The Spencer County Regional Chamber of Commerce is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The organization is committed to strengthening the local economy and improving quality of life by supporting business development, attracting industry and promoting recreational opportunities.
Executive Director Kathy Reinke spoke with Inside INdiana Business about the benefits of being a member and the anniversary celebration coming up in September.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about the origin of the Spencer County Regional Chamber of Commerce.
There were quite a few regional chambers in Spencer County for many years. There was Santa Claus Chamber of Commerce, Saint Meinrad Chamber of Commerce, Dale Chamber of Commerce, Rockport Chamber of Commerce. The more businesses there were and the more active folks were trying to be, it became apparent that it wasn’t working for there to be four or five chambers in a county of around 20,000.
So all the minds came together, and in 2000, the Spencer County Regional Chamber of Commerce was established.
What challenges has the chamber faced over the years?
Geographically, we’re a fairly large county. To get from the northeast corner, where Saint Meinrad is, to Hatfield, it’s probably a good 30-40 minutes. And because we’re so rural, our largest municipality in Spencer County is only about 2,700, and that’s our town of Santa Claus. Our city of Rockport is about 2,400.
With those smaller populations, it’s hard to keep communications going throughout the county. The challenge has been that Santa Claus stays more in their pocket. Rockport stays more in their pocket. Dale stays more in their pocket. Grandview stays more in their pocket. So it’s difficult to get folks to mix out and about throughout their different regions.
What successes has the chamber celebrated?
We have been successful in developing relationships that would have never been there had it not been for the regional aspect of the chamber of commerce. And we continue to strive to do more of those types of things to help cross-communication throughout the county.
We’ve helped create a county-wide website. We have a Spencer County Alliance that the chamber helped create, and that’s a partnership between the Spencer County Chamber, Spencer County Visitors Bureau, Spencer County Community Foundation and our economic development arm in Spencer County.
After I started with the chamber, I noticed a lot of folks working in their own circles and not a lot of communication. The SCA helped open that up a lot with there being four pillars of county-wide organizations. Being able to work well together, keep each other informed and having a good partnership within those other organizations helps lift up all of our organizations.
Also, the Spencer County Chamber Foundation will allow us to grow more ecumenically and financially through funding opportunities for education, workforce development and community development.
Why should a Spencer County business join the chamber?
You’re supporting and promoting your local business, your local businesses, your local organizations, the 501(c)(3)s that are involved because we have a huge pocket of nonprofits in our region. We want to ensure folks understand that when they support the chamber, they’re supporting those things as well.
The chamber does a lot of that type of community support. Making sure people understand and know where to go when they’re in need, or maybe they have an employee who’s in need. We try to promote chamber member events. We have a presence in advocacy, and not political advocacy, but civic advocacy.
Our advocacy group began Talk of the Towns. It’s a way to bring all of our small communities together in one room. They can talk about the champions they’ve been in the community for things like TIF abatement, a splash pad, a sidewalk project, or maybe some challenges that they’ve had with those same things and how we can help them overcome that, or how other communities overcame it.
We also have the Yiftee gift program that we are starting, Spencer County Chamber Cash. That will be a local economic infusion into our small businesses as well. You have to be a participating partner of the chamber of commerce to participate in the Spencer County Cash program.
How does the chamber work to attract and retain younger generations in the workforce?
We are building strategies with our schools on how we can make that more attractive.
It’s been interesting in years past. When we’re at a career fair at schools, I’ll put up a big whiteboard and give each of the students sticky notes and pens and say, “What’s your favorite thing about Spencer County?” And I’ll see them writing different things down.
Then I ask, “What do you want to see in Spencer County?” And it’s usually a skate park or Chick-fil-A or things like that, which is what I expect to see out of most of them. But when I hear, “We don’t have that much to do here,” I’m like, “We have a lot of things to do in Spencer County!”
We have [Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, Lincoln State Park, and Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial]. We have a drive-in theater. We’ve got one [Saint Meinrad Archabbey] of only two archabbeys in the U.S.. There are so many opportunities.
We connected with the schools two years ago to create Aspire Spencer County. It’s a network with professionals of all kinds, from nonprofit to owning a hair salon to being a female pipefitter to being a CEO of a company to HR to salesperson to roller coaster maintenance crew. We have some interesting careers around us that I don’t think kids understand or see. We’re trying to help them get the visibility of what kind of options are in Spencer County.
For younger families, we’re trying to make sure they understand that we are trying to build even more community development so that they want to be here. Because you can pretty much work from anywhere with a lot of jobs anymore. But home is where you want to be comfortable and do things with your family. That’s what we’re trying to build upon more in Spencer County.
What does the chamber’s 25th anniversary mean to you?
I’ve been here for a third of that, going on nine years of being part of the Spencer County Regional Chamber of Commerce, and I can’t believe it’s been nine years already. But it has been a privilege to act as the executive director for our chamber of commerce.
I love Spencer County. This is home for me and my family. And I’ve seen so much more outside of my bubble from where I was nine or ten years ago in my part of Spencer County. It’s been a blessing to get to know so many people, not only in Spencer County, but throughout our entire state and even throughout the U.S.
What’s next for the chamber in 2025?
We have a wonderful celebration of our 25th anniversary on September 25. It’s going to be a party. We’re going to have an entirely different format than our typical annual meetings. We will have bourbon basket auctions, a trivia contest, a wine pull. It’s going to be an evening to celebrate Spencer County, the work of the chamber and our businesses and organizations that helped get us to 25 years.
We have our next three-year plan meeting after the annual dinner for what 2026 through 2028 looks like for the chamber of commerce and where our focus will be. So super excited to celebrate all of us and then get right back to work and see what we have in store. Because a lot can change in a couple of years, as we all know. Instead of doing five or 10 years, we’re taking it three years at a time.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I want to make sure people understand the importance of their chamber of commerce in their communities and how much we appreciate, advocate for and support our local entities. We always want to make sure our county is as cohesive as possible, our residents stay as knowledgeable as possible and our businesses see the residents and the community supporting them as well. It’s a big part of who we are within the chamber of commerce.