AUGUSTA — With the help of a consultant and a slew of members volunteering their time for a membership drive, Peter Thompson is not slipping quietly into retirement from the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Instead, the 25-year chamber leader who plans to step down from his post in February, intends to go out with the bang of what would be a significant increase in membership. His goal is to go from about 600 to 750 members, a 25 percent increase.
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Current Kennebec Valley chamber membership: 600
Year-end goal: 750
Current Hallowell board of trade membership: 65
Year-end goal: 115
“Our initial goal was to try to get 100 new members, but my personal goal is I’d like to hit 150 before I leave this place,” Thompson said Thursday. “As of this moment, we’re already well over 100. That’s very encouraging, very pleasing for me. My guess is, probably by the end of today, we’ll be in the 120 to 130 range.”
And Thompson and his team of volunteers are not alone, as other business groups in the area, such as the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce in Waterville and Hallowell Area Board of Trade, are also taking steps to increase their ranks.
In Waterville, the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce has also seen an increase in its ranks, adding 60 or 70 new members since May, growing to about 650 members, according to Kimberly Lindlof, president and CEO of the chamber.
“We’ve seen a huge spike in membership growth, and it’s not a mystery why,” Lindlof said. “We hired someone specifically to focus on recruiting new members. We’re going to vote in another dozen next Friday.”
That person, Tanya Verzoni, started in May, and Lindlof said she has brought in “lots and lots and lots,” of new members.
Lindlof said Verzoni has increased membership by knocking on doors and explaining the benefits of chamber membership to business owners.
Lindlof noted those benefits include networking with other business owners, advocacy and marketing on behalf of members, a page on the chamber’s website where members can post information about their business, job openings, and deals, as well as chamber discount cards for employees at some 90 businesses, and advertising and marketing opportunities.
Chris Vallee, new president of the Hallowell Area Board of Trade, said his goal is to get “every single business” in Hallowell to join the organization in 2014-2015. He said the group has about 65 members now, and there are about 50 businesses that aren’t members. He said he plans to visit business owners who aren’t members personally and present his ideas to boost business activity in the riverside city, to convince them all to join.
If he’s successful, Vallee would increase membership by nearly 77 percent.
“I’m going to own it, I’ll get it done,” Vallee said of the ambitious goal. “I’m going to tell them my ideas I’d like to implement. We’re going to take the board of trade to a whole new level, which is going to benefit everybody.”
Vallee said the ideas he plans to share to draw new members into the board of trade include advocating for the installation of public restrooms downtown, organize a triathlon fundraiser, work with the harbor master to put moorings in the river for boaters, start a blues festival, start an outdoor art walk, create more parking and encourage bus tour operators to stop in the small city.
Thompson said the Augusta-based Kennebec Valley Chamber has annual efforts to increase membership, but nothing like those currently underway. Thompson said chamber membership has hovered around 600 members most years, after peaking, before the recession, at a high of around 650 members.
For what the chamber is calling its 2014 Super Membership Drive, officials hired a Massachusetts-based consultant, Patrick J. Hoey of Sales Development Associates, to help the chamber and its members ramp up the hype to draw in new members.
Hoey, who said he’s worked with chambers of commerce across the country for 30 years, said to add more than 100 members in just one day of working the phones is remarkable for a chamber that size. He said the pitch made by volunteers working the phones highlights the reasons business owners should join the chamber.
“If I’m a small-business owner, I’m interested in a return on investment, if I’m going to give you dues, what’s in it for me?” Hoey said. “For a small-business owner it has many benefits.”
Those include networking, advertising and referrals, he said.
“We get 400,000 inquiries a year, from people looking for someone who can recommend, say, a real estate agent,” he said. “And the chamber is seen as the reliable business organization of record.”
Membership dues to join the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce are based on a business’ size, with dues of $195 a year for a business with up to four employees, $261 for businesses with between five and nine employees, $651 a year for businesses with 75 to 99 employees, $1,694 a year for businesses with 475 to 499 employees, and, for businesses with more than 500 employees, $1,694 plus $2.65 for each employee over 500.
The Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce uses a similar dues structure, with businesses with one or two employees paying dues of $195 a year, six to 10 employees $300, 201 to 500 employees $1,470, and 501 or more employees, $1,850.
Chris Pazsyc, a broker and partner with The Boulos Company, and co-chairman of the KV Chamber membership drive, said the chamber put together a “powerful value proposition” of incentives to get area business owners to join. To be eligible for the incentives, new members must join by Oct. 31.
The incentives for new members to join include up to $5,000 in free advertising from local media who are members of the chamber, including the Kennebec Journal, Townsquare Media, Mountain Wireless and Turner Publishing, although businesses that already advertise with those media companies are not eligible for the free advertising.
There are also incentives for existing chamber members, about 80 of whom are volunteering with the membership drive, to bring in new members, including the grand prize, a Caribbean vacation.
Thompson noted beyond helping a business grow, joining the chamber also “helps strengthen the regional and local economy, and helps strengthen the community where we all live and work.”
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @kedwardskj
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