Serving the Community
GOACC COO, Meme Yanetsko, Retires & Rebegins

By Delainey Muscato – St. Bonaventure University

     If you live in or around the Olean area, you may recognize the name Meme Yanetsko. Yanetsko has been the Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce (GOACC) COO for a long time and worked at the chamber in general for even longer. Just after she graduated from SUNY Brockport, Yanetsko joined the chamber as “on-the-job training coordinator” in January of 1991 after seeing an ad for the job in the paper. She became the COO in December of 2009. 

While Yanetsko is leaving the chamber, she is not retiring completely. She will be taking a position at a hospice company in the area. “I figured that I would actually retire from the chamber. But again, this opportunity came up and I went for it,” she said. Yanetsko is excited to apply all she has learned at the chamber to her new job with Homecare & Hospice. When the opportunity for Yanetsko to take this job opened, she thought “the duties described an awesome job,” and she was excited to be a part of another great team of coworkers.

     The team she was a part of at the chamber is something Yanetsko will greatly miss. She shared that through her position at the chamber, she met a huge number of amazing people. She was able to work with many business owners and community members. She is also very grateful for the staff and volunteers she was able to work with. In addition to the people she worked with at the chamber, Yanetsko commented how appreciative she has been for the city of Olean staff. “From the mayor to the fire and police chiefs, to the guys on the streets/parks crew”, everyone was so helpful, Yanetsko said. Many of those city personnel helped events run smoothly. 

     Yanetsko became the obvious choice for COO after 18 years with the chamber. She learned a lot about other positions as well as event planning and putting business plans together. When the position opened, she applied and got it. Since becoming COO, she has loved helping members of the chamber and serving her community in any way she can. She loved the Santa Claus Lane Parade the most out of all the chamber hosted events. Though she hates being cold, seeing the children’s faces light up when all the lights come on and Santa comes makes it totally worth it. 

      While managing more than 500 chamber members, Yanetsko has learned a few valuable life lessons. She’s learned that it is okay to cry. Prioritizing your mental health is essential for being successful at work. Especially at busy times of year, Yanetsko has learned it is important to put your health first, so you are not unfocused when it comes to your work. And lastly, Yanetsko says the importance of delegating is huge, “It might be easy to do something on your own, but it is nicer to be part of a team and share the successes”. Yanetsko says she grew as the chamber did. She helped establish a great list of events and set up a website for the chamber. Yanetsko brought the chamber to Twitter and Facebook to help increase its outreach. “It opened many doors to me in terms of personal growth, leadership, businesses connections and more,” she said. 

     In order to be a good COO for the GOACC, Yanetsko says a leader must be organized, able to multi-task and able to communicate well with both large and small groups of people. She also said past experience in marketing and/or event planning would be beneficial to the position. For her new position, Yanetsko wants to bring these qualities to Homecare & Hospice. “I am excited to bring my talents to HC&H and help them succeed with their fundraiser events, grant writing and philanthropic ventures.”

   Yanetsko is incredibly excited for her future and shared how she thought she impacted the community she worked for, “You are never going to please everyone, but I believe my positive attitude and commitment to the community showed the Olean area that we can be successful in all that goes on in the area. Always a bright side in everything”.