Advancement to membership does not depend upon development of new business and there is no fixed ratio of members to associates. Founded as a river landing at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, Kansas City is now a bistate community of 1.6 million residents, according to recent Chamber of Commerce statistics. The metropolitan area encompasses 4,777 plus square miles and 144 municipalities in seven counties of Missouri and four counties of Kansas. Greater Kansas City was the first major city to have earned a clean air status from the E.P.A. Greater Kansas City is a center for financial services, communications, health care, law, education and government. Warehousing, manufacturing and distribution are also major industries due to the city's central location and abundant means of transportation.
Agribusiness remains strong, particularly in management and research.
In addition to the Kansas City Chiefs football team and Royals baseball team, Kansas City boasts Blades hockey, Attack indoor soccer, Wizards outdoor soccer and Explorers tennis. Kansas City has more professional theater than any U.S. city of its size, a repertory theater, symphony orchestra, lyric opera and state ballet. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is home to one of the most impressive collections of Oriental, European and American works in the nation. The Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, with a membership of greater than 4,000 attorneys, joins the Lawyers Association of Kansas City in offering attorneys forums for meetings, seminars and socializing. The Charles Evan Whittaker Courthouse, home of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, was opened in 1998 and will form the north end of an area encompassing the City Hall, Missouri Court of Appeals-Western District and Sixteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri.