Connections is the newsletter of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce. The CCC reserves the right to edit submitted materials and is solely responsible for editorial content. Please address press releases and letters to Lisa S. Cohen.

Publisher: Kelly Thompson Clark
Managing Editor & Ad Contact: Lisa S. Cohen
Published by the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce
859 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 876-4100
www.cambridgechamber.org

Chamber Staff 
Kelly Thompson Clark President & CEO
Lisa S. Cohen Director of Communications
Caryn Saitz Director of Community Relations
Terrence F. Smith Director of Government Affairs
Daisy Bowler Office Manager

Officers of the Board of Directors
Chair William Sage Sage Hotel Corporation
Treasurer Arthur Spears East Cambridge Savings Bank
Clerk Penny Garver, Sovereign | Santander

Members of the Board of Directors
Alex Attia, Charles Hotel
Joseph Barrell, Acorn Realty
Carl F. Barron, CARU Associates
Brian Burke, Microsoft
Dennis Carlone, Carlone & Associates
Sheldon Cohen, Community Mapping
Robyn Culbertson, Cambridge Office for Tourism
John DiGiovanni, Trinity Property Management
Andrea Gabrielle, Neptune Web, Inc. Sarah Gallop, MIT
Kathy Gram, Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company
Kathleen Granchelli, Draper Laboratory
Skip Hartwell, Akamai Technologies
Jeffrey Lockwood, Novartis
Thomas Lucey, Harvard University
Norman McIver, Cambridge Trust Co.
Ellen McLaughlin, Tutoring Plus of Cambridge
Neal Mizner Metropolitan Moving & Storage Corp.
Michael O’Connell Mount Auburn Hospital
Amy Reilly, Biogen Idec
Rachael Solem Harding House at Harvard
Ann Stanesa, Genzyme Corporation William Zamparelli, NSTAR
James C. Hawkins, Director Emeritus

President's Viewpoint
"Membership has its privileges.” We have all heard this familiar credit card slogan. It’s true, though. Whether you belong to a special association, sports or country club, your membership affords you specific rights and privileges. Your Chamber membership is no different.

Whether you are a one-person office, an entrepreneur or the largest company in the area, as a CCC member, you enjoy opportunities a non-member does not get to take advantage of, such as:
1) Exposure opportunities through some of the areas largest networking events, sponsorship and cost-effective advertising.
2) Discounted or FREE admittance to Chamber events.
3)Two FREE listings on the CCC Web site www.cambridgechamber.org.
4) Two FREE listings in the CCC Membership Directory (circ. 5000).
5) Access to Cambridge information
& advertising opportunities through the CCC newsletter, Connections.
6) FREE advertising for renewing.
7)Access to group purchasing of insurance and cost-effective, discounted business services.
8) Up-to-date information on the happenings and decisions being made by lawmakers that affect your business and the community.
9) The opportunity to utilize all the resources of the second-largest chamber in the Commonwealth and one of the largest non-regional chambers in New England.

I could go on but I am confident you get the picture. For those of you that have been long-time members or consistently active, you understand these examples because you experience the return on your chamber investment. We thank you for staying connected.

For those who are new members or getting reacquainted with your chamber, let me say that, as with most things in life, you only get out of it what you put in. As a business person you know that doing business is about fostering relationships, new and old. That definitely carries over into your “Chamber life.”

If you expect to come to one CCC event and immediately meet your yearly budget in sales or monthly bonus, you might want to adjust your expectations. Forming relationships takes time.

I am confident, however, that your involvement will immediately yield many prospective customers, provide you with access to many of your current clients and give you some beneficial ideas on how to grow your business. The end result being, in time, and through the channels and relationships you have built, you’ll experience more business, more referrals and will have developed a personal network that is hard to beat... 

What a terrific opportunity you have. Utilize your investment. Get the most out of your chamber of commerce. Take advantage of us!

Best in business,
Kelly Thompson Clark