PEOPLE Leslie Martone Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce president Leslie Martone grew up in Cy-Fair and now serves her hometown as president of the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce. While working as the camp director of Camp Allen in Navasota after college, she was drawn back to Cy-Fair when she met her husband, who lived in the area. From there, she was introduced to the chamber during her time working for St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church and later Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union. She took on the role as president in January 2012 and continues to support the local business
COMPILED BY DANICA LLOYD
ANNUAL CHAMBER EVENTS The Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce hosts several events for its members and for the community throughout the year. CELEBRATE CY-FAIR Business of the Year finalists are announced as attendees enjoy light bites and samples from local vineyards and breweries. January THE JOHN FOX CHAMBER HERD A fundraiser supports Cy-Fair ISD FFA students through the purchase of their livestock projects and helps local food pantries through the contribution of the processed meat. January-February
community and hundreds of chamber members. This interview was edited for length and clarity.
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF A CHAMBER OF COMMERCE? Every chamber does something different based on the community and what they need. We don’t have city government out here. The basic role of a chamber of commerce is to connect businesses to each other and to entities to help grow the business community. ... We listen to what’s going on with [the Texas Department of Transportation]. … We are concerned about what developers are doing, the politics of Harris County—how is that affecting our businesses, and how is it affecting our community? ... We keep our fin- ger on the pulse of [the Legislature] to find out what’s happening and also to be a connector to an elected official if for some reason a business owner needs that. WHAT MAKES SERVING CY-FAIR UNIQUE? We always call Cy-Fair a bedroom community, but we have a fair number of businesses, so obviously a thriving community needs it all. … I think the challenge is definitely
when you are looking for answers or resources. We have various places that you can go to, but when you don’t have a city government in place, it looks a little bit different. I think it’s a positive in that we don’t have somebody like a mayor or a city council telling us what we can do and what we can’t do, and we can just purely help businesses in the ways that they need. … Our relationships with the school district, our fire department, with our businesses, our nonprofits, our churches—I think that makes a strong community to have that web of relationships. When we get in the midst of a disaster ... whether it be [Hurricane] Harvey or COVID[-19], you’re able to lean on the people you have relationships with. HOW HAS CY-FAIR CHANGED IN 10 YEARS, AND WHAT WILL THE NEXT DECADE HOLD? The growth has to be the number one thing—not only the growth of the people moving here, but the growth of our businesses. … I think the growth is always good. There’s always pain points in
growth, but what I see 10 years from now is [Cy-Fair] settling into where we are supposed to be. … In the confines of the district boundary area, there’s only so much land. We’ll still be a bedroom commu- nity in my mind, and we’ll still have a number of businesses continuing to grow. I think it will be ... a desti- nation place for people to be. I think we’ll continue to go that direction. WHAT DOES THE CHAMBER HAVE PLANNED FOR 2023? We are looking for that new place of where we’re supposed to be as far as our physical office, so we hope that’s something we see come to fruition in 2023. But I think, too, what we’re looking ahead to is continually building back our growth. We had some loss through COVID, [and] we’d love to get to that 1,000-member mark again. … And I think that as our busi- nesses continue to grow, we’ll have a new definition of what they are—whether they be virtual or in person or maybe we’ll be doing more business internationally or throughout the United States.
March
ADAM J. SKINNER GOLF TOURNAMENT
The annual golf tournament supports the scholarship fund of the Cy-Fair Educational Foundation.
May, November
CY-FAIR TEN PIN CHALLENGE A bowling tournament serves as a corporate team-building and networking opportunity. August CFISD HEALTH EXPO In partnership with CFISD, this event provides a venue for businesses to market products and services. October BUSINESS EXPO & GENERAL MEMBERSHIP LUNCHEON Businesses can promote their products or services at the monthly general membership luncheon twice a year.
SOURCE: CY-FAIR HOUSTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE/ COMMUNITY IMPACT
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