The Effingham Chamber of Commerce is announcing its next Chamber Lunch 'n Learn meeting to be held on Wednesday, August 12 from 11:30 to 1pm at the College and Career Academy on Hwy. 21. We invite our business community and interested visitors to come get back into the swing of things with us and hear two speakers for the day. We will hear from Becky Brownlee of the Savannah Small Business Development Center speak on Marketing for small business; and from Karen Russell of the IRS to talk on Small Business Tax information. Contact Rick or Becky; at the Effingham Chamber to sign up. Chamber members are $12 and visitors are $15.

Speaker bios are below:

Becky Brownlee

MBA – South University

BA in Industrial Relations – UNC Chapel Hill

Mrs. Brownlee has been a small business owner for over 20 years.  She has owned businesses in manufacturing, specialty retail, beauty and trade schools, health and fitness, and real estate and construction.  In addition to owning her own businesses, she also has experience in the financial, hospitality and insurance sectors.  Mrs. Brownlee’s businesses have encompassed both independent and franchise operations.  She has extensive experience in and knowledge of operating a franchise business and franchisee to franchisor relations.  She also specializes in all aspects of commercial real estate including site/space selection, building/ land acquisition and financing, lease negotiations, zoning, construction and permitting.

Karen L. Russell
Senior Stakeholder Liaison
Communications & Stakeholder Outreach
Small Business/Self-Employed Division
Internal Revenue Service

Karen Russell represents the IRS at educational and taxpayer outreach events working with tax professionals, industry and small business owners. 
Russell has been employed with the IRS since 1986 – spending 15 years at the Atlanta Service Center working in the Quality Assurance, Underreporter, Examination, Criminal Investigation and Collections Branches.  She relocated to South Florida in 2001 to work in the Ft. Myers Taxpayer Assistance Center.  In 2007, she accepted a position in Maryland as a Tax Analyst in the Individual Master File E-File Branch and spent 2 years in HQ before accepting a Liaison position in 2009.  She regularly speaks at organization meetings, conferences, seminars and workshops, both face-to-face and via webcast, on tax related topics that are relevant to the given tax professional or small business audience.