IN THIS ISSUE
2021 is winding down - here’s all the upcoming Chamber happenings!
UPCOMING Events
11.05.21
November 2021
First Friday Forum with Senator Ron Johnson
From the desk of the executive director “A basic law: the more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for” – Norman Vincent As we embrace the cool crispness of November and inch closer to Thanksgiving, it is a great opportunity to look at all the wonderful people and things we have to be thankful for. I am thankful for the little bit of slowdown the Chamber has this time of year, so we can enjoy more time with our families Deidre Martinez and friends. We are certainly thankful for our members and the continued support we receive so that we may provide our communities with additional tools and resources to be successful. We are also thankful for our many Sheboygan County businesses that give back to our communities in so many ways. With Thanksgiving we begin to think about holiday shopping and celebration. I encourage each and every one of you to put down your computers and smart phones and drive to your local shopping areas, main streets and business improvement districts to complete your holiday shopping this season. Enjoy a cup of coffee or hot cocoa at your local café or a delicious meal at one of our many wonderful restaurants and eateries. If you are not sure what to purchase for your loved one, postal delivery people, teachers, babysitters, etc. we have Chamber Cash available right here at the Chamber office or at Festival Foods. Annually we keep $750,000 in our local communities through our Chamber Cash program and we expect that number to be even larger in 2021. We will also celebrate some phenomenal men and women in our County at the Athena Leadership Awards Luncheon on Thursday, November 11th at Blue Harbor Resort. With so many wonderful nominees and stories of encouragement, empowerment and support the judging process proves difficult, but the celebration will be grand. We hope you’ll join us, to learn more click here. In December, we will begin talking more about what we can expect in 2022. To start the year off, we will host our Economic Outlook Breakfast and Annual meeting in January and will begin sending out surveys in early December. Please take the time to answer these questions about your business. This helps the Chamber of Commerce report out and develop programming that is beneficial to the needs of Chamber members.
ROUNDTABLES MEETINGS:
11.10.21 WORKSITE WELLNESS 11.11.21 STRATEGIC SOURCING ROUNDTABLE
11.11.21
ATHENA Leadership Awards Luncheon Blue Harbor Resort
11.17.21
Focal Point with Leslie Laster, Associate Director for Diversity & Inclusion
11.18.21
Vibe @ Five with Jacobs Financial Solutions
Lastly, we are busy preparing for another Annual Chamber Champions Gala and will begin to solicit nominations for this year’s businesses and organizations that have really stood out. Start making your list now, so you are ready to nominate in just a few weeks. Our Annual Chamber Champions Awards Gala will take place this year on Thursday, February 10th at the Osthoff Resort, make sure you Save the Date! The Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce is committed to providing value to our members, increasing economic vitality and the well-being of the business climate in Sheboygan County through providing opportunities in Professional Development, Relationship Building, Governmental Affairs, Workforce Development and Young Professional Development. We are truly Better Together! - Deidre Martinez
News from THE DIRECTOR OF MEMBERSHIP & workforce DEVELOPMENT Good day Chamber Nation! I hope you enjoyed what was truly a beautiful month of October. As the leaves have changed colors, there has also been a change to our Explore Your Future event. Starting in January of 2022, we will be engaging with 7th and 8th graders from school districts around Sheboygan County to provide them a means to explore career opportunities and learn more about their personality traits, and how their personality will play a role in what they may become interested in once they enter high school. The dates are January 12 and 13 at Lakeshore Technical College, and we are Scott Kuehn looking for professionals to share their journey to success. If you are interested in participating, please contact me or Julie Frausto from INSPIRE Sheboygan at jfrausto@inspiresheboygancounty.org. We can fill you in on details and time commitment. You’ll find it to be a very rewarding experience, and you’ll have fun too! Some things to think about as we move into the last quarter of 2021: Give me a call or email me at scott@sheboygan.org and join a family of Deep Divers today! •
Roundtables are a terrific way to meet others within your business sector. Whether it’s Human Resources, Sales & Marketing, Not for Profit, and others, you’re sure to learn something from your peers. These peer-to-peer networking groups can help any one of your employees, or yourself, accelerate your learning curve, and minimize potential setbacks within your organization. Our own John Rogers does an outstanding job keeping each group on task, and always shares his own wealth of knowledge. Contact john@sheboygan.org and join a Roundtable today!
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Our Young Professionals network goal is to attract, engage, and retain young, diverse talent to Sheboygan County by providing opportunities for young professionals to design their social culture, serve as civic innovators and community stewards, and develop into the next generation of leaders for Sheboygan County. If you are interested in joining the YP network, please contact Molly Talaska at molly@sheboygan.org
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Check out the chamber calendar at www.sheboygan.org and make sure you mark the remainder of 2021 for all events coming up later this year. It is sure to be an exciting and rewarding year with 2022 right around the corner!
