They are considered the engine that makes the Greater Ogdensburg Chamber of Commerce run.

Without them, no ideas, no volunteers and no experience.

And no commitment to organizing popular events ranging from low-maintenance fare like an Easter egg hunt to the large-scale North Country Wine, Beer and Food Festival.

They are the Chamber’s 19 standing committees, made up of 25 members of the organization’s board of directors. With the new year soon to begin, a new roster of committee assignments is also coming.

“Assignments will be made in December once we have our new board members and we have the opportunity to explain each committee,” said Chamber President Lori A. Smithers.

Each director is asked to sit on at least two committees.

One committee was created this fall to guide the successful launch of the Ogtoberfest food, beer, music and children’s games festival in the Greenbelt on Oct. 6. Chamber officials have already identified that as an event on the rise and the 2013 committee roster will reflect that ascendancy.

“We’ve already added the Ogtoberfest Committee this year, and I am sure we will see an increase in the number of volunteers on the committee next year,” Mrs. Smithers said.

The creation of new committees in 2013 is a possibility, but there are no plans to eliminate any.

“We’ll see what happens at the (next board) meeting as far as adding new committees,” Mrs. Smithers said. “At this point, I don’t see us dropping any of the committees. We made a few changes a few years ago. We will likely add a committee or expand an existing one to work with the BASS (fishing) tournament folks. I believe it will be a true collaboration among many communities to have a successful tournament.”

The Chamber’s new directors are: Kim Demers of Kimro’s Medicine Place; Michael Thayer of St. Lawrence Federal Credit Union; Derek R. Van House of the accounting firm Pinto-Mucenski-Hooper-VanHouse & Co.; and Joseph Metz of Parkway Stores, Ogdensburg.

The chamber committees are: Bylaws, Personnel and Finance, Annual Dinner, Ford Street Revitalization, Nominating, Travel Guide/Tourism, Membership, Ogtoberfest, Kids’ Events, River Shiver/Winter Festival, Car-B-Q Auto Show, Sportsman’s Show, Holiday Lighting Contest, Chamber Web Site, New York State Bass Tournament, Fort La Presentation/Golf Tourney, Chamber Dollars, Concerts, Scavenger Hunt and Knights of Columbus fundraiser.

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