Army of Ants has Nothing on Chamber Members

Last month I explained what a Chamber of Commerce is conceptually.  I’d like take you deeper into the inner workings of our Chamber and tell you about our inner structure and the programs we developed and promote.

The Chamber has seven standing committees.  Each committee works with staff to develop ideas that 1) bring people to our communities; 2) provide education, training, information to Chamber members and quite often, the public; 3) raise operating capital for the Chamber.

Ambassador:  The Ambassador Committee is an important outreach arm of the Chamber.  The committee recruits new members, thank returning members, discusses Chamber functions with anyone who might be interested.  They are front line when we do ribbon cuttings and grand openings.  They are support staff when we do a Business After Hours social networking event and work wonders making new attendees feel welcome and part of the group.  The ambassadors do follow up visits with members.  They meet monthly and share best practice ideas on how to contact members, how to best ask survey information of the membership and generally how to serve as the welcome wagon that makes our membership and potential members feel appreciated.

Education: The education committee’s focus is to develop programs, workshops and informational sessions on a variety of subjects.  We have partnered with Anthem to provide Third Tuesday Workshops.  These workshops have provided the public with important information on healthy mind, body and wealth.  The Chamber also partnered with the Monarch Center to do Brown Bag Lunches where we discussed advanced directives, provided training information to first responders on how to handle a person with Alzheimer’s or Dementia they may encounter in public settings.  The Chamber established and is now distributing the Aaron Drisko Memorial Scholarship.  This $ 500 scholarship is given out to 3 graduating seniors who are going on to secondary education.  One student is chosen based on financial need from Biddeford High School, the Biddeford Center of Technology and Thornton Academy.  The committee has great flexibility to manage these funds.  Most recently, the committee has been working on bringing educators together with the business community to discuss the skills needed for today’s workforce and how we teach those skills to today’s students.  One outcome of these discussions has been the development of a library of DVD interviews with local manufacturers.  In these videos, we encourage business owners to brag about their company and the product(s) they make. We get them to talk about the skills needed to perform the jobs in the company and what makes their company a great place to work.  The Chamber wants to highlight that there are good local jobs available that pay well and have good benefits. They are available to men and women and best of all they are right here in the Biddeford-Saco Region.  We plan to distribute these videos to school guidance counselors, the businesses that participated, and to the Dept of Labor and the Dept. of Community and Economic Development.  We have posted the first four segments on
our YouTube page : http://www.youtube.com/user/BiddefordSacoChamber?feature=guide 
and they will soon be posted on our website: www.biddefordsacochamber.org

Membership Strategy:  The membership strategy committee is focused on how to grow the Chamber membership, how to ensure we maintain our members and general analysis of our membership as a way to identify future areas of growth as well as programs such as advertising that benefit our members.  Some interesting facts from our analysis is that of our over 400 members- 108 members either have a mailing address, headquarters or are physically located outside of Biddeford-Saco.  I believe that is representative of our strength and broad scope of attraction since Biddeford-Saco is a significant economic generator for York County.

Political Affairs:  The Chamber by its nature is political.  We operate in Biddeford-Saco and participate in municipal government by serving on committees and commissions.  We offer advice and opinion when we are asked or when we think it is in our member’s best interest. I like to think of the Chamber as a neutral convener. We will continue to host Meet the Candidates evenings. We will bring speakers in to discuss current issues and items of interest to our membership. In other arenas, the Chamber is a member of Maine Beaches Association where we partner with 7 other Chambers to promote our region.  We are a member of the Maine Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (MACCE) where we share best practices with all other Maine Chambers and the State Chamber.  I was recently elected Vice President of this association.  Our Chamber is working very hard and making connections at all levels of Government in order to make Biddeford-Saco as visible and credible as possible.

Public Relations / Marketing:  This committee combines organizational self promotion, member promotion and community/regional promotion.  We negotiate advertising rates for Chamber members in local publications. We promote the Chamber and all Chamber functions.  We support our community achievements with letters to the editor and congratulation ads.  This committee is responsible for development of our Member Resource Directory and Tourist Guide which highlights all chamber members, lists major community events and tells a little about our community.  We print 20,000 copies and distribute them to the public, our membership, visitor bureaus along the highway and at 8 tourism trade shows between Canada and Philadelphia. They are a great opportunity to expose your business to the public. This committee also plays an important role in keeping our website, newsletter, FaceBook page and Twitter account and any other social media and electronic communication tools focused and full of opportunities for our members.

Women For Women:  This committee’s focus is on women in business.  They plan events and workshops to help women succeed in their profession.  Yet at the same time, the events are geared around fun.  This committee has sponsored a comedian, hosted a Caribbean Dance evening and an annual Ladies Night Out which is a great success.

Executive: This important committee is made up of the elected officers of the Board of Directors.  They serve as a sounding board for the Executive Director.  They oversee the finances and daily operations of the organization.  They guide, direct and support the staff.  They assure that the by-laws, purpose, vision and mission are followed.  They play an important role in strategic planning.  Membership looks to this committee to assure that the organization is well run with honesty and integrity- in unison with the full Board of Directors.

And finally, we have committees that are formed around fundraising events. They are as follows:

Golf Tournament, Auction, Striped Bass Tournament, Business Expo and Job Fair, as well as, any Ad-Hoc committee as needed.

I hope this further enlightens you as to the workings of the Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce & Industry.  We work daily to improve our communities, better our businesses and encourage consumers to come see what Biddeford-Saco has to offer.  Together we can build prosperity and success.

Next month: The Chamber’s role in the Buy Local Program