Doug Levine, Outgoing Director of Membership, Public Relations and Special Events

It has been an honor and pleasure serving as your Director of Membership and Public Relations for the past five years. As my time at the Chamber comes to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect upon the past five years and share some of the accomplishments and achievements of our organization. None of this would have been possible without the support and involvement of the Chamber Board of Directors, Committee chairs, Ambassadors, Chamber members and of course, the Chamber and CVB staff. I want to thank all of you for your continued support and involvement during my time here.

Over the past five years, there were many fun, informative events organized by scores of volunteers and attended by thousands of Chamber members. Some of the accomplishments of which I am most proud include moving our annual business tradeshow, Showcase Tompkins, to The Ithaca Farmers Market, which allowed more members to participate while also making it a truly memorable event that the public could be a part of. The Annual Chamber Golf Tournament has evolved immensely. By utilizing both Cornell’s Robert Trent Jones course and the Country Club of Ithaca, our participation has more than doubled! The Great Big Chamber Auction continued to raise a significant amount of money while Auctioneer extraordinaire David Hall was brought on as Auction Committee Chair. We grew our monthly Networking@noon event to a point that we are sold out almost every month. And despite the plethora of bad jokes lobbed at me on a daily basis, I am very proud to have hired Steve Lawrence as your Membership Account Executive. For many of you Steve is the first face of The Chamber, and for that, I am sorry.

This year, we have once again been busy with ribbon cuttings, anniversaries, mixers and new member orientations while our business community continues to expand and diversify despite current economic conditions. I would like to formally welcome my successor, Rob LaHood, to the Chamber. After a weekend visit to Ithaca in 2002, Rob instantly fell in love with the area and decided to relocate from Washington, D.C. and make Ithaca and Tompkins County his adopted home. I met Rob while enrolled in Leadership Tompkins during the fall of 2005 and a friendship quickly ensued. We’ve been in touch ever since and I’m so proud to see him take over for me.

As I sit here adding the finishing touches to my last Chambergram, while looking forward to starting my new role as Executive Director of The State Theatre of Ithaca, Inc., I truly feel like the luckiest guy in town. I’m moving from a job and organization that I love to a dream opportunity. As many of you know, music plays a big role in my life. I remember thinking to myself during last October’s Crosby & Nash concert at The State Theatre, “I wish I could just see EVERY show at this beautiful theatre!” Happily, that is now my reality.