We are the people who keep turning up.
A chamber is a subscription to other people's attention. Here is who spends it, and on what.
The short version
The chamber was formed in 1946 by a dozen businesses who were tired of finding out about things afterwards. That is still most of the job.
We are a membership organization, which means we work for the businesses that pay to belong and for nobody else. There is no public funding in this and no landlord's money. When we take a position, it is because the members took it first.
The office is small on purpose: two staff, a board drawn from the membership, and a set of committees anybody can sit on.
How decisions get made
Members raise it, a committee looks at it, the board votes. That is the whole machine, and it is deliberately slow enough that nobody can move it on their own.
Every position we take is minuted, and every minute is available to a member who asks. If you want to change what the chamber says, the route is to join a committee — not to lobby the office.
The questions we get asked
Do I have to be on Main Street?
No. Membership is by business, not by address. Plenty of our members work out of a truck or a spare room and never open a door to the public.
Is this just networking?
Networking is the part you can see. The advocacy is the part you notice when it is missing — the sidewalk closure that got scheduled around the holiday trade rather than through it.
We are one person. Is it worth it?
Our smallest member is one person and our largest is a bank. The directory does not rank you by size, and the coffee does not either.
Can I try it before joining?
Yes. Come to a Tuesday coffee or a Business After Hours as a guest. Nobody will chase you afterwards.
Come and see for yourself.
The next coffee is on the calendar, and guests do not pay.