Batavia Chamber Member Insider – Meet Jen Brens

Welcome to this week's Member Insider! We are excited for you to learn more about your fellow Batavia Chamber members. We are beginning the series with our hard-working Board of Directors. To gain insight into our esteemed members, we are asking them to answer a total of 20 questions.

This week, we’ll learn a bit more about Jen Brens, the director of operations for Batavia Access Television (BATV.) Jen has worked at BATV for 13 years, with BATV being a Batavia Chamber member for the entire time. She has been a BCoC board member for about three years and currently serves as the board’s chairperson.



First up, is to explore Jen’s thoughts about the Chamber. Here are a couple of her responses:

Question: What does the Batavia Chamber do better than anyone else?
Answer: The Batavia Chamber has a positive impact on the entire Batavia community. The chamber provides education to our businesses, scholarships for local high school seniors, mastermind groups for amazing brainstorming and events where you will meet new friends and catch up with old ones. Always a good time at a chamber event!

Q: What skills, connections, resources, and expertise do you offer and use on the behalf of the organization?
A: I have made some amazing connections with people in Batavia and have gotten to work with many to help share their message to our community.

Q: What does "success" mean to you in terms of your work as a board member?
A: Success as a Chamber board member is supporting our amazing staff, members, and community. The Batavia Chamber does the best job at bringing education and success to Batavia.

Q: What specific skills, experience or networks do you bring to the table to help the Chamber?
A: BATV has always covered chamber events and we love collaborating with the chamber on video projects for our community. We have also been able to make connections with other local non-profits to help provide video education and public service announcements.

We also asked Jen about her work life. Here are the five questions she chose and her answers:

Q: What is your favorite thing about your career?
A: Everyday is something new and we are constantly learning! Working in video/television has taught me that clients, projects and technology are continually changing. The way we worked on a project a year ago can be very different now. We are always trying to keep up with the newest gear for video and audio productions. Just like BPS101, I am always learning and always growing.
 
Q: What was your first job?
A: Bagger at Dominicks in Geneva.
 
Q: Do you prefer closed-door offices or open-concept layouts? Why?
A: Open office for free communication and brainstorming. In television it is important for us to share our creative thoughts with one another.
 
Q: What job would you be terrible at?
A: Librarian. I cannot be quiet!
 
Q: Do you consider yourself good at networking?
A: Yes, I can talk to just about anyone about anything.

If you really want to learn more about someone, you need to ask some hard-hitting personal questions, too. Ok, maybe not so too tough… Here’s a few more member insider answers from Jen:

Q: If money were no object, how would you spend the rest of your life?
A: Helping others in ways that teaches them how to help themselves long term, and possibly standup comedy.

Q: What would you sing at Karaoke night?
A: Sweet Caroline!

Q: Would you rather win the lottery or work at the perfect job? And why?
A: Working at the perfect job wouldn’t feel like work!

Q: What's the most daring thing you've ever done?
 A: Moved to LA a week after graduating college.

Q: What three items would you take with you on a deserted island?
A: A large Journal with pen, a knife and a special match that I could use over and over to build fires.