Neosho Chamber CEO Lyerla talks Missouri Chamber of the Year honors

JOPLIN, Mo. — In a surprise message that left its leadership speechless, the Neosho Area Chamber of Commerce was named the 2025 Missouri Chamber of the Year before being honored at the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s annual awards banquet on Thursday night.

The statewide honor — the only one of its kind given in Missouri — recognizes the top-performing chamber among more than 260 across the Show-Me State. Neosho, with a full-time staff of just four and serving 550 member businesses that employ 16,000 people, beat out much larger organizations in St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and beyond.

“We are very honored as far as the Chamber to receive it, but it all stems down from just a lot of work in our community that just a lot of good things happening,” Neosho Chamber CEO Lauri Lyerla said to NewsTalk KZRG. “We just take really great pride in sharing the good things about our community. I couldn’t believe it when they called to tell me. I was like, ‘are you sure?’ But we’re very honored.”

The Missouri Chamber highlighted Neosho’s innovative use of social media and digital platforms to promote local businesses, its Experience Neosho app and community guide, and its relentless focus on positivity in a region too often overlooked.

“I know these chamber directors across the state and they are phenomenal people that I learn from every day,” Lyerla said. “So if anything, we’re still learning. We’re always learning. We’re always trying to do what we do better. And so, the ability, if this gives us anything, the ability to help just encourage business chambers, no matter how small you are, how you can make an impact.”

In her acceptance speech, Lyerla emphasized that message: “You don’t have to be the biggest chamber to make the biggest impact, but maybe you have to have the biggest heart.”

The Neosho Chamber also celebrated a rare double honor at the banquet. Local businessman and civic leader Rudy Farber was named a recipient of the prestigious Missourian Award, putting the small southwest Missouri community in the statewide spotlight twice in one evening.

Lyerla credited 11 years of teamwork, past and present staff, and a deliberate strategy of being “the positive voice of Neosho” on social media and in every initiative.

Current priorities include supporting small businesses through rising costs, promoting the Chamber Benefit Plan that allows companies with as few as two employees to access group health insurance, and a major “shop local” push during Small Business Season.

The recognition comes at a busy time for the Chamber, which is gearing up for a packed holiday schedule:

• Thursday, Dec. 4: Lighting of Big Spring Park at 5:30 p.m., downtown open houses
• Saturday, Dec. 6: Free Breakfast with Santa (morning) and the Neosho Christmas Parade (5 p.m., new route starting from Morse Park, no thrown candy for safety)

All events and year-round information can be found on the free Experience Neosho app or the Chamber’s Facebook page.

“It gives us a bigger megaphone to keep shouting what works,” Lyerla said of the award. “Shop local. Visit Neosho. Tell the good stories. That’s not changing — we’re just going to shout it a little louder now.”