Southern Lancaster Chamber
The Background
After becoming a Realtor in 2019, my mentor, Kelli, encouraged me to join the Southern Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce (SLCCC) to begin networking. If you're not familiar with a chamber of commerce, here's my definition: a regional group of businesses & nonprofits that meet on a regular basis to network, support one another, and grow their organization. Here in Lancaster County, there are several chambers, and plenty more networking groups on top of that.
SLCCC was my intro to networking and I've been hooked ever since, lol. I've now been a Chamber member for 4+ years and have been serving on the board since April 2022!
I officially joined the Chamber in early 2020 and was able to attend a few normal events before COVID shifted everything. The Chamber switched to Zoom meetings and I continued to be involved, even speaking at one of the meetings as a panelist on real estate!
We slowly started hosting a few in person & online events, and I had a hand in planning some of them. Fast forward to spring 2022, I was nominated & elected to serve as a board member until April 2025. Shortly after joining the board, there were a few changes in leadership. We also were navigating reviving the Chamber as a whole, as we were still breaking out of COVID.
The Summary- TL;DR
I joined the Chamber executive board at a very awkward time- we had just seen a significant change in leadership and were trying to find our way coming out of COVID. I took the reigns and helped to organize, sustain, and grow the Chamber. I managed advertising (via our email list & social media), planned events, and assisted in managing our website. We have seen our membership & engagement (in person & online) grow exponentially in the last year from our combined efforts. I helped to create a whole new Chamber role, the administrator position, and trained the new admin.Tasks
I dove in head first, becoming the interim secretary as we navigated post-COVID times. A few of my tasks included:
- Creating board & member meeting agendas
- Taking board meeting minutes
- Email communications with the membership
- Social media posts
- Helping to coordinate & keep track of events
- Website help
Looking back, I'm so proud of how far we've come. Gradually, we've made monumental changes and have GROWN significantly. Almost 60 new members joined in 2023, which is over a quarter of our membership!
Gradual Growth
The Chamber has faced many challenges since I joined in 2020. From my understanding, we were a thriving organization pre-COVID and really had to "find our way" once we were able to be back in person. We had to find a new meeting place (and we're still navigating finding the best spot!), fundraising, leadership changes, role changes, event planning, and more.
238% Increase in Social Engagement
55+ New Members in 2023 (15 in 2022)
40% Increase in Website Traffic
Task Breakdown
Email Communication
I was responsible for sending out emails to our membership, as email is our primary form of communication. These emails were to notify members of upcoming events, chamber updates, sponsorship opportunities, member news, and more.
When it comes to informing members of events, I would send out multiple emails per event.
- Announce- "Next Wednesday, 1/17- join us for a mixer at Morr Range from 5:30-7:30PM! RSVP here [insert link] by Tuesday, 1/16."
- Last call- "Tomorrow (Tuesday) is your last chance to join us for our mixer on Wednesday, 1/17 from 5:30-7:30PM @ Morr Range! RSVP by end of day tomorrow here!"
- Reminder to attendees- "Friendly reminder that our mixer at Morr Range is TONIGHT (Wednesday) from 5:30-7:30PM. Park ____, enter____, and you'll find us ____"
Social Media
I would create graphics about our upcoming events and similar to the email schedule, create multiple posts for each event for our Facebook and Instagram.
I would take photos during the event and post them the same day or following day.
For many of our happenings, I would also create Facebook events.
I posted in our Facebook group for Chamber members and replied to any messages on both platforms.
I'm proud of SLCCC in a lot of ways, one of them being all the referrals we have! We're all joining to get business and that's exactly what happens! I would create posts highlighting Chamber connections- "Ina Bunnell with Engle Printing & Publishing created an Advertiser ad for Jona Green with Edward Jones!"
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Event Planning
I was responsible for coordinating Chamber events. This included:
- Creating RSVP form
- Inviting & confirming speaker (if applicable)
- Coordinating & confirming with event host
- Advertising event
- Taking & posting photos
- Checking attendees in
I take pride in how our engagement has grown the last few years- I enjoy finding speakers that will draw a crowd!
Website
While I did not create the website (that was done before I joined the Chamber/before I was so involved), I have made a lot of edits over the years!
- Finding & setting up a NEW event platform so attendees can RSVP & pay online
- Updating home page with fresh photos & new event platform
- Updating join page with new photos & text
- Updating membership prices on front and back end
- Editing directory listing form
- Updating the list of recipients for notifications of new members & renewals (our treasurer, membership committee, etc.)
- Updating about page as leadership changes
- Updating scholarship pages as applications open and close
Misc.
And of course, a lot of tasks that I can't really put into their own category. This role is one where you really can only see the tip of the iceberg until you dive in.
I saw my role as keeping the ship afloat. I was the date keeper, advertiser, organizer, and knew what was happening. There's a lot of one-off/seasonal/as needed tasks.
Thankfully, we created a whole new role for the Chamber: the admin position. We created a document that outlined the position, duties, and pay. That position absorbed the duties of the secretary.
I trained our new admin on everything she needed to know, from A to Z. I created text & video tutorials and walked her through certain tasks in person.