Last month we sent out our annual member survey to assess how our programs and performance over the past year aligned with the expectations of our members. It’s our yearly gut check to ensure that all of the things we think we are doing to support, promote, and enhance our members and help them meet their business goals is doing most of what we think it is so that we can adjust our output accordingly.
Naturally we love hearing all of the things our members love about what we do for them and the business community in Frederick County (thank you to everyone who said wonderful things about our staff, we heart you too!), but most importantly, we love hearing more about the things we aren’t getting quite right, the things you wish we would do, and the opportunities you think would benefit you and your businesses even more. It is these reflections, alongside the wonderful compliments of course, that encourage us to continue to find creative, beneficial, and innovative ways to make our Chamber of Commerce able to better meet the needs of our diverse members.
We share the feedback we received with you each year in this space so that you can rest assured that we hear you and aim to make responding to your feedback a priority.
A Few Things to Know About Frederick County Chamber of Commerce Members
You make us the second largest Chamber in the state.
With about 900 businesses in our membership, the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce is second only to Baltimore in terms of membership numbers. We are proud to say that we have members from all areas of the county as well as from across all of the business sectors which means we are as diverse as we are large.
We have a large constituency of nonprofit businesses in our membership.
In fact, the nonprofit sector is the largest industry represented within our membership.
What Our Members Think We Do Well
Networking Events
The Frederick Chamber excels in networking events and helping members to be involved in the business community.
The Frederick County Chamber of Commerce offers a multitude of networking opportunities throughout the year. From themed Generation Connect Networking Mixers to our joint Business Card Exchanges with surrounding counties, there are opportunities for business professionals at all stages of their careers to make connections with others in and around Frederick County.
Communication
From our weekly newsletter to our Insights blog and social media profiles, our members expressed that they feel well informed about upcoming events, opportunities, and initiatives the Chamber is involved in. If you still feel a little out of the loop, we encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter, bookmark our blog, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter where we post daily updates about Chamber happenings alongside useful information business leaders of today need to know about.
Leadership Frederick County
As we enter our 31st year with the LFC program, we are pleased to note that so many of our members and program alum continue to find value in this leadership program. It is certainly one of the highlights of our Chamber and we are excited to explore new ways to deliver some of our leadership program knowledge to more of our members and community members as we design new programming in the upcoming months.
Business Advocacy
Bringing the business community together and working with local and state officials on matters concerning community and economic development.
The Frederick County Chamber of Commerce strives to be an advocate for businesses in Frederick. We utilize our various communication methods to help keep our members informed of current and future policy decisions that may impact the way they do business in the county and around the state. And, through events like our Pre- and Post-legislative breakfasts, we facilitate opportunities for our members to directly communicate and interact with our policy makers and elected officials. We are happy to be the voice of Frederick County business, but we also want to give you as many opportunities as possible to make your own voices heard.
Community Involvement
Businesses can’t thrive without a strong community for them to exist within. It is to this end, that we strive to support and create a strong, talented, healthy and safe community through various partnerships and support for programs designed to meet the needs of the greater community. Supporting initiatives like Frederick Goes Purple and the Downtown Safety and Services Initiative, creating the Chamber Transportation Advocacy Committee, and involving ourselves in other health and human resources programs is how we work to help sustain and grow a community that our businesses are able to find success within.
What Our Members Think We Can Improve Upon
Member to Member Discounts
Currently, members can enjoy huge discounts by taking advantage of the energy cooperative benefit provided by CQI Associates. As we head into 2020, we are also exploring some creative and feasible ways to provide even more opportunities for discounts to our members.
Supporting New Members
“More help for new members, activities during networking events that makes it easier to connect with other members. (It is hard when you’re brand new.)”
We agree, it is hard when you’re new and we want to help make that easier.
As a Chamber with a staff of eight, we rely heavily on our Chamber ambassadors to help welcome and support our new members. We are always seeking passionate members to fill this roll to help make our new member experience more fulfilling. We have recently instituted some new processes with our ambassador program to help make them more accessible to our new members. We also hope each of our members knows that our Chamber door is always open, especially to visitors who come with treats.
Educational Opportunities
In 2019 alone we were able to offer several new education programs including the human resources series taught by award winning HR professional, Amanda Haddaway, owner of HR Answerbox, as well as a sold out social media marketing course taught by our own digital marketing specialist, Amanda Rodriguez. We are excited to unveil some of the new courses we will be offering in 2020 as well.
Each year is a new opportunity for us find ways to make your membership more meaningful to you and we appreciate all of your feedback as it help us make your Chamber the Chamber you want it to be.
A Few Things Chamber Members Can Look Forward To
Based on the feedback we received in the survey, you can anticipate a few changes as we go forward including, but not limited to:
- Offering events at different times. Respondents largely noted that morning events would be a better fit for many of them, so expect to see some expanded offerings within these hours.
- Additional Women in Business events. We plan to bring S.H.E Week back for year two as well as add some additional programming to our calendar to meet the growing needs of the female business leaders in and around Frederick.
- Individual and start-up business membership offerings.
- Member to member program development.
- And more!
Frederick Chamber Insights is a news outlet of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce. For more information about membership, programs and initiatives, please visit our website.