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Soda Springs Chamber asks city to join as paid member; council tables decision
Summary
The Soda Springs Chamber of Commerce asked the city council to become a paid member at the $4,000-per-year level and to designate a city employee to participate in chamber events; council members asked for time to review and agreed to place the request on the next meeting agenda.
Ken Wesley, a hospital representative and member of the Soda Springs Chamber of Commerce board, asked the City Council to consider a city membership in the chamber and outlined a $4,000-a-year requested contribution.
The chamber’s proposal matters, Wesley said, because it funds programming and creates a forum for business leadership and networking. "The cost would be would be $303.33 per month, which is $4,000 in a year," Wesley told the council, adding that the chamber currently has roughly "somewhere in the thirties" of members and is run by volunteers.
Wesley introduced Anna Walton, identified in the meeting as the hospital’s new human-resources director, and said the hospital had selected the $4,000 membership tier as a way larger local employers often support chamber operations. Wesley said the chamber currently pays for education events, is developing a website and hopes to raise enough funds to hire paid staff instead of relying only on volunteers.
Council members asked questions about membership tiers and how dues are spent. Wesley listed tiers ranging from $4,000, $2,500 and $1,000 down to lower amounts for small businesses; he said smaller businesses often join for promotional or training value while larger institutions typically join to support community commerce.
A council member moved to place the chamber request on the next council agenda and to table further discussion until members had time to review the proposal. The motion was seconded and the council agreed to add the item to the next meeting agenda; no final vote on membership was taken.
The chamber representative said the group plans a regular schedule of events, is rotating meeting locations among member businesses and is developing programs to promote local small businesses. Wesley told the council that much of the chamber’s current work — including a holiday ticket-drawing program to promote local storefronts and small-business events — is volunteer-run and that paid staff would be a future objective if funding allows.
Next steps: the council did not approve city membership at the meeting. Council members directed staff and themselves to review the membership levels, estimated services and possible city representation at chamber events and to discuss the request at the next council meeting, when it will be on the agenda.
