Guest Speaker: Barbara Rivera-Holmes, President and CEO

Barbara leads the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce (GA), which for 113 years has made Albany work by investing in programs that build and support a prosperous economy, supporting job creation and talent development, and connecting businesses to each other, to resources and information. Holmes is likewise CEO of the Albany Area Chamber Foundation, the 501© affiliate of the Albany Area Chamber, which leads talent, economic, entrepreneurial and innovation initiatives that provide impact beyond the business community’s normal reach.

Guest Speaker: Missy Evans, President and CEO

Missy has lead the Hartselle Area Chamber of Commerce (AL) since June of 2019 when she and her family relocated to Hartselle from Charlotte, North Carolina. She is committed to promote the economic and social well-being of the people of the Hartselle Area.

Her set of professional experiences includes a number of positions both with for-profit businesses such as Westinghouse Electric and Chrysler Corporation and in the non-profit industry like The Greater Charlotte YMCA, St Giles Presbyterian Church and Christ Covenant Church/Covenant Day School. Most recently, she worked in Hartselle with the City Schools serving as a Teacher’s Aide with 7th & 8th graders at the Junior High School. In these roles, she was responsible for business administration, financial management, board, committee and volunteer management, membership recruitment and retention, continuing education/youth development and new program development.

Guest Speaker: Rich Millard, Executive Director

Rich leads the Royal Gorge Chamber Alliance (CO). He grew up in Colorado Springs and went on to earn a degree in Architecture with a focus on historic preservation from Kansas State University. He then spent the next 30+ years working in the tourism and event industry, mainly in the Southwest Colorado area around Durango. He relocated to Cañon City, Colorado in 2017 to manage the Royal Gorge Route Railroad and within a few years, also started a small lodging business.

Rich began to realize the important role that a fully functioning chamber of commerce can play, especially in a smaller community. He started with the Cañon City Chamber of Commerce as the Executive Director in September 2021. Although brand new to the chamber world, he quickly found that his broad swath of life and career-related skills would serve him well. With the board’s enthusiastic support, a complete top-to-bottom organizational refresh was commenced, and over the next year the Royal Gorge Chamber Alliance (RGCA) sprung to life, including all new branding, tiered member benefit structure, expanded programming, overhauled Business After Hours events, renewed office / visitor center space and completely updated ChamberMaster website. He also renewed and expanded relationships by the RGCA with local agencies such as the Fremont Economic Development Corporation (FEDC) and the Fremont County Tourism Council (FCTC).

Guest Speaker: Dawn Mushill, Executive Director

Dawn Mushill has lead the Troy/Maryville/St. Jacob/Marine Chamber of Commerce (IL) since June of 2000. In 2000, there were just 111 Chamber members. The Chamber membership has grown to 450 members, with 48% of the members within the four communities and 52% outside of the communities.

The Chamber saw growth when they began to focus on what the members were seeking in their membership. Although networking was important for some, most of the members were more interested in educational opportunities, available resources and individual connections. Over the years, those requests still hold true, and most recently the Chamber created their Menu of Services, which allows their members to select their own benefits.

Guest Speaker: Margie Donnell, Operations Manager

Margie Donnell is the Operations Manager of the Lancaster/Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce (OH). Since graduating from Ohio University with a degree in Business Administration, her career has been focused on managing the front offices of both large and small businesses. Areas of strength include project management, executive support, financial management and administrative supervision as well as policy and procedure development. Before joining the chamber in 2016, she spent 18 years as the Administrative Service Manager at Catholic Social Services in Columbus.

A Promoter of “Good Change”

Cathi Hight, is President of Hight Performance Group, an organizational development firm that helps develop healthy organizations to manage constant change, enhance customer loyalty and “work smarter, not harder.” Cathi facilitates strategic planning, develops investor models and strategies, and helps leaders navigate trends and prepare for the future.

She has over 30 years of experience in performance improvement, strategic planning, board development, and membership development within association, chamber, education, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit, and technology sectors.

She is a certified Motorola University instructor for continuous improvement and Wiley Authorized Partner for Everything DiSC and The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team.

Cathi is recognized nationally for her work with associations and is the author of The Member Retention Kit and A New Approach to Tiered Membership, and developer of the Work Smarter, Not Harder program.  She provides resources to help associations stay relevant, effectively communicate the value of membership, increase their bottom line.

She has presented at many state and national conferences for associations and chambers of commerce and has been an instructor for Institute for Organization Management (IOM) since 2004.