Berryman replaces Jensen as Payette County Chamber president
By Cherise Kaechele
Argus ObserverFriday, December 30, 2011 11:40 AM PST PAYETTE ? Craig Jensen?s term as Payette County Chamber of Commerce president officially ends Sunday, and Jen Berryman will step up as the new president the same day.
Jensen has been active on the chamber for eight years. He has been a member, on the board of directors and president. He and his wife have owned C&T Storage in Payette and Weiser for 23 years. He?s been self-employed for 31 years.
Jensen said owning a business is something that, unless someone has been a business owner, they cannot really understand making all the decisions. There are a lot of hats that a business owner has to wear daily. Payroll, accounting, insurance are all things that owners have to understand fully, Jensen said.
?Self-employed or people making the decisions are the best members to have because they know how to make the tough decisions. And that?s really helped me as a president,? Jensen said.
The term of president lasts for one year, and Jensen was nominated for the position when the Payette and Fruitland chambers of commerce merged into the Payette County Chamber of Commerce. He accepted it because he knew that combining the chambers would be an advantage and a challenge. Jensen was willing to put the time and energy into this new chamber.
The main goal of the chamber is how to make the members more successful. Any resident in the county can become a chamber member, but typically it is people who are business owners or employees who want to make their business more successful and get through this difficult economy.
Change scares people, Jensen said. People thought by combining the chambers it would take away the identity of the chambers and they had put a lot of time and energy in that identity, he said. He said, however, the combined chamber made it through the first year and has put on more workshops and seminars to assist business owners in becoming more successful. The county chamber kept all of the events of which the two chambers had previously been a part. There was no bias in the chamber and the events were successful.
Those events included Fruitland Family Fun Day, Tri-County Breakfast, ribbon cuttings and Payette?s Cruise Night.
?The best part of being president is working with the members and meeting new people,? Jensen said.
The members who take time to show up at the events and actively participate in the chamber do a lot for the community, he said.
Berryman was vice president of the chamber for two years before she was nominated and accepted as president.
?I knew the chamber needed someone who would be excited about the community and excited about businesses and their growth,? Berryman said.
Berryman owns DCS Technologies in Payette with her husband, Dean.
The couple has owned the business since 2006. Originally, Dean Berryman had worked at the Argus Observer, and Jen Berryman had been working at Red Apple and they both worked together at DCS after work to earn extra money.
It had been their dream to work together and own their business. Now, they have clients locally as well as in California and Arizona.
Berryman will be a great president because she owns her own business and wears the numerous hats needed as a business owner, Jensen said. She has the perfect background to lead the chamber, he said.
She knows that without the customers, DCS would not be able to survive, and neither would the chamber, Berryman said.
The members of the chamber are most important, Berryman said.
The chamber holds the member meetings every second Tuesday of the month, and everyone is welcome.
Members can be as involved as they want. The chamber can be seen as a marketing business. There is a large variety of people on the chamber with different businesses across the community. It is a great opportunity to promote their businesses, Berryman said.
Berryman said she is excited to see the new Fruitland Health Plaza go up and the completion of the Payette River bridge. She wants to see more businesses taking up empty spaces in downtown Payette and Fruitland, too.
Next year, Jensen will begin his term as a Payette City Council member and will work to bring more businesses into the area.
Cherise Kaechele is a reporter at the Independent-Enterprise and Argus Observer. She can be reached at (208) 642-3357 or by emailing cherisek@qwestoffice.net. To comment on this story, go to www.argusobserver.com
Source: http://www.argusobserver.com/articles/2011/12/30/news/doc4efe11fd3344b232677289.txt
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