Looking back at 2022 — a year of milestones
The end of the year is always an impactful time. A time to reflect on where you have been and a time to plan for where you still know you need to go. 2022 was an exciting year for the TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce. It was also a year of ceremony as we celebrated our 95th anniversary in 2022!
This month’s article is an opportunity for me to reflect on the Chamber’s 3 Cornerstones, only focusing on one program in each of the three but believe me — there is so much more I could highlight:
Building Community
Graduating its 20th class, the Leadership TriCounty program relaunched in 2021 with the Class of 2022 graduating in June. A new logo, new program content and focus, a new director — exciting changes — but the heart of the program remains intact and continues to define this program as a well-respected opportunity for continuing education of area professionals of all backgrounds, ages, experience levels, and industries. We are reserving spots now for the Class of 2024.
Creating Connections
Events were also a big deal in 2022. Major events that were rescheduled from 2020 were finally able to be held. We started the year off with the very successful Pottstown Progress Luncheon with over 250 people in attendance and we look forward to sharing another year of Pottstown’s story on Feb. 15, 2023. The Annual Dinner was finally held on April 27 after being cancelled from April of 2020. It was a great night, great speaker, great networking, and we took the time to acknowledge every member in attendance because without their support we would not be here. We will do it all again at the next Annual Dinner — save the date of April 26, 2023. Not having an Economic Development Luncheon since the fall of 2019, the return to an Economic Development Luncheon in June of this year was also exciting.
Supporting Commerce
We continued to offer a variety of member benefits that could benefit each of our member businesses. We added special features to continue valuable member benefits already in place and we made some additions to existing programs — adding a new video Chamber Chat edition in cooperation with students from the Montgomery County Community College. Our regular Chamber Chat show entered season nine, and as a new feature we invited chamber members to serve as guest hosts for the season. We were excited to receive a great response as we featured new faces on the program. We also added a Member Spotlight announcement and a sponsorship opportunity to Chamber Chat — “While you’re chewing, we’re chatting” — a few of our chamber member restaurants/establishments provided us with gift cards to distribute to one lucky winner out of those that comment during a live show on Facebook.
2022 was also the first year to provide members with an option to take some more control over their membership investment with our Tiers Investment Opportunity, which provides opportunities for exposure and marketing and includes their annual membership dues all in one commitment. We are so thankful for the companies that supported year one and we have secured several of them back for year two.
This past year also brought new faces to the chamber team and new members to our board of directors and the commitment that both groups have to our organization is incredible and these two groups are anxious for where we go in 2023.
I recently purchased a sign for my office that states “Everything is Figureoutable.” It is my new motto as we move into the next year. Our board of directors has committed to three, half-day day work sessions to discuss, brainstorm, and define the future direction for our organization. Everything is figureoutable and I look forward to future articles and updating readers on what we have figured out for the TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce as we continue to Build Communities, Create Connections, and Support Commerce next year!
#tcaccbettertogether