NEWS - CHAMBERS of Commerce

12/14/2009 - The Pooler Crossroads Chamber of Commerce continues to grow and strengthen after several years of confusion, and held its annual meeting on Dec. 9 at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, where the chamber now rents an office.

Seventeen local companies that are paid members in good standing and eligible to vote on the new officers slate were represented, providing the chamber with more than its required 15 percent quorum of its total paid membership of just under 100 companies, according to Karen Robertson, executive director.

The chamber’s new board presented by the nominating committee was elected unanimously. In addition, GeoVista Credit Union was honored as Business Member of the Year, a new award which the chamber established for the first time this year. Other highlights of annual meeting include a progress report and future plans, and the announcement that while the chamber is still officially the Pooler Crossroads Chamber of Commerce, Inc., they are working on a name change.

GeoVista was recognized for its ongoing commitment to quality, customer service, community involvement, business growth and development, and its support of the Pooler chamber since its reorganization in 2008. Former boards of directors of the chamber ran into problems with the State of Georgia for expenditures and processes used to manage the hotel/motel taxes that the City of Pooler receives.

GeoVista Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned and operated by its members. Members live, work or attend school in Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham, Effingham and Liberty Counties. Jean Delong accepted the award on behalf of GeoVista.

Chamber members elected the following officers to one year terms and board members to two year terms: President, Kim Griffin, The Coastal Bank; Vice President, Sam Patel, Travelodge Suites; Treasurer, Bobbie Frost, The Paper Clip; and Board Members Jennifer Ranicki, Ranicki Chiropractic Wellness Center; Jackie Ford, Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia; and Jamie Olejarz, A Class Act Dance Center.

President Kim Griffin shared highlights of the chamber’s work during the past year and noted the progress that the organization has made since December 2007 when it “began the process of starting over,” she explained. In February 2008 the reorganized chamber held its first annual meeting as a new organization and elected a fresh slate of officers and board members, managed by Karen Robertson, president of PR Concepts, who was retained in a consulting role, working with new legal counsel Jim Gerard of Oliver Maner and others on the reorganization and transition process. For the past two years, she has functioned as an acting executive director, working with key board members to run the chamber.

Since the reorganization the chamber has gone from zero to nearly 100 members and worked on improved communications and providing more services to its stakeholders, said Griffin.

“The past year, we have accomplished a lot, thanks to you, our members, volunteers and staff,” Griffin said. “We have moved our offices into the first floor of the Mighty Eighth; hired two, part-time receptionists, Donna Hellmann and Terry Turner, who now staff the chamber and visitors center; held ribbon cuttings for new Pooler businesses; sponsored the Flyin’ Pig BBQ & Music Festival; conducted a new Pooler Days at the Georgia Visitors Center; hosted business breakfast workshops, business after hours and a lunch and learn seminar; and held our first Business & Consumer Expo and Taste of Pooler and the Westside.”

Griffin noted that the chamber board recently voted to change the chamber’s name to the Pooler Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau to more accurately reflect the chamber’s operations. The chamber is in the transition process with the new name.

This fall the chamber advertised and interviewed for the executive director position, but ended up hiring Karen Robertson as the part-time executive director, said Griffin. She will continue her work with PR Concepts in Savannah, and will not accept any clients that would put her in conflict, she said.

The chamber is dealing with several issues as it completes the transition following the reorganization and the board indicated it needed someone who had a clear understanding of all of these issues as well as helping it go forward, Griffin added.

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