“We enjoy the quality of community we have because of the vision and creativity of many local business leaders past and present,” was a comment recorded in 2001 from Joe Pavlovsky the 2000/2001 Chamber President. To recognize long appreciated business and industry leaders who have...
Housing development, affordability, and availability have been a focus of our community for as long as anyone can remember, and it continues to be a critical part of community growth. In the late 1960s, with the industrial growth of McPherson, the topic of additional housing...
I remember the Annual Chamber Meeting I helped with in 2007 when first starting at the Chamber. It was a formal, black-tie evening event, complete with a pianist and well-known keynote speaker. That was the “norm” for many, many years. It has been quite interesting...
In the April 2001 edition of The Chamber Outlook, it included an article titled “Housing Committee Organizes City Cleanup & Brings Landlords Together.” It talked about the cooperative effort of so many agencies and citizens to rid properties of unwanted trash and recyclable items, to...
Twenty-Five years ago, when the McPherson Chamber celebrated its 75th anniversary, a 5/1996 newspaper article by Charla Gatz said, “The McPherson Chamber of Commerce has a long tradition of service in improving the city.” Further on it states, “The Chamber actually can trace its lineage...
This cool flyer was found among the Chamber history relics at the McPherson Public Library. It was so unique of the many articles I sifted through, that I kept coming back to it. After digging and digging, I have yet to find out when it...
Our history albums from the early 1990s through the late 2000s are loaded with newspaper clippings of Chamber Ribbon Cuttings. There were Ribbon Cutting Ceremonies held many years prior, but unfortunately, the archives only include the headlines and not actual photos. Those we have a record...
The President’s Club was established in 1958, but not much was mentioned about it in the early board minutes. A nondated Policy and Procedures document says the McPherson Chamber of Commerce President’s Club was a committee of the Chamber organized for the purpose of “maintaining...
This interesting history nugget is from the book That Great Heart: The Life of I.A. O’Shaughnessy Oilman & Philanthropist by Doug Hennes. “In 1931, the McPherson Chamber of Commerce approached I.A. O’Shaugnessy about building a refinery in the central Kansas town. It proved to be...
The McPherson Advertising Council (M.A.C.) was a promotion tool for McPherson, mentioned as far back as 1967/1968. MAC was originally comprised of a 15-member board with 6 committees. “Whereas, retailers, wholesalers, service firms and individuals, are interested in creating a better market center for their trade...