Chamber adds 102 members at two-day event

Ben Sclair | October 28, 2012

By Mimi Jansen, Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber

On Tuesday, October 23 and Wednesday, October 24, at the “Home of the Tacoma Rainiers” Cheney Stadium, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber hosted a “Membership Event” that racked up the runs going into extra innings for part of Thursday, October 25.

“This increase in membership to 1,376 puts us as the 2^nd largest Chamber in the Puget Sound region. We have put the relevance back into the Chamber, and businesses are seeing not only the return on investment but the innovation, the job creation and results from our advocacy efforts. This event is really about businesses understanding this and getting excited about contributing to a movement that not only creates a louder voice for business in the community, but a larger force to strengthening our economy,” said Tom Pierson, Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber President & CEO.

Ninety business leaders worked against the clock and against each other in a fun, competitive environment to sign up new Chamber members and create a greater community awareness of the important role of a chamber of commerce. The event was organized by Jimmy Cusano and his group called Your Chamber Connection. Their specialty is high energy membership campaigns that allow volunteers to conduct “out of the box” membership fun while building the membership base.

“All I had to tell the volunteer is it’s about business,” said event guru, Jimmy Cusano. “The Chamber is the business community. This brought everyone together to build their Chamber into one they can be proud of. When they heard about everything the Chamber does, they showed a great deal of enthusiasm for the Chamber, and, as a result, a great deal of support.”

The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber Membership Event kicked off at the Summit Club in Cheney Stadium and ended with a celebration on Thursday, October 25 at the Encore Nightclub.