Published February 2002

Smokey Point group grows along with community

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

The Smokey Point Area Chamber of Commerce has come a long way since its early years.

Back then, in the late 1970s, a dozen or so businessmen and women would meet in the back corner of a local bar to discuss “what might be,” said chamber President Robin Reinig, a participant of those early meetings.

Nowadays, the chamber’s membership nears 150, and monthly meetings are held at Oberg’s Restaurant inside the Hawthorn Inn & Suites. There is a newsletter as well as quarterly networking sessions, and there is even a paid staffer: Sherman Bailey, who works 40 hours a month as the chamber’s administrative assistant.

Such growth is a reflection of the community the chamber represents, a community that has developed tremendously in the past two decades, with the addition of grocery stores, a home-improvement store, numerous banks, restaurants, hotels and the like.

“It’s nice to be able to shop here, and take care of 90 percent of what you want to do,” said Reinig, manager of Frontier Bank’s Smokey Point branch as well as a resident of the area.

The chamber has reacted to the influx by being “prepared to welcome and encourage new business development in the area,” Bailey said, noting that in just the past five years, membership has grown by 50 percent.

“We look on it as a joining of other like-minded business people in the area to promote business and work with one another in being successful,” he said.

To that end, the chamber board in January focused its attention on three main objectives for the year, Reinig said. They are:

• Improving communication with members.
• Improving networking relationships with local school districts and the Navy.
• Increasing networking opportunities for businesses so that they can build their customer base.

Such goals are a continuation of work the chamber began last year, Reinig said, and aim to fulfill the chamber’s mission of being a resource to the business community.

The chamber meets the second Wednesday of each month at Oberg’s, alternating breakfast and lunch meetings: breakfast on odd months, lunch on even months.

For more information on the chamber, call 360-659-5453.

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