Tresa Calfee was named president of the Clay County Chamber of Commerce on March 12. She took the interim post in August after past president Doug Conkey resigned for another position. Calfee joined as vice president in July 2014. She was interviewed March 16.
My responsibilities are to cover all the chamber’s activities – overall planning; the administrative part; evaluation of our programs, our policies and procedures; oversee the staff; implement policies; and oversee financial management and long-range planning. I report directly to the chair of the board.
We have five employees, we will have six. As far as our membership, we’re at 892 as of this morning. My personal goal would be that we would be No. 2 in Northeast Florida. I am honored to serve this community.
My father owned a business. He was born and raised in Canada and moved here. In most countries, if you are a member of a chamber of commerce, it represents credibility. I joined and became engaged when I was 18 with his business and when I was in home health for over 25 years. It was important to have my name on the website, to be able to be searched when individuals were looking for services or products. When you’re reaching 892 members with your business and your logo, it’s important. It puts you ahead of everyone else in the area.
For you to be able to build your business, I would encourage you to get engaged and get involved in networking and build relationships. Take advantage of everything that’s being offered around you — the Small Business Development Center, the Jacksonville Women’s Business Center, the Small Business Administration, the chamber. Many of these organizations have opportunities for you to learn about finances, marketing, education, and some of them have CPR classes so that you can save an employee’s life or someone’s life in the community.
I was a senior account manager at the JAX Chamber, so I was responsible for bringing members into the chamber at all levels and working closely with the JAXUSA Partnership. I had over 750 members that were my personal members to maintain and cultivate. I became the director of member benefits.
My husband will tell you that I love to go out to eat. We are a connoisseur of sweet tea in Northeast Florida. I love sweet tea. I’m a Southern girl. I don’t know if it’s necessarily the brand of tea, but I think it’s the water. We have really good water as far as I’m concerned, as I was born and raised here. Some restaurants have great sweet tea and sometimes it’s not as good and I think they just don’t put enough sugar in it.