Chamber will work to strengthen member services

Friday, Jan. 26, 2007

This year has all of the makings to be a banner year for the chamber. I would personally like to thank Lorrie Anderson for her wonderful service as president of the chamber for last year, and for her chairing the search committee to find our new executive director.

I would also like to say a huge thank you to the chamber staff for working so hard in an interim while we have conducted our search.

One of the things I enjoy about the chamber is the opportunity to work on some items that need attention and improvement in our community. This year, I am concentrating on a balanced attack at the chamber. We must continue to do what has made us successful and enhance our organization.

I have three areas that I would like to see movement and enhancement on this year. Each of these areas are initiatives that our staff and leadership have identified in our strategic plan.

First, we want to increase member services and enhance membership value. Second, we want to enhance alliances and partnerships with other organizations in the community that can share resources and assets in order to leverage time and energy. Third, we want to increase our workforce development and business assistance programs to help businesses of all sizes get the tools and training they need, when they need it.

As for enhancing value, we need to work on events and functions that members enjoy and get something that day that improves their business. We need to have businesses helping businesses.

You expect the chamber to be a place you can get help to run and grow your business. We need to help you do that. We need people to meet and greet more. We need lots of opportunities to actually help people make better business decisions and grow their business. We need to be the model of customer service in the area.

Our orientation program and weekly networking programs need to be more robust and helpful. We need to work with members to enhance referrals. We need to look into small business group benefits that can benefit with our group umbrella. Other chambers around the country are looking into group health insurance, rental car discounts, copy center discounts, and lots of other programs to give you rewards for being a member. We need to be on par nationally if we want to attract national attention.

As for alliances and partnerships, we need to work with all groups — governmental, nonprofit and for profit — to establish relationships that put the overall good of the community and the businesses in a position to lean on each other. Past relationships with the Greater Waldorf Jaycees, the Charles County Economic Development Department, Civista Medical Center and the College of Southern Maryland need to be enhanced and used as a model for new alliances.

Groups like Toastmasters, International Association of Administrative Professionals, Lions Club, Rotary and Kiwanis should all be stakeholders. They work, and we need to do more in with all local merchant groups, trade associations and civic organizations. We need to have strategic relationships where people can benefit from the power of multiplication, not division.

As for work force development, we need to work on meeting the needs of all levels of businesses and people in the workforce. The chamber can leverage relationships with all the resources to ensure classes are held at a time, place and cost that help its members. We need everything from basic computing and human resources training to Quick Books and Project Management Institute classes. We need to work with the Small Business Development Center and SCORE to help entrepreneurs start businesses.

Other chambers call this their ‘‘Entrepreneurial Academy,” and it works. The convenience of work force education must be a championed cause of the chamber. We need to have workshops for topics that cover advertising, marketing, labor law, loss prevention, disaster preparedness, disaster recovery, business plans, banking, how to get financing, customer service and all of the other aspects of running a business.

I believe we are positioned to help businesses start, grow and thrive in our community. If we improve in this area, we will build a business relationship and base that will help to transform our local, state and national economy into a real economic engine and model for what we can all do, working together.

In closing, you must remember that the chamber is a membership organization that depends on members to get the job done. The leadership and the staff need your help. So join, attend and get active. We need your help to make this a reality.

I’ll see you in the future at the chamber of commerce.

Gore Bolton, owner of Bolton and Associates LLC, is the new president of the Charles County Chamber of Commerce. The chamber may be reached at 301-932-6500 or 301-870-3089 or by e-mail at info@charlescountychamber.org.