MADISONVILLE-A record crowd turned out for the Monroe County Chamber of Commerce membership breakfast held at Donna's Cafe in Madisonville.

In his opening remarks, Chamber President Joe Tolson, shared with the crowed room, the growth of the Chamber in relation to membership and in events presented for 2012. Among those were the Chamber member sponsored "After-Hours" and the meet and greet sessions at the Chamber offices and at local businesses. He also mentioned the awards banquet and silent auction held in March, the Annual Women's Expo, the Annual Chamber Golf Tournament, the Taste of Monroe was added to the list.

Tolson went on to praise the Chamber Diplomat program and the work Chairpwoma Cheryl Bressler and members of that organization do to assist with Chamber events. Leadership Monroe is another program Tolson encouraged the members to participate in. The program is more than 20 years old and is still going strong giving participants a up close view of public works, industry, retail business, and history of Monroe County.

Outgoing Chairman of the Chamber Board Mitch Millsaps thanked the members for the opportunity to serve and praised the Chamber staff for the hard work they put into making the organization a success. Millsaps served a term and a half (16 months) after the former chair had to resign in the middle of his term.

Millsaps then turned the gavel over to incoming Chairman Tommy Wilson, publisher of The Monroe County Advocate & Democrat. 

Wilson also praised the staff and the cooperation they have between the different agencies in the county and region. 

""The Chamber is often asked what it does for the members. It is like we often tell our children, we get out of it what we put into it. Just the networking opportunities provided by the Chamber are so valuable to operating a business in this county. We can't always visit with the County Mayor's office, the Tourism office, the Economic Development office, and so on' but the Chamber staff does meet with them and the staff can be your connection to progress in those areas," Wilson said.