The Fort Worth Chamber's South Area Board has kicked it into high gear as we cross into the second half of 2024. The group met the first week of July with a deep agenda of initiatives to bring substantial value to the business community all the way into 2025. 

The South Area Board has begun planning for its next business walk and identified existing relationships with their business neighbors to host Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) conversations. The group brainstormed ways to partner with our local high schools as we approach "National Entrepreneurship Week" in November to give students in the entrepreneurship programs an opportunity to connect with local business owners. Additionally, some board members have agreed to be judges in our upcoming Small Business of the Year Award evaluations.

South Area Board Chair, Mike Coffey, said this about the South Area Board: “At its core, the [South Area] Board is tasked with speaking to our hyper-local business neighbors to listen to their pain points and gather BRE data for the Chamber to monitor. However, through our monthly opportunities to speak as a collective board, we regularly get to discuss what happens in our area, what is most important to us as a community, and the challenges we all face as business owners. The Area Boards is just one of the many ways I stay involved with the Chamber, but to me is the most impactful.”

Mike continues, “In addition to our core directive, we are always trying to find ways to engage even further with our area council by planning for future business walks, brainstorming how we can connect with FWISD Entrepreneurship programs to collaborate with and motivate students, volunteer our time to evaluate Small Business of the Year Award nominees, and so much more.”

Working with our Area Boards will be Henri Nilsen, our new Manager of Business Advocacy. We are continuously thinking about how to find activities and create environments where Fort Worth Chamber members in the South area and beyond can connect in a neighborly way. Our newly developed Council Coffees are expected to do exactly that. These coffee events will be hosted in the respective geographic areas of each area board and for all Chamber members located in those areas, or what we call “area councils.” You can expect to learn more about those events in the coming months.

To help us continue the work of our South Area Board and others, we are currently looking for volunteers to build out our new Chamber program that will train hundreds of volunteers to scatter throughout Fort Worth, meet with businesses, and gather BRE data. If you are interested in engaging more with your business neighbors and facilitating brief BRE conversations, please reach out to Henri Nilsen at Hnilsen@fortworthchamber.com.

Together, we can collectively listen to our business community and their challenges in the hopes of developing actionable solutions to create the best business environment in the country.