A theme emerged as the Harmony Chamber of Commerce met for their annual meeting on January 21 and shared how 2024 went for each. Some businesses shared 30 second videos about their year; following that individuals spoke about their past year.
Aaron Bishop of Niagara Cave reported a 30% increase in business since last year. Rich Bishop of Amish Tours agreed, commenting that they had their best year in 10 to 15 years. This year will be the 20th season for Amish Tours.
Steve Donney claimed the best year ever in his Investment Services, and Jim Lutes shared that the staff is growing at Harmony Insurance Group. Lawyer Greg Schieber also hired a new employee and reported that 2024 was “status quo” for the firm.
Kerry Kingsley of Kingsley Mercantile shared that his business had purchased Canton Plumbing and Heating. With that, they will be discontinuing appliance sales with the exception of Speed Queen and focusing on the hardware store and the plumbing, heating, cooling, and refrigeration business. He thanked the Chamber for their hard work and help when he was going through difficulties earlier.
Keeping the “best” theme going, Michael Himlie told the Chamber that Petra’s Garden B&B had the best year in the three years it had been open. Lisa Miller of On the Crunchy Side agreed it had been a great year and thanked the residents and surrounding communities for their patronage.
Stuart Morem of Morem Electric informed the group that he had retired and turned over the company to his sons, the fourth generation to run Morem Electric. He added that members of the fifth generation, two of his grandchildren also worked for the business.
Jennifer Gold of Gold Grooming shared that while her business is new to Harmony, she has been grooming dogs for 17 years.
The Chamber held their annual meeting at Harmony Spirits. Following a social time, fabulous soup, salad, steak crostini and assorted cheesecakes were served; the food was catered by On the Crunchy Side, The Bite, Gabby Lou’s Kitchen and Estelle’s Eatery.
President Erica Thilges called the business meeting to order. Treasurer Amy Bishop presented the treasurer’s report and explained the movement of $18,000 from 2024 to be used in 2025. A total income of $82,434 was reported. $5,000 was budgeted for special fundraising projects that might arise during the year.
Also in the budget was payroll expense for two part-time visitor center staff for 12 hours a week. This is to give the director time for other tasks. Beth Weedman has been serving as the part-time director since May. Volunteers also help staff the center; the Chamber encourages more people to volunteer.
For 2025, $6,000 was budgeted to try statewide advertising on public radio over the summer. Additionally, a $4,000 Explore MN grant will be used to advertise in both the Rochester Media Guide and Inspire magazine; the Chamber will be spending more on co-op advertising.
The Chamber’s activities for 2024 in review included making tear sheet maps of the city for visitors, writing a grant to photograph Harmony (an ongoing project) and building a new backdrop for Breakfast with Santa pictures.
Since the board members have taken on more tasks with the move from a full-time director to a part-time one, the board proposed a change to the bylaws to pay board members stipends for attending their regular monthly meetings. With a ballot vote, the Chamber agreed to the changes which now will provide stipends of $25 to the chair, treasurer and secretary and $15 for the other board positions for each meeting attended. This is not to exceed $1,620 annually.
With three seats on the board up for election, the Chamber returned Amy Bishop and Lisa Miller to the board. Janell Randa wished to leave the board; Jen Gold was elected to replace her.
During the members’ forum, Mary Sack suggested that the city get an electric sign. Other members pointed out that the school was willing to post Chamber events on their signboard.
It was suggested that members of the Chamber not only share successes, but also challenges or staffing issues they have at the annual meeting so they can help each other.
Aaron Bishop asked others what bookkeeping applications they were using. He noted that Niagara Cave prefers to keep their bookkeeping off the cloud and was concerned that QuickBooks might move to online only. Erica Thilges shared that she had recently moved to the online QuickBooks and loved that version.
Lorena Reichert of CEDA encouraged members to contact her; CEDA has resources to help individual businesses and can help those who are writing grants as well. Reichert informed the group that a career fair will be held in La Crescent March 5 for students from area schools in Fillmore, Houston and Winona Counties.
After celebrating a successful year, the Chamber members adjourned their annual meeting, ready to move on to the challenges and rewards of 2025.
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