Chamber of Commerce Membership

[papinc]

Looking for any and all feedback related to becoming a chamber member.  Are you a member of your local chamber? Benefits? Cons?
All feedback welcome.

Thanks

Keith (papinc).

[Parker 1]

We were years ago.  But so is every other Screen Printer in the area.  Does have its benifits, getting list and contacts for area businesses.  The one in my area members pay a membership and also pay to advertise through them and you no longer get access to the contact list. 

[jasonl]

Its some BU!!crap!  Our good ole boy town sends orders to their friends and it benefits us ZERO!  My wife
says I have to keep it, but I would cut it in a second!  MANY, other local businesses tell me the same thing.

[Denis Kolar]

Its some BU!!crap!  Our good ole boy town sends orders to their friends and it benefits us ZERO!  My says I have to keep it, but I would cut it in a second!  MANY, other local businesses tell me the same thing.

Pretty much the same thing here.
It is a $100 a year here, so I do not mind it as much, If I get a job or two because of it, that will pay it off. I got about $400-500 worth of business from it this year

[Frog]

It's funny. I am not a member of my local, but have printed for them (I guess no other shirt printer is a member either)

[papinc]

Thanks to all for the responses! Something to ponder.

[mavgraph]

We are nationwide and a distributor, not a printer, so it did not help at all. I can see the benefit for a printer as one job you get from being a member could more than pay for the membership.

[Dottonedan]

I've recently checked into the same thing in my town. 249.00 per year, can make payments and a 25.00 ap fee. Then, another 60.00 if you want in the website list to link back to your site.

The good thing is, with your membership, you get a 1/4th page ad in our town paper. That cost is half the cost of the membership fee, so, you get some money back in advertisement.

Then again, they have "groups" of members. Sort of like territories. If a printer is in that group, I need to move to another group. Tht makes sence so that each can developer relationships within your group. At the same time, I can't sell to another group even if they want me to. That's odd.

[ZooCity]

I don't bother with this sort of thing.  Most "business to business" operations are offering me something I already have but asking me to pay them for it and then do them favors on top of that.  WeTrade was a great example.  We already barter with many businesses in the area and don't need to tithe an organization to do so, let alone one that is brokering screen printing services at their whim (that part really astounded me).  I feel the same way about chambers of commerce, etc., you're either in with a group who look to you for work or you aren't. 

Paying a few hundred bucks a year to give someone a job at the chamber or whatever it's called (there's quite a few incarnations of these) and then perform favors for them makes very little sense to me unless they are working toward a higher mutual goal for all the businesses involved.  If they are then it may well be worth getting involved in but I wouldn't join with the expectation of any increased business, at least not likely the type of work you want.

Ask yourself - what are you gaining here that you don't already have or could not get via normal human interaction with your fellow local businesses?

If you have some answers to that question then it probably makes a lot of sense to join up, if you don't, skip it.

[jasonl]

I don't bother with this sort of thing.  Most "business to business" operations are offering me something I already have but asking me to pay them for it and then do them favors on top of that.  WeTrade was a great example.  We already barter with many businesses in the area and don't need to tithe an organization to do so, let alone one that is brokering screen printing services at their whim (that part really astounded me).  I feel the same way about chambers of commerce, etc., you're either in with a group who look to you for work or you aren't. 

Paying a few hundred bucks a year to give someone a job at the chamber or whatever it's called (there's quite a few incarnations of these) and then perform favors for them makes very little sense to me unless they are working toward a higher mutual goal for all the businesses involved.  If they are then it may well be worth getting involved in but I wouldn't join with the expectation of any increased business, at least not likely the type of work you want.

Ask yourself - what are you gaining here that you don't already have or could not get via normal human interaction with your fellow local businesses?

If you have some answers to that question then it probably makes a lot of sense to join up, if you don't, skip it.

Couldnt have said it better myself.