February, 2012

Hello Chamber Members,

I am honored to be the new Palos Area Chamber of Commerce President.   For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Amy Richards and I am the publisher of your local newspaper The Regional News.  My family and I have quite a long history with the chamber and the City of Palos Heights.  My grandfather, Carl Richards, helped found the chamber in 1949.  He was responsible for starting the Regional as you know it today in this same spot at 123rd and Harlem in 1947.  Carl was president of the chamber in 1953.  Later my father, Charles Richards, would take over the business and he too was chamber president in 1978.  I believe I am the first third generation chamber president here in Palos Heights – and I am so excited to begin working on behalf of local businesses.  I grew up in Palos Heights, and attended Palos East, Palos South and A.A Stagg High School.  I also attended the University of Illinois at Champaign.  I moved to Chicago after graduation and still live on the north side with my husband Derek.  After a short stint working at Kraft, I have been back at The Regional and active in the chamber for 10 years.  I find my work both at the paper and with the chamber to be extremely rewarding.

I have been an active member of 6 chambers over the past several years and I hope to bring the knowledge I have gained from all of them to my term as president.  As time goes on I am constantly reminded of the benefits of participating in the local chamber of commerce.  I have seen so many business relationships develop out of networking at various chamber events.  It sounds cliché but “what you put into it is what you get out of it” is very true when it comes to chamber membership.  I urge all of our members to try in 2012 to attend a luncheon, business after hours or one of our other chamber events.  If you begin to attend these events on a regular basis you should see an impact on your business’s bottom line.

A great place to start would be to attend our February 14 luncheon at Moraine Valley Community College at 11:45.  Mayor Bob Straz will be giving his annual State of the City address.  Make sure you RSVP as this is always one of our most popular luncheons.    Thank you, I look forward to seeing many of you there.

Amy Richards
President, Palos Area Chamber of Commerce 2012