What an honor this will be to represent the Wellington Chamber of Commerce as its President for the 2023-2024 term.  It is the culmination of several years being a Chamber member, Board member (serving as Secretary and President-elect) and a member of the Ambassador and Business & Economic Development Committees.  I do not enter this service lightly and am well aware of the precedent and level of leadership established by prior Presidents and Boards and the current Director, Michela Green.

During the recent 2023-2024 Board Installation luncheon, I offered some comments that will be the focus of my term this coming year.  I pledged to make an effort to meet every member.  While I already know and have spoken to many current members, there are many more that I have not.  Achieving this goal began with me volunteering to reach out to all new and renewing members during the month of April, as well as attending all Committee meetings in April.  There are 400+ current members so it was not too soon to begin.  I will be an engaged President with a policy that each member and prospective member may reach out to me with questions and comments.  While we will likely not be able to do everything that Chamber members request, please have confidence that your ideas will be heard and considered.

There is a delicate balance between preserving the well-established and highly successful Chamber events, such as Flavors, the 5K Race and Winterfest, while also considering new events.  Sayings such as “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and “If you’re not improving, you’re falling behind”, come to mind.  While the Chamber will continue to host these successful events, I also feel that we need to consider and hopefully implement additional ones.  We must continue to improve and be innovative.  Our two signature events illustrate the Chamber’s innovation.  During COVID, the Chamber pivoted from large and centralized gatherings for Flavors and Winterfest to creating a mobile Flavors on buses (which remains the preferred event structure today, 3 years later) to a “drive-in” Winterfest in 2020 that allowed for a large group to gather, but with sufficient and safe spacing.  Many Chambers were forced to shut down all activities in 2020, but the Wellington Chamber endeavored to find ways to keep the doors open and support local businesses through a difficult period.

In summary, while wanting to meet every Chamber member and having an open-door policy are my initial goals, I also want to continue to grow our Chamber membership and increase the number of members engaged in the various events, lunches, and after-hours networking.  Stronger member engagement will result in a stronger and more effective Chamber, which benefits all of us.

We have such a vibrant Chamber and a thriving community, and I am looking forward to engaging with all of you and exploring ways to continue growing and enhancing the lives of our residents and business owners.  I know we will do great things together.

Respectfully yours,

Daryl Lyon