Mountaindale Hosts Chamber of Commerce

Terri Ward & Cathy Paty

The Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce has been serving the Sullivan County business community for more than 35 years. Their Mission Statement includes: "... bringing together the business and professional interests of the county, permitting them to accomplish collectively what none could do individually. The focus and objective of the Chamber shall be the growth and retention of its member businesses and other enterprises in Sullivan County."  Their challenge is that the businesses are spread out over the 970 square miles of our sprawling county. They tried to reach everyone from offices that were based in Monticello and Liberty at different times over the years. Chamber President Terri Ward and Vice President Cathy Paty were concerned that too many members weren't availing themselves of all the numerous Member Benefits and only viewing the Chamber as an organization to wite a check to once a year.

The Chamber Staff and Board of Directors were deeply concerned about how to remain relevant in these changing economic, technological, and environmental times. They made a bold, creative move on September 1st, by eliminating their physical office and creating the world’s first completely mobile chamber of commerce. They purchased a 37' Coachman RV which is now the Chamber's sole office, moving throughout the county servicing each township for a minimum of two-weeks at a time while appearing at many county events and festivities. They post their weekly location and hourly schedule on the homepage of the Chamber website to ensure that community businesses know where they are. A video blog of the journey is on the Chamber’s Facebook page.

Mobile Chamber on the Run

Next week, Main Street Mountaindale will proudly be hosting the Chamber. Diversified Realty Services will be supporting our guests by donating electricity, parking and whatever else might be needed. Although the Chamber Staff seems pretty self sufficient. They are extremely "green" and have begun the process of going paperless and communicate with their member base electronically or face-to-face in The Chamber on the Run TM. The RV currently runs on diesel fuel but plans to eventually run their electricity off mounted solar panels and a small wind turbine as a backup. The office utilizes laptops and cell phones, allowing the Chamber Staff to move from town to town and business to business at ease.

The RV will be parked in position on Main Street to take advantage of the strong Verizon WiFi signal we have. So far, the Chamber has been experiencing the significant savings in expenses that were projected under this Mobile Chamber initiative. This savings will enable the Chamber to continue to provide valuable services to their members while keeping its membership, sponsorship, and attendance fees low. If you are already a Member, please stop in to visit next week to find out more about what the Chamber can do for you and how you might better utilize your membership. If you are not yet a member, Terri and Cathy will be glad to let you know more about what they do in our community and how they try to attact more positive growth with tools like the Relocation Guide and their Shop Local Campaign.