The El Dorado Chamber of Commerce will be working to continue serving the community and expand its services in the coming year.

Craig Lorenson has taken over as the new president of the chamber Jan. 1, replacing outgoing president Bebee Thomas.

Thomas enjoyed her experiences with the chamber.

“I enjoyed working with the full board,” she said. “I very much enjoyed working with the people.”

During her time as president, they made several changes, including the hiring of a new director, Jeffery Black, and restructuring the chamber.

“That was the major accomplishment,” Thomas said of the restructuring. “It was a very long process, but I think it went very well.”

She also was pleased with how the board became more involved.

“I think each board member became very involved in knowing what was going on at the meetings and in all of the committees.”

“I can’t thank Bebee enough for her leadership in guiding us through these challenging times for the chamber,” Black said. “As sad as I am to see her step aside, as we enter our 90th year of community leadership, I look forward to returning the chamber to the flagship organization that it has been.”

That includes having a more visible presence in the community, increasing membership, leading business in issues that are important to them and expanding the volunteer base.

Those are also things important to Lorenson, and he looks forward to continuing with those changes this year.

“We’re still going to be looking at trying to increase our membership,” he said.

With that, they want to also increase the base of volunteers, so members can see the other side of what the chamber does.

“To me, part of membership is not just paying dues, but being involved,” he said, adding that some are involved with donations, while others volunteer their time.

The additional volunteers provide new visions for committees.

They also want to increase the presence of the chamber.

“Hopefully we can establish the chamber as the flagship of the community,” Lorenson said.

The chamber deals with a lot of questions from people, ranging from information about festivals to if there is a Wal-Mart in town or an RV park.

Lorenson wants to be that information center for the community.

He hopes the additional volunteers will be throughout the community, not just the chamber.

They also are working at building relationships up that may have changed with the dissolving of the Community Development Organization and making the chamber a stand-alone entity.

Lorenson, who has managed Ace Hardware since it opened in 1989, and has been a member since that time, has been involved in the chamber in a number of ways.

He chaired the old Retail Council for a number of years; worked with Jean Plummer on the Walnut River Festival; helped make the transition of the car show to the Ambassador Committee, helping with the first year; served on the board; and served on the executive committee for four years.

“Craig brings a depth of institutional knowledge of the chamber and I look forward to tapping into that knowledge and taking some of the good things of the old, blending them with the knew, so that we can better achieve our goals for the chamber this year,” Black said.