NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting is tonight on the Kansas State Fairgrounds.
"In Sunflower South will be a sponsor expo," said Marcy Weingartner with the Chamber. "About 80 sponsors will exhibit and that'll go from 3:45 p.m. until 6 p.m.. And then around six o'clock, we start asking people to head on over to the Meadowlark Building where we have it set up and ready for the dinner, 6:30 p.m. is when we start really with the program and welcome and buffet and move on, hopefully we get through the whole evening and we're done around 8:30 p.m."
The speaker this year is a person with some firsts in her career.
"Her name is Susan O'Malley," Weingartner said. "She was the first female president of a national sports franchise. And it was the Washington sports and entertainment, so the Wizards and the Capitals NBA and NHL. She did all that at 29 and she has since become, she got her law degree after that, and she is now an adjunct professor. Very, very interesting woman and speaks highly on leadership and leadership skills and seven things she believes everyone needs."
Chamber CEO Debra Teufel is looking forward to honoring her board.
"Our board members are kind of unsung heroes," Teufel said. "They serve behind the scenes to guide the direction of our chamber. One of my roles is to make sure that our board chair and past chair and incoming chair really have an opportunity to be honored that night. You're going to hear from our chair, Sarah Fankhauser with DCI, just about her experience as our chair this year, because she kind of got thrown into that role with a changing of the guard last year. It was expected that Scott Meggers was going to be our incoming board chair. And then when he went on to the city council, it was decided that he would step off the board. Sarah willingly stepped into that role, so I want to make sure she has time at the podium to really reflect on her year as chair and then incoming chair, Nick Baldetti, then we also honor our outgoing board members and incoming board members. I want to make sure they are all honored because it's an important night for them, too."
As of Monday, there were still a few tickets left, so if you are free, you can call the chamber at (620) 662-3391 to see if there are any remaining.