Nancy Millar, Vice President of the Convention and Visitors Bureau for the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, announced her retirement last week after 22 years of working at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. Those of you who have had the pleasure of working with Nancy over the years understand the insight and enthusiasm she brought to the table on every project or event she worked on and developed.

She truly has a deep love for McAllen.

Nancy is a person who can stretch a dollar and get the biggest “bang for the buck” in marketing and advertising. She has a keen understanding of how to pull a marketing plan together and how to execute. What I grew to appreciate about Nancy is how she worked with limited resources and was still able to drive economic growth in McAllen.

When an organization is flush with cash and can spend large sums of marketing dollars in so many different ways, it isn’t hard to be successful. The real challenge is when there are limited resources and not “a lot of bullets.” What do you do and how do you produce something meaningful?

Nancy constantly showed that she could create with limited resources and make a difference.

The other essential characteristic that I think endeared Nancy to so many people is that she is a genuinely positive person. In an age of cynicism, Nancy always has a very upbeat personality that allows her to see things as “getting better,” as opposed to things “getting worse.” This sense of positiveness has served her well over the years in her personal life journey and her professional career.

French writer Victor Hugo once wrote, “One can see the fire in the eyes of the young, but one sees the light in the eyes of the old. There is a time to be a flame, but there is also a time to be a gentle, peaceful and a steady light that shines in the darkness.” Nancy has been a steady light and a person that is gentle with people. She has a desire to help people along their paths and through their journeys in life.

The board of directors, the entire Chamber staff, and I wish her well as she turns the page in her own journey and begins that next adventure. As I like to remind people, change doesn’t start with a beginning, but with an ending.

Her time at the Chamber may be ending, but there is a new beginning coming. Nancy has worked behind the scenes to economically power McAllen in ways that few notice, but she has made an undeniable difference.

Nancy, you have my gratitude and appreciation for a job well done.