Chamber adds new employees
By Sam Atkins
Published in News on December 28, 2004 2:02 PM
Improving the communication between the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce and its member businesses, and helping new county residents become familiar with the area are the goals of two employees who have joined the chamber within the last year.
Amber Hoggard, a Goldsboro native, is the chamber's information specialist. She previously worked at Home Health & Hospice in Goldsboro for five years in various capacities.
She said her role with the chamber is two-fold. The chamber serves as a visitor's center for the county and its purpose is to provide information to people, especially newcomers, about the area.
Mrs. Hoggard receives dozens of phone calls a day from people looking to relocate to the county and she puts together a relocation package for them that includes a map, school calendar and information on local industry and recreation. She speaks frequently with military personnel inquiring about apartments. She said once people have lived in the county a while, most comment on how nice everyone is and how they like the weather, she said.
Another part of her job is to organize and distribute 1,100 monthly mailers with advertisements for chamber members; help distribute 11,000 copies of Visions Magazine; organize seminars like the Dale Carnegie Course; keep the chamber membership list of 785 businesses updated; and reserve the chamber board room and conference room for meetings. The rooms are available for other county organizations to use, she said.
She said another way to find information about the county is through the chamber's Web site, www.waynecountychamber.com, where all of the information on restaurants and other county attractions is located. Employees are always trying to find better ways to serve the community and chamber members, she said.
Mrs. Hoggard said she enjoys her job because she likes the people she works with and helping other people. The hardest thing is finding answers to some of the questions, but she said she will find it eventually.
Events Coordinator
Angela Truluck, an Illinois native, became the chamber's events coordinator in October. Her husband, Chief Master Sgt. Randy Truluck, is stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base with the 4th Medical Group. They came to Goldsboro from Alaska where Mrs. Truluck worked as a public relations specialist at a bank.
The chamber has been reorganized to spread out some of the responsibilities among several employees. Patty Graham, director of membership and marketing, previously was in charge of coordinating events, but they decided to hire someone specifically for that job so Mrs. Graham can focus more on membership.
Mrs. Truluck said she decided to apply for the position because she wanted a job like the one she had at the bank where she wrote the monthly newsletter and helped coordinate the Business After Hours event.
She provides support and organizes events for Leadership Wayne County and the chamber's board of directors and education committee. The chamber sponsors numerous events throughout the year, including Military Appreciation Week, a reverse drawing, Morning Munch and Lunch and Learn seminars for small businesses and an annual meeting in January. She is responsible for organizing all of these events and will soon be helping prepare a new monthly chamber insert in the Goldsboro News-Argus.
She wants chamber employees to be familiar with upcoming events that they can plan ahead to ensure everything flows smoothly and the events are always done right. She said the chamber's goal is to serve the businesses in the county by helping increase their business and by making sure members know what the chamber offers them.
She said her job provides her with the freedom to do things a new way. The hardest thing about moving to the county was not knowing anybody or anything about the area, but said this job has helped her in both areas.