For all of 2019, I was thinking of fun and exciting ways to welcome 2020. Revisiting the Roaring 20s, I saw all the great parties and events being held and thought, “Yep, this is my year to let loose!” 

It has been a while since I acted far younger than my age. With the bars open until 4 a.m. on New Year’s Day, I was primed and ready to live out a great adventure as we entered a new decade. Just for once I wanted to deny my aging and go for it. But let’s be real. 

The days of watching live music and ringing in the New Year without a care in the world are admittedly, far behind me. Those crazy nights eventually turned in to a house party with friends then later a quiet dinner at home. Seeing the ball drop on Times Square was almost impossible unless I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to move to the bedroom and it just happened that I left the TV on. I was determined to put 2019 behind me. There was a lot of good in the year but like many of us, my 2019 was a year I was also happy to have in the rearview mirror. 

That was until about 2 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, When I finally succumbed to the nasty bug that had been swirling around me for all of December. I spent the last few remaining moments of 2019 stocking up on cold medicine, tea and Kleenex. There I was, under the influence of some of the best OTC medications known to man. I was in such a bad spot, I didn’t even care my television service wasn’t working. What a way to ring in the New Year. 

The Stones said it best, “We can’t always get what we want, but if we try sometimes, we just might find, we get what we need.” 

Now, I don’t think I “needed” to get sick, but I did avoid over indulging my way through a Tuesday night. 

Back to work and getting the Chamber ready to face 2020 head on came with a slightly different weakness than I expected on Jan. 2. A new year of great ideas and events I can look forward to and not have to worry about running out of steam. This year will be one for the books and I am excited to have some of the best teams to work with. Colette Walters is my other half of the Chamber Dynamic Duo. So much of what gets done for the chamber gets done because of her. I also have the greatest group of Chamber Ambassadors; they are true champions of the Chamber of Commerce. They deserve an article all to themselves, I will make sure to tell you more about them soon. 

The next group I want to recognize is our board of directors. They are the group that keeps me in check and makes sure the core mission of the Chamber of Commerce is the focus of what we do. I am blessed to have the relationship we have and they let me do the “how” we do what we do. It’s a pretty great relationship. 

I just want to take a minute to introduce the 2020 board of directors.

We put effort in building a board of directors that offers a representation of as many industry types that we can. This year’s board of directors consists of: President, Craig Fuchs, Orchid International; Vice President, Al Rufer, Precision Drive and Control; Treasurer, Joe Klein, Bank of New Glarus; Past President, Lynn Molinaro, Dairy Queen; Wade Weis, Monroe Clinic SSM; Terry Snow, Pleasant View; Melissa Thompson, First Weber Hedeman Realty; and David Frey, David James Financial Group. We also have a representative from the City of Monroe, Brooke Baumann. This year we will be adding Nicole Josephs, Stateline Vision Center and Tracy Meier, Colony Brands. We are very fortunate to have dedicated board members. As we welcome new directors we also want to say thank you to the hard work of our exiting board directors: Tim Wolff, Colony Brands; and Adam Bansley, Empire Media. Each of them has served our board with dedication and a true interest in seeing the entire community grow and prosper. 

If you happen to know these great people, give them a pat on the back for a job well done. 

Thanks for letting me blab on about getting older and “trying” to relive some glory days. Happy New Year. I truly hope this year is a year of health, prosperity and positivity. 

— Melissa Even is the executive director for the Monroe Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at melissa@monroechamber.org.