The Apollo Beach business group defends its doubled dues as necessary to solidify its future.
By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published July 15, 2005
APOLLO BEACH - The Apollo Beach Chamber of Commerce entered 2005 with a sense of promise. Members in October had rejected a proposed merger with Ruskin and Riverview chambers. The shopping center where they meet was getting an upgrade. And Apollo Beach, like most of Southern Hillsborough, was growing faster than a fairy tale beanstalk.
But when the chamber raised its rates in January - including a 100 percent increase for its smallest members - not all shared the vision.
Businesses with up to 10 employees saw their 2005 dues jump from $100 to $200. The move meant that 80 percent of chamber members saw their rates double, effective Jan. 1 . Rates for businesses with more than 10 employees also increased, topping out at $500 a year for the largest companies.
John Whitman Sr., owner of Video Express on Apollo Beach Boulevard, says the dues increase has him re-evaluating his chamber membership.
"It has certainly raised some flags, in my opinion," said Whitman, 68. "I just can't bring myself in any way to justify doubling the rate."
Apollo Beach chamber president Ray Weedon says the increase voted in by the board is needed if the chamber is to stay afloat financially and better serve its 262 members.
"This gives us a degree of solvency where we can begin to move ahead," Weedon said. Goals for spending include hiring speakers for meetings, upgrading its headquarters and creating a slick Web site (apollobeachchamber.com), which was launched this month.
Plus, the chamber might soon be forced to move from the office at 6432 U.S. 41 N. Paradise Development Group, the owner of the plaza, is allowing the chamber to stay in the shopping center at a discounted rent until another tenant emerges, Weedon said.
Over the past five years, most of the money raised from dues has gone into overhead, Weedon said, not emphasizing service to members. By raising rates, the chamber can invest in guest speakers and in a new or remodeled headquarters; plus, it hopes to attract county commissioners and other notables to its meetings.
The membership fee increase makes the Apollo Beach chamber more expensive than Seffner or Ruskin, both smaller organizations, and less expensive than Brandon, which has six times the members of the Apollo Beach chamber.
Apollo Beach will soon be neck-and-neck with Greater Riverview when that chamber increases most of its rates on Oct. 1. Riverview studied other chambers and decided to add value to member packages with a new networking group, a resurrected business luncheon and other amenities, executive director Connie Lesko said.
But Riverview will leave its small business rate for those with one to five employees unchanged - at $125 - for now.
"That is the greatest percentage of our membership," Lesko said of small businesses. "We want to make sure we do everything for them before we have our hand out."
The Apollo Beach chamber board saw the increase as their best chance to create a financial cushion and improve services to members. Members weighed another proposal last year as a way of accomplishing those goals.
In October, a divided Apollo Beach chamber voted down a proposal to merge with Ruskin and Riverview chambers, with the majority saying they wanted an identity separate from the rest of the South Shore.
The South Shore Chamber of Commerce, as envisioned, was billed by proponents as a way to pool money and clout, and to hire high-powered directors. A majority of members in the other two chambers voted for the merger. But 55 percent of Apollo Beach members rejected the idea, killing the deal.
Handyman Doug Branch, namesake of Dougie Duzzit, was part of the majority. "I don't want to be called South Shore," Branch said. "I either wanted to be Apollo Beach or I was going to pull myself out of the chamber."
Membership rates are not an issue, Branch said, "They could double the rates again as far as I'm concerned." Branch, 43, values the contacts and the camaraderie he has found at the chamber, and said he plans to join other members in October on a Caribbean cruise organized by the chamber.
Jody Lamb, 39, who is married to Branch, said that memories of the vote still linger.
"It has clearly divided the chamber," she said. "There are those of us who feel that we should stay by ourselves, and the rest are not real happy with us."
Sylvia Dalton, owner of Housecall Home Healthcare, remembers the pitch for South Shore, which she supported in part because it would consolidate membership in one chamber. Now she pays $650 to belong to the Ruskin, Riverview and Apollo Beach chambers, but says she rarely has time for networking meetings.
"For what they have to offer, I think it's extremely high," Dalton said of the new Apollo Beach rate of $300 for her business with 13 full-time employees. "I think they are pricing themselves out of the market."
For their dues, members are listed in the chamber's directory and on its Web site, they can attend networking gatherings three times a month, have access to seminars and can advertise in chamber publications. Then there is the advice members such as David Thompson, owner of the hair salon Altered Image, finds valuable.
Thompson said that whenever he needed advertising advice, all he had to do was pick up the phone and call a chamber member. "They helped me incredibly," Thompson said.
Deborah Tauro, a co-owner of There's No Place Like Home Pet Sitting, joined the chamber with her husband, Albert, late in 2004, but is keeping an eye on the rates.
"We plan on re-upping," Tauro said, despite paying $200 for 2005 instead of $100. "But it if doubles again we're going to have to rethink that."
Weedon said the increase is locked in and will not go down again, no matter how many members object.
"It's better than getting a special assessment letter in the middle of the year if even one of our fundraising efforts failed," he said.
Westshore Pizza owner Merle Shrader said he sympathizes with the chamber's need to raise rates. It's not too much to ask members to help a chamber that helps members network and sponsors the annual Manatee Arts Festival.
Joan Miller, one of four employees of Dove Carpets & Interiors and mother to owner Rick Razick, said that the family business never considered opting out.
"You have to belong to the chamber," she said. "It's one of those evil necessities."
Whitman, owner of the video store, is taking a wait-and-see attitude.
"We're just taking a hard look at it," said Whitman, 68. "We're talking about what we're going to do."
