President's Update

Hello Summer and hello Georgia heat! Things are certainly staying hot around here and that’s not to say it’s only the weather. Our office is beaming with new projects, ideas, and movement. Since the start of summer, we've had a full house, welcoming our two daily summer interns along with us. They have fallen into place with our staff quickly and been put to work!

Over the past quarter, we've held a very successful 7th Annual Sweet Tee Off Golf Tournament, 42nd Annual Awards Dinner, participated in Downtown Eatonton/Mainstreet events, picked back up with attending in-person conferences around the state, supported our state Senate teams from Warnock and Ossoff's offices and so much more. I'm proud of what is already behind us but I think I'm most excited for the planning taking place for the future. These past few months have also included creating a Leadership Putnam Board of Directors that are well underway in planning a creative and robust expansion for the program!

Aside from the successful and fulfilling events, there were two main experiences that occurred this quarter that truly sparked those a-ha moments for me as I'm continuing to get my feet wet as President.

As we move forward in the second half of the year, continuously sailing into post-pandemic life, our focus in the Chamber is on how to best craft and deliver our support to our member businesses and as Visit Eatonton, ensuring we are selling a brand that most accurately depicts who our community currently is. There has been significant change across many rural communities over the course of the past couple of years and as we have all worked to adapt to new interests and needs, we hope, as the Eatonton-Putnam Chamber, that we are providing the best to our community family.

The first of those was the GA CVB conference in Savannah in May. Joining over 230 Georgia-based Tourism professionals to discuss moving legislation, attractions, and trends brought home that we are moving in the right direction with our vision for our Welcome Center. We're gearing up to launch a new look for EatontonPutnam! Equally as exciting was my opportunity to attend my first GACCE Executive Leadership Conference in Jekyll in early July. This was a much-needed time to network with other Georgia Chamber Executives as we learned of the growing and evolving workforce demographics affecting our economy and how to balance our time and energies while continuing to be productive in a new-found work-from-home environment.

President Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce