PEOPLE SHONTEL MAYS
BY CLAIRE SHOOP
Georgetown Chamber of Commerce president and CEO ushers organization into 76th year Shontel Mays joined the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce as its president and CEO in July 2022, during the last half of its 75th year. Her most recent past position was with the P ugerville Chamber of Commerce, where she helped guide the business community through the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, she established the P ugerville Pfund, which raised more than $100,000 to help local businesses. She spoke with Community Impact about her goals as the chamber turns the corner on this milestone and navigates the city’s rapid residential and commer- cial growth. The following responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Shontel Mays has led the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce since last July.
CHAMBER ABCS COURTESY GEORGETOWN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND AND HOW YOU GOT INVOLVED WITH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE. I’ve been in this area for about 18 years now. I have spent a little over two decades in leadership roles in P ugerville, Round Rock, Luin/ Angelina County chambers, and then also I’ve worked in development roles here with Seton Williamson Foundation and March of Dimes Central Texas. Prior to that, I did have a career in journalism, where I worked at radio stations and was a news anchor in East Texas. The chamber role came about when I had the anchor job in East Texas at Tyler, and I got to know the CEO at a local chamber who just asked if I would ever be interested in working at a chamber. I didn’t know much about chambers, but I went and met with him, and it was just the right t at the right time. I fell in love with it. There was no looking back once I started. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF A CHAMBER OF COMMERCE? AS PRESIDENT AND CEO, WHAT ROLE DO YOU PLAY IN THE CHAMBER’S BROADER MISSION? A chamber of commerce is an asso- ciation of business people designed to promote and protect the interests of its members and supporting local. It’s really about connecting local businesses with the resources they need and helping build those relation- ships within the community that help our economy thrive and grow. As the CEO, it’s really my role to oversee the organization as a whole, evaluate our programs and make sure we are able to give what our businesses need to succeed.
WHAT OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES DO GEORGETOWN’S GROWTH PRESENT THE CHAMBER? I think it’s safe to say the theme of our era right now is growth, and the chamber needs to be strategic in managing that growth and maintaining the highest level of service oered to our membership. The Austin, Round Rock, Georgetown [metropolitan statistical area] is the fastest-grow- ing metro area in the state. Growth of that magnitude has to be eectively managed to ensure that the chamber is growing with our businesses and not behind them. I think the discussion with our businesses as they grow becomes, “How are their needs changing?” It’s important on our end to continually be evaluating the resources we’re oering, the educational opportunities we’re giving them because as they grow those change. Growth for the sake of just growing can result in low-quality programs. DOES A CHAMBER PLAY A ROLE IN HELPING THE CITY OR DEVEL OPERS ATTRACT BUSINESSES TO THE COMMUNITY? One of the things I like to say in regards to what is the city’s role, what is the chambers role is the easiest way I’ve found to explain that is it’s the city’s role to recruit businesses here; it’s the chamber’s role to keep them here. It really is about how people want to be able to work in a place that they love living, and that’s where the chamber comes in. We’re going to create a thriving, growing business community, and community is the key word.
AMBASSADOR AFFAIRS
The Ambassador Program through the Georgetown Chamber is a volunteer group that welcomes new businesses to the community. They:
• Recruit new businesses to the chamber • Help the chamber reach out to new members
• Partner with businesses to invite them to events • Connect them to other businesses
BUSINESS BOOM
1,200 1,000
Mays said membership to the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce has grown every year for the past four years and continues to add new businesses to its ranks.
200 800 400 600 0
2020
2023*
*AS OF FEB. 23
CREATING CORNERSTONES
Among the events the Chamber holds are its Quarterly Cornerstone Luncheons. Mays said these luncheons feature a speaker who can talk about one of four cornerstones, or pillars to building a successful community.
Economic development
Education
Health care
Public safety
SOURCE: GEORGETOWN CHAMBER OF COMMERCECOMMUNITY IMPACT
our brand because we just nished our 75th year, and it’s time to look at what that brand looks like in the future. We want to make our communi- cations a little more streamlined and update our website to be more user friendly because the biggest goal we have moving into the future is how can we make it as simple as we can for our members to get information. Our small businesses, especially now after the pandemic, don’t have the workforce that they need, and it’s hard for them to stay on top of things, so we want to be that hub for them. Another short-term goal—we are a four-star accredited chamber through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the highest you can get is ve stars—so that is also a short-term goal.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH IN YOUR FIRST FULL YEAR IN GEORGETOWN? Overall, we need to stay focused on the goals of the chamber—engaging our businesses and truly understand- ing how we can promote growth and serve them to the best of our ability. So, my short-term goals will really be about evaluating all of the programs that we have to ensure that we are meeting the expectations of our members and that we’re engaging them throughout their entire business life cycle. We really want our members to grow with us. WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER SHORTTERM GOALS? We also want to look at refreshing
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GEORGETOWN EDITION • MARCH 2023
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