1.  Personally visit with every chamber business .
Our membership is small enough so that either I or a board member is able to do this at least once a year. 

2.  Continue work on the chamber's strategic plan.
The first meeting to develop a 5 year strategic plan was held in November. The chamber board and interested members will schedule another planning meeting this spring.

3.  Grow our membership.
The more members we have, the more we can accomplish together. Our website alone brings measurable benefits to our members. Google stats for last month include 129 views of our shopping page, 195 views of our events page, 60 on the employment page, 129 on the blog which is available for member contributions and 1,893 total view of the website - http://www.granitefallschamber.com/. The chamber increases our online presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. I'm available to help our members with social media or set up a website.  As well as business memberships, we offer home -based business and individual memberships. 

4. Improve our daycare options in Granite Falls.
This issue is a problem in many rural areas and affects recruitment and current employees. This affects where new residents choose to live and purchase a house. It's the focus of the Yellow Medicine County Economic Development task force that did the housing survey last year.  Also, it’s a priority for the Southwest Initiative Foundation. Working together with these organizations, I want to see a daycare center and more home daycare providers in our town. 

5. Work toward more coordination between organizations.
We have many non-profits doing great things in Granite Falls. The chamber is the vehicle to coordinate these efforts. I am already on the board of the Neighbor's United Food Shelf and the Granite Falls Historical Society and have written successful grants for both organizations. I'm a member of the Chemical Health Coalition, Act on Alzheimer’s committee, Friends of Minnesota West,  Kiwanis and Granite Falls Riverfront Revitalization. 

6. Increase our tourism industry.
The whitewater park project and heritage tourism are two areas that have a huge potential to bring visitors to our town. I'm a member of the Southern Minnesota Tourism Marketing Committee, Western Minnesota Prairie Waters board, and the MN River Valley Scenic Byway Alliance.

The Granite Falls Area Chamber is looking for your ideas for the New Year! Please stop into the chamber office at 807 Prentice St, call 320-564-4039 or e-mail us at gfchamber@mvtvwireless.com. 

On behalf of the Granite Falls Area Chamber we would like to thank you for being a member in 2016 and look forward to working with you in 2017!

The Granite Falls Chamber wants to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you for all the support from our chamber members who sponsor events, invest their dollars, volunteer, attend our events and make this a great place to live during the holidays and all year long. We hope everyone is enjoying hunting for our small elves with prizes attached and visits from our Elf on the Footbridge! Our Elf Holiday Shopping Passes have been popular with the boxes getting full for the drawing on December 23 at 1 PM. 

Ballots have been mailed out for next year's Chamber board of directors. There are write -in spots so please use those if your business has a potential board member. We try to get board representatives from a variety of businesses. The chamber also offers home based business memberships and individual memberships if you don't own a business but still want to support the chamber.
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We have a great year planned for 2017 and would love to hear your ideas and comments and plan a head for spring and summer events. Join us at the annual Community Celebration at Bootleggers Supper Club on January 28, featuring music by Six Appeal. Riverside Market and Muse will continue next summer starting May 13 and continuing every second Saturday of each month through September.   There is no charge for vendors to set up along the downtown plazas. This is an opportunity for fundraisers selling lunch or other items. Music and other entertainment will start at noon during each of the dates and performers are welcome to participate in Open Mike. Together we can create a great year in 2017! 

Western Minnesota Prairie Waters is the five county tourism entity promoting our area.  Recently the Upper Minnesota River Valley Development Commission received a grant from the Blandin foundation to create a marketing project aimed more at recruitment and lifestyle in this same western Minnesota area.  The phase I meeting created a logo "Get Rural, MN".

This summer, interns visited community events in this area as well as downtowns, individual businesses and took some great photographs.  A drone was hired to take aerial shots of scenery and downtowns. 

Videos are being created of the area that will be available for businesses and towns to use on their websites.  A facebook page and instagram account was created.  The purpose is to create a better online presence for western Minnesota and showcase the entire area instead of each individual town.  Working together, we can promote our area and bring new employees and businesses!

Each year, the chamber celebrates our community with a fun evening of entertainment and great food!  Everyone is welcome to attend our annual event. This year we're outdoing ourselves with award winning entertainment by Six Appeal.  Click on the link and enjoy a preview!

Tickets are available at the chamber office, they would make a great Christmas gift!  For only $35 you get to see a great performance and enjoy a great meal at Bootlegger's Supper Club.  This is an important fundraiser for the chamber which also includes great silent auction items. You can now purchase your tickets online on the chamber website's event page.  Click on the "Pay Now" button next to the event listing.  You will receive your paper tickets in the mail and be automatically added to the guest list.  Save the date, January 28, doors open at 5 PM.