THANKS FOR THE INPUT

The Estes Parkian thought this was such a great comment to the Repola blog we wanted to share it with all of you...

busyman said...

For what it's worth, I've been watching the Chamber for many years. Our family owns 2 businesses, neither of which are lodging and both are year round. I joined the Chamber of Commerce several years ago because they 'would only buy from a member', which was our service business, and at the end of the year dropped the membership because there were no other benefits! The primary objective of the Chamber was serving the accomodations portion of the community- which was not wrong, but held no appeal to my interests. I am familiar with other Chambers across the country- my wife's father has been a Chamber President for many years in a small community and he has persistently encouraged me to get involved with the Chamber to benefit from the contact with other businesses and sharing of ideas among others in my (small business) boat. Alas, I remain outside the Chamber today because they have never appeared to be about businesses supporting each other. Without a doubt, they are interested in attracting customers to Estes, which is nice, but now redundant. What about an organization that was for businesses working together as a single voice, strong because of the common goals of each business owner, and offering the benefit of seminars to learn strategies, sharpen individual marketing plans, understand the IRS, etc etc etc. Everytime I have a second to talk about business with another hard working business owner, I remark that it would be a great to get together and do just that- they always agree. When the current Chamber of Commerce focuses on organizing businesses as a constructive, supportive (and probably very powerful) group, I'll give it a try. PS: I am pleased to have read Hazlitt's column yesterday, to discover this forum. I will continue to develop our own business with positive customer service and lead by example, versus complaining about everything that is wrong- but will read with interest this forum for other perspectives. Thanks for the opportunity.
7:05 PM