Connections. That’s the theme for the upcoming year out of the Carmi Chamber of Commerce President Luke Sailer. The native called Carmi a special place with special people and “home is always worth believing in and fighting for”.
There are a lot of people with great ideas, thoughts, suggestions, ideas, and dreams but they’re all singular. And people don’t always know how to take that idea and run with it. When that happens, those ideas and dreams stay within and we collectively have lost what could be the next best thing for our community.
He says connections, networking, engaging, and ultimately cross-bearing will bind us together and make the difference in the way forward for Carmi and the region at large. Sailer says the business leaders of the area can expect to be called on to “plug in” during his year.
In the coming weeks, I’d like to host a business leader community forum. This will be our first step in brainstorming our business’ thoughts, desires, and dreams. From this, we’ll get our action items planned. It’s a crucial step and we’ll need everyone involved, no excuses.
Beyond that, Sailer says he wants more engagement between business leaders and city leadership. In addition, he says he’d like to see growth, obviously in membership, but also geographically for the Chamber.
We need everyone’s voice heard. As mentioned prior, we are fortunate with our communities that have done so much such as Norris City organizing their chamber and getting business leaders connected. The tent is big enough for all of us and we want to invite all communities. We by no means want to take over; this goes back to the connections and partnerships so that we can all prosper.
Sailer’s executive board for the upcoming year includes Beth Conner as Vice President, Emma Bachman as Secretary, Curt Kessler as Treasurer, and Katelyne Wolff as Past President. The Chamber is headed up by Executive Director Megan Newman.