The
Anna Chamber
advocates for its members
Members of the Greater Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors are from left: Pete Cain, Dr. Jan Wheat, Susan Jones, Lisa Biddle, Tiffany Terry, Ruth Akana, Jesse Villarreal, Kari Heatherly, President/CEO Kevin Hall and Michael Mixson.
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he Greater Anna Chamber of Commerce has been putting its advocacy into action during the COVID-19 pandemic. While this is an ever-changing time for business and community, the Chamber has worked hard to cement the foundation the Anna Chamber's role in advocacy. We are advocating for our members in our city, county, state and federal government. We work closely with our city to make sure our businesses understand the guidelines in regards to social distancing and consumer safety, as well as, by encouraging our city leadership to actively listen to our business owners’ needs. Greater Anna Chamber President/CEO Kevin Hall helped produce and co-star in the City of Anna's first video on COVID-19. This included partnering with the city of Anna mayor and city emergency management coordinators, as well as, the Anna ISD superintendent and staff.
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To help our community, we developed safe and family-friendly activity and we spearheaded our Chalk the City initiative. This is where citizens were encouraged to create chalk drawings on their driveways and sidewalks with encouraging messages for those on the front lines of COVID-19 including first responders, nurses and the grocery store workforce. We also created both a downloadable flyer and spreadsheet containing the restaurant, grocery store, churches and essential businesses of Anna. The spreadsheet is updated as needed and shows their hours, phone number, delivery and take out options, as well as, social media links. This helps our community to shop local and support our business owners who have been immediately affected by this pandemic. For our current and future Chamber members we shifted from in-person networking to
Anna Living Magazine
online networking via webinars. This keeps our members informed About the resources available locally, as well as encourages them to stay connected to each other while maintaining social distancing guidelines. This has been a successful way for our members to continue spreading the word on their businesses. We average about 20 members and guests on each webinar. When social distancing regulations change, and we are allowed to go back to in-person networking, we plan to keep offering these online networking opportunities. That way our members can choose between the two activities or partake in both. On a county and state level, our Chamber has been monitoring both videos from elected leaders and written Executive Orders. Then we break down this information into easier to understand messages which are shared with
