Amalia Meadows, Executive Director is the entire staff of the Gardendale Chamber of Commerce. Planning, implementation, development, sales, luncheons, festivals, sponsorships, marketing for the chamber and for its members: it's all her. “I basically run this chamber solo, like a solopreneur,” she says. She joined in December 2025, bringing with her a track record of streamlining operations and a clear eye for where technology could help the chamber run more efficiently.
Amalia's background is deep in software and process improvement. Before the chamber, she worked as a marketer and TV producer, spent time in hospitality, and served as chief of staff for an entrepreneur who built a business turning around distressed properties, buying older resorts and refurbishing them into profitable operations. Along the way, she's worked extensively with ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Salesforce, Pardot, and Pipedrive. “I'm very fluent in CMS-ese,” she says. Amalia's gift is innovation and optimizing, and from her first weeks at the chamber, she made it a priority to bring that same eye for efficiency to how the chamber operates.
The Opportunity: Room to Modernize
When Amalia joined, the chamber's existing website and CMS were due for an upgrade, the kind most growing organizations eventually reach. She saw an opportunity to bring a more modern, streamlined system into place, one that matched the pace she wanted the chamber to run at going forward.
Amalia was especially motivated by the member experience. She wanted every interaction with the chamber, from signing up to buying event tickets, to feel as professional and effortless as possible. “I wanted to come across as professional and user-friendly for our members and for the community,” she says. That standard became the driving force behind evaluating a new platform.
Why GrowthZone
Amalia evaluated several platforms before choosing GrowthZone, drawing on her own extensive CMS background to make the call. The decision came down to one clear factor.
"GrowthZone's really good at the user experience, which is why I chose it over any other software."
Getting Started
The chamber's new GZ CMS website launched June 9, 2026, which Amalia marks as the real go-live date, since it's also when she started sending invoices through the new system.
Onboarding was hands-on from the start. Amalia worked closely with GrowthZone's Raquel, and specifically credits a shift toward hands-on coaching over lecture-style training: “I really particularly enjoyed when she switched tactics rather than making the trainings a lecture. She started doing everything hands-on so I could actually do what I had to learn, with her coaching me step by step. I'm more of a doer.” She also worked with support specialist Amy and website builder Elena, and describes all three as personable, thorough, and clearly part of a strong internal culture. “It's like an instant connection with the three people I've worked closely with.”
Amalia also brought in her outside accountant early to make sure the platform's QuickBooks integration would track fees exactly the way her finance team needed. GrowthZone arranged a direct call between its own accounting team and Amalia's accountant to walk through the details together.
"I really appreciated how they went the extra mile with them."
What Changed - Sales Without the Phone Call
Members now buy event tickets and reserve sponsorship booths directly online, a smoother, more self-service experience than before. For an upcoming Health and Wellness Expo, Amalia says the process for sponsors is simple: “They can see what the sponsorships give, and they can buy their sponsorship right then and there with their credit card. It's so effortless.”
A New Non-Dues Revenue Stream
The chamber now sells “Hometown Hero” banners directly through its website store, a new offering Amalia built out after launch. She's sold roughly a dozen banners in the two months since launch and plans to expand the store with more products.
A Better-Looking Front Door
Amalia leaned on her TV and film background to build a video hero image on the homepage, betting correctly, in her experience, that video drives more engagement than static images. “I know that as somebody who comes from TV and movies, I know that video increases engagement. That was a no-brainer for me.”
Direct Member Praise
Prominent community members have told Amalia unprompted how much they like the new member portal. “I've heard members, very important members of the community, just give me feedback and say how amazing they loved the info hub. It was so easy to use.”
Streamlined Invoicing
Batch invoicing now happens efficiently in bulk: “I can just get a batch done and then press send after the invoices are generated. It was so easy.”
Looking Ahead
Amalia hasn't yet turned on every feature available to her, including the community platform, email blast tools, and additional banner ad space, and plans to roll them out as chamber revenue grows. She's also planning to dig into Google Analytics tracking soon. Amalia hit the ground running to bring the chamber's processes up to a new standard, and with the foundation now in place, she's continuing to build the chamber into an even stronger organization than it was.
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