The Chamber of Commerce is a concept found only where private initiative and free enterprise exist.

The Chamber of Commerce, as a wholly volunteer institution in the United States, is eight years older than the Declaration of Independence.  The New York State Chamber of Commerce, first in America, was organized in 1768 and five years later, the first local chamber was formed in Charleston, South Carolina.

In these 200+ years, the Chamber has grown from a single purpose Federation of Traders who organized to promote trade and cut costs by cooperation in certain operations, to a broad community development association which believes that when men and women of high purpose work unselfishly on problems which they have in common, progress will result.

The Chamber must approach its job just as you do in your own business:
1. Get the facts.
2. Face the facts.
3. Have the courage and the know-how to take the action which facts dictate.

If any one of these steps is omitted, or improperly considered, errors in management and in community development can result.

Above all, the chamber is all its functions, considers time as money.

It has been generally accepted that the role of the modern Chamber is three-fold:  1)To promote, with its maximum resources, the development of new and expanded payrolls.  This is an economic development responsibility.  2)  To work for a continuous upgrading of the “product,” which is the community which it serves.  To this end, projects dealing with the beauty, efficiency, cultural resources, and the general environment of the community are included in the Chamber program; and, 3) To create a proper legislative climate in which business can operate at a profit and provide maximum employment.

All public issues are clearly within the field of the Chamber of Commerce, but purely partisan political issues are not.