WORCESTER COUNTY– As business owners struggle to keep up with the sizeable fees and responsibilities required by membership at the three main chambers of commerce in the county, early plans could be coming together to merge one or more chamber.
Dozens of business owners in Worcester County pay membership fees to chambers in Ocean City, Ocean Pines and Berlin. With at least one local chamber struggling, the idea of consolidation – mulled over several times in the past – has resurfaced in recent months.
“I think it makes a lot of sense,” said Steven Taylor, executive director of Worcester Youth and Family, owner of Ayers Creek Adventures and a board member at the Berlin Chamber of Commerce. “I think that reducing the administrative costs of having multiple burdens and having a larger entity makes a lot of economic sense.
“The other thing is as a business owner you’re asked to volunteer,” Taylor continued. “I don’t mind volunteering – I enjoy volunteering – but to do it for multiple organizations is quite a time commitment. The big ones are Berlin, Ocean Pines, Ocean City, and I think we’re all paying for the administrative functions of each. Not every business is a member of all, but I think having a larger, more powerful organization is better than having a bunch of little ones.”
Worcester Youth and Family and Ayers Creek Adventures are both members of all three chambers. Taylor confirmed the Berlin Chamber has talked about the possibility of merging during recent months.
“It’s just never materialized for various reasons,” he said. “I am a committee member on the Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce, and we’ve talked about it there as well. Everybody seems to agree that it makes economic sense, but just making it happen seems to be a struggle.”
Taylor said he has also spoken to the Ocean City Chamber.
“Everyone buys into the idea that it’s less efficient economically to have multiple chambers, and maybe even problematic,” he said. “I think part of the rub is that each area – Berlin for instance – wants to have a presence. I think that’s understandable, and I think that can be achieved by having committees that focus on particular regions, so making a committee for Berlin, a committee for Ocean Pines, a committee for the downtown association and so on.”
Although all three chambers have at least mulled the idea, Taylor admitted there is still plenty of work to do.
“I think these conversations are just beginning,” he said. “People are recognizing that it’s a struggle to maintain one chamber over another. If you look over the decades there is a time when the Berlin Chamber is strong, and then it changes and the Ocean Pines Chamber is strong.”
Bill Outten, vice president of Town Center Antiques and owner of Uptown Antiques in Berlin, confirmed a possible merger has been in the works for several years.
“Probably since I was president (of the Berlin Chamber) we were working with Ocean Pines and us,” he said. “I don’t know if all three together would work, but I definitely think that two together – Berlin and Ocean Pines – would be good. Ocean City is in a world of its own and they pretty much watch out for themselves. I don’t know if we all joined together the benefits would behoove us to do something like that, but two together would definitely be a stronger voice.”
Outten, once a member of all three chambers, is currently only a member of the Berlin Chamber.
“I do think it’s the right time,” he said. “(The Berlin Chamber) been weakened very much in the last few years due to a lot of things. We are extremely based on volunteerism, and it’s very hard to get volunteers. At one time it was a lot easier to find people to help out at events, but it’s the same core people at all the events that are doing the work and that’s just how it is. Ocean City has volunteers, but they have all different parts or aspects to their chamber because they have a lot more money into it, so it’s stronger in a lot of respects.”
In Berlin, suggested Outten, business owners are reluctant to volunteer during the summer when the majority of their sales take place.
“We’re stressed – we’re doing everything we can to make the dollar,” he said. “In the wintertime it’s like, ‘well, what do we do now?’ We have a lot more time to look at things. It’s a lot harder to pick up pieces and do things in the summertime when a lot more people are around. You think you might be able to get to it, but it’s 15, 16, 17 hours a day for most businesses, especially retail in the summer months.”
The Ocean Pines Chamber declined to comment on the record.
Melanie Pursel, Executive Director of the Ocean City Chamber, suggested Berlin’s current search for a director could have sparked the renewed interest in combining organizations.
“I think (there were discussion) the last time that Berlin had their director move on, and I think the same thing is happening this time around,” she said. “I think before any decisions are made you have to really look at the feasibility – you have to get the directors together and look at all the services that each chamber provides and see if there’s overlap in membership. Before anything like that could ever really occur you’d really have to get the leadership in the room together to look and see if it made sense.”
With more than 800 members, Ocean City boasts a fully staffed visitor’s center, a staffed publication and what Pursel described as “a substantial” budget.
“We’re very fiscally sound,” she said. “Before any kind of strategic partnership you would want to look at the books, if you will, of every other chamber. That’s a lot of groundwork that would need to be done behind the scenes before anything like that could happen.
“From a practical standpoint I think there’s potential there for sure,” Pursel continued. “If you have members who are paying multiple dues to multiple chambers and you can join forces and provide the same if not better benefits, then I think it’s definitely worth taking a look.”
Pursel said there is a precedent in the state for merging chambers.
“I did a little bit of research and talked to the Maryland Chamber and it’s been attempted before,” she said. “If you look at Montgomery County I think there’s like 40 or 50 chambers.”
Locally, the Ocean City Chamber worked together with the Town of Ocean City to produce an annual vacation guide.
“We used to do separate vacation guides and we had a lot of the same advertisers, provided the same information and we mailed it to essentially the same people and had it in very similar centers – it was a complete duplication of efforts and resources,” Pursel said.
In order to be included in both publications, businesses essentially had to pay double for the almost mirror-image publications.
“We initiated a discussion with the town,” Pursel said. “It took time because nobody wants to give up their part of it, but we were able to come up with a really great agreement. The Chamber produces a really great guide now with input from the town and we both have our websites on the cover showing our partnership. It’s been extremely successful; people said that could never happen and it happened.
“My theory at the end of the day is what is best for the businesses?” Pursel continued. “I think if you take the particular organizations and you look at how can we best serve our community’s business, that’s where this discussion needs to go. I think it’s worth investigating and looking at.”
