Hartsville good living...

Was exemplified again yesterday when a group of board members from the Hartsville Chamber of Commerce met for planning the new year of business. One of the major areas where the Chamber is taking on new challenges is becoming the focal group for Selling Hartsville. The Chamber received a two-year grant from The Byerly Foundation when they proposed a method of keeping the idea of Selling Hartsville on the front burner of the community. There are some who say, "why the Chamber." As one of the people involved from the beginning, my answer would be, "Who better?"

The Hartsville Chamber of Commerce has the improvement of the economic world of Hartsville as a core mission. The Chamber is representative of members from the Greater Hartsville community. The concept of Selling Hartsville is a concept that involves the "Greater" area surrounding Hartsville. That puts the Chamber in a unique position of ongoing organizations to best find continuing methods of selling this community.

On Friday the Board discussed some of the challenges, which include ensuring continual collaboration of all organizations and individuals that need to be involved. During the run up to the launch of this effort, the collaboration and cooperations of many organizations was one of the strengths and at time the lack of the same was one of the weaknesses. Chamber and Downtown Development leaders sit ex-officio on each other's board. The Downtown Development group works closely with the city and the City Manger is an ongoing ex-officio member of the Chamber Board. These are methods for trying to ensure continuing and effective communication among these three organizations. But, it is not only these organizations that need to be part of the collaboration of effectively Selling Hartsville. Those organizations within the Greater Hartsville area that have employees moving in to town are crucial. Churches are crucial because they are one of the hubs of community building. Civic groups, retail establishments, real estate businesses and the area schools are all important players. And, we should not forget that those of us who live in the Hartsville area have to keep the need to sell our community at the top of our minds so we can attract more people to live, shop and entertain in our community. Every survey of visitors to this community speaks highly of the friendly people , great looking community. Remember to suggest to all your friends that they can "Expect Pleasant Surprises" in Hartsville. And, for some of these pleasant surprises go to the civic journalism site, HVTD.com, which always has lots of examples. And the Hartsville good living web site is full of content pointing out the depth of our community.