Chamber of Commerce works to attract new members as numbers fall

Loss of business ski pass “a big part of it”

There is ebb and a flow to everything in the mountains, even in membership to the local chamber of commerce. But after spending the last few years bringing the Crested Butte / Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce back from the brink of financial ruin, executive director Dan Marshall is spending the last months of his tenure with the organization trying to reconnect with businesses and getting memberships to flow once again.

“[A decline in membership] pops up at this time of the year with businesses either changing hands or people leaving town or people not renewing their memberships,” Marshall says. “It’s the people who aren’t re-upping that is a concern of ours, because we need memberships to keep the lights on.”
Membership at the chamber can fluctuate and is currently on the decline after losing about 10 percent, or about 30, of its more than 300 members. Projections show that number declining.
But after Crested Butte Mountain Resort dropped the business pass from its offerings prior to last ski season, the chamber lost one of the biggest perks to businesses considering a chamber membership.
“I think the ski pass is a big part of it as well. It doesn’t benefit the mom and pop the way it was set up and I think people really needed that,” Marshall said. “It was a great carrot for attracting and retaining membership.”
Marshall said he was sorry to see the business pass go, but understands the decision. But that won’t stop him from “knocking on the resort’s door at the end of the ski season to see if we can re-enter those discussions.”
Andy Eflin, owner of Peak Sports and president of the chamber’s board of directors, says the organization is working on ways to add value to a chamber membership, beyond the services it already provides.
The chamber serves three general functions for the local business community: stocking and staffing the upper valley’s various visitor centers; organizing or initiating events like Crested Butte Bike Week, the Beer and Chili fest, Fourth of July and Mardi Gras parades and a lot of other events that bring people into the valley from out of town; and promoting the member businesses to visitors.
Additionally the chamber sponsors events for its members to help them improve their own business ventures, like the social media workshop held last week.
“We’re trying to do a lot of things to make a membership to the chamber more valuable,” Eflin says.
While the chamber pays for much of that through business license taxes, grants and ticket sales, the chamber’s main job of promoting local businesses is funded through business memberships, which can cost from $100 for a business’ first year with the chamber to $325 a year for businesses that want the full marketing membership.
“We’re really trying to show our worth,” Marshall says.