By Joe Kirchmyer

It is truly an honor to be taking over as Executive Director of the West Seneca Chamber of Commerce and I look forward to working with members and nonmembers alike to make West Seneca a more desirable place to live and work. A sincere thank you to the Chamber’s staff and Board of Directors for being so welcoming and helping to make my transition an easy one.

As a lifelong resident of West Seneca, a former member of the corporate/media world and, for the past decade, a small business owner, I know how important a high-functioning Chamber of Commerce can be to a community. In fact, I’ve had an opportunity to work with a lot of them and I’ve seen both the good and the bad. If there’s one thing they all have in common, it’s that there’s always room for improvement.

Moving into this position, I have set several goals … some big, some small. My first goal was to improve our social media platforms so that they are of greater benefit to our community. Hopefully you have already noticed the difference with our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn platforms, and our website, of course!

By making these changes, I hope our members will begin to think of the West Seneca Chamber of Commerce as an extension of their marketing/communications team. If you have news, please tell us about it, and we will help you share it across Western New York.

I also want to get to know all of our members and their businesses. This will take a significant amount of time, but if you are currently a member of the Chamber, I’d like to have a face-to-face meeting and offer you an opportunity to have your business profiled on our website and social media platforms. And if you’re not currently a member, I’d still like to meet to discuss the many benefits of Chamber membership.

A special thank you to Bee Publications and the West Seneca Bee for providing this space to the West Seneca Chamber of Commerce on a monthly basis. I will use this venue to bring you updates on events, benefits and our efforts on behalf of our community.

Also, please mark your calendar for the return of two major events sponsored by the Chamber, the Taste of West Seneca and West Seneca PBA Car Show on Sept. 2, and the Chamber’s annual golf outing on Sept. 12. The Taste/Car Show event will grow this year with the addition of music by the Boys of Summer! Delicious food, cool cars and great music. What’s not to like!

My list of goals for the Chamber is lengthy, so I won’t bore you with all the details right now. Let me end with this: If you have any questions, concerns, want to schedule a meeting at our office or your location, or would like to become a member — individual, corporate or nonprofit — and help us create positive change in West Seneca, please do not hesitate to contact me in the Chamber office.

Joe Kirchmyer is Executive Director of the West Seneca Chamber of Commerce.