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Jenks Chamber reports membership growth, rising event attendance and tourism promotions
Summary
The Jenks Chamber reported 69 new members this year, rising attendance at community events (including a spike in trick-or-treat attendance to 5,600), expanded marketing and tourism promotion efforts, and plans to pursue a Main Street designation and a Discover Jenks tourism nonprofit.
At the Dec. 2 meeting the Jenks Chamber provided its regular report, highlighting membership gains, event attendance increases and expanded tourism marketing.
Chamber Manager Mrs. Jones said the chamber is up 69 new members this year and that most of that growth has occurred in the past three months. She told the council the chamber has completed 23 ribbon cuttings this year, has hired an operations manager and that staff members earned certification through the Oklahoma Chamber of Conference Executives (OCCE).
On events, Jones said attendance rose year over year across multiple programs: Symphony & Suites increased to 3,100 attendees, 'Lights On' increased to 2,900, the Christmas parade to 3,300, and the biggest jump was trick-or-treat (moved to the Riverwalk) which rose from about 1,900 last year to about 5,600 this year. The chamber is distributing 35,000 copies of a Discover Jenks magazine for regional tourism, with 8,500 already picked up.
Jones outlined upcoming promotions, a Discover Jenks trolley for holiday events and a 'Throwback Thursdays' Main Street promotion to encourage later evening foot traffic and support nonprofit fundraising. She said the chamber submitted an intent to apply for a state Main Street designation and is seeking to register Discover Jenks as a 501(c)(6) tourism entity.
Council asked for additional member churn reporting and requested that the chamber provide net additions and subtractions in future reports. The chamber said it maintains lists of nonrenewals and will follow up on reasons for lapses.
The chamber report closed with invitations to upcoming events and an offer to provide further data on Black Friday traffic counts at the outlet mall on request.
