Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line with Dallas Knack, Sauk Valley Area Chamber of Commerce
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Good morning, Sock Valley. You're listening to the Waking Crew
- 0:05Speaker 1: here on AM fourteen sixty FM ninety five to one WIXN,
- 0:09Speaker 1: where you're never more than moments away from all the
- 0:11Speaker 1: sports news and information needed to start your day. And
- 0:14Speaker 1: we're moving over to our talk line portion of the show,
- 0:17Speaker 1: and today's guest is Dallas Nack, the executive director of
- 0:20Speaker 1: the Salt Valley Area Chamber of Commerce. Good morning, Dallas,
- 0:23Speaker 1: how are you?
- 0:23Speaker 2: Good morning? I'm great, How are you very well?
- 0:26Speaker 3: Trying to get used to the cold leather.
- 0:30Speaker 2: I had to break out my coat this weekend.
- 0:32Speaker 3: Yes, I was digging through the closet.
- 0:34Speaker 1: I had only had my hoodies and was trying to
- 0:37Speaker 1: defrost my window today and I had only had a
- 0:39Speaker 1: small window by the time I had hit the road.
- 0:41Speaker 3: So I'm still sitting there, just ah looking through. So yeah,
- 0:45Speaker 3: bundle up.
- 0:45Speaker 4: Yeah, I wasn't prepared for it.
- 0:48Speaker 1: Before we dive in, I'd like you to tell listeners
- 0:50Speaker 1: a little bit about the Chamber and its role.
- 0:52Speaker 3: In the community.
- 0:53Speaker 2: Sure.
- 0:54Speaker 4: So, I'm from the Soak Valley Area Chamber. As you mentioned,
- 0:56Speaker 4: my office is located in Sterling, but we represent over
- 0:59Speaker 4: four one hundred members from all across the region. Honestly,
- 1:03Speaker 4: really from like the Wisconsin border to the Iowa border,
- 1:06Speaker 4: the whole northwest corner of Illinois, and we work on
- 1:10Speaker 4: behalf of our businesses and our members and our community
- 1:13Speaker 4: to advocate for them, provide learning opportunities, provide networking, some
- 1:18Speaker 4: publicity for members and businesses, and just genuinely celebrate celebrate
- 1:23Speaker 4: what we have going on in the area.
- 1:25Speaker 3: Yeah, you guys are always involved in so much.
- 1:29Speaker 1: You've got your hands in everything Salt Valley and twenty
- 1:32Speaker 1: twenty five has been a big year for your programs.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Can you kind of give us a quick overview of
- 1:36Speaker 1: what's been happening.
- 1:37Speaker 4: Yeah, So twenty twenty five was really a turning point
- 1:40Speaker 4: for a couple of our programs that we have to offer.
- 1:43Speaker 4: For example, our SoC Value under forty group. You might
- 1:46Speaker 4: formerly know them as the Keystone Group. So they really
- 1:49Speaker 4: took twenty twenty five to reinvent themselves. They looked at
- 1:52Speaker 4: what do we do even as far as branding and
- 1:55Speaker 4: our name, and what do we want to offer the community.
- 1:59Speaker 4: So Keystone was working on a couple of different projects.
- 2:02Speaker 4: You might be familiar with Dogwood Acres, the dog park
- 2:06Speaker 4: that the group did in Sterling. They also worked on
- 2:09Speaker 4: some welcome home materials to try to entice people back
- 2:12Speaker 4: to this community, as well as like some murals and
- 2:15Speaker 4: a variety of different things. Those projects all either came
- 2:19Speaker 4: to fruition or kind of got at a point where
- 2:21Speaker 4: it was like, well, the group can't really do too
- 2:23Speaker 4: much more in these areas. We're doing what we can,
- 2:25Speaker 4: but now someone needs to take it and run with it.
- 2:28Speaker 2: So in twenty twenty.
