Kyle Wetzel
Message from the
President
hank you for the opportunity to serve as president of the Willowbrook-Burr Ridge Chamber of Commerce. This is truly a special group of people and businesses interested in supporting each other and the community as they grow and to have the chance to represent you in some way is truly an honor. This being my first year as president I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. I am a District Manager for Farmers Insurance, meaning I run my own small business and am contracted by Farmers Insurance to manage agents across the Chicagoland area. I started with Farmers as an agent in Libertyville and worked for the district there before taking over this business in October of 2015. I currently manage 32 agents from as far north as Round Lake and south to Flossmoor and Plainfield and in between. As far as my background is concerned, I have a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Michigan State University (Go Spartans!) and a Masters in Teaching from National-Louis University. I had a variety of jobs and had planned to go into teaching, but realized I wanted to control my destiny. That lead me to join with Farmers with the plan of opening my own office. I love Burr Ridge due to its incredibly accessible location, but also due to the people I have met these past 5 years I got started with the Chamber in 2016 because it just seemed like that was what I was supposed to do as a business owner and sporadically attended luncheons for the first year. Needless to say, I didn’t get to know people very well though everyone I met was incredibly friendly and welcoming. In the beginning of 2017,
Brad Kmetz, mentioned it was good to see me since it had been a while since the last luncheon I attended. I realized my absence had been noticed and I had two choices, continue to be sporadic and gain nothing from the chamber or start to engage deeply and truly be a part of the group. I chose to dive into the chamber at that time and it has truly been one of the best decisions I have made. I joined the Board of Directors in 2018 and in 2019 became part of the Executive Board as the Secretary. I also was a Co-Committee Chair for both the Golf and Social committees during this time and in 2019 was named Director of the Year by my fellow Directors. I view chamber membership as part good for business, part civic duty to give back to the businesses in the Villages, and part working towards the future because the chamber has so much that it does for the Villages and as it grows so will the businesses. Unfortunately, 2020 was a year of turmoil to say the least with Covid-19 hurting so many businesses and the chamber certainly saw its share of changes from it. We made the decision to go virtual with our luncheons very early and even formed a Virtual Committee to try and get the most from those times. We had virtual networking events and when there was an allowance for in person meetings we took advantage where we could with Mix and Mingle pop up events. We did feel that it was in the best interest of all involved to cancel the Business Expo, the Cruisin’ 66 Car Show, and the Golf Outing due to the virus. Our Women in Business committee was able to pivot from the Giving Tree program of prior years into a Food Drive with great results. Going forward in 2021 we are
uncertain when we will be able to again meet for luncheons or the networking pop ups, but as soon as we are safely able to, we are all anxious to have monthly events again. We have seen some great virtual events in the meantime, including a fitness advice program, social media training, and even a craft beer tasting, so I heavily encourage you to look for future events from the Chamber! A big advancement for the chamber over the past year was the revamping of the chamber website. Thanks to one of our newest Board Members, Lisl Hector, we were able to transition our website and back room processing to allow for online payments, updates on local matters including virus regulations and news, and we even have a Promote Section to allow Chamber members free online advertising which are sent daily to subscribed members. This is a huge benefit from the chamber as everyone that promotes will increase the visibility of both the chamber members and their businesses with every post. In closing the success of the chamber and its members really comes down to the activity of the membership, so get involved! There are many stories of the business generated and relationships achieved by members taking part in the activities of the chamber. This is a place to meet like-minded individuals and as you are more and more active your relationships and the value of the chamber will grow too. I want to thank all of our membership, directors, and the chamber administrators for all the hard work put into the chamber and promise that we will continue to do all we can to help us all grow in 2021. Thank you for your time and I wish everyone a safe and successful new year.
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