2018 was an exciting year for the Dearborn County Chamber of Commerce. As a large membership organization representing businesses from all industries, it can sometimes be a challenge to truly focus on what is important to everyone. Additionally, as our mission is to develop and grow the business community here in Dearborn County, we have a pretty wide mandate. To help us stay focused and maintain momentum each year we try to pick a word or theme and really build all of our efforts around that. In 2018 our theme was education.
We spent much of 2018 focused on providing knowledge to our members in a more consistent and systematic manner. Thanks to the support of Dearborn Savings Bank we launched the monthly lunch and learn series where we brought in speakers on everything from HR issues like hiring/firing, health insurance and workplace wellness to concrete concerns like business taxes. This year we are continuing that series and you can find the calendar and topic list on our website (dearborncountychamber.org). We also worked with the United Way to expand Leadership Dearborn into a more focused and professional leadership training program that graduated 15 emerging leaders. The 2018 class was an enthusiastic group of all females who did a lot of great work promoting Big Brothers Big Sisters. I can’t wait to see how the 2019 class shapes up! Give us a call at 812-537-0814 if you would like to register!
In 2019, while we will continue to build on all of the work we did in 2018, our focus will be on outreach. While the chamber has a great staff, tremendous volunteers and a dedicated board, there are always going to be companies and leaders and communities that we want to focus more of our time and energy on. This year we are committed to spending more time on a broader outreach to involve those who have been somewhat less involved over the past couple years. If your community has a project, your business wants to know which chamber benefits it should be taking more advantage of or you as an individual want to get more involved, please do not hesitate to reach out to me and we will do everything we can to make it happen. For us 2019 is a year of outreach and inclusion but we need your help to make it successful. I am excited to hear from you!
Dearborn County has continued to see significant growth over the past year and will continue to do so moving forward. Like many rural communities our largest current bottleneck is an employee shortage which stems from a lack of new housing developments that meet current demands. Many communities are stepping up in an effort to address these concerns and we are excited to see real progress in 2019.
The coming year will be an exciting one for Dearborn County and your Chamber of Commerce. We hope to see you at one of our many monthly events or just stop down at the office when you have a few minutes. If you aren’t sure what the Dearborn County Chamber of Commerce can do for you the best way to find out is to ask! Here’s to a productive and prosperous 2019.