Does Wheaton Chamber Membership Matter?
Written by: Jeffery James of Spire2 Communications, Inc. www.spire2.com, Membership Development Chairman
Is your membership in the Wheaton Chamber worth the membership fee? During a recession the question comes up. In January when most were gripped in recession fear, the membership development committee hosted the first Membership Matters meeting. These are free events where Chamber members are invited based on a particular membership demographic. A group of about 20 attended the first meeting focused on restaurants and retailers. We had a round table discussion asking how the Chamber can help them and making sure they were aware of resources that already exist.
We listened intently to concerns and ideas. One that popped out was how can the Chamber connect with Wheaton College. The membership committee took on this challenge and worked on reaching the right people so that we could promote Chamber businesses.
Through networking we made a connection with the student development office. We discovered that the student survival guide for freshman was being eliminated because of budget constraints. We jumped right in and offered to offset their printing costs if we could provide advertisers to them — a win-win situation. The committee developed a program that will reach not just freshman, but every student on campus and more!
Would this have happened if no one gathered early one morning in January as fellow Wheaton Chamber members looking for ideas to beat the recession? Nope. When we work together we can do things that we couldn’t do on our own. This is the power of Chamber membership. Want to make it work for you? Get involved, provide ideas and help others. Need some extra help getting involved? Join a committee.