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| Photo by Joe McGarity |
This
week’s Fantom Penguin story is brought to you by Majestic Limousine. Ride in Royal Style. www.MajesticLimousineRC.com
The Fantom Penguin recently stopped by the Anderson
Chamber of Commerce for a conversation with Chamber Manager Debe Hopkins. He asked her if it was safe to assume that
people already know what a Chamber of Commerce is and what it does.
“Probably not. I
get a lot of phone calls that have nothing to do with what we do but that’s
okay, but it just tells me that probably people don’t. We’re pretty much a business advocate within
a community. We facilitate networking
events and things of that nature so that people can promote their business
rather inexpensively. As you can see, we
have cards and brochures of all the different members and it’s a good way for
members to interact with other members and just for business people in the
community to get to know other business people in the community and make others
aware of what they do.”
One of the ways in which the Chamber accomplishes this is
through its frequent ‘Greeters’ events.
“That’s what we do every Wednesday morning 8:00 am at a
different business. Again, that’s a
networking type of event. We go to a
different business. All the members or
whatever members who attend greeters, they all come there. They have coffee, you know, donuts --
whatever, some sort of beverage and refreshments and it gives that business a
chance to showcase themselves, let everybody know what they do, see where they
are and it increases business quite a bit.
A lot of people have increased their business just from the networking
that’s available through the chamber.”
“We definitely encourage people to come as guests to see
if it’s something they’d like to participate in, but basically it’s members of
the chamber and it’s just a good way to network.”
What does it take to become a member of the chamber?
“Basically if you’re a business or an individual actually
could join if they like and we have a yearly fee depending on the number of
employees. And that’s pretty much
it. The board has to approve the
application, but so far we’ve turned no one down.”
The Fantom Penguin asked Hopkins her opinion of the
business climate in Anderson.
“Actually, I think we’re doing pretty darn well
considering the shape most cities are in.
There have been some small businesses who haven’t made it through, but I
think percentage-wise we’re probably doing better than most of the surrounding
cities. So I think we’re doing alright
and the people that are still in business, they’re thriving. They’re doing well and things are picking up,
so I think we’re doing very well here.”
What about the much larger City of Redding just to the
north?
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