The Selma-Dallas County Centre for Commerce will host its ninth annual meeting Monday, Feb. 25 at the St. James Hotel.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. with a reception sponsored by the Economic Development Authority in the St. James Bridge Room. A seated dinner will follow at 7 p.m.

Wayne Vardaman, executive director of the Selma and Dallas County Economic Development Authority said the meeting is held every year to recognize the commerce’s investors and board of directors.

“It’s just an event to get our investors and our board of directors together and just kind of celebrate what we’ve done over the past year and what we’re trying to do in the future,” Vardaman said. “We usually do it at the civic center but this year we’re doing it at the St. James, so we’ll have a change of venue there to give people a little different look.”

Every year the meeting has a speaker, and Vardaman said this year that will be Selma native Mark Peterson.

“Mark is a young man and has done real well,” Vardaman said. “He was one of the first African American males to be the Paul M. Grist ‘Boy of the Year.’”

Peterson, a 1987 Selma High School graduate, received his BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Amos Truck School of Business Administration.

“He has a lot to say about our community and things we could be working on,” Vardaman said.

Tickets for the meeting are $35 and can be purchased at the Centre for Commerce, 912 Selma Ave. The deadline to buy tickets is Feb. 18.