By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The Great Bend Chamber of Commerce is funded through membership dues, sponsorships and attendance to events. That revenue sustains the Chamber’s current operations, but the Chamber is seeking to offer more.
Chamber CEO Megan Barfield said through help from the Board of Directors and several committees, the Chamber is embarking on a five-year strategic plan, named “Elevate GBK Beyond Today,” to focus on five areas.
"We're working on what does that implementation look like," said Barfield. "What do we need? What staff do we need? That's been keeping us pretty busy because there is a lot of planning that goes into that. What's exciting about this strategic plan is it's giving us a road map and vision for the direction to go in the next five years."
The five areas of focus include workforce development, business and people retention, membership development, business and community marketing and business advocacy.
With regards to workforce, Barfield said transportation has been brought up as an area for improvement.
"You don't think of there being an issue in Great Bend, Kansas with transportation, but how many people do you see walking to work?," said Barfield. "That impacts our workforce. We don't have a large population so we need to plug in everyone we can. What are their barriers? Transportation is one."
Along with the strategic plan comes a pledge to raise $1 million to help fund new initiatives. As of last week, Barfield said there was more than $760,000 raised and more than 30 individual and business investors.