Wake Up Wednesday with a new program called – The Morning Edge.
The Morning Edge will take place the first Wednesday of every month and offer attendees a structured program to give your business and employees the edge needed for success. Pun intended!
It will be an hour long beginning at 8:00 am as usual, and each month the programming will rotate with focused conversations or activities such as How to Expo, Local Election Roundtables, Update on our Legislative Session, or a highly requested activity from our yearly survey – Speed Networking.
We’ll kick off our newly reformatted Morning Edge on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at the Abilene Woman’s Club sponsored by Abilene Teacher’s Federal Credit Union. Don’t worry – we’ve carved out time during the hour for you to still get your network fix, but it’s our hope that by implementing this change we’re able to meet the requests from you, our partner, that you’ve been seeking from your Chamber.
If you’re interested in how your business can partner with us on this new program, please reach out to team member Ashley Knowlton today.
We look forward to a prosperous and productive year for our Abilene business community and are grateful that you’re a part of it.
Onward!
Doug