Value Galore Found in Chamber Memberships

By Ken Lizotte CMC

Some years ago I joined the Acton Chamber of Commerce with the goal of rubbing shoulders with powerful corporate decision-makers and establishing my consulting value, then soaking up many new clients like gravy at Thanksgiving. The morning I headed out for my first Chamber breakfast meeting, however, my business partner called my cell phone to report our bank had just canceled all its merchant credit card accounts following a decision to get out of that end of the business. My seminar business, heavily dependent on credit card sales, had suddenly lost a lucrative conduit of revenue.

Literally minutes later, stunned and feverishly ruminating about what we would do to prevent a potential catastrophe, I sat tolerating my new Chamber’s “member spotlights” as reps from member businesses stood up for a quick minute or two, describing their companies and what they offered to their fellow members. One, a local bank, concluded its service litany with a folksy, “So come down and see us sometime.”

The Chamber’s director then exhorted everyone, “It’s good to do business with other members.” Suddenly I realized this new “family” I’d joined might be the answer to my prayers. At a break, I approached the bank rep, explained my situation, got an encouraging response, and found myself at the end of that same day with a new merchant account squarely in place, courtesy of the fast action of this new Chamber friend. Though I had come in looking to FIND business, I’d come out in total awe of something better: The huge value offered by Chambers in providing resources that member companies sincerely need.

Over the ensuing four years, though I did pick up a few clients I never forgot how access to a ready, willing-to-help business family seemed to afford a greater value than I had previously imagined. Joseph J. Bevilacqua, President/CEO of the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce (Lawrence MA), explains: “Chambers are indeed a great way for companies to find other companies to buy from. They can help you locate all sorts of ordinary needs, e.g. paper supplies, restaurants, hotels for visiting customers. That's a key point of how a Chamber works: it’s essentially a B2B network.”

Other advantages of joining forces with the wider business community loom too, Bevilacqua adds, though high-tech firms in particular may not always recognize it. Many 1999-2000 dot-coms for example rose and then disappeared without bothering to connect, though doing so might have contributed to more lasting success. Ed Pignone, Chief of Staff, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, believes for example that Massachusetts’ current $3 billion in federal R&D funding, the highest per capita in the US, exists at least in part to Chamber lobbying. “Chamber involvement offers an excellent complement to membership in industry trade groups (including) the opportunity to help invent and shape government policy issues in Washington.”

Chamber devotees also say technology execs can benefit from meeting the many buyers and users of technology that compose the typical Chamber, and peers outside their own industry, broadening horizons, connections and level of feedback. Adds Pignone: “Hearing high-powered guest speakers in fact provides the chance to meet not only that speaker but a lot of other top execs who will come to hear the speaker too.”

Other benefits reported include health care insurance, auto insurance discounts and discounts on a variety of other goods and services. A Chamber member in the Berkshires adds, “It’s an attractive arena for doing interesting volunteer work as well.” So with all this good stuff, could there be any downside?

Chamber people do agree on a pitfall: lack of willingness to show up and be counted. “It could be a waste of time if you're not able to put some effort into it,” explains Andrew Olmsted, Managing Director, Cambridge Innovation Partners, and a Cambridge Chamber member. “One needs to evaluate whether the benefit will be worth the effort. But that's of course what you must do with any business activity!”

Others echo like sentiments, admitting Chamber members only reap what they sow. Socializing, networking and rolling up one’s sleeves to get truly involved are requisites. “Don't expect to walk out of your first meeting with more contacts and new customers than you know what to do with,” warns Cambridge Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Lucey. “It's like a health club in that way: Joining doesn't do anything, you have to do the work.”

But beyond that Chamber folks insist the benefits far outweigh everything else, and that Chambers today have geared themselves to our high tech times. “Lots of people still think Chambers still function like a 1950s ‘downtown organization’ but that’s no longer true,” explains Bevilacqua. “Now we’re fast-moving, technology-driven, growing, inclusive, results-driven, accountable, and oriented to action.”

For potential high-tech members, one Cambridge Chamber member, Caryn Saitz, President, Creative Strategic Solutions, Boston, sums it up this way: “Technology doesn't stand in a vacuum, it’s supported and enabled by a lot of different industries, and touches everybody's business these days. So the ‘disadvantage’ (of diverse membership) is an advantage. Chambers bring diverse businesses together at business events, they are not like a trade show where everyone there is in your industry.” Within such a model, she suggests, Chambers can contribute mightily to their high tech “siblings,” linking them to vibrant and valuable cross-business families, and the broader community in which they must flourish.

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