A large group of chamber members showed up to the June membership meeting to hear Brad Watson’s last address as the chair of the Chamber board of directors. Always engaging, eloquent and humorous, Brad’s personality suited the role of master of ceremonies for the past two years of membership lunches.

Jennifer Benton, from Virginia Credit Union (VACU) , was the meeting’s sponsor spotlight and she spoke about how the community has come together with its challenge for FACES Food Pantry. Recently VACU has asked for donations for FACES to help them recover from the flood, and with VACU’s generous match, the donations are well over $20,000 at this point. Benton stressed that VACU was here to support this community and asked the chamber to remember to look to them when needing support.

As the featured speaker, Brad Watson gave a “State of the Chamber” address and spoke proudly about how strong the chamber is now in membership numbers, finances, and staffing. The current board of directors were recognized and were described as hard-working, dedicated and talented.

Brad spoke of the accomplishments over the past two years and pointed out that the chamber has added 74 new members, held two New Year’s Eve-Eve and Chamber Awards celebrations, began the Holiday House tours and has started donating a portion of each of the Chamber’s fundraising efforts to local charitable organizations. Brad shared that there have been numerous ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremonies, and recognition to businesses who are doing improvements in the way of the monthly “Looking Our Best” award. Brad discussed educational initiatives such as Leadership Farmville, the inaugural Youth Summit, multiple lunch and learns and seminars that were held in the past two years. Brad noted that the Chamber’s media presence in the paper and on the radio has also shown vast improvement as well as social media for the Chamber as well as promotion for its members.

“We strive to be something you want to be a part of.” Watson said about the Chamber. He stated further that the chamber strives to be more than just a monthly lunch meeting. “We strive to bring in quality speakers to discuss issues that are timely, interesting and important. We strive to put together educational workshops so members can hear relevant information. We strive to help businesses work better and more efficiently. The chamber strives to do business with other chamber members and refer others to chamber businesses.”

Brad ended his talk by issuing some challenges. He challenged our local government with attracting new businesses to our area that will provide career opportunities with high or medium-to-high wages. He challenged business organizations to come together to combine resources and strengths to create an even better community. He also challenged everyone in the room to think about what they are for. “It’s easy to think about what you’re against,” Watson noted. “People for things, make things happen!”