The Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber needs your support.
Know that today’s column is not about our organization surviving — we’re going to be around for a long, long time — but rather it’s about our region thriving. Our successes are exponential, and we can do so much more, but for that, we need some literal buy-in.
Let’s start here: There are dozens of local, non-profit community organizations doing tremendous work in our region, and not for an instant do I want you to take away any support you’re giving them, to support your local chamber. Collectively the community organizations are an ecosystem, each doing their part to make our region stronger. If any of them were to cease, the ramifications would be felt community-wide as a domino effect would strain other organizations’ capacity to take on what that group does. Our region needs all of us.
Now, one of the defining differences between chambers and other organizations is that the chamber mission is quite broad, and our impact is not as direct as other groups. The value of a chamber comes in the foundational network building we do, and our successes stem from the strength of that network. Yet at times our impact can be amorphous, and often is best viewed through a long-term lens.
Let’s look at what we’re fundamentally known for: networking, regional promotion, advocacy and problem-solving. Often those outcomes are not linear. For example, we run four networking events per month: Chamber After Hours, 12 @ 12 Networking lunches and two Trail Walks. Quantifying the direct benefit of a networking event is very difficult. You may meet a businessperson and do a deal with them the next week. More than likely though, the value comes from attending several events, strengthening your connections there, and one of your connections has you top-of-mind when their uncle needs someone in your field, and they say “oh, I know someone from the chamber who can help” and they recommend you. That scenario is much less direct than, say, a food bank where you donate food or money and later that week it helps feed a family.
You could say the same for our marketing efforts. We have a website with thousands of visitors every year, as well as a chamber guide which we distribute 15,000 to 20,000 editions of annually. It’s difficult to track how many clicks on the website led to a visit, or whether the guide was the final piece that made someone decide to relocate to our region. We can’t gauge the direct impact, but we know that there certainly is one as anecdotally people share those stories with us.
A chamber membership can be like a gym membership. I can’t show you the value of your gym membership after the first two days, but if you stick with it, and build it into your life, in five to six months you’ll see the foundational shift it has in bettering your life, if you engage with it.
However, even if you don’t engage with it, even if you can’t take the time to attend a single event, read a single e-newsletter, send us a single promotion to share with the network, there’s still tremendous value for two reasons. First off, our dues rates are so reasonable that even if you can’t engage with our programming, the marketing you’ll receive should drive enough business to your door so that you see the return on your investment. Many businesses pay less in dues than you would for one magazine ad, or a radio ad buy, and for that you get us for the whole year, and not just for a limited run.
Secondly, if you want a strong community, you need a strong chamber. Perhaps, you don’t have time to engage, but if our programs help a new business succeed, and that business is a vendor for you, then having the chamber support them, supports you. Or maybe a new bill comes along that would hurt or help your business; you send us a note, and we reach out to legislators to tell them, “here is how that proposal affects one of our local businesses.”
We do so much for our member businesses, but the truth is, it’s not only the member businesses that see the outcome of our work- it’s all businesses. Frankly, it’s the entire region that sees the benefit, from businesses to citizens, to municipalities to non-profits.
Membership dues, depending on your number of employees, begin at 50 cents per day. Four in 10 members pay less than $1 per day, while over 90% of our members pay less than $2 per day. We even have special non-profit rates and multiple business discounts for the same owner.
To be clear, some businesses who aren’t members don’t know what we do, because I’ve been so busy doing the work of the chamber, that I haven’t had the time to go around and meet with them. Some businesses are so big that I bet their leadership thinks they’re members, but they’re not. Some businesses might not know that we cover a 16-community region that includes them.
Lastly, it needs to be said that our chamber is doing more programming with 1.5 staff people than any similar staff-sized chamber in the state, and probably New England. We could do so much more with a few more members. If we got just one new member per week, our part-time staff could become full-time- that’s what your support means. It means more staff hours, to do the work of supporting you and every other business in the region.
Next week I’ll dive into some of the programs you know about, and some that you don’t. Particularly, we will begin to discuss the six workforce programs we’re launching as part of Chamber Works 2030. Or if you’re interested in joining, contact me and we can discuss our programs one-on-one, at (207) 725-8797 or cory@midcoastmaine.com
Cory King is the executive director of the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber.
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