Volunteer board looking strategically ahead

Chad Kulas

As is our usual schedule, the Midway Chamber held its annual board retreat in June. I always enjoy it, with it a time for both looking back on the past year and looking ahead. The day helps plan a significant amount of the work we’ll do, and I wanted to share some of the highlights and bigger takeaways.

The Midway Chamber always strives to “build a stronger Midway” and everything we do incorporates at least one of our four directives of community, partnership, membership and education. We spend time at our retreat reviewing those directives and considering specific objectives for the year.

Every chamber of commerce operates a little differently, and the Midway Chamber has always been community-focused (though unlike many small town chambers we do not organize community festivals or parades). One way we show community support is taking positions in support of the Midway, like when we made many statements denouncing the efforts of Operation Metro Surge and provided resources to anyone who was negatively impacted by their presence. We also like to find ways to partner with other community groups and identify common priorities. This will be seen with our ongoing work in the Snelling University Alliance. Our plan this year is to once again meet with different community leaders to better understand their challenges, work plans and hopes for the next year.

Educating our members is mostly done with the content in our programming, including discovering relevant topics and interesting speakers. Recently, we also started an Events Committee tasked with planning out our luncheon schedule. We are off to a good start and have found many topics and speakers for the 2026-27 schedule. Topics will include new laws, election results, business success stories, and leadership lessons. We will also continue to hold our regular meetups at local coffee shops, restaurants, and taprooms.

Two key takeaways from the board retreat were the expanded use of data and AI, and how both could create efficiencies and allow us to better serve our members. How can we utilize data so we know what topics or programs are most relevant? And how should we use artificial intelligence? Can we also help educate our members on how they can use AI for efficiencies? What ethical questions around the technology should we consider and ask our membership?

Time was also spent contemplating relevancy. What can the Midway Chamber do to show its relevancy to both members and non-members? This ties in with our educational goals and our ability to connect others.

Our hope is we can be stronger community partners and offer better value to our members thanks to the efforts of the retreat. With all the recent news in the Midway of new developments and business openings, this year promises to be an exciting one. Thank you to everyone in the community for helping build a stronger Midway.
Learn more about the chamber and membership at www.midwaychamber.com.