- 2:29Speaker 4: Five, the group looked at what do we do next,
- 2:31Speaker 4: what do we want to do, So we reinstated a
- 2:33Speaker 4: steering committee for the group and from that they decided
- 2:37Speaker 4: we really need to rebrand. Not a lot of people
- 2:39Speaker 4: understand what keystone is. We feel like we spend more
- 2:41Speaker 4: time explaining what the group does. So they're like, you
- 2:44Speaker 4: know what, at the heart of this, it's really for
- 2:46Speaker 4: people under the age of forty to get involved in
- 2:48Speaker 4: the Sock Valley area. So they came up with Sock
- 2:50Speaker 4: Valley under forty. We've been working on that rebrand and
- 2:54Speaker 4: with that, we've also been working on some new events.
- 2:56Speaker 4: So we've been hosting a couple different variety of things.
- 2:59Speaker 4: We're trying to see what sticks, what people want we're
- 3:02Speaker 4: taking that feedback and trying to work that into our programming,
- 3:04Speaker 4: so we focus on some networking opportunities. We did one
- 3:10Speaker 4: where we took individuals and we did some speed networking
- 3:12Speaker 4: within the individuals that were there, and then also brought
- 3:15Speaker 4: in social clubs and organizations for them to meet areas
- 3:19Speaker 4: for them to get involved in.
- 3:20Speaker 2: A lot of the feedback we get is we.
- 3:23Speaker 4: Move back to the community, we don't know what there
- 3:25Speaker 4: is in this community anymore, we don't know how to
- 3:27Speaker 4: get involved. So we brought in places like Keywaness and
- 3:31Speaker 4: Rotary and the Professional Women's Network and things like that
- 3:34Speaker 4: so that they could rotate through get to know each other,
- 3:37Speaker 4: but also get to know different areas they could get
- 3:39Speaker 4: involved in. And from that, we've heard a lot of
- 3:42Speaker 4: people getting involved in those organizations. So we're very happy
- 3:45Speaker 4: for that because we know that those social clubs and organizations,
- 3:48Speaker 4: they're the lifeblood of our community. They're the ones that
- 3:50Speaker 4: get the work done. We also know that some of
- 3:53Speaker 4: their individuals are getting older, and if we don't backfill
- 3:56Speaker 4: that with some younger individuals, we risk losing those opportunities.
- 4:00Speaker 4: The volunteers and the people that make things happen in
- 4:02Speaker 4: our community. So we've really been working on plugging in
- 4:06Speaker 4: some of our younger individuals into those areas. We've seen
- 4:10Speaker 4: some really great success. We had a lunch and learn,
- 4:13Speaker 4: so we had our first professional development opportunity for the
- 4:16Speaker 4: group and we had fifty five attendees come out and
- 4:18Speaker 4: learn about workplace well being. We had a panel of
- 4:21Speaker 4: three individuals that talked about what does that mean, what
- 4:24Speaker 4: does work culture mean, what does it look like if
- 4:27Speaker 4: you need to have a difficult conversation, how do you
- 4:29Speaker 4: have that, how do you prevent burnout? Just various things
- 4:33Speaker 4: for our younger individuals that are maybe new to the
- 4:35Speaker 4: workforce or maybe in their second or third role and
- 4:38Speaker 4: still kind of settling down in the area. So we're
- 4:42Speaker 4: very excited to see how the group has grown. We've
- 4:44Speaker 4: seen tremendous growth just this year, and I'm really proud
- 4:48Speaker 4: of our steering committee for all the work that they're doing.
- 4:51Speaker 1: That's quite a year just for one group, which is
- 4:55Speaker 1: you know, I mean again, you guys are a part
- 4:57Speaker 1: of so much.
- 4:58Speaker 3: That's a lot of growth.
- 5:00Speaker 1: Anything in the works for twenty twenty six, any new
- 5:02Speaker 1: initiatives or things that audiences can look forward can look.
