Thank you to the Chamber of Commerce Board for their confidence in me. I'm very excited as my journey continues as the Executive Director.  My various experiences have led me to this time and place where I know I’ll able to help the community grow.    It ‘s my goal to help the community at large become more aware of what businesses are in Starke County and to utilize their services, which in turn, helps the area become more economically vibrant.  When we use the services that are here, we have a more financially sound community to encourage further business growth and bring more services to everyone.

Did you know how much buying within your immediate community helps our economy directly?  Statistics show that of every $100 spent locally, $43 comes directly back into the County.  When buying through warehouse box stores that aren't directly in your community, only $15 of that $100 is returned.  The returns come in various forms, all of which help keep our tax base low and increase the services that are provided within the County. 

This will be an exciting year as we celebrate our 10th Anniversary. I hope to meet you at one of our events.  Until then, buy locally and support your Chamber members.

Sincerely,

Deborah J. Mix, Executive Director

Starke County Chamber of Commerce

Director's Report 2009

The Starke County Chamber of Commerce has experienced continued growth over the past 12 months. With the support of the board, new programming and services, we have increased our membership to a ten year high of 162 members. We will continue to grow as the business community will support a strong & viable chamber and that is what we are striving to deliver to our members. As my tag line in my emails say, “Your chamber at work, working for you”.

Our monthly networking event “AM Starke County” is continuing to grow every month. It is on the first Wednesday of the month at 7.30am. It is held at various locations throughout the county. It is a great way to meet new people, potential clients and find out about businesses and services in our community. We had a record number attend our event on November 4^th at Country Kettle Restaurant. There were 45 in attendance.

The chamber has also sponsored three (3) quarterly meeting this year. Our first one in April had a presentation by Representative Nancy Dembowski & Senator Ed Charbonneau on “State Legislative Update”. In July we had a representative from the State Attorney General’s Office inform the audience on their responsibilities. We had nearly 100 people in attendance at this event. In October we held a very informative meeting “Reference USA”, this is an internet based data resource library.

The Chamber also hosted New Business Ribbon Cuttings & Grand Openings, some of these included; Sear’s of Knox, Country Kettle Restaurant, Hair Therapy, Hunter’s Insurance, NWI Computer Supplies and Lil Hair Huts together with Business Open Houses held at Grovertown Fruit Farm and Born in a Barn.

The chamber also continued its successful fundraising events; Scavenger Hunt and Live Auction, Booth at the North Judson Mint Festival, and the Golf Outing held at Bass Lake Golf Course was very successful, with 27 teams entering.

Two new events we held this year were the Starke County Business Expo held in July in conjunction with the Bass Lake Splash. We had eleven member businesses participate and all said they would be back next year. We also brought back Chamber Sponsor Wheel at the Starke County Fair, also in July. This was a successful event with over 30 member businesses being involved.

The chamber is also partnering with other area organizations. Partnerships include the Chamber & Starke County Public Library in successfully writing a grant for purchase of additional units of ReferenceUSA. Another partnership we were involved with was the 2009 Volunteer Fair. We also worked closely with Starke County Tourism Commission in putting together the County Map Guide, Quin County Rural & Rustic Tourism Group in creating area brochures (Farm Markets, Antiques & Museums, future brochures include Outdoor Recreation and Lodging). The partnership with the Chamber and Tourism works hand in hand to promote local businesses within and outside the county.

We have also partnered with WKVI Radio. The Chamber Segment airs each Monday morning. It provides information to the community and lets them know of upcoming events. It is a great tool to promote our events as well as member events. WKVI also have a link to our community calendar on their website.

The chamber also launched our new website in June. This was a culmination of 6 months work in preparing files, pictures, new logos and many other details in putting together a website. I would like to thank Angelique Milo of Jonquil Design for her work in coordinating our new website. We have had a fantastic response from the community with over 9,000 hits. The website includes a membership directory in alpha and a category listing, community calendar, events, news and many other information pages on our county.

2009 has been a great year. We have built on the growth from last year and we look forward to continued growth in 2010, the 10^th anniversary of the Starke County Chamber of Commerce.

This year also sees after many years of service, James Wagner (Embarq) and Carla Musial (DeMotte State Bank) stepping down from the board. I would like to thank them for their hard work over the years and I wish them well in their future endeavors.

The chamber of commerce promotes local businesses in the area to the community. With the guidance and support of the board, we have created a strong vision of success for our membership.

Sincerely,

Anthony Manning

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Director, Starke County Chamber of Commerce

Your Chamber at Work,

Working for You.