Last week was pretty busy, which kept me from blogging as I promised I would. So, here's the Chamber week that was, January 9-13, 2012.

The big Chamber news last week was our January breakfast and Annual Meeting, sponsored by Elite Home Health Agency and held at the Courtyard by Marriott in Hadley. if you've been following the blog, the papers, and our social media feeds, you'd know that the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce has a new president for the first time in two years in Lincoln Real Estate's Kathryn Grandonico. Kathryn delivered a terrific address, which laid out her objectives for 2012. Among her goals for the year are to work with the newly formed Business Improvement District, to create better signage for the downtown, and to support our work with the Hampshire County Regional Tourism Council (RTC). Kathryn's energy was on full display, and I look forward to a productive and exciting year ahead.

As is custom, as Executive Director, I also get to address the Chamber audience. This is the first year that I'll be the "senior partner" in the Chamber leadership, as Kathryn is our youngest ever president at 31. I was able to get a few laughs out of the audience on that before seguing into the more important business of what the Chamber was able to accomplish in the past few years. I covered a lot of that in the last blog post, so I won't go over that again here. What I will say once more here, however, is that in order to continue to be successful, we need the support and participation of all of our membership. The business community has a lot of momentum and needs many hands to continue our positive changes here in the Amherst area.

Tourism, tourism, tourism . . . The Hampshire County RTC has dominated much of the Chamber's activities in the new year. Along with our partners at the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce, we're working to assemble our advisory group, finalize our workplan through the RTC fiscal year ending June 30, and to invest our grant award into Hampshire County's tourism and hospitality industries.

On Thursday, the Hampshire RTC Advisory Committee met at the newly reopened, and spectacular Lord Jeffery Inn. We had a great meeting in a spectacular setting. We're moving full steam ahead now as we're working on a few joint projects with our sister RTCs in Springfield (GSCVB) and Franklin County, most especially on a comprehensive Pioneer Valley Guide, spearheaded by the GSCVB.

The PV Guide is a more comprehensive version of past editions. Each and every member of each of our organizations will have a listing in the guide, making it more robust and necessary for the visitor. We're really excited about the direction of the guide and look forward to its publication. For Chamber members, we'll have more infomation in the coming days about how you can advertise in the guide, which has a circulation of 125,000.

Some other work that we've committed to is a partnership with CISA to promote their Valley Farm Products guide beyond the area. In an enhanced run of 15,000 copies, we'll distribute this guide to the Boston area with additional editorial on local agritourism and farm festivals. It's an exciting way to promote one of the defining pieces of Hampshire County.

Just a few more quick notes - WinterFest is coming up and the planning for the event continues in earnest. The Chamber is not the organizer of the event this year - that's in the hands of our friends at Amherst Leisure Services - but we're a sponsor of the event. Do mark your calendar for February 11 and pray for snow!

Tomorrow, January 18, is our January After 5 at the Lord Jeff. We expect a terrific crowd to come out to see the refurbished heart of Amherst's downtown. The ballroom looks great, and Robert and Robin were getting things ready for a fun night. I can't wait. My wife and I spent an evening pretending we were tourists on Saturday as we stayed over and had dinner at 30Boltwood. I can't recommend it enough.

That's the week that was . . . how was your week?