December 20, 2013 at 4:54 p.m.
Reed reflects on time with chamber
Reed reflects on time with chamber
Reed is about to make a major career change as 2013 turns into 2014. She announced last week she will be leaving the chamber effective Jan. 10 to take a position with Ministry Medical Group as a marketing account manager.
Reed has served as the chamber's executive director since May 2011. When asked to reflect on her tenure as an ambassador for Rhinelander, Reed said she has thoroughly enjoyed the position and is proud of the new events the chamber has developed under her watch.
"I've loved it, every minute of it. I really enjoy what I'm doing," she said. "The reason I'm making a change isn't because I'm not happy with what I'm doing, it's just a great opportunity. Looking back overall, I'm really proud of the things that have happened with the chamber over the last few years I've been here. Our membership has been growing over the time I've been here which makes me proud. We've got some really great events that we've started and been able to grow. The same thing with a lot of our programs. We seem to be getting more involvement not only from chamber members but from community members and volunteers and that's all really great stuff. I'm really proud of that stuff."
Reed said she's particularly excited about Rhinelander's newest event, the Boom Lake Log Jam, which is scheduled to debut June 21, 2014 at Hodag Park. She also pointed to some national recognition Rhinelander has enjoyed during her time with the chamber as one of her proudest accomplishments.
"I'm really, really excited about the Log Jam coming up this summer. It's one of those things that I hope I can still stay involved in with," she said. "I definitely am hoping to still be able to be involved in that. I think some of the good and really exciting things that I'll remember are the ADDY Award that we won for the Hodag infographic, seeing the Hodag on Scooby-Doo - just all of the national recognition that we saw for Rhinelander with the couple of Travel Channel series here and in Canada. That's all really exciting, to hear about Rhinelander and our community getting that kind of national and even international recognition. That stuff is some of the stuff that sticks out that I can think of."
Much like PotatoFest, which made its debut last summer, the Log Jam will highlight Rhinelander's rich history.
"The Boom Lake Log Jam is our new event for June next year. It is going to be an entire day based on the lumberjack and logging history of Rhinelander. We've got plans like a lumberjack competition, live entertainment all day, kids activities, and we're going to have different stations for people to learn and try the lumberjack events - things like log rolling and cross-cutting and all of those things," Reed said.
Even though she will no longer be in charge, Reed said she's hoping to be involved with chamber events in one way or another.
"If there's one thing I do, it's throw myself 100 percent, maybe even more, into the things that I do. I don't think I could ever just totally walk away from the stuff happening at the chamber. I'd love to still stay involved," she said. "It's always, I think, interesting when you leave a role, it kind of depends - I don't want to step on anybody's toes who comes in behind me. The next executive director is is going to want to put their own mark on the chamber and the activities, but I definitely would still want to be involved with everything."
Two events Reed hopes to continue to participate in are the ice drags and the Leadership Oneida County program.
"The ice drags is one of them. I think that was a very successful event and I loved every second of it and if I can be involved with it again and help, I definitely will," Reed said.
"I think the leadership program is another. We started looking at doing like a second tier, if you will, for Leadership Oneida County. I've got that rolling and we're going to do our first Leadership 2.0 in February, so I don't just want to walk away from those types of things. I want to make sure that they're still going to happen. If I can be involved, I would love to, but if nothing else I still want to make sure that I can help facilitate and make sure all of that stuff continues to happen and make sure that the great things happening here with the chamber and our programming and our membership and our events and all of that continues to keep happening."
Asked to share some words of wisdom to be passed on to her successor (who has not been chosen), Reed said communication is key - along with a good night's sleep.
"I think the biggest thing for anybody that steps into this role is communication. It's key. It doesn't matter if I'm on the phone talking with the media and communicating the message of what the chamber is all about or being out with our members and talking to them about what the benefits are and what are the things that we're working on and how are their membership investments getting put to work or communicating with the public about the things that are happening or to continue communicating with people outside of Rhinelander about why Rhinelander businesses and the community are so great and why people should really think about vacationing here, that's all key," Reed said. "You've also got to have a lot of energy to do this job, so I would advise my successor to sleep before they get here."
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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