ABOVE: Kandi Menne

FAIRMONT– The Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has named its new president; however, it’s not anyone new to the chamber. Kandi Menne, who previously held the role of office manager, has recently assumed the role of president.

Menne was born and raised in Fairmont and upon graduating from Fairmont High School, she attended Mankato Technical College. There she studied sales marketing and management and went on to work in advertising sales for various newspapers and shoppers.

After a while, Menne reconnected with a classmate and the two moved to Arizona. They decided to move back to Fairmont about eight years ago.

When Menne returned, she worked as an independent contractor in marketing and advertising for several years.

“It was actually Joe Brown (former Fairmont Area School Superintendent) who told me they were looking for somebody at the chamber. So here I am,” Menne said.

She had just celebrated seven years with the chamber this past summer. While her job title has been office manager/communications director, Menne has taken on a multitude of responsibilities over the years.

“We used to be an office of 3 and a half, but as people come and go, duties shifted and I’ve done a lot over the course of time,” Menne explained.

When Menne started, Margaret Dillard was the chamber president and most recently it had been Ned Koppen, who left a few months ago to take a job with the city of Fairmont.

While Menne knows the ins and outs of what the chamber does, including the different events it hosts as she’s played a hand in organizing them, she acknowledges there will be a learning curve.

“This position has a whole other level of different things I didn’t need to pay attention to… budgets and all that fun stuff,” Menne said.

However, she’s looking forward to getting even more involved with the business community and the chamber members. She’s also excited about the prospect of being a decision maker and plans to look at tweaking some committees or events.

“Not to blame everything on Covid, but I think it put a pause on people and their networking. I want to get back to speed with our committees and networking events. Hopefully we can have some more seminars and get back on track with chamber business that we’ve lost,” Menne said.

She said while she knows many people, she’s mostly corresponded with them over email or by phone so she’s looking forward to getting out and making personal connections.

“Retention and recruitment is really a big thing that we need to stay on top of. We need to make sure businesses know the benefits of being a chamber member. That they’re investing on our community and its future,” Menne said.

She acknowledged that it’s a busy time for the chamber with end-of-year with memberships. Recently the candidate forums, which the chamber organizes, and the teacher banquet happened, both of which Menne stepped up and helped with.

Some fun event for the chamber are also coming up including the glows parade and santa fly-in. Ahead of the holiday shopping season, Menne plans to connect with the retail committee and get it going so that they can support retail business and the downtown businesses.

Menne stressed that there are also opportunities to get involved. She’d like to keep up with ambassador visits and said they’re always in need of volunteers for programs like junior achievement.

“It takes more than just a couple people to make a community successful. We really have to work together,” Menne said.