A Message from 2023 Greater Harrison Chamber of Commerce Chairman Mark Hildebrand
For those who don’t know me, I’m Mark P. Hildebrand and I’ll be your Greater Harrison Chamber of Commerce chairman for 2023. I’ve worked in the Harrison community for the entirety of my professional career. I’m a graduate of Miami University, and a commercial lender with FCN Bank. This is an exciting year for the Chamber as it marks our 10-year anniversary. We’re looking forward to celebrating our success and growth as a chamber, while continuing to expand our chamber’s positive impact to our members.
Our main priority as your chamber of commerce in 2023 will be to continue our growth and outreach into our business community. In 2022, we added 45 new members, which reflects the tremendous growth of not only our business community, but our community as a whole. We would love to see similar growth this year. We also want to increase our engagement with existing members. We will continue to host after hours events and other gatherings where we hope to see new and old faces.
We introduced some new cost savings initiatives in 2022. The main attraction was an energy cost savings and sustainability program as well as new advertising opportunities. If you have any questions about these initiatives or our SOCA health plan all members are available for, please reach out and we will provide you with any information you need.
We also introduced a part-time staff position of executive director, which has been taken on by 2022’s chairwoman Sara Cullin. She was an incredible chairwoman and we fully expect her to have the same positive effect on the Chamber that she did as our chairwoman.
Finally, something that I’ve always talked about with fellow board members and businesses in our Chamber, is value added. One of my primary goals as your chairman is to continue to add value for our members. We want to make sure that your dues are put to good use, and at the end of the year you feel that we were able to add value to your business and your life. One of the ways we look for new ideas to add value was our ambassador program we launched in 2022. This is for non-board members as a way to facilitate growth and conversation amongst our business community. If there are any members who are interested in joining that program, I would love to hear from you and can give you all the details of the program.
Lastly, I want to thank our members for their continued support of the Chamber. I look forward to seeing you in the community and at as many of our events that you’re able to attend.
Regards,
Mark