Letter from the President

Hello!  I’m Dennis Houston; I am excited to serve as your new President of the Norfolk Area Chamber of Commerce! I appreciate the faith you have shown in my experience and ability to lead the Chamber into the future. It has been my pleasure to meet many of you at various Chamber and community events. For those of you that I have not yet met, I look forward to the opportunity.

The Houston family, including my wife Sheryl, and our two boys, Ryan, age 10 and Jack, age 8, has fallen in love with Norfolk and we are extremely excited to become active members of the community. Ryan and Jack are looking forward to making new friends in town over the summer months. I am sure you will see us at one of the swimming pools, the Y, on a golf course or at the skate park.

I hope to bring a fresh perspective and creative ideas with me to help reinvent the Chamber. I am VERY passionate about business and plan to bring a high level of energy to my new role as a motivator of change for the business community.

My plan is to work with existing leadership and also encourage the next generation to step up to the plate to help lead the community.   If we work together as a team, we can attract white collar jobs, blue collar jobs, and green collar jobs that include new industry as we continue to focus on business retention.  We can create destination demand for Norfolk and the surrounding area by working together to improve our community. Norfolk has an exciting story to tell and I want to help tell that story as I shout it from the rooftops to the world! 

Our team at the Chamber plans to:
- Focus on taking care of existing Chamber members who got us to where we are today
- Improve our communications with Chamber members, the City and the community
- Develop creative marketing efforts for the Chamber, our member businesses and the entire Norfolk community
- Help lead the charge for economic development for the region
- Create a new facility for the Chamber in the near future

I can’t wait to begin working with business owners, city officials and community leaders to collaborate on creative solutions to projects that will enable us to take Norfolk to the next level.  It is vital that we all work together as one team and I am confident that we can do just that! 

Chamber Building Makeover
We are organizing some volunteers to help us give our existing Chamber building a makeover. Our first impression for our existing members, potential businesses and visitors needs a fresh face! If you would like to help paint or donate materials in any way, your assistance would be appreciated. Please contact the Chamber to raise your hand.

Chamber Speakers Bureau
The Chamber wants to educate the Norfolk community and the Northeast Nebraska region on some exciting projects we are working on that will benefit the entire area. If you are a member of a social or civic group that would like to learn more, please contact the Chamber to schedule a time for me to make a presentation to your organization.

The Future is Green
No one community in Nebraska, be it large or small, has stepped forward to lead the state as a green city. I believe that Norfolk can be that city by leading in the way we live, work and play. Look for more in the future on how we can do this.   

Wind Energy Industry Today stood up and took notice of the recent passage by the Nebraska legislature of the Wind Energy Bill. They stated that “Nebraska lawmakers OK’d a gust of fresh air for wind energy projects in the state.”  I believe that Norfolk is poised to play a major role in creating future green collar jobs. I will do whatever I can to help make that happen!

Now let’s go work together to show everyone that “Norfolk is open for business!    
All my best, Dennis