Asheboro/Randolph County Chamber Boosts Business in County
asheboro/randolph chamber of commerce, business, chamber,
With a revamped Web site and other new services, the Asheboro/Randolph Chamber of Commerce is taking care of business for its members.
“The new Web site www.chamber.asheboro.com went live in September 2008,” says Administrative Assistant Amy Rudisill. “We changed the layout, freshened it up – it’s more user-friendly and has more pictures.”
“We added a members-only section,” Rudisill continues. “Members are able to go onto the Web site, log in with their user name and password, and they can add a description, upload a logo – they really have control over that part of the site. They can add information about their business.”
Members also can now renew their chamber membership online. The new changes have proved popular with the organization’s 650-plus members.
“One of the main reasons we continue to make changes to our Web site and promote it is because it’s a benefit for businesses that are chamber members,” she says. “All these services are free as a part of their membership.”
Other important ongoing chamber programs include the Student Leadership Information for Tomorrow, or L.I.F.T., for high school sophomores and juniors, teacher recruitment, the Randolph Professionals Network, Leadership Randolph, and Get a L.I.F.E., which attempts to reduce the school dropout rate and promote careers.
The chamber board, executive committee and community leaders took part in an annual planning retreat in 2008, Rudisill says. The retreat was valuable and helped to hone the organization’s priorities for 2009, including member retention.
“These economic times have caused a lot of businesses to shut down,” Rudisill says. “We want to encourage our citizens to support or shop Randolph County. We really want people to support our local economy. As a chamber, we want to help businesses here and hopefully they can remain strong and get through the hard economic times.
“In the past, we have been a large-industry county and still are to an extent. There is a transition of moving away from heavy industry jobs to more of a tourism community,” Rudisill says. “We have the North Carolina Zoo here and many other attractions, but it’s never really been marketed as such.”
She says the chamber wants to work on that with the Randolph County Tourism Development Authority and the Randolph County Economic Development Corp.
“If we’re going to grow as a county in some of those areas, we’re going to have to work together and really help promote Asheboro and Randolph County as a tourist destination.”
Story by Anne Gillem
