GET INVOLVED TO MAXIMIZE YOUR CHAMBER MEMBERSHIP
 Make sure you and your staff maximize membership in the Blount County Chamber and get connected with potential customers. Connect with others by joining one of our special interest groups, volunteering for special events planning and/or receiving alerts & updates that could potentially impact your business. Not just for the business owner or Chamber representative, circulate this email to your staff and get them signed up today.
Click the link to find out more.
JOB FAIR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY
 Sponsorships are available for the annual Blount County job fair slated for Thursday, March 22, 2018 from 2-6 p.m. at the Second Harvest Food Bank facility. More than 55 vendors will be on site with over 600 visitors expected to attend.
Click here for the sponsorship form.
If you are interested in participating, please email Jessica Belitz at
jbelitz@blountpartnership.com for more information.
NETWORKING TRAINING CLASS
 Make plans to attend to attend our
networking training class on February 6 at the Blount Partnership (201 S. Washington St., Maryville) from 3-4:30 p.m. and you'll never make a cold call again. Facilitator Raeus Jae Cannon shows you how to get the most out of the connections you strive to make. Register today by emailing Amy at
alawson@blountpartnership.com
HR FOCUS GROUP SET FOR FEBRUARY 7
 Eric Ebbert of Wimberly Lawson opens up the 2018
HR Focus Group meetings with a talk entitled "The Art of Holistic Harassment Prevention and Lessons From Fox's Carlson/Ailes Case." The meeting takes place Wednesday, February 7 from 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the Blount Partnership (201 S. Washington St., Maryville). IF you are interested in attending, please email Amy at
alawson@blountpartnership.com.
PROMOTE AND PARTICIPATE IN OPERATION THANK YOU
 Promote your business during "Operation Thank You" by sending 1400 gift certificates, brochures or business promotional pieces to us and we will distribute them during Operation Thank You.
Your Chamber constantly looks for ways to help you promote your business through the ABC theory - Always Buy Chamber. We do ask that your enclosure piece not to exceed 8.5x11". These inserts should be delivered to the Chamber no later than 5 p.m. Thursday, February 8.
If you are interested in participating, please contact Amy Lawson at
alawson@blountpartnership.com or call 865.983.2241. There is a fee of $200 for insert enclosure.
Participate in the Chamber's 20th annual "Operation Thank You" set for February 20-22, 2018 and meet other business people on a one-on-one basis.
During this three-day event, Chamber members, the Chamber staff and Board of Directors will personally deliver Chamber member information packets. We invite you to join us in this three-day effort. You can agree to call on as many or as few members as your schedule permits.
If you, someone (or several people) from your business, organization or group is interested in participating, please contact Amy Lawson at
alawson@blountpartnership.com or call 865.983.2241.
SOFT SKILLS SESSION FOR FEBRUARY
 It's Your Career! That's the focus of eight free soft skills sessions offered in partnership by the Blount County Public Library, the Adult Education Foundation of Blount County and the Blount County Chamber of Commerce that are scheduled over the next 11 months.
Registrations are currently being accepted online at
www.blountchamber.com for the second class entitled Building a Team set for Feb. 23.
The other classes offered include Managing People and Personalities, Free Resources for Professional Development, How to Run an Effective Meeting, Improving Your Presentation Style - Speaking, Improving Your Presentation Style - Strategies for Engaging Presentations, Making Your Social Media Look Good and Creating Infographics for Promoting Your Business.
All classes are conducted in the Blount County Library's learning lab located at 508 N. Cusick in Maryville and limited to 50 participants. A complete class description is located on the registration site. All classes run from 8-10 a.m. with networking beginning at 7:30 a.m.
FEBRUARY MEMBER-TO-MEMBER PROMOTIONS NEEDED
 Member-to-member promotions are needed for February. Check out the new offer from Ruby Tuesday for the NFL championship game. See this and other promotions at
member-to-member promotions. New offers are being posted almost daily, so check out the Blount County Chamber of Commerce Member-to-Member promotions online. This Member-to-Member Promotional Program offers you and your company the opportunity to market your products and services to the membership.
Here's how it works:
1. Submit a PDF of a service, product or discount you'd like to offer to the Chamber membership to
jmuir@blountpartnership.com. Be sure to include an expiration date.
2. An email with all the promotions will be sent out on the final Monday of every month to our member database.
3. All promotions will be posted on
www.BlountChamber.com
REMEMBER TO SHOP LOCAL
 Think local first + Buy local when you can = Being a local!
More local businesses mean a stronger tax base and more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally- owned stores entering the community.
GOT AN EVENT OR NEWS? WE'D LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT
Is your organization hosting an event in the community? Submit it
here on our community calendar. If it's a tourism event or any good news about your business, please
send it to us. We'd love to share it with the community.
REMEMBER WHEN
Topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week in 1989 was "Two Hearts," by Phil Collins. The song was written for the 1988 crime comedy film
Buster. Both promo-singles of the film, "Two Hearts" and "A Groovy Kind Of Love", topped the US charts.
Two Hearts won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
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