- 5:05Speaker 4: Forward to Yeah, so we're going to continue that growth,
- 5:07Speaker 4: or we're hoping to at least we have sat down
- 5:10Speaker 4: and we've looked at data. So that was part of
- 5:12Speaker 4: twenty twenty five as well, is getting the feedback, taking
- 5:15Speaker 4: some surveys, getting more information from the people involved, just
- 5:18Speaker 4: so we can tailor this to those needs and those wants.
- 5:21Speaker 4: So right now we're going through that data to see
- 5:23Speaker 4: what is it that this group wants.
- 5:25Speaker 2: We have a couple events that are in the works
- 5:28Speaker 2: for twenty twenty six.
- 5:30Speaker 4: They're not fully fleshed out yet, but we're hoping to
- 5:32Speaker 4: roll that out in the next couple weeks here, So
- 5:34Speaker 4: keep an eye out. They have a Facebook, Instagram, a LinkedIn,
- 5:38Speaker 4: You can email me, you can look on our website
- 5:40Speaker 4: whatever you need, but just keep plugged in because there's
- 5:43Speaker 4: a lot of information coming out for sock Valley under
- 5:45Speaker 4: forty here in the next week or so.
- 5:48Speaker 1: Absolutely for our listeners who are who are interested in
- 5:50Speaker 1: want to get involved, what's the best.
- 5:52Speaker 3: Way to do that.
- 5:52Speaker 2: They can just contact me.
- 5:54Speaker 4: This is a collaboration between Sotck Valley Area Chamber and
- 5:57Speaker 4: Sterling Main Street, but they're welcome to reach out to myself,
- 6:00Speaker 4: Dallas at the Sock Valley Area Chamber. They can email me,
- 6:03Speaker 4: call me, send smoke signals, whatever you gotta do. I'm
- 6:05Speaker 4: happy to spread the word and get any information you need.
- 6:08Speaker 1: And your Professional Women's Network had a record attendance this year, right,
- 6:12Speaker 1: what do you things drunk so many people to these events.
- 6:14Speaker 4: Well, again, we're trying to really take feedback and make
- 6:18Speaker 4: informed decisions on those events. So what we've been working
- 6:22Speaker 4: on for Professional Women's Network also is releasing all of
- 6:25Speaker 4: our events for the year at a glance at the
- 6:27Speaker 4: beginning of the year so you can really get those
- 6:29Speaker 4: on your schedule, plan for the ones you want to attend,
- 6:31Speaker 4: and then we take that feedback from those events and
- 6:33Speaker 4: tailor the next event as well. So we saw we've
- 6:37Speaker 4: out doubled our numbers for Professional Women's Network this year.
- 6:40Speaker 4: We're really proud that group is again just tremendous in
- 6:44Speaker 4: their growth this year.
- 6:46Speaker 2: We're reaching about one hundred and twenty five people.
- 6:49Speaker 4: We have events coming up for twenty twenty six as well,
- 6:51Speaker 4: so we have some fun things on the radar for that.
- 6:53Speaker 4: So we have three professional development opportunities and one personal
- 6:58Speaker 4: development networking event. So the networking event is going to
- 7:01Speaker 4: be in June of next year. That's a really fun
- 7:03Speaker 4: one to come out. If you're really unsure about what
- 7:05Speaker 4: Professional Women's Network in tails, or you're not sure if
- 7:08Speaker 4: it's the right fit, that's a really good event to
- 7:10Speaker 4: come out and just see what is going on, get involved,
- 7:13Speaker 4: to meet some new people, and then our professional development opportunities.
- 7:17Speaker 4: Those are going to be quarterly. They're over the lunch hour.
- 7:20Speaker 4: We're looking at things like Real Colors, which is kind
- 7:24Speaker 4: of a personality leadership style survey that you'll do if
- 7:28Speaker 4: you're familiar with like DISK or any of those is
- 7:31Speaker 4: very similar to that, and we're going to be working
- 7:33Speaker 4: through some of those. We have a mental health piece
- 7:35Speaker 4: that'll be coming up, and then we have a Woman
- 7:37Speaker 4: in the Workplace that we'll be working on as well,
- 7:40Speaker 4: and those details will be coming out towards the end
- 7:42Speaker 4: of this year.
