PACP recognized our 2025 award winners during the Chamber Professionals & Leadership Conference held in November at the Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Seven Springs, PA.



Click here for photos from the event, and read more about our award winners below...

2025 Keystone Award Recipients

James Decker, President & CEO of the Warren County Chamber, and Carrie Stuart, President of The Chamber of Gettysburg & Adams County, were recently awarded the Keystone Award for outstanding service by a Chamber of Commerce Executive. The Keystone Award was established in 1963 to recognize outstanding service in, and contributions to, the profession of chamber management in Pennsylvania. It is the highest honor bestowed by the Pennsylvania Association of Chamber Professionals (PACP). It is not presented on an annual basis, but only at such times as an individual has merited such recognition. Click here for the full press release. Congratulations Jim and Carrie!

2025 Chamber of the Year Awards

In addition to recognizing organization excellence, the PACP Chamber of the Year Award focuses on acknowledging one or more significant achievements / accomplishments that a chamber has initiated, stimulated, and/or led in its respective service area at some point during the past 18 months. Organizational excellence is evaluated in the areas of membership, programs, planning, and finance.

The Phoenixville Regional Chamber of Commerce was honored as the recipient of the prestigious award in the category of chambers with under 700 members.

The Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce was honored as the recipient of the prestigious award in the category of chambers with over 700 members.

Congratulations to Jessica Capistrant and her team with the Phoenixville Regional Chamber, and Robert Carl, Jr. and his team with the Schuylkill Chamber! 

2025 PACP Accredited Chamber

One of the most prestigious programs of PACP is our Accredited Chamber Program. The program sets standards of excellence for chambers in Pennsylvania. The program follows the U.S. Chamber model, and it shows that a chamber has gone through a detailed analysis of what and where they are as an organization. The PACP Accredited Chamber Program is designed to establish a standard of organizational competency and an objective set of criteria for assessment. The achievement of standards by PACP member chambers as determined by an examining committee is awarded with Accreditation credentials. To date, two PACP member chambers have achieved this accreditation – the Greene County Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce. PACP was pleased to recognize the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce as the association’s newest PACP Accredited Chamber. Congratulations to Chris Berleth and his team!

2025 Service Awards

Each year, PACP recognizes chamber professionals who have served any five-year increment in the chamber management field. We were pleased to recognize the following chamber professionals this year:

25 Years of Service

Michelle Kreutzer – Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber

Christine Stanley – Indian Valley Chamber

15 Years of Service

Kellie Goodman Shaffer – Bedford County Chamber

10 Years of Service

Jessie Covert – Blair County Chamber

Steven Hunsberger – Indian Valley Chamber

Congratulations to these professionals for their years of service in the Chamber of Commerce industry!

We are excited to announce the dates & locations for our 2026 events…please be sure to save these dates on your calendar for next year:

2026 Chamber Day in Harrisburg

for all chamber professionals & your volunteer leadership

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

State Capitol & PA Chamber Offices

Harrisburg, PA

2026 PACP Chamber Professionals & Leadership Conference

for all chamber staff members

Monday – Wednesday, October 26 – 28, 2026

Penn Harris Hotel

Camp Hill, PA

Hosted by the West Shore Chamber of Commerce

PA Chamber Column - December 2025

It is December, and Pennsylvania finally has a budget for the current fiscal year. On November 12, the PA House and Senate passed the 2025-26 state budget and fiscal code with broad bipartisan support. The agreement spends $50.1 billion – a 6 percent increase in last year’s spending, but $1.4 billion less than what Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed in February. The spending plan relies on $670 million of yet-to-be-identified one-time fund transfers and a one-time transfer of $100 million from the Joint Underwriters Association balance. The plan does not take money from the state’s $7.5 billion Rainy Day Fund. Click here for the full article.

The Chamber is happy to announce that we have added Dan Kovach to our staff as our new Director of Operations.

The Chamber's Membership Director, Chad North recently completed an intensive three-day GrowthZone training program. This milestone comes at a pivotal moment as the Chamber undertakes a major modernization effort—migrating away from a patchwork of legacy membership databases and consolidating our operations into the powerful, fully integrated GrowthZone platform. Chad’s training focused on system configuration, website migration/support, communications tools, member engagement features, and the wide range of capabilities that GrowthZone brings to chambers of commerce. His new expertise will ensure that our transition is smooth, accurate, and aligned with the way our members prefer to interact with their Chamber.

The Chamber is pleased to welcome Laurie Ryan as their new President & CEO. Click here for the press release.

The female presidents of four of Pennsylvania’s leading chambers of commerce—the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry, the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, and the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia—penned a joint Op-Ed applauding the state's budget compromise and urging continued collaboration for Pennsylvania's future. Click here for the full article.

The Chamber welcome’s our newest member of the team: Robert Bertha, Communications & Programs Coordinator. Robert comes to us with a background in communications, marketing, and workforce development experience. His former employer was the US Federal Government working in external affairs. We are thrilled to have him as a member of the team.

The Chamber is excited to announce the return of the Very Perry Holidays program! This initiative encourages and rewards local shopping throughout the holiday season—while helping to attract customers and promote our local businesses. The program runs November 28 (Black Friday) through December 31^st.

Save the Date - #ACCE26 Annual Convention has been set for July 20-23, 2026 in New Orleans, LA.

The U.S. Chamber Foundation's Institute for Organization Management has announced their 2026 program dates. CLICK HERE to see the sites and dates for 2026.