Cook County Chamber hires Lisa Bauer to be Member Relations Manager

 

In an effort to strengthen connections with members and enhance member services, the Cook County Chamber of Commerce has named Lisa Bauer to the new, part-time position of Member Relations Manager, Chamber Executive Director Jim Boyd has announced.

“We are very fortunate to have Lisa join the Chamber team,” Boyd said. “She is a thorough professional and will bring a high degree of dedication to this new position. She will provide critical help in ensuring the Chamber remains sustainable for the long term.”

Bauer will be known to many Cook County residents as the Executive Director of Boreal Community Media, a position she will continue to hold. Bauer also served as the full-time Technology Coordinator for ISD 166 for the past four years.

“When the Chamber was born in 2013 during a period of economic stagnation,” Boyd said, “it was very deliberately created as an organization which would focus on public policy, locally, in St. Paul and in Washington, D.C.,” Boyd said. “And it has been very successful in that role. We hired Judy Erickson of Conservation Strategies, Inc., to be our representative in St. Paul, and she has done outstanding work. With Judy acting as our point person, we have worked with a number of partners, including Senator Tom Bakk and Representative Rob Ecklund, to secure funding for Cook County projects and to push for legislation which would advance a broad range of Cook County interests.”

While there always is a need for active representation in St. Paul, Boyd said, many of the items on the original legislative wish list have been achieved. Too, the Chamber leadership is changing as the founding leaders retire and are replaced by a new generation. “The Chamber, like every organization, must evolve, or it will become irrelevant,” Boyd said. “And that is where Lisa comes in. She will enable us to reach out to members, to promote membership with non-members and develop a more “social” side to the Chamber. The latter is difficult and time-consuming, because our members are so spread out, from the end of the Gunflint Trail to Schroeder and Grand Portage. Plus, everyone is so incredibly busy from May through October. Lisa clearly will confront challenges in this work.”

Lisa said, “One of the things I love most about living and working in Cook County is the sense of community. I have enjoyed meeting so many business owners and individuals since moving here in 2017. I look forward to strengthening those relationships and building new ones in this new Chamber role.”