Many of you have had the opportunity to interact with Janet Nichols. Janet has served as the military community liaison at the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce since 2013. As many of you may have heard, Janet Nichols has accepted a new position as director of public affairs and community outreach with the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs.
Janet has been outstanding representing Manhattan with key officials at Fort Riley and serving as a voice of the post on issues in the Manhattan community. Some of her accomplishments in the past few years alone include legislation on license reciprocity and direct aid to schools, U.S. Army funding for runway expansion and assistance with covid protocols among many others.
We appreciate her service to the organization and wish her well at her new job.
We have now started a process to evaluate the program and the goals and objectives to determine the best approach for finding a replacement. Today we met with the financial stakeholders in the program, including representatives from the City of Manhattan, Riley County, Chamber of Commerce leadership and private sector supporters to begin that process.
We will be working over the next few weeks to gain input from stakeholders around the region to determine our best path forward so we can continue to have a first class program.
The economic and emotional impact of having Fort Riley and the 1st Infantry Division is extremely important to Manhattan and the greater Flint Hills region. We want to make sure that we are very deliberate in identifying key goals and objectives to allow the next person in this role the best opportunity for success.
Please feel free to let me know if you have thoughts or suggestions about the Chamber's military relations program.