Verifying the Facts: Local Chamber likes local jobs
March 31, 2011
By Colet Allen
Bonners Ferry Chamber of Commerce

This article is being written to correct a misconception about our local Chamber of Commerce and its wrongly assumed affiliation with the US Chamber of Commerce.

After the president of the US Chamber of Commerce made the statement on national news that it was a good idea to send US jobs overseas, many local people and their businesses were concerned that this Chamber agreed.

I have been asked several times by various friends who know that I work with the chamber about our chamber's relationship with the US Chamber of Commerce, and the answer is always the same.

There is no relationship.

The designation, "Chamber of Commerce," is not branded or copyrighted by the US Chamber. That's a legal designation for the IRS and is a 501C6, in legalese, which "provides for the exemption of business leagues, chambers of commerce, real estate boards, boards of trade, and professional football leagues, which are not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual."

The U.S. Chamber doesn't fit the bill.

As a local Chamber, we do not have to join, send money to, or be associated in any way with another organization. We are stand-alone, and the money that the Bonners Ferry Chamber raises stays in our county and serves our community.

For a short history of chamber of commerce refer to the next paragraph, taken from the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

“Any of various voluntary organizations of business firms, public officials, professional people, and public-spirited citizens whose primary interest is in publicizing, promoting, and developing commercial and industrial opportunities in their local area, and usually also community schools, streets, housing, and public works. The International Chamber of Commerce (founded 1920) acts as the voice of the business community in the international field and runs a court of arbitration for settling commercial disputes. National chambers of commerce exist in most industrialized, free-enterprise countries. The first to use the name was founded in Paris in 1601; the first U.S. chamber of commerce was that of the state of New York, founded in 1768.”

Provided by: The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.

Your local Chamber of Commerce, along with the many local businesses and individuals who support it and make up our community, seem often to disagree with the sensibilities of the "thinkers" residing along the Potomac.

The Bonners Ferry Chamber of Commerce is YOUR local chamber, and we welcome your interest and participation. Our website,  http://www.bonnersferrychamber.com is there to let you know what we're doing on behalf of not only our members, but our community, and we're there to promote and encourage local business and local trade.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donahue is free to make whatever statements he wants, no matter how assinine or disconnected to the true engine of the U.S. economy he might be.

He doesn't speak for or have any influence on the Bonners Ferry Chamber of Commerce.

This Chamber believes that small businesses in places like ours across the country drive the U.S. economy. We're the ones making the products and greeting the customers and making the sacrifices.

We'll know that the economic crisis is over when our local businesses start working again, putting local people to work.