What a Year!

Dear members,

What a tremendous year for the Seminole County Chamber!

Honestly, I didn’t think we could top last year, when we were just the 10^th Florida chamber of commerce accredited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as a five-star chamber.

But we did.

In the fall, we were named the Florida Chamber of the Year by the Florida Association of Chamber Professionals. Then, in the spring, we received a national award for our ChamberWORKS video series by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.

Both of these awards mean a tremendous amount to our staff and board, who understand recognition from our peers is extremely valuable.

Here’s why it should be important to you. As an investor in the Seminole County Chamber, these recognitions give you confidence that an investment in our chamber is being put to good use, providing programming unrivaled by chambers throughout the country.

But while recognition gives you confidence, what many of you want are opportunities to showcase your company and its values, as well as to grow your business.

Here are just a few ways we accomplished this.

1. Membership: In a time when we keep hearing the economy is softening, companies are joining the chamber at a record pace. We topped 800 members for the first time in our history this year and currently have 816 members.
2. Events: We have seen a nearly 25 percent growth in attendance at our signature events over the past year. For sponsors, that’s more people hearing your message. For attendees, these are new people for you to meet and build a relationship with.
3. Communications: We’ve tripled the number of subscribers on our YouTube channel and have nearly 2,000 new subscribers to our newsletters.
4. Networking: We added our eighth area council, the West Seminole Council. Once a month, more than 50 businesses from Apopka and West Seminole come together for a lunch-and-learn.
5. Advocacy: We launched a slate of new tools to help our members coordinate their efforts to ensure pro-business policies are enacted on a local, state and regional level.

Of course, we’re not done.

As we head into the new Chamber year, we’re going to focus significantly on advocacy among other initiatives, starting with our traditional Seminole Hob Nob event on July 9. Make sure you get your tickets now by clicking here.

Stay tuned for another year of great accomplishments, but before I close, I must do one more thing.
Thank each of you.

It’s because of your trust and investment in our chamber that we were able to accomplish so much this year.

It’s because of you that Seminole County is a premier location for companies to grow and thrive.

It’s because of you that our voice can be united on issues facing our economy.

It’s because of you that each of us will remain successful through any storms in our future.

For all of that, and so much more, I thank you.

Sincerely,
Rebekah