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Chamber Executive Magazine

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Chamber Executive Magazine Sample Issue

Introductory text here... information about joining ACCE.

March/April 2005

Membership

Level Upon Level
Dawn Moliterno
Exploring the concept of tiered dues structures and how they make a difference in your ability to cultivate new members.

Not an Investor Level Program
Introspect Associates
Not all tiered investment programs are the same in content, structure, financial formulas, tier parameters, etc. Therefore, benchmarking can be somewhat challenging. A common problem in benchmarking within the industry is that not everyone speaks the same language or chamber terminology. This is true of tiered investment programs.

Strategies for Increasing Member Involvement
Patricia A. Hudson, MPsSc, CAE and James R. Hudson, Ph.D.
The strategies below highlight ways to create an environment that invites member involvement. The items listed may not seem new but the approach must be developed from the members’ perspective.

Total Resource Campaigns: The Chamber Golden Egg?

Nine Actions for Fostering Growth
Aldonna R. Ambler, CMC, CSP
You can spark the growth of your chamber of commerce by taking nine actions that are commonly practiced by awardwinning entrepreneurs:

Shaking Portfolio Blues
Ed Whelan
For the past year, participants in the ACCE Benefits Trust retirement plan have been able to utilize a cutting-edge tool or manage their investments. This tool, Financial Engines®, has been gaining ground quickly in the chamber world and should become standard practice among plan members in the next 12 months.

Strategies for Increasing Member Inovolvement

Nine Actions for Fostering Growth
Aldonna R. Ambler, CMC, CSP
You can spark the growth of your chamber of commerce by taking nine actions that are commonly practiced by awardwinning entrepreneurs:

The Chamber Golden Egg
Greg Roth
It’s big, ambitious, and can produce large amounts of revenue. It asks members to invest at higher levels, encouraging greater involvement. Not every chamber is doing a Total Resource Campaign. Should they be?

Blasting Past Plateaus
Aldonna R. Ambler, CMC, CSP
Approximately 95 percent of all businesses are “microbusinesses,” ones that attract less than $1 million per year in gross revenue, while employing less than a handful of people. But, what do the top five percent know? More importantly, what lessons can be learned from this top five percent that might help your chamber grow?

Don't Take No for an Answer

Position Player
Cathleen Hight
Getting members to come back year after year depends heavily on how you position your organization. Consider these robust strategies for increasing your chamber’s retention rates.

Chambers and Big Boxes
A recent informal scan of the online membership directories of 60 metropolitan chambers produced some interesting data on big box retailers and their chamber memberships.

Guarding Against Fraud
Ed McMillan, CPA, CAE
Unfortunately, there have been quite a few well-publicized and sometimes even tragic incidents of fraud in chambers of commerce. While far from a guarantee, there are a few steps every chamber should take to reduce the possibility of being the victim of embezzlement.

Compensating for New Restrictions
Louis B. Barr and Jeffrey S. Tenenbaum
The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004—signed into law by President Bush in October of last year—creates significant new restrictive rules governing the taxation of nonqualified deferred compensation.

Improving the Bottom Line
Dale Emerson
The results from ACCE’s first pilot study on membership operations, conducted with the aid of the Transformations Consulting Group, are useful for all chambers serious about examining and improving upon their operational efficiency. Seventy-five carefully selected chambers of commerce representing a cross-section of organization size, geographic location, and community size accepted the invitation to participate in a study of membership-related work activities. Four cohort groups based on chamber size were formed for comparison purposes.