- 7:43Speaker 1: What would you say one of the opportunities that you've
- 7:46Speaker 1: had out this year that's maybe had one of the
- 7:48Speaker 1: larger impacts for that network.
- 7:51Speaker 4: So specifically for Professional Women's Network, we did a session
- 7:55Speaker 4: on emotional intelligence, which is such a hot topic right now,
- 7:58Speaker 4: and the wonderful Lee Heart facilitated it and spoke on it.
- 8:02Speaker 4: If you're not familiar with Lee, she is the facilitator
- 8:04Speaker 4: for the CEO program through Whiteside Area Career Center. She's
- 8:07Speaker 4: just phenomenal first of all, and then we've paired her
- 8:10Speaker 4: with a really wonderful topic that she's really passionate about,
- 8:14Speaker 4: and that was a very impactful session. We've gotten some
- 8:17Speaker 4: tremendous feedback from it. We also had a couple other
- 8:20Speaker 4: really great ones. John Mandrel spoke on words at work,
- 8:24Speaker 4: so just difficult conversations and word choice and things like
- 8:27Speaker 4: that too, which again such a hot topic and a
- 8:30Speaker 4: wonderful presenter, So we received wonderful feedback from John.
- 8:34Speaker 1: Two, how did this group start right? What was kind
- 8:37Speaker 1: of the inspiration for it? And how have you seen
- 8:39Speaker 1: the growth take off since there?
- 8:41Speaker 4: Professional Women's Network has been at the Sock Valley Area
- 8:44Speaker 4: Chamber for many, many years, so I absolutely cannot take
- 8:47Speaker 4: credit for it, but I've been able to work very
- 8:50Speaker 4: closely with the individuals that have started it through our
- 8:53Speaker 4: chamber membership. We've seen just a great passion for individuals
- 8:58Speaker 4: that say, like, being a work women is tough, being
- 9:01Speaker 4: a working individual is tough, Being a working woman is
- 9:03Speaker 4: even tougher. Balancing that with any of your home responsibilities
- 9:07Speaker 4: or kids or whatever that might be. So they just
- 9:10Speaker 4: really want to provide a support for those individuals. And
- 9:13Speaker 4: I think this is a great way that it has
- 9:15Speaker 4: come to fruition is through these educational pieces and networking
- 9:19Speaker 4: pieces as well. Over the past couple of years, we've
- 9:22Speaker 4: really dived more into the professional development side of things.
- 9:27Speaker 4: Our events and everything. They're open to anyone, but we're
- 9:30Speaker 4: really tailoring the topics to women. But of course we
- 9:35Speaker 4: keep the door open for anyone who would like to attend.
- 9:38Speaker 4: And we've just seen a lot of support for that.
- 9:41Speaker 4: We've seen a lot of our human resource areas within
- 9:45Speaker 4: our companies and businesses that are sending more people to
- 9:48Speaker 4: these We're seeing some of our manufacturers that maybe there's
- 9:51Speaker 4: only a couple of women in the building, saying, hey,
- 9:53Speaker 4: get out there, meet some other working women, get out
- 9:56Speaker 4: of the building for a moment, take a break from
- 9:58Speaker 4: all the guys. So we've seen some really great support
- 10:01Speaker 4: just within our local organizations.
- 10:03Speaker 1: Well, that is just such a that's a wonderful group
- 10:05Speaker 1: and resource. I you know, anybody listening, you want to
- 10:08Speaker 1: get involved. What's the best way they can they can
- 10:10Speaker 1: make contact and get.
- 10:11Speaker 2: Involved again, call me email me.
- 10:14Speaker 4: Our number is eight one five six two five two
- 10:16Speaker 4: four zero zero. My email's on the website. It's very long,
- 10:19Speaker 4: so I'm not going to rattle it off right now.
