It sounds like a publicity stunt, but it's for real: The Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce is closing its Monticello office and moving all of the Chamber's operations into a 37-foot 2002 Coachmen RV.
Chamber president Terri Ward and vice president Cathy Paty announced yesterday that they'll be flying down to South Carolina today to pick up the Chamber's new digs. They'll be driving it back to Sullivan County over the next few days, taking YouTube videos and posting updates to the Chamber's Facebook page along the way.
Ward believes it's the first time a chamber of commerce has gone all-mobile by choice, though emergency situations have forced Chambers to take to the road. Instead of keeping a central office in the county seat, they'll be traveling the county full-time, and posting their touring schedule on the county website.
In order to stay in touch with members via phone and internet, though, the RV will have to park in spots that get wireless internet service. (This could mean that Sullivan County's most rural towns won't see them too often.)
The Chamber announced the news at a press conference yesterday, but the Sullivan County Democrat scooped them with a long feature about the new mobile chamber in their Tuesday issue. Dan Hust writes:
In an interview last week, Ward joked that the Chamber has moved five times in the past seven years, “so we might as well be moving all the time!”
It was a laugh she had shared with coworker Cathy Paty earlier this year during an otherwise serious discussion about the unsustainable overhead costs from a bricks-and-mortar office.
Despite being situated on Broadway in the middle of the county seat, Ward said the Chamber just isn’t attracting enough walk-in business to justify expenses.
“We can’t be here anymore,” she related. “We’re losing money.”
The Times Herald-Record reports that the Chamber is shedding personnel as well as office space:
She said switching to the RV will save some $30,000 annually — about 20 percent of the organization's expenses — and enable it to reach areas in western and central Sullivan. The chamber can eliminate one position, a person responsible for driving around the county. The chamber is liquidating all of its equipment and offering it for sale to members.
In their press release, the Chamber announced that they're on the lookout for potential parking spots:
The Chamber will be traveling around the county, stopping in each township for a minimum of two weeks at a time to service that area. In order to make sure that the locations are most effective for each community, please contact the Chamber with suggestions for businesses and/or municipalities that might be able to provide a space large enough to accommodate the RV for a two-week stay. Please contact the Chamber and, if possible, additionally share details about whether the location can provide an outlet for electric back-up for the RV, access to wireless internet, and a bathroom to cut down on waste disposal costs.
