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New chamber executive director is McCook native
McCOOK, Neb. -- A 2016 graduate of McCook High School has taken over the reigns at McCook Chamber of Commerce as the new executive director. But don't let Dawson Brunswick's young age fool you. The young man has accomplished a lot throughout his high school and college career and is ready to bring that enthusiasm and determination to his duties at the helm of the chamber office.
Brunswick earned his Business Administration degree at Chadron State College in three years, due, in part, to his diligence in taking 21 credit hours during three different semesters at Chadron. A student with 12 credit hours is considered full-time, so Brunswick’s accelerated pace allowed him to possess the right skills at the right place and at the right time for the executive director position at McCook Chamber.
During his college career, Brunswick was involved with the Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda organization where he won two national championships in back-to-back years for network design. He also placed third nationally in a sales presentation event. In addition, he placed in the top 10 in several other events. He also became involved in student government at Chadron and was selected by Governor Ricketts to serve as Chadron State’s student trustee for Chadron State College the Nebraska State College System. Through that experience, Brunswick worked met with many state senators and the Chardon Nebraska State College System Board of Trustees and “met some pretty awesome people there.”
Since graduation, Brunswick has been working at MNB Insurance until he took over the duties at the chamber on Tuesday.
Brunswick is excited to start his responsibilities at the chamber. “I just felt that there is so much potential to what the chamber can do for its members and the community. Going to a handful of the community sessions they [the chamber board of directors] had; every session I went to said that they really felt that the chamber was there to help promote and grow the community and there’s just so many different things that chambers all over are doing to better the business community. That keeps the chamber afloat, and that in turn, helps the community as a whole.”
As a starting point, Dawson is focusing on Heritage Days. With only three full weeks to prepare, all energy is being focused on making the 2019 annual event a success. The theme for this year is “German Heritage Days – Back to Our Roots”. As usual, the celebration will feature the MNB
mixer on Wednesday, September 25 where the honor family and royalty will be announced. On Thursday, a Lied Center live performance, “Songs from Broadway” will be held at the Fox Theatre. Friday evening will feature an outdoor movie presentation on the McCook Community College Campus. The traditional parade will be held on Saturday, followed by food, vendors, and entertainment in Norris Park on Saturday and Sunday.
Once Heritage Days 2019 is tucked away, Brunswick would like to focus on trainings. “We have a lot of people in the community who are very talented in different areas of their businesses. We should be able to apply that to a training about how to run your business more efficiently, or how you can create online sales at your business.”
In fact, Brunswick would also like to look for ways to help all of the local business grow online. “Even if that is just being listed on Google maps so when people search for products or services near them, all options will show up.”
Trevor Taylor, president-elect of the McCook Chamber of Commerce, said that the chamber is still in the process of “totally changing a whole bunch of things for the chamber.” The board held several focus group sessions in August inviting the public to give them input on how the chamber should move forward. Part of that process led the board of directors to narrow the scope of chamber events to four major events – Heritage Days in September, Crazy Days in July, Christmas promotion in November/December, and the annual banquet at the beginning of the year.
“We also had to do what I would call extreme budget cuts for the chamber,” Taylor said. The chamber budget went from $132 thousand per year to $90 thousand, a decrease of over 30 percent. Going forward, the chamber will operate with just one paid staff member, the Executive Director. “We are operating under the premise that less is more. The things that we can do well, we’re going to do extremely well. The things that were just a mediocre events - won’t be in the future.”
Chamber Board President Steve Rasmusen said, “Our biggest goal is to do events that mean something for McCook. We want to bring things that people will enjoy going to.”
“We’re excited,” Taylor told the Gazette. “I don’t know how you can put that any bigger or bolder.”