CHERYL’S CORNER
PRESIDENTS YEAR END REPORT

Well this has been a wild year, with so much to report and so many people to thank.

First I want to thank the exciting Board of Directors that came with a bag of ideas and the skill and want to for them all to happen.

In January we made the decision to have a new website, this was due to problems with the old site and the lack of professional quality, which we did not think was what we are portraying as the Silt Area Chamber of Commerce. The fruits of that decision are the website that you are seeing on the screen,
We were invited by the Holiday Inn Express to use a conference room at their beautiful facility and have been so fortunate to work with Joe for this and other events.
We instituted the Silt Chamber Ambassadors with their great green jackets, more from Ramona on that front.

The February membership meeting themed Mardi Gras was at the Holiday Inn Express with Chief Burris doing a presentation on Identity Theft. This had to be repeated another evening because of electrical problems.

March the Silt Laundromat hosted a coffee to distribute the Chamber Guide.

April the chamber joined in with Coal Ridge to sponsor the Titan Trot and actually had member of the Board Of Directors run in the race.

May the chamber with the help of many put on Silt on Sale this is growing project and a wonderful service to the community.

June was the membership meeting with a presentation by Don McClure CFO EnCana on the state of the energy industry; the meeting was in the evening with cookies and ice cream.

July we placed flags in the round about for the Fourth of July.

August was Silt Hey Days the chambers sponsored the Grand Marshals tent and will continue with this project and were in the parade with most of us dressed like we did years ago.

September was a major new undertaking with the first annual coat drive.
October was the first annual Halloween breakfast sponsored by the Holiday Inn Express and the distribution of children’s coats we passed out over 100 coats that morning. We next had a tamarisk and olive tree removal day and cleared these noxious critters from three of the town parks. We will repeat this again in April, volunteers are welcome and we do feed you. An election of officers was held, I will hold off introducing them until the swearing in.

November the by laws of the chamber were updated and amended to bring them in to compliance with current rules and regulations of a not for profit organization. At this time we changed to governance method and will now have a Chairperson no longer a President, and the stage has been set for growth and the time when we will be able to hire staff. What I feel was a tribute to how far the chamber has come this year was the first annual Thankful for our senior’s dinner with all of the food contributed and cooked by the membership businesses and all of the 20 servers from our membership, we had 52 wonderful seniors in the door and delivered 15 meals, a coat distribution after dinner. The remainder of the coats was taken the Veterans home in Rifle that day we distributed another 120 coats the remainder will be taken to the Veterans Hospital in Grand Junction, any volunteers? Again flags in the roundabout for Veterans Day.

And here we are at the end of a very successful year with a quick membership meeting and a wonderful party to celebrate with friends, aquaintenances and the membership of the Silt Area Chamber of Commerce.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve during this wonderful year of exciting events.

Cheryl