Building a Strong Chamber Through Inclusion and Engagement

Author:  Meghan Hunscher, President and CEO, Morris County Chamber of Commerce

At 99 years young, it’s an exciting time at the Morris County Chamber of Commerce as we bring on new staff and launch new initiatives. Our board of directors is engaged in a strategic planning process that has created a new vision for the chamber to “create member experiences that foster exceptional business success and quality of life.”  

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The board’s new mission statement for the chamber, “The Morris County Chamber of Commerce collaboratively advances the interests of its members to champion a thriving business and community environment,” embraces the role of the chamber in creating community where your business can grow. In addition, we adopted a new set of values, “Integrity, Transparency, Inclusion, Passion, and Collaboration,” and goals to “Innovate, Empower, and Advocate.” These will serve as guiding principles as we evaluate ways to continually improve the association, deliver value and engage with you, the members. 

As a former city planner and economic developer, I often advised communities how to develop a “sense of place” to attract people and businesses to invest in communities. As with communities, it is important for the chamber to build on its strengths to increase the value membership provides. To help us achieve this, Ed Ramirez has joined the chamber team as director of business resources, strategic partnerships and professional development.

Ed will bring his knowledge, experience and relationships to the Morris County Economic Development Corporation, which is a division of the chamber, to connect businesses with the financial resources and professional skills to help grow their business. He will work closely with our members in higher education, other nonprofits, community development financial intermediaries and state agencies, including the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the Business Action Center, to bring resources to Morris County to support and grow businesses such as yours. Ed also will be preparing professional development courses throughout the year in which members can share with each other their knowledge on various subjects. If you are interested in applying as a speaker, please visit: https://www.morrischamber.org/speaker-application.html.

​I consistently hear from members about the chamber’s specialness as a place where our members encourage, inspire and motivate each other and the association to innovate with new ideas for programs and initiatives, such as Mentor Morris, which was launched this fall (see page 24). To learn more, visit https://www.morrischamber.org/mentor-morris.html. 

The variety of businesses in the chamber is our strength and members consistently tell me how fortunate they are to encounter the expertise and specialists in the chamber from whom they can learn and also refer to their clients, as well. The chamber is excited to elevate your brand and share your insights with the thousands of members and prospects that hear from us on a regular basis. I encourage you to share your thought leadership through the chamber blog, which can be promoted through our monthly newsletter, as well. You can submit a blog on the chamber’s website https://www.morrischamber.org/blog.

Finally, the board and staff are committed to making sure all our members find their place at the chamber and have a sense of belonging, which creates a vibrant community. We also encourage you to refer a company or client that you think would benefit from chamber membership to our director of membership, Mike Stanzilis at [email protected]. As a thank you for your referral, you will receive a credit of up to $50 per member that you referred who joins the chamber toward any event.

​ Read Business Edge Fall 2019 Edition