After a name change and a search for a new director that lasted several months, Your Chamber serving the Colorado River Valley is looking to build its business rolodex and become a stronger network for the local business community.
New CEO and Director Tanya Doose said she hopes to bring in some much-needed innovation and creativity to the position, as she looks to support business owners from Silt to Parachute.
Doose has lived on the Western Slope throughout her life and has lived in Rifle for the past 13 years.
Growing up in Glenwood Springs, she said she was able to see firsthand how the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association grew.
While the two chamber organizations serve much different roles, as Glenwood Springs remains much more the resort community, to see the culmination of how far the Glenwood chamber has come was a big influence on Doose in accepting the role with Your Chamber.
The revamped chamber organization has extended its reach beyond Rifle to more fully include Silt and Parachute.
“My goal is to help strengthen the local economy and to promote the local communities, including Silt and Parachute,” Doose said. “We want to become more of an advocate for local business.”
The mission of the chamber is, “to serve the business community of Western Garfield County by engaging in partnerships to strategically and significantly strengthen the business climate of the region,” according to the chamber’s website.
Doose noted that 3.5 million businesses in the United States belong to a chamber, and 60 percent of people will likely patron a chamber business in their life timeline.
Your Chamber of Commerce wants to become more of a “must join” organization for local business owners who strive for leadership, success and connections in the local community.
The chamber offers business and leadership education, network and business development, market information, community knowledge and connections with its other members. But Doose is hoping to expand those services.
She hopes to provide new and useful information for business owners, such as introspection of how state initiatives and legislative matters will impact the local business community.
“I want to make sure I’m educating our businesses,” she added. “I want to go out and meet as many local business owners as I can in the first 90 days.”
Doose will also be meeting with Rifle officials as she hopes to foster relationships that will help strengthen and unify the business community in Western Garfield County.
With the Rifle Visitor’s Improvement Fund and Rifle Regional Economic Development, the town already has plenty of resources to better support its local business community.
Doose is looking to build strong relationships with these organizations, as she hopes to build regional economic development with the local support.
Among her many objectives as she takes the lead for the chamber will be to more effectively reach out to the local Hispanic community.
She hopes to see more involvement for the Spanish-speaking community in the new chamber and said she wants to bring them to the table.
“I want a chamber that is innovative, creative and collaborative,” she said. “There are unbelievable people here in Rifle.
“I will need to be objective and listen … how do we integrate? All of these different ideas.”
For those that want get more involved with Your Chamber, email Doose at ceo@riflechamber.com.
