CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEMBERSHIP DRIVE IS TODAY

Cape Girardeau businesses and professionals who are not already members of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce can expect special visitors today.

From this morning until this afternoon, volunteers of the chamber will solicit new chamber members.

"Our goal is 60 new members," drive Chairman Don Hill said.

This year is the chamber's 75th anniversary. Hence, the drive title is "75 Years of Excellence, Join the Celebration."

Hill said the drive will start with a 7:30-a.m. kickoff breakfast at Drury Lodge, Route K and Interstate 55, and continue until 4:30 p.m. Businesses and professionals can expect visits from the volunteers from 8:30 a.m. on, he said.

"We work in pairs. It's a fun day," he said.

Chamber Administrative Assistant Linda Minner said about 75 volunteers will participate.

A surprise speaker at the breakfast will work to provide motivation for drive volunteers, said Hill. The drive also will be wrapped up at Drury Inn.

The drive's sign-up goal this year is lower than usual, Hill said. That's because the chamber already has 1,043 members, he said, and its mid-year membership goal is 1,100.

Past drives have had membership goals of 80 and even 93, Hill said. He said organizers are trying to keep this year's drive from failing to reach its goal.

Hill said many people, including current chamber members, often ask what the chamber does for them.

"My basic answer to them is, `Unless you're involved with the chamber and the community, it doesn't do anything for you.'"

Said Minner: "Membership in the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce means that you will become better informed about what is happening and what will happen in Cape Girardeau that affects your vital business interests."

Seventeen chamber committees exist, Hill said. There's the membership committee, a health committee, and a retail steering committee among them.

"There's a wide variety. It doesn't have to be the guys in the furniture business. There's one for the doctors, the nurses, the teachers. There's a committee for anybody to be involved in," Hill said.

The chamber has about 540 members who don't serve on any chamber committees, he said.

The reason the chamber membership here is so high when compared to other communities, Hill said, is because the chamber keeps its members so involved.

"During the hard economic times, if the business community sticks together like Cape has, they're not as affected as other small communities." The business community, he said, works together to improve Cape Girardeau and make it grow.

Prizes will be given to all drive volunteers, Hill said. The gifts are to thank volunteers for participating.

The top two recruiters will get 13-inch color televisions.