The Washington herald., 1922-01-01

list Of desirable prospects whom he is to
solicit. The way is prepared for him by
propefN introductions. interviewing these
prospects as the representative Of the Cham
ber Of CoIhperce for two hours each month,
he is very srire to steadily add to the mem
lership> Of the organization. When he has
assured the number of members that is al
lotted to him his name is posted at head
quarters as a blue star man, a member who
has done bis BIT in this respect, and he 10
not again called upon for such service. Hir
posting in this way is reward for compc-
tent service which brings him the respect Of
his associates
"ME4T to this membership problem"
. ~ asked, what is the ;lost important
thing to know in the proper conduct of q
chamber of commerce.
Aside from maintaining It's member.bin
which can be accomplished through tins COR
.inuous solicitation plan," said Mr.. Brown
there is the necessity of laying down 4. sem
sible program of work and sticking 70 tha,
program. In the first place the chamber
itself should be organized on the basis Of
tent paid secretary, of course; stenog-
rapher. quarters, stationery. Maintaining
these is the primary expense. 1t should fis-
ure out the cost Of maintaining such an or
ganization ahd should make up for itself an
annual budget. This will show it the amount
Of money it is necessary for it to raise. II
it needs SIC, 900 year, for instance. II NAV
set itself the task of getting 500 members at
$50 each, or it may find that it is better to
get 200 members at $50 each. No chamber
should raise more money tnan is needed for
its actual operation, because if it does it is a
greater burden upon the business men of the
community than should be, and unnecessary
funds are likely to lead to waste. Its proper
function. of course, is merely to maintain
the funds for its own operation.
with the basis thus laid for a cham
Der of commerce, the problem which next
faces It is the selection Of the tasks which
1t must undertake. hold that in any COM
munity in the United States a group of its
leading business men when called together
can Immediately put their fingers upon the
three or four chief needs of the community.
Those needs maye be improved schooi
facilities, better railroad transportation,
better streets, better housing for its work
ing people, municipal laws. Whatever they
are, the progressive business men are likely
to be aware of them. When the needs are
known and laid out before such group of
business men it is possible to measure one
against the other and decide which is the
most urgent, which should be first attacked
and solved.
when it has finally been determined
which is the primary need of a given COM
munity, then the meeting of that need
should become the first project of it's cham
Der of commerce. A chamber of commerce
is fundamentally a project organization, and
its primary business is to determine the
needs of the community and upon those needs
build projects, which it proceeds to work
out for the benefit of the community When
the chamber has determined upon a project
the proper procedure is then to appoint q
project committee, which is to take charge Of
that particular piece of work and with the
chamber back Of it drive it through, to work
it out and make 1t a reality
Mr.. Brown holds that the fundamental
problems of any community are based upon
four things-production, labor, transporta-
ton, morale. Its prosperity, Of course. 4,