Greater East Dallas Chamber of Commerce puts more focus on helping members in 2026

The Greater East Dallas Chamber of Commerce has a chief executive officer for the first time in its 80 years of existence.

Megan Dennen, an East Dallas native and Bishop Lynch High School alumna, was hired to be the chamber’s first CEO last year. She’s been a chamber member since before the COVID-19 pandemic and has a background in public relations and marketing, plus an education from Texas Christian University.

The new chairperson is Rheanna Avila, a local realtor and longtime East Dallas neighbor who previously served as a vice chairperson before stepping into her current role.

Dennen puts the chamber of commerce’s value into perspective this way: “If you went to a marketing agency and said, ‘Can you do these five things for me that I get from being a $500 (chamber) business member,’ they would be like, ‘That’s $2,500.’”

The chamber’s offerings are being fine-tuned in 2026. Avila says the value provided could be better communicated to members so they can take advantage of it.

“It’s such an exciting time to be part of the chamber because there’s just so much growth and opportunity,” Dennen says. “Everybody is in the right seat to really move the chamber forward, and it all compounds. Year after year, we’re not growing kind of like this linear line. We’re compounding. Every year we get better, but it multiplies faster.”

The two leaders talked with the Lakewood/East Dallas Advocate about what makes the chamber tick and how it can keep ticking along in 2026.

What would you say the main objectives are for the chamber that need to be met each year, and how do you know if the chamber is successful?

MD:  The chamber hired me to help with growth and retention. So right now, they’re hoping to at least double their membership in the next three years, and they want a retention rate of 85%, which means that everything that we’re doing is working. The hardest thing about a chamber is some people join for a ribbon cutting, and then that’s really all they want from the chamber. But other members that join because they’re really invested in the community, they want to grow their business. They’re looking for the connections that really create a lasting brand investment into a community, and those are the people that we really want to invest in and make sure that they are getting their needs met. It’s really meant to grow not only your company, but grow the community as well.

What were the chamber’s successes in 2025 and what needs to be improved on?

RA: Chuck Kobdish as chairperson did a phenomenal job, and we accomplished some really big goals that we had set out to do that we hadn’t done. One was hiring the CEO. That had never been done. It took a lot longer than we had hoped it would, and then we also needed to raise our dues. That was something that hadn’t been done in years. All the previous chairpeople have really laid a good, solid foundation. You can’t turn a big ship overnight. We do have a long-term vision and goals we want to accomplish, and it’s just baby steps. Chuck did a great job of checking off some big bucket items, such as the dues increase, hiring the CEO, and I think under his tutelage, we put on more events in the last two years than we had ever done.

He did a great job of getting awareness about the chamber out into the community, and we had some really big name speakers. We want to continue that trend with a heavy focus on bringing more value to our members.

MD: To Rheanna’s point, it’s not really improvement because the chamber has always done amazing things for not only our members but the community. It’s that stepping stone. How do we add more amazingness? How do you keep adding more sprinkles to the top of the sundae?

What are the chamber’s goals for 2026?

RA: The vision for 2026 is really to focus on creating opportunities for our members to either grow professionally and scale their businesses, and while giving them a platform to do so, we’ve done a great job in the past of getting community involvement and being very involved in the community, and there hasn’t been as much focus on the members themselves. This year, we’re hopeful to kind of bring more value in that way by some of our offerings. We’re starting a monthly Mastermind (program) to get our membership an opportunity to kind of have think tank-type opportunities. Entrepreneurs tend to feel like they’re the only ones sometimes, and to have a monthly meeting where they can come together and kind of brainstorm ideas and get insight from other people that may have gone through that is impactful, and it gives us a pulse on what our members are needing in terms of content by what’s a continual topic in those Masterminds. Our monthly luncheons are going to be focused more on panels with certain topics so that our members can come and share their expertise and provide value that way. Our members that were on the panel can offer more in-depth talks after the fact. If people want to learn more, they can jump on a Zoom that’s led by that particular panelist. We’re kind of going to the drawing board and analyzing everything that we do to ensure that there’s a purpose and intention behind it, so that it definitely not only benefits the chamber, it also benefits our members and/or the community

and our sponsors that are so generous to support us. I feel like the chamber, we need to be the example of how to run a business to our members. We’re not only the example, but we also need to provide those opportunities for them to learn as well. We’re kind of really taking a deep dive and getting processes and systems in place, just like you would with any other business. We tended to operate from a very reactionary standpoint. The goal this year is to be very proactive in how we approach things as a chamber, and that, in turn, will help the mindsets of our members as well.

What do you like about working with the chamber?

MD:  My favorite part of my day is to sit down with a business and show them all that we have to offer and then customize it to them. That’s why I always tell people, if you are a chamber member and you have not met with me, stop what you’re doing and meet with me because it’s just so much value. And I just love loving on our members.

RA: One of the roles that I took on about two years ago is I personally call all of our members regularly to check in and keep them in the loop. I’ve gotten to know our members at a deeper level. I know what’s going on in their lives. I know if they’ve gone on vacation. I know what their goals are. If they’ve had a broken arm. That’s my favorite part, is to be able to connect personally with them on a regular basis over the phone.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.