Chamber of Commerce elects new board president

MACC seeks to focus on growing their presence in community this year

Tammy Clines has been chosen as board president for the Mayfield Area Chamber of Commerce in 2021.

Clines, who serves as the community relations manager for the city of Mayfield Heights, has been a chamber board member since 2017 and gradually rose through the ranks.

Clines said she initially joined the chamber because her position in community relations allowed her to act as a liaison between the chamber, businesses and the city, and she became interested in what the chamber was doing to support small businesses.

She said she feels it is a “huge honor” to be elected president of the board.

“It’s so important for me because I’m so communityoriented,” she said. “I grew up in Mayfield Heights, so this area means a lot to me. And the survivability of our businesses is really important. So this is really exciting for me to be part of leading this exceptional team of people.”

Clines said the rest of the board is quite diverse, familiar with many different fields and types of businesses.

“The board members are an eclectic group that includes the industries of banking, insurance restaurants, event venue, finance, law, and customer service,” she said. “These members are an incredible team who share the same philosophy of giving the best value to our members and supporting the MACC cities and school system.”

The chamber currently is comprised of four communities — Mayfield Heights, Gates Mills, Highland Heights and Mayfield Village.

Clines said she grew up with small business owners in the Mayfield area on both sides of her family. Her grandparents operated a pizza business in the 1960s, and her father ran a local catering company.

“We’re entrenched in the community, my family, so, it means a lot, and I raised my family here,” Clines said. “This is a really important area to me personally, as well as business-wise.”

She said the board held its first meeting of 2021 in January, and has set goals of focusing on communication, infrastructure and holding more programs and events.

She said they have already scheduled two events in February aimed at helping businesses through the remaining economic stressors of the pandemic and showing them the benefits of being a member of MACC.

The first, to be held virtually at noon Feb. 17 will be a presentation on navigating Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. It will be led by Frank Nagorney from the Buckley King Law Firm.

The second will held at the same time on Feb. 24 via Zoom, and it will go over the value of chamber membership benefits and be presented by Cindy Holtzheimer, president of Northern Ohio Area Chambers of Commerce.