- 10:21Speaker 4: But a really great resource is our Facebook, our Instagram,
- 10:24Speaker 4: our LinkedIn, our website, even Stock Valley Area Chamber. We
- 10:28Speaker 4: have a really nice community calendar, so if you want
- 10:30Speaker 4: to know anything going on in the community.
- 10:32Speaker 2: That's a great place to start.
- 10:34Speaker 4: But that also has our resources like our professional Women's Network,
- 10:37Speaker 4: our Keystone Sock Value under forty events, any of the
- 10:41Speaker 4: events we have going on or in the community.
- 10:43Speaker 1: Well, there you have it. You want to get involved,
- 10:46Speaker 1: check out the community calendar. Better yet, get a hold
- 10:49Speaker 1: of Dallas. She will provide you with all the details.
- 10:52Speaker 1: Hook you right up and you're speaking of those events
- 10:55Speaker 1: right We've We've got Sites and Sounds coming up in Sterling.
- 10:58Speaker 1: Tell people what they can expect.
- 10:59Speaker 4: Yeah, Sits and Sounds is going to be December fifth,
- 11:02Speaker 4: so it's always the first Friday of December is from
- 11:05Speaker 4: five to eight pm. Is all downtown Sterling. This year,
- 11:08Speaker 4: we're really trying to get people into our downtown businesses.
- 11:11Speaker 2: We love that they come out.
- 11:13Speaker 4: We have an area called Stance's Workshop where our businesses
- 11:16Speaker 4: and nonprofits come and have a table and it's a
- 11:18Speaker 4: big funfair for kids. It's free events, some information for families.
- 11:24Speaker 4: But that's in one little parking lot in Sterling.
- 11:28Speaker 2: I say little.
- 11:29Speaker 4: We have a lot of vendors there, but it's just
- 11:30Speaker 4: one small section of downtown Sterling. And the goal of
- 11:33Speaker 4: this really is to support our local businesses during the
- 11:36Speaker 4: holiday season. So how do we get them into the businesses,
- 11:39Speaker 4: moving around, maybe finding new places that they haven't seen,
- 11:42Speaker 4: maybe stopping in somewhere that they're like, Oh, I've seen
- 11:44Speaker 4: this all over social media, but I've never stopped into it.
- 11:47Speaker 4: So this year we have trolley stations. So we're going
- 11:49Speaker 4: to have a hop on, hop off trolley that's going
- 11:51Speaker 4: to travel through downtown Sterling. There's gonna be four different
- 11:54Speaker 4: spots where you can stop and you can get off,
- 11:56Speaker 4: you can explore the area. We're going to have some
- 11:58Speaker 4: neat things like a under pop up, some different cookies
- 12:02Speaker 4: and hot cocoa stations, things like that, but then also
- 12:05Speaker 4: like explore the areas around there, explore and pop in
- 12:08Speaker 4: different businesses. One little plug for that too is that
- 12:13Speaker 4: we're doing a candy Land theme this year. So you're
- 12:16Speaker 4: gonna get a Candylian map, and as you stop into
- 12:18Speaker 4: those businesses, you're gonna get a stamp, and once you
- 12:21Speaker 4: complete the candy Land map, you're going to turn that
- 12:23Speaker 4: in for a prize at the end of the weekend.
- 12:25Speaker 4: So definitely make sure you're hopping in, stopping in, checking
- 12:28Speaker 4: things out, whether you're purchasing or whether you're making a
- 12:31Speaker 4: mental note of, oh this is here, I didn't know that.
- 12:34Speaker 4: Either way, get your stamp and fill out your Candylian
- 12:36Speaker 4: map and enter free chance to win.
- 12:38Speaker 1: That's just an amazing, fun filled way. I love that,
- 12:42Speaker 1: a trolley taking you through a candy Land map. I mean,
- 12:45Speaker 1: what a great way to find and support. You know,
- 12:48Speaker 1: you get to shop and see these these local shops
- 12:50Speaker 1: right in downtown Sterling. You've got all these these free activities.
