What do the UN Headquarters opening in New York City, the premiere of I Love Lucy, ratification of the 22nd amendment limiting Presidential terms, and the beginning of the North Augusta Chamber of Commerce have in common? All happened in 1951.
“When I came here in 2012, a lot of folks that lived in North Augusta didn’t know we had a chamber,” President and CEO Terra Carroll told ABD. “I think because it was a bedroom community, and some of the activities that we did were really isolated to in-house type things.”
Carroll said the founders created a solid framework for the fledgling chamber, and 2026 is the time to build on that vision to evolve the chamber for the next 75 years. That will include finding ways to embrace emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), while protecting the values that define the organization.
An asset she will use to innovate the chamber to support current businesses, attract new businesses, and support the local economy is one she credits with sustaining it from the beginning: its volunteers.
“When you have the right team of folks from the community that see the value in what you’re doing and want to keep it going, the volunteers really make a difference in whether we survive or not,” she explained. “Having those volunteers and those community members that see that value and know they need to encourage the growth of the chamber really helps sustain us.”
One of those volunteers is Andrea Bowles of Blanchard & Calhoun Real Estate. She said that at the heart of the North Augusta chamber is the connections, the ability to network to grow the business and the community.
‘There are so many opportunities to network and to get to know each other,” she said. “It’s the best chamber I’ve ever been involved in where networking truly is what we’re there for. We’re there to service. We’re there to make sure that everybody has what they need.”
Carroll said the theme for the 75th Anniversary is “Reflections,” both looking at past achievements and planning for the future. She said they will achieve that with intentional planning, with four primary goals:
- Preparing the next generation of business leaders through workforce development, internships, mentorship, and education
- Leveraging innovation and technology as tools to enhance productivity, decision-making, and opportunity, not replace relationships
- Strengthening connections between legacy businesses and emerging entrepreneurs
- Championing a future-ready economy that values adaptability, inclusion, and long-term sustainability
“When you think about the intentionality of the engagement, I look to Terra for that, because she’s done an incredible job with getting involved in the community, making sure that the business owners know her, making sure that she’s engaging with all of the members as well as possible,” said Bowles.
Bowles will serve as the chair of the Board of Directors for the year ahead. Her goals are simple but have service at the core.
“Just making sure that we’re providing what the members want, whether that’s education, whether that is information on housing, whether that’s information on the economy, advocacy,” she said. “Something we’re really digging into right now is looking at the membership in general. We know that there are a lot of large members, but there are also a lot of small members, and we want to be sure that we are serving them as well.”
The anniversary celebration kicks off with a party. The chamber’s annual meeting and awards banquet is January 29 at the North Augusta Community Center at 495 Brookside Ave.
“We really want to focus on where we go from here. There are so many changes worldwide, especially with technology, and we want to make sure that we’re presenting how we’re going to embrace that with our community,” said Carroll. “Talking our strategic planning and what we plan on doing in 2026 to help move our greater North Augusta community forward, and a lot of that is in our workforce development.”
The banquet is open to both chamber members and non-members. For more information, visit: https://www.northaugustachamber.org/