Have a terrific month, and please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or just want to meet for a cup of coffee and chat. Because you know what? We are so much #BETTERTOGETHER!
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Molly, Coastal YPN Liaison Happy November! I hope everyone had a very safe and happy Halloween! The weather could not have been any better for trick or treating this year! Let’s hope the weather keeps up through November, even though we know the snow is coming! Wrapping up October was very eventful for Coastal. We hosted OktoberFeast at the Elks Lodge #299 this year and had almost 100 people come through and taste the dishes provided by our vendors. Thank you to everyone who participated in this event as well as all of our vendors. We could not have made this night a success without having you all participate. Another huge thank you to Tonic Roots for providing us with live music for the entire evening and to our sponsors for making sure that we were able to secure our venue and entertainment. As we move along into November, Coastal is going to be a little less active than normal. We as a committee are diving in to make sure we are offering the best events and making sure that we are aligning ourselves with our mission and vision. With that being said, we are looking to add a couple more people to our committee. We have valued members who have been with us for 7+ years who are moving forward in their careers and we are trying to bring in new and fresh ideas to the committee. If you know anyone or are interested in joining our committee, please reach out to me at molly@sheboygan.org so we can meet for coffee or lunch.
Molly Talaska
Thank you all once again for helping make OktoberFeast one we will not forget. Until next time Coastal Nation, Stay safe and healthy!
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congratulations athena leadership award nominees The Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce is excited to host the 2021 ATHENA Leadership Award, celebrating exemplary leadership on Thursday, November 11th, 2021 at Blue Harbor Resort. The ATHENA Leadership Award fulfills ATHENA International’s mission to support, develop and honor women leaders, inspire women to achieve their full potential and create balance in leadership worldwide. Register now to attend and support these remarkable leaders in our community! We encourage you to invite an aspiring young professional leader from your organization to join you at this event. Nominees are announced below!
Colleen Kuhn, Johnsonville
Kristina George, Next Step Insurance
Diane Oppeneer, Lakeshore Community Health Care
Stephanie Rakun, Mini Mocha Play Cafe
Erika Owens, Grounded Roots Chiropractic
Lynn Potyen, The GameBoard
Jamie Burkart, Foenix Tax & Business Services
Sarah Bornemann, Lakeshore Technical College
Kris Delano, Rockline Industries
Donna Hahn, Plymouth Arts Center
Olivia Zeman, UnitedOne Credit Union
Le’Shay Guy, Lakeland University
Jennica Krebsbach, Van Horn Automotive Group, Inc.
Sarah Ruiz-Harrison, Fox Communities Credit Union
Jennifer Puetz, Sunny Ridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Laura Kohler, Kohler Co.
Jocelyn Medrek, Great Marriages
David Gallianetti, Lakeland University Laurie Mueller, HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital
ATHENA LEADERSHIP AWARDS
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MEET CAROLINE RICHARDS, BUSINESS MANAGER! Caroline Richards recently joined the Chamber as the new Business Manager. She has over 15 years of experience working with small businesses in accounting, human resources, and office management, and has degrees in radio/television (Maryland) and accounting (New Mexico). After living in quite a few states over the years, Caroline and her husband moved to Sheboygan last year, sight unseen, and love it here. As part of her role at the Chamber, Caroline will be coordinating the Leadership Sheboygan County program and is currently part of this year’s class, learning about it from the inside out. She looks forward to meeting and working with the great members of the Sheboygan County Chamber! Please help us welcome Caroline to the Chamber community! Caroline Richards
the 2021 sheboygan county workforce development showcases phenomenal speakers and content At the 2021 Sheboygan County Workforce Development Symposium, we heard from subject matter experts, K-12 administration and business partners on the importance of creating true belonging in our spaces. Creating a space of belonging can be what really sets us apart as we continue to work on attracting all people from outside of Sheboygan County, but also growing and retaining the folks that are already here! Our goal at the 2021 Workforce Development Symposium was to provide all our participants with additional tools in their toolboxes and an opportunity to learn from others.
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october in review
First Friday Forum Adam Payne
Ribbon Cutting Champion Storage
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Member Orientation
Countdown 2 Connect A Speed Networking Event
Chamber Community & Buisness Expo
OktoberFeast
Ribbon Cutting Six Turtles Boutique
Executive Series with John Knowles, CEO Plymouth Industries
Ribbon Cutting The GameBoard
Save the dates!
December 1, 2021 Member Orientation
Chamber Champions Gala Nominations Opening Soon!
January 20, 2022
February 10, 2022
Economic Outlook Breakfast
Chamber Champions Gala
Sheboygan
County Chamber
Newsletter sponsorship opportunities now available! Please contact Scott Kuehn at 920-918-1315 or scott@sheboygan.org for more information.
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