Paula White

Last week, I wrote about reasons why our newest 260 members joined during our recent membership event.

One of those reasons is that the chamber is a resource center for members, a place members can turn to for information about issues, services and products that are meaningful to our business partners.

At the same time, the chamber is a resource center for local citizens, visitors to the area, businesses with relocation plans in mind, and people who are considering the Hill Country as a future home.

The chamber receives thousands of inquiries a month, via phone, through the internet and by mail from people across the country and around the world wanting to know the names of the best restaurants in which to dine, lists of vendors and venues, the names of must-see attractions, dates of important events, the names of businesses who can best supply products or services they need and directions for contacting our members.

When the chamber acts in the capacity of Resource Center for people, we promote chamber members. The chamber staff and board members are spokespersons for all 1,005 businesses that turned to their chamber to increase their “buckage” (that’s another chamber thing!) and grow their businesses.

Every month, more than 6,000 different people click into boerne.org from across town, around the state and from every state in the country.

Every member of the Chamber is listed there, and site visitors can click through from boerne.org to the Web site of every member.

That means with just a couple of clicks, people anywhere in the world can find unique businesses in Boerne. The businesses are chamber members and people in New York City, Santa Barbara, Miami, Chicago or Boston might not be aware of their goods or services without the benefit of the chamber’s Web site. Our Web site works!

Hundreds of relocation and visitor packages are mailed from the chamber every year. These packages always include The Official Guide to Boerne, a chamber publication listing every chamber member by business classification and alphabetically.

So many times recipients of these packages come to Boerne and shop in our members’ businesses and tell them they heard about them through the guide.

The chamber is an active resource center for everyone who comes to Boerne whether they call us, click on us, or write to us and our members know they have high visibility through the chamber.

If you aren’t a chamber member already, don’t wait another day to access some of that great chamber buckage. It’s a chamber thing!

Chamber welcomes six new members

This week the chamber welcomes six new members. Joining at the Bronze Level: COI Enterprises, Jason Embry, owner, 37450 Interstate 10 West, Boerne (general contractor); Carpenter’s Cottage, Jana Sprayberry, owner, 426 Cordillera Trace, Boerne (bed and breakfast); Emily Buttlar of Doris Young and Company Realtors, 121 Spring Valley Cove, Boerne (Realtor); Explore Magazine, Ben Schooley, owner, 203 Shadywood, Boerne (advertising/graphic design, marketing, newspaper); and REM Engineering Corp., Robert Martinez, owner, 6218 Stable Downs, San Antonio (engineering – structural). Joining at the Silver Level: J Bar T Ventures – Land Improvement Specialists, John B. Tipton, president/owner, P. O. Box 4001, Bergheim (landscape and design).

Please help us welcome these new members and make it a point to patronize them for services and products.

The chamber appreciates the support and confidence of our members in their local chamber of commerce.

For information on becoming a member of the Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce please call (830) 249-8000 and ask for Rita Cornelius, director of membership.

Chamber events

* Thursday, Aug. 9: Ribbon cutting for Massage Etc., 806 N. Main St., 1:30 p.m.

* Thursday, Aug. 16: Business-After-Hours hosted by Boerne Public Library, 5 to 7 p.m.

* Thursday, Aug. 23: Ribbon cutting for Davis Custom Homes, 231 Well Springs (in the Menger Springs subdivision), 1:30 p.m.

* Tuesday, Aug. 28: Ribbon cutting for Explore Magazine at the chamber office, 1:30 p.m.

* Thursday, Aug. 30: Ribbon cutting for Implant and Periodontal Dentistry, 248 N. Main St., Suite 1, 1:30 p.m.