Thank You For a Great 2024!

To all our members past and present,

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank each of you who invested in the Seminole County Chamber this past year. Whether you were a trustee investor or just attended one event, I'm proud the Seminole County Chamber has been part of your journey - and success.

Throughout the past year, our chamber has had tremendous success through our efforts to showcase the chamber's leadership in Seminole County and our region. Here are just a few of them.

In July, we held our first State of Our Schools. This sold-out event helped connect the business community with our school system, a key relationship for Seminole County to remain a great place to live and work. Our schools are our future and anything our chamber can do to help build the leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow is essential.

Then, in November, the voters approved extending the penny sales tax to help fund infrastructure projects throughout Seminole County. Again, this was essential to keeping Seminole County a statewide leader in quality of life for our residents. The Seminole County Chamber unanimously voted to support this effort and played a part in helping show why this was important.

Finally, just this week, we completed our five-year strategic plan and submitted it for reaccreditation by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This was a significant effort for us this year, taking nearly 400 hours of manpower to complete. Thank you to those of you who helped with this effort by volunteering to serve on one of the workgroup teams, participating in the focus groups, and our Board for embracing this process and working with staff to ensure our Chamber is headed in the right direction.

It was worth the effort, as it truly allowed us to examine what we are doing and ensure it aligns with our mission and what our community is looking for from our chamber. Please review this plan and let me know what you think. More importantly, think about your role in our chamber's future and help us accomplish this goal.

You can find the final plan here.

Today is the chamber's last day of operations, and I must give one final thanks to the team that made our chamber truly great. If you get a moment, send them a note of thanks for all they do to help your business reach its goals this year and next. Their emails are linked below.

Thank you, Sheryl Nichols, Erin Eble, John Cooney, Donna Bardaro, Paulina Seminara, Pam Czopp, Pam Hargis, Alan Byrd, Dave Moody, and Neota Genske.

Of course, the chamber team can not do this without the leadership of our board and our board chairs who served in 2024, Kelly Rogers and Jennifer Englert. We are grateful for the time all of our volunteers provide to the chamber.

Finally, to everyone, I wish you a great holiday season and a prosperous 2025!

Sincerely,

Rebekah