Coming Home

Wendy Long’s first day as director of member relations at the Morris County Chamber of Commerce was the day Gov. Phil Murphy ordered all non-essential businesses to shut in response to the COVID-19 virus, including the chamber. Welcome to your new job, Wendy. Fortunately for  her – and for the chamber members who have since been seeing a lot of her – Long has enjoyed a long relationship with the chamber and was able to hit the ground running even during a pandemic. 

Long’s journey to her new position began in 2010 when she launched Always Best Care, an in-home care service for senior citizens. She immediately joined the chamber as a way to create a network and grow her business. “I could see the Morris County Chamber was robust and had a lot to offer,” she said. Long became a “serial networker” and within two years was asked to become a chamber ambassador.  “I really believed in the culture of members helping members,” she said. “I wanted to be someone who, if you came to me and I couldn’t provide you with what you needed, I could still help you through my network.” That sense of helping others has long been engrained in Long. A lifelong Morris County resident, she volunteered as a Candy Striper at Riverside Hospital in high school and later at an assisted living facility, both in Boonton. It was also why Long left her original career in IT after 22 years at Prudential. “It was a very good career path but it wasn’t really my passion,” she said. “You want to wake up every morning and have a passion for what you do. I always wanted to be in the health care space and I had fallen in love with senior care when I was young.”

​That led to Always Best Care, which in turn looped Long back to Saint Clare’s in 2018 as senior care liaison. In that position, she used her network to get the hospital more involved with the chamber and help them build out a robust senior program. Two years later, when the opportunity to become director of member relations arose at the chamber, Long jumped at it. “It just made sense,” she said. “In this position my passion focuses on member engagement. There are a lot of members at the chamber who are not as engaged as they could be because they don’t know what the chamber has to offer. Or a company might join and there is a staffing change and it’s a matter of re-engagement. “There are endless opportunities to connect and build relationships and grow your business. But the effort you put in is equal to what you get back.” Long also is responsible for member recruitment, which is a natural fit for her because of her belief in the chamber’s mission of connecting members.

“I really get a lot of pride and satisfaction out of helping others,” she said. In the weeks following the closure of non-essential businesses, doing that entailed a lot of virtual interaction with and support of members for Long and the rest of the chamber staff. She and Mike Stanzilis, the chamber’s vice president of business development, have been hosting countless online networking events through Zoom. Long said they are learning valuable lessons in the process. “We’re finding there will be some things we’ll keep in place,” she said. “We were always of the mindset if we’re going to network it has to be in person. We’ve learned it doesn’t have to be. So there are some positive things coming out of all this.” Nevertheless, Long looks forward to being able to interact with members face to face again. It will feel like home.