- 12:53Speaker 1: I know people love these vendor events and things that
- 12:57Speaker 1: are always going on. You guys always dose such a
- 12:59Speaker 1: wonder full job of making these things such a special
- 13:03Speaker 1: event for first time families, you know, because I found
- 13:05Speaker 1: there's we actually have like a lot of new people,
- 13:08Speaker 1: you know, to the area. What really makes this the
- 13:10Speaker 1: them must see event?
- 13:12Speaker 2: Oh, I think it's just the festive spirit. Right.
- 13:15Speaker 4: You don't often get to go downtown Sterling and have
- 13:18Speaker 4: all of the businesses decked out and lit up and
- 13:20Speaker 4: doing fun. They do fun specials and discounts and maybe
- 13:25Speaker 4: a fun menu.
- 13:26Speaker 2: Or whatever that looks like.
- 13:28Speaker 4: It's just a really great way to try everything in
- 13:31Speaker 4: downtown Sterling.
- 13:32Speaker 2: Get fully immersed in.
- 13:33Speaker 4: It might be a little overwhelming because you don't realize
- 13:36Speaker 4: there's so many things there and so many things going on,
- 13:39Speaker 4: but just check it out. Get in the festive spirit
- 13:41Speaker 4: and support our local businesses this holiday season.
- 13:44Speaker 1: Absolutely, and looking ahead, what are some of the ways
- 13:47Speaker 1: the chambers looking to grow into twenty twenty six. Right,
- 13:49Speaker 1: we're getting ready to wrap this year up.
- 13:51Speaker 4: We have some very exciting things that are coming up,
- 13:54Speaker 4: so I can't announce any of it until our annual
- 13:56Speaker 4: dinner which is in January. But we have some fun
- 13:59Speaker 4: programs coming maybe for some kiddos, some middle school students
- 14:02Speaker 4: that we're looking at. We have some neat ways that
- 14:05Speaker 4: we're going to be supporting some of our local businesses,
- 14:07Speaker 4: and we have a lot more learning opportunities on the
- 14:09Speaker 4: horizon that's amazing.
- 14:11Speaker 1: Any advice for young professionals or women in business who
- 14:14Speaker 1: want to take advantage of some of these programs.
- 14:17Speaker 4: Oh, just do it. I think that's the hardest thing, right.
- 14:20Speaker 4: You don't want to get out there, you don't want
- 14:21Speaker 4: to get out of your comfort zone. It just takes
- 14:23Speaker 4: that first step. Bring a friend with you. I think
- 14:26Speaker 4: that's the biggest thing. We always encourage people that are
- 14:28Speaker 4: either in our steering committee or part of the group,
- 14:31Speaker 4: just bring a friend, because that's the hardest part. Showing
- 14:33Speaker 4: up somewhere and not knowing anyone is just a little
- 14:36Speaker 4: uncomfortable sometimes. So bring a friend, come out, Just stop out.
- 14:40Speaker 4: I promise we are friendly individuals. You will find someone.
- 14:43Speaker 4: I can almost guarantee you will find someone that you
- 14:45Speaker 4: know in one way or another, just because of the
- 14:48Speaker 4: amount of people that come out to this group and
- 14:50Speaker 4: the people that you don't realize are involved in it
- 14:52Speaker 4: as well. Just come out.
- 14:54Speaker 3: Well.
- 14:54Speaker 1: I can certainly attest from having known and work with
- 14:57Speaker 1: you now for a little while on the show outside,
- 15:00Speaker 1: just how welcoming you folks will be. So get everybody listening.
- 15:04Speaker 1: Please please reach out to the chamber. Better yet, come
- 15:07Speaker 1: to the events and see what you've been missing. So
- 15:11Speaker 1: we're about out of time for today, but Dallas, thank
- 15:13Speaker 1: you so much for visiting. We certainly appreciate it and
- 15:16Speaker 1: it won't be, you know, the last time.
- 15:18Speaker 3: We have you here in the studio.
- 15:19Speaker 2: Thank you.
- 15:20Speaker 1: You're listening to the Waking Crew here on AM fourteen
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