Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Binod hopes to help members as new chamber director

After two years, the Kimball Banner County Chamber of Commerce has hired a new chamber director.

Larissa Binod is the newly hired chamber director, and will be in the chamber office from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

"We've been without a director for about two years. It's really tough. A director needs to be someone who is professional and business minded so that they can help us accomplish our goals. We need them to be passionate about the community," said Josh Enevoldsen, the new chairman of the chamber of commerce board.

The chamber board asked around and tried to find a good fit, and believe they have done so in Binod. Many know Binod as the director at Keep Kimball Beautiful. She will now be part-time chamber director in addition to those duties. This means she will have a number of board appointed duties to accomplish, however, Enevoldsen and the board have confidence in her abilities.

"Larissa, knows business. She has experience running a business and knows what businesses might need to know as far as education goes, so it's going to be really nice not only having someone who can help figure out what the members want and need, but also someone who has enough of their own experience that they can generate ideas," Enevoldsen said.

Kimball and Banner counties should not be expecting any huge projects or events out of the chamber anytime soon. Not having a director for two years has set the chamber back in some ways, and Enevoldsen said they are currently making the chamber members a priority.

"One of the big things that we want to get done is to have our director get out and see all the members face to face. That was something that we couldn't accomplish before, but now we can because we have a director," Enevoldsen said.

The board has spent plenty of time coming up with a plan of action in order to better serve its members, and in turn help the commerce in Kimball and Banner counties. Something that Binod noticed in her short time as the chamber director so far is the need for better information handling and sharing.

"We are constantly learning that our members don't even know what they have access to, so my role is to know all of the things we can do and offer to our members. I'm to provide quality and pertinent education to our members on a regular basis," Binod said.

The chamber has a few different avenues in which it provides information to chamber members and community members alike. The chamber sends out mailers to people who do not have computers. The chamber also sends out an email blast to almost 350 people, and sends Facebook blasts that reach about another 300 people.

"The director's role is to be the hub. Information and opportunities have a central location to come in to, and then through use of knowledge and different resources, I can get that information or person to the place they need to be that would be most effective," Binod said.

Board members and Binod have noticed a trend among some businesses that are members of the chamber. This trend is one where people are chambers members because "it's what you do." Many are members just because it is what has always been done and they do not know what a chamber even does for the community.

The chamber board hopes to target the education of its members in the year to come, as well as find out what the members want from them. Another thing the chamber would like to address is its website, and to make sure it gets updated.

"We are working to help affect the commerce in Kimball in a positive manner. So many people have been making comments about how Kimball has a negative attitude toward themselves and we would like to try to help businesses have a more positive outlook as well as educating them on how they might be able to change the views on the community by planning education for our members," Enevoldsen said.

The chamber board also hopes to get more people from the businesses who are members to be a part of subcommittees and help with some planning.

"The more people that are involved, the more we can get accomplished, as well as get better quality work accomplished," Enevoldsen said.

 
 
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