Phone: 218-729-6843 | Email: info@hermantownchamber.com | Our Hours: Monday-Friday: 9 AM - 5 PM |
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Message from the Director

A message from our President & CEO, Kim Parmeter:

At the Hermantown Area Chamber of Commerce, we genuinely appreciate our members and the relationships built over the years – some long standing, others just beginning. Each year, we welcome new members and continue learning from those with deep experience across business and industry. We’re proud to support everyone from emerging entrepreneurs to growing mid-size companies to established industry leaders. 
 

Chambers of Commerce are among the oldest and largest private business organizations in the world. Your membership—and the events and programs you support—are direct investments in our community.

We advocate for your voice at the local, regional, state, and sometimes national level. Not as lobbyists, but as business advocates.

Why does this matter? Because business needs a seat at the table. Many groups influence policy—unions, nonprofits, schools, and others. The Chamber ensures the business community is represented clearly, broadly, and effectively—and that impacts everyone.

 
Here’s how we use our voice. 
 
By being a member of our Hermantown Area Chamber of Commerce, the collective voice of business is amplified through:
  • The work we do locally in Hermantown, Proctor, Rice Lake, Duluth, and surrounding municipalities.  Legislators take notice when we represent our 370+ members.
  • North East Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Executives* Representing Bemidji, Cloquet, Duluth, Ely, Grand Rapids, Hermantown, Hibbing, International Falls, Lake County, Laurentian & Moose Lake Chambers (Your business can also become an independent member of these chambers.) Now we bring a few thousand business voices to the table.
  • Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Executives – Chamber Execs representing their members from across the state.  Now we bring tens of thousands of business voices to the table.
  • Minnesota Chamber of Commerce  (Your business can also become an independent member of this chamber). While we are independent from the MN Chamber, we are members and work with them regularly. They have the staff and resources to champion business advocacy and conduct research at a state level as Minnesota’s largest broad-based business organization, representing more than 6,300 companies throughout Minnesota. 
  • Minnesota Chamber Federation Partnership  Our advocacy is further bolstered by the 50+ partners who are unified as the MN Chamber federation – chambers across the state that adopt and advocate for the top pro-business legislative priorities.
  • Mid America Chamber of Commerce Executives (Representing MN, WI, ND, SD, IA, NE)
  • US Chamber of Commerce (Your business can also become an independent member of this chamber.)
Chambers of Commerce are also the conveners in our communities.  We bring our member partners in education, government, health care, labor unions, and others together to connect and discuss issues, solutions, execution strategy, outcomes, and impact.  
 
At the Hermantown Area Chamber of Commerce, our vision is to promote a strong and growing regional business climate to enhance the vitality of the communities we serve.  And we’re doing it.
 
Our board of directors and our exec team have been working through a lot of local and regional issues lately that we’ve been asked to weigh in on. It’s not easy, but it’s important. And we know we can’t make everyone happy with our decisions because we literally serve a membership from the single-person side hustle to 5000+ FTE. We really work to try to understand all of the angles and implications of every decision we make and how that impacts the community.
 
We implore you to reach out to us when there’s an issue on the table. Most times, we hear it from our members first – because it might affect YOUR business or YOUR industry, and it matters. You can always reach out to me – kim@hermantownchamber.com
 
If you’re in business, you need the chamber.  If you think your business is too big to need the chamber, maybe your chamber needs you!  We have a special membership and designation for this group of businesses as pillar members of our business community.  
 

So if you’re not a member and you are reading this – and you are a decision maker in your business – now is the time to join.  Become part of the collective Voice of Business.

 
Thank you for your time and consideration, and for many of you – thank you for your investment in our community.
 
It is our pleasure to serve you, and help grow your business.
 
Sincerely,
 
Kimberly Parmeter, IOM MBA

*President & CEO Kim Parmeter has served as chair of North East Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Executives from 2021.

 

 

Network with our community:  Make plans to attend an upcoming event or meeting!

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Connect With Us:

  • Visit:  We are open Monday – Friday from 9a-5p in the Hermantown Square (HWY 53 & LaVaque) between McKenzie’s Bar & Grill & True Journey Financial. (If we’re out of the office, we’re probably at an event or meeting with our members!)  From Memorial Day – Labor Day, Fridays are by appointment only)
  • Email:  kim@hermantownchamber.com
  • Call:  218-729-6843 (Leave your number and a message so your call can be returned if we miss you!)
  • Send Mail:  Hermantown Area Chamber of Commerce, 5094 Miller Trunk HWY #600, Hermantown, MN  55811