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Chamber of Commerce board members (from left) Peter King, Ronnie Boggs, Linda Parish, Tom Thon, Claudia Reit, Owen Bullard and Williamson Sintyl host the first business after hours meeting of the year on Jan. 25 at the Crawford Depot. The meeting gave the board time to introduce themselves and their goals. (Sarah Myers/The Oglethorpe Echo)
Williamson Sintyl became the new chairman of the Oglethorpe County Chamber of Commerce last month. After being elected to a three-year term by the other board members, Sintyl took on this role with the intention of “serving, supporting and promoting local businesses.”
“We want all members of the county to shop local,” he said. “When you shop local, you’re not only supporting a local business, you’re also supporting a visionary. You’re supporting a dream. So, we want people to support our visionaries."
Owen Bullard, a financial adviser and returning board member, will support Sintyl in his role as co-chairman. Bullard, as the previous chairman, helped reintroduce the business after hours events last year in an effort to bring more awareness to local business.
“We have a lot of local businesses here that people may not realize that we have,” Bullard said. “If you can find a way to support local businesses and help them grow, let’s try to use them first if possible.”
Tom Thon, a professional actor, joined the board this year as the chamber’s camera-ready liaison. His goal is to educate businesses and members of the community on how they can apply their skills and talents to the growing film industry in the county.
“Spread the word wherever you go that Oglethorpe is a rural county with a very high representation of artistic skills and talents and craftsmen,” Thon said. “The level of talent is very high."
Peter King, who owns HydroFlow Soft Washing and Pressure Washing, is the board’s new coordinator of business after hours. These events were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the chamber has reinstituted them so local business owners can connect and help each other thrive.
“Networking is one of the core functions of the chamber, and just having awareness of a business and also a deeper understanding of what it is they do and how they go about doing it,” King said.
Ronnie Boggs, the chamber’s secretary, is an active member of the community by serving on multiple county boards and on the Lexington City Council. The biggest challenge he wants to address is a lack of communication between businesses.
“The challenges that I might be having with my business, the guy across the street may be having the same challenges, and he may have come up with a solution,” Boggs said, “but if we’re not talking about it together, neither one of us are helping each other.”
Linda Parish, the tourism and hospitality director, said she believes people going out of the county to do their shopping is one of the biggest threats to local business.
Through her position and her business (Local Color in Lexington), she wants to bring awareness to the smaller businesses. Parish put up a sign in her shop, with data collected from American Express that states, “For every one dollar spent at small businesses, 67 cents stays in the community.”
“People don’t come out and look in the county, they just automatically go to Athens, and that’s hurt everybody,” Parish said. “I’ll spend more, just because it’s local. I know what it is to be a local business fighting those big ones.”
Claudia Reit, a previous board member, takes on the new role of director of women’s leadership development. Her goal is to reach out to women and provide a space for them to network and learn about business.
“Don’t try to stop progress because progress will come, if we want it or not,” Reit said, “but if we can be part of this great future, or whatever is coming to the county, then maybe we can channel this progress to benefit everybody in the county, the entire community, not just one developer or one business.”