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Some changes are in order because the Chamber does not have enough money to pay a full-time executive director, to staff and fund the operation of the visitors center, market and promote the region and carry out all the festivities it sponsors, according to Paul Fichtner, Chamber president. “Our Chamber is in dire straits,” Fichtner said Friday. “Our membership structure will not support the Chamber activities as it has in the past.” Fichtner and board members will present several options as to the future of the Chamber to members at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, at the Black Frog Restaurant. “This is an extremely important meeting ... we’re going to decide the future of the Chamber of Commerce or the demise of it,” Fichtner said. To fund the Chamber’s operations, the board of directors has dipped into the building fund, reducing that account to a dangerously low level. Many Chamber members, including Fichtner, say the organization could carry out its duties and responsibilities if all businesses joined the Chamber, paid dues and offered volunteer support. Nonmembers don’t join the organization, yet they reap the benefits of the hard-earned member advertising dollars, he said. “This needs to change by members talking to nonmembers about this inequity,” Fichtner said. “We all need to look deep within, and ask ourselves if we have done what is required to pull this region together through the Chamber organization to make [it] both strong and healthy,” Fichtner wrote in a letter mailed to Chamber members this month. With a few exceptions, he said most members simply pay their dues and expect the Chamber to provide a steady stream of traffic to their doorsteps. More help, both financial and volunteer effort, is needed, Fichtner said. |