CHAMBER
“... it was amazing to see that sort of cooperation for a community as a whole.” —Sara Ritter
THE
CHAMBER and you ARTICLE BY Leah Wankum PHOTOS BY De Soto Chamber of Commerce
Membership in the De Soto Chamber of Commerce provides networking opportunities and more. Pulling together, Chamber members find ways to tout the benefits and welcome newcomers to the organization.
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t took only three hours for the De Soto Chamber of Commerce to grow its membership by 49%. That kind of explosive growth might have taken five years, had it not been for the membership drive in February 2020. That was before Covid-19—some members may still recall that day, when everyone came together to recruit new members and retain existing ones. Sara Ritter, president of the De Soto Chamber of Commerce, said the secret ingredient to the blitz in membership was Your Chamber Connection, a national organization based in Texas that led the membership drive and made it a fun-filled and encouraging event for chamber volunteers. “We (hadn’t) done a formal recruitment campaign with volunteers at this scale,” Ritter says. “To be able to get nearly 70 new members in a 24-hour period was unheard of.” The 2020 drive marked the first time the chamber had worked with Your Chamber Connection. While it almost looked like a telethon, the drive was an opportunity for chamber members to join together in teams and share with potential new business members their testimony about the benefits of being involved with the chamber. Ritter says the membership drive with Your Chamber Connection would not have been possible without the support of the chamber board. “They had the vision to embrace this new concept that we’ve never been through before, and at the end, when we saw the amount of effort and new opportunities for both our members
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and the new members that came from it, it was amazing to see that sort of cooperation for a community as a whole,” Ritter says. “It warmed my heart.” Bringing in Your Chamber Connection was both a key strategy to the drive’s success and also a unique, out-of-thebox opportunity because it encouraged volunteers to get competitive and have fun recruiting new members, Ritter says. “What was so amazing to me was seeing these folks support the chamber and making those calls, and getting members in,” Ritter says. “It was such an inspirational day, seeing our members support our organization and make phone calls and say you need to be involved.” During the membership drive, the chamber gained 68 new members, resulting in more than $30,000 in new membership revenue for the chamber and the De Soto Economic Development Council, Ritter says, adding that the average per dollar investment came in around $500 per member. “Yes, we are small, but we are now growing,” Ritter says. “We’re still a pretty small chamber, so now that everyone is familiar with how this process works, we expect that the next time we do it, there’s going to be even more support.” Prior to the 2020 membership drive, the chamber had about 125 members. Afterward, the chamber’s total membership came up to about 200, Ritter says. “Recruitment is essential to allow the organization to grow, but without the retention of our existing members, we wouldn’t be where we are at this point,” Ritter says. “We take pride in
2021–2022
