Paula White

Earlier this year, our members were invited to participate in a nationwide survey of chamber of commerce members. The results are in and as we expected, you responded in record numbers and freely shared your thoughts.

More than 21 percent of our members joined more than 42,000 members from other chambers in 42 states, representing over 300 chambers nationwide, to address a myriad of issues confronting businesses today. The survey was distributed via email that allowed only one response per IP address and included 30 multiple-choice questions and four others soliciting written responses.

At our board retreat a week ago, each member of the board of directors reviewed the questions and the data those questions produced. Over the next several weeks, this column will be addressing each subject the survey evaluated, sharing the results with you and discussing the steps we are taking to add even more value to the programs we offer.

We are a member-driven organization in both word and deed. We are committed to serving as the voice of business in Boerne. We encourage you to keep the conversation going by sharing ideas and thoughts, both negative and positive, with us. Please put my email address ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) in your address book on your computer and let me know at any time when you have something you want to share. These comments are passed right along to our board members. You can also contact any of our board members to address concerns or ideas you might have. Click on our Web site at boerne.org for a list of our elected board members.

Issues facing the chamber

The first question in the survey soliciting a written response was “What are the top three issues facing the Chamber?” Overwhelmingly, the leading issue is growth. Now, there is some disagreement among the respondents as to whether the growth is too fast or too slow, and whether or not change is inevitable. But there is no question that growth is the number one issue on the minds of our members. Let’s be clear about the chamber’s position on growth: the chamber supports the officially adopted master plan, voted on by City Council. The chamber also took a leadership role by building a coalition with local government entities and other key players to develop a plan to create an organization, the Kendall County Economic Development Corporation, to focus solely on attracting the right clean businesses to Boerne. We’ll be talking with you further about specific actions we can take together to ensure Boerne benefits from the growth that is coming our way.

Our members say the number two issue facing the chamber is politics. Some want the chamber to become more politically involved and others want the chamber to withdraw from politically volatile endeavors. While chambers of commerce are non-profit organizations, by law we are permitted to endorse political candidates although we have chosen not to do so in the past. We believe the citizens of our community are perfectly capable of making their own decisions once the issues are clear to them. We believe our role is to provide opportunities for candidates to speak out on issues facing businessmen and women and to disseminate that information to our membership and the community at large. The chamber’s position on issues is clear - business is good for Boerne and our mission is to promote economic development.

The number three issue facing the chamber, according to our membership is member education. Because of the number of small businesses centered here, the membership requests particular attention to binging educational programs for business basics, such as finances, customer care, technology, and leadership. In addition to our existing training seminars on the topic of customer service and our Leadership Boerne training program, we are investigating offering complementing programs and seminars on other topics.

Watch this column in the coming weeks for more survey results and the steps we are taking to add to the return on your investment in the chamber. Again, let us hear from you ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) on any topic relating to business in Boerne. We’re a member-driven organization.