Dozens of business owners in Worcester County pay membership fees to chambers in Ocean City, Ocean Pines and Berlin. With at least one local chamber struggling, the idea of consolidation – mulled over several times in the past – has resurfaced in recent months.
“I think it makes a lot of sense,” said Steven Taylor, executive director of Worcester Youth and Family, owner of Ayers Creek Adventures and a board member at the Berlin Chamber of Commerce. “I think that reducing the administrative costs of having multiple burdens and having a larger entity makes a lot of economic sense.
“The other thing is as a business owner you’re asked to volunteer,” Taylor continued. “I don’t mind volunteering – I enjoy volunteering – but to do it for multiple organizations is quite a time commitment. The big ones are Berlin, Ocean Pines, Ocean City, and I think we’re all paying for the administrative functions of each. Not every business is a member of all, but I think having a larger, more powerful organization is better than having a bunch of little ones.”
Worcester Youth and Family and Ayers Creek Adventures are both members of all three chambers. Taylor confirmed the Berlin Chamber has talked about the possibility of merging during recent months.
“It’s just never materialized for various reasons,” he said. “I am a committee member on the Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce, and we’ve talked about it there as well. Everybody seems to agree that it makes economic sense, but just making it happen seems to be a struggle.”
Taylor said he has also spoken to the Ocean City Chamber.
“Everyone buys into the idea that it’s less efficient economically to have multiple chambers, and maybe even problematic,” he said. “I think part of the rub is that each area – Berlin for instance – wants to have a presence. I think that’s understandable, and I think that can be achieved by having committees that focus on particular regions, so making a committee for Berlin, a committee for Ocean Pines, a committee for the downtown association and so on.”
Although all three chambers have at least mulled the idea, Taylor admitted there is still plenty of work to do.
“I think these conversations are just beginning,” he said. “People are recognizing that it’s a struggle to maintain one chamber over another. If you look over the decades there is a time when the Berlin Chamber is strong, and then it changes and the Ocean Pines Chamber is strong.”
Bill Outten, vice president of Town Center Antiques and owner of Uptown Antiques in Berlin, confirmed a possible merger has been in the works for several years.
“Probably since I was president (of the Berlin Chamber) we were working with Ocean Pines and us,” he said. “I don’t know if all three together would work, but I definitely think that two together – Berlin and Ocean Pines – would be good. Ocean City is in a world of its own and they pretty much watch out for themselves. I don’t know if we all joined together the benefits would behoove us to do something like that, but two together would definitely be a stronger voice.”
Outten, once a member of all three chambers, is currently only a member of the Berlin Chamber.
“I do think it’s the right time,” he said. “(The Berlin Chamber) been weakened very much in the last few years due to a lot of things. We are extremely based on volunteerism, and it’s very hard to get volunteers. At one time it was a lot easier to find people to help out at events, but it’s the same core people at all the events that are doing the work and that’s just how it is. Ocean City has volunteers, but they have all different parts or aspects to their chamber because they have a lot more money into it, so it’s stronger in a lot of respects.”
In Berlin, suggested Outten, business owners are reluctant to volunteer during the summer when the majority of their sales take place.
“We’re stressed – we’re doing everything we can to make the dollar,” he said. “In the wintertime it’s like, ‘well, what do we do now?’ We have a lot more time to look at things. It’s a lot harder to pick up pieces and do things in the summertime when a lot more people are around. You think you might be able to get to it, but it’s 15, 16, 17 hours a day for most businesses, especially retail in the summer months.”
The Ocean Pines Chamber declined to comment on the record.
Melanie Pursel, Executive Director of the Ocean City Chamber, suggested Berlin’s current search for a director could have sparked the renewed interest in combining organizations.
“I think (there were discussion) the last time that Berlin had their director move on, and I think the same thing is happening this time around,” she said. “I think before any decisions are made you have to really look at the feasibility – you have to get the directors together and look at all the services that each chamber provides and see if there’s overlap in membership. Before anything like that could ever really occur you’d really have to get the leadership in the room together to look and see if it made sense.”
With more than 800 members, Ocean City boasts a fully staffed visitor’s center, a staffed publication and what Pursel described as “a substantial” budget.
“We’re very fiscally sound,” she said. “Before any kind of strategic partnership you would want to look at the books, if you will, of every other chamber. That’s a lot of groundwork that would need to be done behind the scenes before anything like that could happen.
“From a practical standpoint I think there’s potential there for sure,” Pursel continued. “If you have members who are paying multiple dues to multiple chambers and you can join forces and provide the same if not better benefits, then I think it’s definitely worth taking a look.”
Pursel said there is a precedent in the state for merging chambers.
“I did a little bit of research and talked to the Maryland Chamber and it’s been attempted before,” she said. “If you look at Montgomery County I think there’s like 40 or 50 chambers.”
Locally, the Ocean City Chamber worked together with the Town of Ocean City to produce an annual vacation guide.
“We used to do separate vacation guides and we had a lot of the same advertisers, provided the same information and we mailed it to essentially the same people and had it in very similar centers – it was a complete duplication of efforts and resources,” Pursel said.
In order to be included in both publications, businesses essentially had to pay double for the almost mirror-image publications.
“We initiated a discussion with the town,” Pursel said. “It took time because nobody wants to give up their part of it, but we were able to come up with a really great agreement. The Chamber produces a really great guide now with input from the town and we both have our websites on the cover showing our partnership. It’s been extremely successful; people said that could never happen and it happened.
“My theory at the end of the day is what is best for the businesses?” Pursel continued. “I think if you take the particular organizations and you look at how can we best serve our community’s business, that’s where this discussion needs to go. I think it’s worth investigating and looking at.”