February 2026 MCCE Board Member Newsletter Article

Momentum that Matters

Christine Fenner
President
Waconia Area Chamber of Commerce

There are moments in this work when I look around a room and feel it — these people get it. They know what it feels like when the work is bigger than the bandwidth, and they show up anyway. That’s what the 2026 Annual Meeting Conference, We Are The Chamber, gave us this year. The timing, the content, the conversations — it all landed exactly when many of us needed it most.

We came home with new information and good ideas, and now it’s time to take what landed and do something with it. Before another week fills up, identify one or two things and put it to work. A membership strategy worth trying, a fresh way to tell your chamber’s story, a conversation that shifted your thinking. Bring it back to your chamber.

And you don’t have to figure out the follow-through alone. The MCCE Specialty Interest Groups in Membership, Programs & Events, and Marketing exist for exactly this — a place to think out loud, test an idea, or learn from someone who’s already been there. The regional groups are the same way. Sometimes the best support comes from our peers close enough to grab coffee with and who share the same market and legislative landscape.

The session is underway, and our voices matter. Keep showing up, speaking up, and keep doing what makes a difference for the businesses counting on us. The Annual Meeting conference motivated us, our peers support us, and our communities need us – we are the chamber, and that’s momentum that matters.