Greetings and happy holidays to our valued chamber members.

I am pleased to announce our most valued programming is coming up and I encourage all members to participate. Our Pre-Legislative Session Discussion will take place via Zoom on Monday, January 10. A longtime favorite of our membership, the Pre-Legislative Session Discussion features our local state representatives as they share insight on what’s coming down the pipe from the Maryland General Assembly. We all witnessed the effects of 2021 up close and personal, so expect the conversation to be lively as our legislators discuss how the State will respond in the upcoming year.

In addition, a membership meeting is back on the docket for next year on February 10. The Annual Meeting will enable the Kent Chamber’s members to be involved in the operations of the organization. Agenda items include reviewing the annual budget, receiving an update on the previous year’s activities, learning about committee action items, and recognizing outgoing board members.

At the Annual Meeting, we will be presenting our Community Excellence Awards to deserving organizations and a person of the year. With the transition in chamber executive directorship in the winter of 2020 and the distribution caused by COVID-19 in 2020 - 2021, the timing of last year’s award presentation was disrupted, causing the award presentation to be pushed to September 2021. Chamber awards have traditionally been presented in January and we are looking forward to getting back in alignment with our upcoming award presentation in February of 2022.

It has been an action-packed year and the Kent Chamber will be sprinting through the finish line to close out the year. Next month, we will be conducting a comprehensive review of 2021 and I look forward to sharing a recap of all of our activities in our soon-to-be-published annual report.

I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.