When our Chamber President Shane Hayes tossed an idea out at a recent Ambassador meeting about a junior version of Leadership Logan it was well received.

But there was no way I could have predicted just how quickly it would turn from idea into reality. Less than a month after the idea was suggested, brainstormed and brought to the Logan County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, it passed unanimously into creation.

So, it is with great honor, that I announce the creation of the Chamber Youth Leadership program which will start this fall and will feature 9th and 10th grade students from Logan County High School and Russellville High School. The applications will be passed out in August, shortly after school is back in session.

The Youth Leadership class, which is a modified version of the Logan Leadership program, will meet once a month and learn about and experience Logan County and what it has to offer. Each meeting will have a theme such as Small Business Day, Government Day, Agriculture Day, History Day and Industry Day. The students will tour facilities and talk with experts across the county.

For more information about the program, please call the Chamber Office at 270-726-2206.

Our future lies in the minds and hearts of our youth, so it is my hope this program can become a well-received, valuable program for Logan County much like Logan Leadership is now.

COFFEE AND NETWORKING AT LOGAN ADULT LEARNING CENTER
We had a fantastic crowd Thursday morning for our Coffee and Networking event at the Logan County Adult Learning Center. As you can see from the photos there was an awesome spread of food and a plenty of people there to eat it while they networked. Thanks again to the staff at the Adult Learning Center for being great hosts and the work they do for Logan County.

SURVEY GIVES CHAMBER DIRECTION
The results are in — look in next week's newsletter for the winners of our drawing for those who participated — and for a first survey, we were glad to have such a good number of participants. We had 92 complete surveys and we learned a lot about what direction the Chamber needs to go and what kind of goals we need to set with our upcoming strategic plan. For instance, nearly 93 percent of those who took the survey said they were satisfied (43 percent) or very satisfied (50 percent) with the Chamber. While that is a excellent number, it still means that we have room to improve (a personal goal is to have 93 percent VERY SATISFIED!) and with the guidance of the survey and the board of directors, it is my hope that we can take the information those who took the survey gave us and improve not only the Chamber, but Logan County.

When we start setting goals later this summer, I will go into better detail, but right now, our top five goals are to develop and implement a retail initiative, develop workforce training and career ready programs, membership development and recruitment, marketing/public relations/advertising assistance for our members, and entrepreneur programs and small business development training. What an exciting time for our Chamber! Look for more on all of these coming soon.