I have been so honored to be Chair of the Overland Park Chamber Board this past year.

2024 has moved incredibly fast and we had some great wins and some exciting “firsts” that occurred this past year that I wanted to briefly highlight.

Opportunity Now is finishing its second full year of implementation and this, coupled with your membership investment, has allowed the Chamber to move the needle on what you said were the key priorities:

Workforce Talent

• We added two full time staff to work on the talent pipeline across our community. They are backed up by a Talent Council who meets monthly to move the Talent priorities forward.
• We also completed a comprehensive workforce study that gives you access to critical data about the quality and access to talent in our region—please take advantage of this outstanding product!
• We are partnering with school districts to explore careers and help in skill development. One outcome of this is the creation of the Student Chamber of Commerce with the Shawnee Mission School District and a group of their young entrepreneurs.

Economic Growth

• JCCC is partnering with us to assist start-ups and second stage entrepreneurs.
• Our Economic Development team retained over 1,000 jobs and brought in 368 new jobs totaling $46 million in capital investment.
• A marketing director was added to the team to attract new talent and investment.
• We’ve connected local developers to childcare operators to ultimately increase the number of childcare slots available.

Being a Bold Voice in Topeka and Washington

• Saving money with reforms to the State’s Workers comp and unemployment systems.
• Satisfying future ED needs through increased electric utility capacity
• Combatting organized retail crime
• Hosting the first-ever local competition for the National Civics Bee, sending our winners to – and sweeping – the state bee, and sending our Kansas State Champion, Rashaan P., a Blue Valley middle schooler, to the National Civics Bee held at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C.

These are just some of the highlights – as you can see, it was a great year.

Another key milestone was our Chamber President & CEO – Tracey Osborne Oltjen – celebrated her 20th year of service with the Overland Park Chamber. Congratulations and thank you for your outstanding leadership Tracey!