Growing One Member at a Time

Chamber of Commerce teams with consulting firm to get the word out about the benefits of membership.

ARTICLE BY Pamela Spradlin Mahajan

PHOTOS BY Casey Rooman Smith

The De Soto Chamber of Commerce and Your Chamber Connection co-hosted the chamber’s membership drive in late March. The event, which takes place every three to five years, helps educate “our members on what the Chamber can do for businesses,” says Chamber Vice President Katy Fallon. The drive also provides an opportunity for members to share the benefits of chamber membership with nonmembers, who may then opt to join.

Your Chamber Connection, a consulting firm based in Austin, Texas, had partnered with the De Soto Chamber on the membership drive right before COVID, which was instrumental in keeping the Chamber operational through the initial days of the pandemic. The company specializes in creating dynamic programs to bolster membership, engage and educate current members, and raise funds. According to the organization’s website, Your Chamber Connection helped bring in 57 new De Soto Chamber members and raised more than $40,000 in funds during this year’s drive.

The benefits of joining the De Soto Chamber of Commerce are plentiful, says Fallon. Members grow and strengthen their network of professional contacts via monthly luncheons and the annual dinner, as well as other events. Business owners also increase their visibility through the chamber’s website directory, weekly newsletters, and social media channels. Additionally, membership provides the opportunity for business professionals to join forces for a common cause: to attract even more businesses and customers to the rapidly growing De Soto area.

Andy Jacober, a financial adviser and De Soto Chamber of Commerce chairman, credits his membership with greatly expanding his professional network.

“The Chamber of Commerce is way more than a golf tournament and a lunch. I personally love our events because it gets me in front of a lot of new people. I am a financial adviser, and my business is about meeting people and talking about what is important to them,” he says. “We have a lot of other small businesses that like those events, too. Our larger companies want to see workforce development. Finding and hiring good people is a challenge everywhere. We’re in a very unusually low unemployment situation here in Johnson County, which makes finding good people even harder.”

With two major developments in progress in De Soto, intense change and growth are on the horizon. Panasonic Energy is currently building a manufacturing facility for electric vehicle batteries, set to open in March 2025. Expected to generate significant economic growth, the plant will provide up to 4,000 new jobs and result in an investment of around $4 billion. In addition, the Flint Commerce Center will eventually provide 4.7 million square feet of industrial space at the corner of 103rd Street and Edgerton Road.

The De Soto Chamber of Commerce operates with a ninemember board of directors and a staff of two executives and one administrative assistant. More than 230 local businesses are currently members.

The Economic Development Council (EDC) operates under the umbrella of the Chamber of Commerce. These two organizations work together to deliver an enhanced level of support for the local business community. The two newest Chamber board members are American Family Insurance agency owner Julie Coover and Sherelle Witt, realtor and co-owner of Oasis Nutrition.

“When a community has a strong, vibrant Chamber of Commerce, positive growth will come. Companies know that it’s the Chamber that goes to bat for them at the state level. The more members we have, the more staff we can hire to provide those resources for them. I am extremely excited to see what our Chamber will be like in the next few years,” says Jacober.

From left: Sara Ritter, Chamber president, Katy Fallon, Chamber vice president, and Karen Rodgers, administrative assistant, offer a wide range of services for local businesses who join the Chamber.

Three Cheers for the Chamber!

Recent accolades for the De Soto Chamber of Commerce have been published in Ingram’s and the Kansas City Business Journal.

Sara Ritter, IOM, the Chamber’s president, is one of Ingram’s 50 Kansans You Should Know.

Ingram’s connects business leaders from the Kansas–Missouri region through a monthly magazine and a bustling online presence. Its latest list of top Kansans includes people in every industry in the state: banking, health care, insurance, wealth management, professional services, and more.

Ritter was recognized for her efforts with the Chamber and the De Soto Economic Development Council. Both entities were heavily involved in bringing the Panasonic Energy electric-vehicle battery plant to the state. A native of De Soto, Ritter has been with the chamber since 2002. She earned the IOM designation through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organization Management and also has a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Mid-America Nazarene University. In her Ingram’s listing, she says, “We plan to work with all area communities to reach out and find out how they’d like to partner and be a part of the Panasonic success and story. This is a regional opportunity that will have regional solutions.”

For more, go to www.ingrams.com/article/50-kansans-you-should-know-5.

The Kansas City Business Journal annually recognized the top real estate projects in the Kansas City-metro area. Among the 2023 Capstone Awards for commercial real estate is one for the transaction involving the Panasonic Energy plant. In cooperation with the Kansas Department of Commerce, the Kansas City Area Development Council, Johnson County, and Sunflower Redevelopment, the City of De Soto and the Chamber of Commerce/Economic Development Council helped bring the largest economic development project in state history to De Soto. Panasonic has already broken ground and begun construction on the 5.2-million-square-foot plant over 300 acres in the Astra Enterprise Park in De Soto.

The $4 billion investment will bring 4,000 new jobs to the area as the new battery plant revitalizes land that once held the old Sunflower Ammunition Plant, which closed in 1993. The new plant is scheduled to go online in March 2025.

“We are breaking ground on the largest economic development project in the history of our state,” Gov. Laura Kelly said at the groundbreaking event. “There’s absolutely no doubt this project will be transformative for De Soto, the region and the entire state of Kansas. It will make Kansas a global leader in electric-vehicle battery production.”

De Soto beat out the competition for the plant as Panasonic considered 100 sites in 12 states. The state of Kansas offered $829.2 million in incentives to the company.

The judges for the Kansas City Business Journal’s Capstone Awards added this note: “Wow, just wow! We can’t wait to see this one come to life.”

For more, visit www.bizjournals.com/kansascity.

TO LEARN MORE

De Soto Chamber of Commerce

P.O. Box 70

32905 W. 84th St.

De Soto, KS 66018

913-583-1585

https://desotoks.org