Chairman's Corner
A few words from the Chairman of the Board, Ray Bargull
It PAYS to be a Tucson Chamber member!
The Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce offers proactive business advocacy and representation at our national, state, and local government. This aggressive and continuous effort helps all businesses in our community as we strive to mitigate and/or eliminate cumbersome and unnecessary regulations while holding the line on new taxes and fees. For many Chamber members, that vigilance is sufficient reason to belong to this great organization. For others, the many networking and community events offered make their memberships worthwhile.
But it’s important to remember that in addition to advocacy and networking, the Chamber offers real, tangible dollar savings to its members in the form of “Bottom Line Benefits”. Currently fifteen businesses offer substantial savings to our members. Those savings include car rental (Enterprise Rent-a-car), legal services (Pre-Paid Legal), Health insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield and Humana), fleet Insurance (the Schneider Group), long term care (New York Life), personal line insurance(Cambridge Insurance), 401k assistance (Cambridge Investments), driving safety classes (NTSI), discount rates on dental, vision, and chiropractic care (Dental Care Advantage), prescription discounts (the Smart Saver Rx Card), urgent care (NextCare), procurement assistance (BidSource), office supplies (Office Depot) and workers compensation (SCF of Arizona).
To illustrate the level of those savings: our members cumulatively saved $220,000 on office supplies in 2009, realizing an average discount of 45% on the purchases made at Office Depot using the Chamber’s plan. Additionally, those members who have their workers compensation with SCF and are part of the Chamber’s Safety Association Plan received not only the normal dividend of $113, 531, but a “bonus dividend” of $198,251 and a 10% discount on premiums amounting to $896,787 in 2009. All together, our members who participated in the Chamber’s Safety Association Plan saved an extra $1,095,038 last year (almost 10 times more than the regular dividend alone).
The SCF dividends paid to members were based on each business’ individual safety record and the amount paid varied accordingly. To give business the best possible opportunity to achieve a good safety record and the best possible dividends, the Chamber offers regular safety meetings and safety seminars that address the most common and costly on-the-job accidents and injuries and how to best avoid them.
Besides the money saving “Bottom Line Benefit” programs, a recent offering named “the Chamber Discount Club” provides member-to-member “clip & save” coupons that are published in the Chamber News monthly. If a member were to use all of the coupons offered in March, the total savings would exceed $10,000.
On April 8th, the Chamber will offer a Business Summit that will provide presentations from a number of organizations on important topics. More information on this summit is available in the Newsletter and on the website, however, it is relevant to point to the “Low cost, no-cost” advertising seminar (that will be a part of that event) as yet another offering from the Chamber to add to our members’ bottom lines by economizing on marketing dollars.
The Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce offers its members a myriad of ways to save money while growing their businesses. It pays to be a Chamber member!
Learn more about all of these exciting and bottom line-enhancing programs on the Chamber’s website. If you have questions about the “Bottom Line Benefits” or the Chamber Discount Club, call Cindy Brown, 792-2250, ext. 154, or email her at cbrown@ tucsonchamber.org.
