All About the Mission - March 8

After the success of the Chamber’s sold out Annual Meeting last week, I was glad to see that this type of event is as popular as ever before.  The tradition of the organization gathering its members once a year to report on the state of the organization goes back to the Chamber’s founding days.  In fact, in the care of the Augusta Museum of History for the sake of posterity, are fine china plates with the Chamber logo at the time, which were pulled out once per year for the big event.  It was a business meeting, right down to the plates. 

Of course, Chamber annual meetings have certainly evolved over the years.  Some chambers across the country still hold a very traditional event.  This year, the Greenville Chamber for example, is having their event at a baseball stadium.  The point is, a chamber annual meeting, in its true form, is simply an opportunity to celebrate the region’s business community in whatever form that has meaning to them.

From all the reviews coming in since our event last week, our speaker, Jon Acuff, was a tremendous win.  His message and style with a sprinkle of humor was just the ticket to compliment the theme this year which was “Turning the Page”.   We also had the opportunity to feature many other speakers that night including three years of chairmanship including Jim Davis, President of Piedmont Healthcare Augusta, (2020) Tom Blanchard, III, President of Blanchard & Calhoun (2021) and Garnett Johnson, President of Augusta Office Solutions (2022).

Also featured was a wonderful video produced by a new member of the Chamber, Oak Film Co.  If you have not had a chance to watch, please take a minute to share in the enthusiasm and excitement many business leaders have for 2022.