CHERAW – With banquet tables showcased to the hilt and music filling the air by Jazz player, Carl Sinkler, it was one classy event as ‘The Greater Cheraw Chamber of Commerce’ held its 64th annual banquet last Friday evening at the Community Arts Center. Dinner was catered by Bill’s Bar-B-Que and served by the Cheraw High School SGA students. The naming of the new Chamber officers and directors for the year 2010 was the highlight of the evening followed by door prizes and a live auction. Also recognized were those who are serving and have served in 2009, which includes, Charles Q. Skipper, chairman of the Board, Samuel T. Hancock, first vice-chair, Katherine (Kappie) Griggs, second vice-chair, Dr. Jimmie C. Williamson, immediate past chair, Kevin Light, treasurer and Chamber Staff, Patsy J. Hendley and Cathy D. Smith. Past Directors include, Dr. Ron Bartley, Robert L. Benton, Donna M. Bilby, Joel Dyson, Wendy Wagner, Tonya H. Michael, Gregory T. Sanderson, Patti Rollings and Mindy Taylor. Amanda Caulder, of First Citizens Bank, was awarded Ambassador of the Year Award. First Bank President, John Long served as auctioneer. Cheraw Town Administrator, Jay William (Bill) Taylor was awarded the Citizen of the Year Award. David Stanton welcomed guests and sponsors. Current Chamber President, Patsy Hendley, was also present to welcome guests and helped with the drawing of the door prizes and live auction items. The sponsors who also donated to the auction include, Highland Industries, Carolina Canners, Myrtle Beach Marriott Resort, Furr Grading and Paving, Bennett Motor Company in Cheraw, Shade Tree Custom Framing, Jones Furniture, Pepsi Cola of Bennettsville, Intellistrand, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Calhoun of Cheraw, Interior Design Services, Olde Towne Supply, Palmetto Brick and The Mills House.

The newly elected officers and directors for this year are as follows. Samuel (Sam) T. Hancock, was elected as the new Cheraw Chamber Chairman of the Board, followed with Katherine (Kappie) Griggs as First Vice-Chair. Dr. Ron Bartley of Northeastern Technical College will serve as Second Vice-Chair, Charles Q. Skipper as Immediate Past Chair and Kevin S. Light as Treasurer. The Directors include Samuel D. Bass, Robert L. Benton, Marion Crawford, Wendy Wagner, Angie Smith, Phil Homan, Patti C. Rollings, Mindy Taylor and Joel Dyson.

Listed below is Samuel T. Hancock’s address, which he presented to the Greater Cheraw Chamber of Commerce, guests and sponsors in its entirety during the banquet.

“Thank you Mr. Charles Skipper. Charles, I learned a lot from you this past year as I prepared for this role. A lot was accomplished by this board under your leadership and we are all thankful for your vision and determination during some very troubled times. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank your Chamber Board for their service. Many of you will be returning for another tour of duty and I look forward to watching the membership reap the benefits of continuity and cohesion. And, I want to thank Kappie Griggs for accepting First Chair, said Hancock. He continued with, “Kappie, please stand up. Kappie, you’re going to have a tough job because you will have to fix all the things I’m likely to break. Most of all, I want to thank and welcome ‘You’ the businessperson in our community. You, the entrepreneur, the shop owner, the restaurateur. You, the professional, and the healthcare provider. You, the industrialist and You, the distributor, you the manufacturer. I want to welcome all of you, you practitioners of free-market, (is “capitalism” a four-letter word at a Chamber banquet? If so, we’re doomed).

You are safe here:

It’s been a tough year for business. Your Chamber feels your pain. And, your Chamber seeks to be a positive force in your future success. Please understand that this is your Chamber of Commerce. It is not the board’s Chamber. We’re simply elected by you to represent you. It’s not Patsy’s Chamber. She is hired by you. And it’s not the town’s Chamber. We’re a separate entity, a private organization.

This is your Chamber of Commerce. You own it:

Wouldn’t it be nice if being in business were as simple as it was in days gone by? Remember back when perhaps you had a lemonade stand in your neighborhood at fifty-cents a cup? And you learned that if you squeezed good quality lemons and added enough sugar, and iced it down, and gave a good honest pour, you would have customers coming back time and again eager to pull that fifty-cents out of their pockets and trade it for a cool cup of your lemonade.

You might also have learned that if you tried to skimp on the amount of sugar you put in it, you left, shall we say, a bitter taste in their mouths, and when you only filled the cup half way, the customer saw it as half empty and proceeded around the block to check out Timmy’s lemonade stand.

