Brooklyn's Progress
February/March 2006

By Harold Egeln

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce enjoyed a boost in ranks in 2005. The year closed with more than 450 new Members joining the Brooklyn Chamber family.

"2005 was a great year for the Chamber," said Darryl Hollon, the Brooklyn Chamber’s Vice President of Membership. "We've added 457 new Members. This is fantastic!"

“A record number of new Members joined our Chamber in 2005.  This is great news because the more we grow, the better the networking for our existing Members.  And, when our current Members make new contacts and discover new customers in the Chamber, they renew their memberships,” said Brooklyn Chamber President Kenneth Adams. “It’s like a great circle: we grow our ranks, our Members score new customers, and then they help us grow again.  The other vital result of our growth in membership is more Members give us a louder voice.  This drives our advocacy for better business conditions in the borough. The larger the Chamber, the more effective our advocacy.”

This year’s success is credited to the entire Brooklyn Chamber family. Current and longtime members, as well as staff, were involved in bringing new Members to the organization.

"2005 was the first year we heavily engaged our staff to work on a monthly basis on their and our Members’ leads," explained Mr. Hollon. "It's about making the contacts and following through by calling up potential Members to talk about the values of membership and benefits of our services. And it's really paid off."

Corporate Membership Challenges
To help increase membership, the Chamber launched its first Corporate Membership Challenge, in 2003 with Independence Community Bank.
    
In this program, leading Brooklyn Chamber Members volunteer to participate in the Corporate Membership Challenge. This year, Washington Mutual Bank (WaMu) has taken the Challenge with a team of over 25 relationship managers led by WaMu's Regional Vice Presidents Mike Fina and Ernie Rossi.

For new, existing and potential Members the draw is the diversity of Chamber services, including support for business promotion, marketing and advocacy.

Member Orientations
To help new Members get connected, Membership Orientations are held bimonthly. The early morning breakfast presentation is an interactive introduction for new Members and a refresher for current Members.

The sessions show Members how to maximize their membership using Brooklyn Chamber’s tools including monthly Business After Hours (BAH) networking events; marketing through the Brooklyn Chamber Web site ibrooklyn.com,  the newspaper Brooklyn's Progress as well as the Member-to-Member Discount Program.

"The Chamber is like a gym with lots of equipment to exercise your business. The workout helps a lot," said an enthusiastic Mr. Hollon who has been on staff since April 2004. "We'll be bigger and better in 2006. The potential is surely there."

To participate in the 2006 Corporate Membership Challenge and to learn more about the benefits of Brooklyn Chamber membership, contact Darryl Hollon at 718-875-1000 ext. 131, or at dhollon@brooklynchamber.com.