Is anyone out there a member of their local COC? How beneficial have you found it and would you suggest that other VAs join as an opportunity to network?

Thanks!
Lidia (The Rookie)

Hi Lidia, I'm not only because we're not settled where we want to be for long term just yet BUT as soon as we are I'll join...other VAs here who are members, Doreen (VBP) in particular have a lot of great things to say about participating.
I think though, what you get out of it has a lot to do with what you put into it...how much you really get involved, etc.

You're considering joining your local COC I take it? Have you checked to see if they have a 'new member mixer' kind of event so you can check it out?

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Lidia - I joined my local Chamber recently and have only been to one event so far, but my guess is that it's really the best and maybe the only place you can develop a local market for your services. It's all about B2B (business to business), and VAs at least theoretically should find many good clients there.

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

I am not. We have several local chapters and one of them hosts a free monthly business breakfast for minorities (women apparently are a minority in business). I attended that and met someone there who invited me to a local referral group called Leaders Achieving Excellence (LAE), which I did join. The dues are only $5.00/quarter so it fit into my start-up budget.

Also, I have heard from many sources that our Chambers are really clique-ish, so unless you know someone in the "it" club it's not worth attending. Although I do know some people it's just not my scene, so I have yet to join.

I'm sure every location is different as far as that is concerned.

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services

I checked it out here in Kansas City and found the cost prohibitive. Membership is $500 or $525. I do have access the membership directory though because the company I work for in Jobland is a member. I thought I might use the info to market but there isn't much of my niche listed so it might not be the right place for me anyway.

I wish they had a sliding scale or something!

Make it a great day!

Sundi

I haven't joined the chamber, but I did check out local networking groups on meetup.com and joined a few. One is a small business networking group, and one is Women at Home Businesses. They both meet once a month. Just joined this week so I havent' gone to any meetings yet, but I also liked that they both have online message boards at meetup.com...

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Deb Frawley
Gem's Virtual Office

I am similar to Deb in that I have joined several local meetup.com groups and plan on attending my first function this Thursday. The cost for the meeting is $20 and includes a meal. The cost of our local Chamber is definitely not in my budget for now.

One suggestion I was given regarding local Chambers of Commerce is to pick satellite communities. For example, I technically live in Calgary, but am an easy 10-minute drive from Okotoks, which only has a population of around 20,000. The cost of their Chamber is much lower than Calgary's, they have a mid-year join rate and it would save me having to drive downtown, lol. You could also volunteer for your Chamber of Commerce, I noticed mine has lots of volunteer opportunities, as I suspect most of them do.

Hope that helps!

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Kate V. Kerans
Kerans Virtual Assistance

One of the first things I did when I started my business was join the Chamber of Commerce and it's the best thing I did. I rejoined this year. I just got a new client through the Chamber - he called the Chamber and asked for the name of someone like me and they gave him my number.

Thank you for all of the feedback. I live in Georgia and the cost of joiing is quite steep so I really wanted to see if anyone was going to say that joining the COC specifically had been invaluable. The sense that I am getting is that networking itself is the key, not necessarily spending $$$ in COC membership (at least initially).

Thank you also for the tip about meetup.com - I am going to look into that tonight.

Well I just looked into meetup.com and it turns out they have a meeting right in ly local area......TONIGHT! Eek. Well I certainly will be signing up so that I can attend the next one - they look like a terrific group.

Thanks again for the tip!