This is as it should be. This would be Utopia according to Sam. And if business were as simple as this, The Chamber of Commerce would have no purpose to serve.

But soon the Neighborhood Association decides it needs to charge little Suzie a fee for the privilege of operating a business. Later it decides to regulate the trade of lemons and define the portions of the ingredients of her beverage in order for it to be advertised as lemonade. An exorbitant profits tax might eventually have to be levied against little Suzie in order for the association to afford the bailout of Timmy’s failed operation. This is all done in the name of leveling the playing field and economic justice.

This, folks, is where we come in.

The Chamber of Commerce has been a voice of reason for businesses across America for nearly a century. Fighting for free enterprise and understanding that a strong and free business economy is the best weapon in the war on poverty because without businesses, without employers in the private sector, everybody might be equal but they would be equally poor.

Locally, your Chamber offers you a voice, a voice likely shared by other businesses but one that cannot be heard if spoken alone.

We have in the past successfully aided local industries in preventing unions from organizing their plant. And we are in the middle of round 2 in working with the town and other organizations in trying to keep the Postal Service from closing the down town office.

And we are often the first impression one gets when looking in Cheraw for a place to retire to or locate a business.

Our ribbon cuttings and business after hours, our member luncheons and breakfasts, offer you as members opportunities to network, have fun, and keep up to speed with what’s happening in your community.

But is it enough? Are we relevant? I ask this because we exist only to the extent that we are supported by the membership. If the dues were to dry up, we would simply go away. We’re not a government program with a budget that grows even as its relevance is diminished.

Let me ask this way. If the Chamber of Commerce did not exist, would you come together and create an entity to represent you? What would it look like? Would it be worth the effort?

Many of you here know what it’s like to launch a new business. It takes basically all you’ve got just to get it going. Those of you who are involved in starting up the Mercy In Me free medical clinic know what I’m talking about. It’s like trying to roll a big, huge boulder across a cow pasture. It takes everything you’ve got in you just to get thru one rotation. But if you keep it going, the next rotation is a little easier. Soon, with continued effort, the big rock just keeps on rolling and all you have to do is guide it.

Well, folks, we’re rolling. We’ve got a series of business skills seminars scheduled for the spring and fall. We’ve got Leadership Cheraw scheduled to graduate its first class in the spring and start its second class in the fall. We’ve got a line-up of business luncheons, The Taste of Cheraw and other events designed to serve our mission to promote and enhance a favorable business climate and improve our quality of life, Better Business, Better Living. It’s what we’re all about.

So I ask again. Are we worthy of a continued existence? For the past several years, times have been kind of tough around here. Our recession began well before the collapse of the credit markets last year. During this time, your Chamber has been subsidizing its budget with various fundraisers. It seems sometimes that that’s becoming what we’re all about. But again, we don’t exist just to exist. We don’t live just to be alive. We are here to serve our mission of Better Business, Better Living, not to hold golf tournaments in order to keep the doors open.

It’s tough out there, I know. Companies are looking to cut budgets and organizational dues are on the chopping blocks. We have kept our dues structure low over the past few years and when you compare them to the Chamber dues of communities of similar size, you’ll find that we undercut everybody. When you consider that we offer more in service to our membership than many communities much larger than ours, the true value of membership in the Greater Cheraw Chamber of Commerce cannot be overstated.

And so I am charging the Board of Directors with the goal of setting us on the path to liberation from the dependency of fundraisers. To do this, we must become relentless advocates for the business community. We must continue to provide new avenues for growth in leadership and entrepreneurism. We must promote the Greater Cheraw area as a business friendly community and fight to ensure that it remains so.

In closing, I ask that you remember this if nothing else. It’s your Chamber! You make it work...for you.

The Greater Cheraw Chamber of Commerce 2009 Banquet sponsors are, Agape Hospice, AT&T, Chesterfield General Hospital, EdwardJones Investments-Susan W. Malloy, First Bank, Founders Federal Credit Union, Highland Industries, Inc. and Progress Energy.

The Cheraw High School SGA students served the dinner and the Chamber’s Ambassadors (volunteers) also participated.

“We could not do without them. We appreciate each one,” said Hendley.

Focusing on the upcoming holidays and 2010, Hancock said that he is looking forward to serving the community and working with his fellow officers and directors in making Cheraw the best it can be.

For more information on The Greater Cheraw Chamber of Commerce, call Patsy Hendley at 843-537-7681.