Meet Olney’s new Chamber director Kimberly Smith

The Olney Chamber of Commerce’s new executive director, Kimberly Smith, took over the position in mid-August and quickly began executing her mission – putting up a new interactive website and reaching out to businesses.

The Enterprise caught up with Mrs. Smith, who previously worked in the Human Resources department at Tower Extrusions, to talk about how she and the Chamber Board of Directors plan to revitalize the organization.

Enterprise: What is your mission as the Chamber’s executive director?

Ms. Smith: My mission as director is to promote economic development, to retain the members, promote membership and vitality among businesses. My mission personally is to enhance the membership value and to bring us into 2024. That means [enhancing the Chamber’s] social media presence – expanding on those things so there is more value to the memberships.

Enterprise: What have you done so far to bring more value to memberships?

Ms. Smith: We have a new and improved website with an active membership directory. There is a member portal so members can go on there and everything is automated as far as their memberships. There is even a social feed for the members. Say they have [an event or promotion] coming up and they want to ask the other business members [for advice]. Say we have members who are realtors and they want to locate house cleaners. I’m trying to expand the networking opportunities.

Enterprise: Some Chamber activities fell by the wayside for lack of a director the past year. What activities are you planning on bringing back?

Ms. Smith: We will bring back quarterly luncheons. The next one is on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at Hometown Coffee & Tea and we will try to fit in one more luncheon before the end of the year.

We will be doing Member Spotlights on the website, as well as the newsletters. I am talking to the board about doing a Winter Festival to deck out downtown in 2025.

We have already established the Tree Lighting – which will be Dec. 1 – and after seeing the success of Market Days, I think the community would be interested in getting involved. There is so much potential in this town.

We will be doing the Flag Program and the Spooktacular on Halloween. We are going to award first, second and third prizes for the Trunk or Treat competition. We will forgo the costume contest this year.

We will have the Chamber banquet in January to award 2024 winners, but we are trying to move that to the end of our fiscal year in November 2025.

We are starting to plan Olney in America for 2025. It falls on July 3 next year.

Enterprise: What other plans are you working on?

Ms. Smith: I am talking to other Chambers to see what has been successful for them … and I am planning to put out a survey to find out what people are interested in. The one thing people in Olney show up for is a parade. What else will they show up for?

My passion is I know this town has so much potential that I want to do everything I can ... I’m here for the long haul and I want to do everything I can to bring it.