Every January comes that time again - BUDGET! This is the best time, in Fremont Chamber circles, to be missing in action. The most powerful committee in the FCC? Nominations. (The best way to get revenge for any slights committed? Nominate the offender as a Chamber officer!) The least powerful? Read on.

Beginning each year (or whenever anyone can be forced to consider it) some stalwart and hearty souls gather to hammer out the Chamber budget. Armed with a copy from the previous year, and an assortment of vague calculations, predictions and hopes, they write a document that, in the final analysis, might approximate reality and some realistic goals.

The Fremont Chamber doesn't make a profit. I'm not saying we try not to make a profit. I'm not saying that we can´t make a profit. I'm saying we don't.

Historical Hysteria

The Fremont Chamber of Commerce opened their first bank account on June 15th, 1982 at Rainier Bank, Stone Way Branch, with a grand deposit of $120. A particularly impressive amount when you consider that membership dues charged $10 per person or business.

Run by volunteers, the records - past budgets, lists of award winners and occasional copies of our world-renown newsletter, The Bridge - have holes and gaps. The first budget I found from digging through dusty archives came from 1990.

Presented by Jim Daly, Delores Neumiller and Suzi Groves (sic), it divided the sum of $7,400. In 1990, $35 and a pulse (not required) got you membership in our prestigious organization. Income from memberships constituted 54% of the budget that year. Fundraisers - consisting of an annual auction/dinner in December and the "Irregular Fremont Neighborhood Tour" - garnered only $1,000 of the total income. Our monthly meetings made a profit of $500.

The Chamber runs into trouble with its expenses - proving we have the same human frailties as any organization. The expenses have, for the majority of our history, been fixed. The newsletter, begun in March of 1983, remains a standard and staple (or stapled) fixture. Licenses, a P.O. Box, insurance and fees cannot be avoided or ignored - although they never counted for much back in the early years. Meeting expenses came second in cost, in 1990, to the newsletter with advertising running third.

An Added Expense

In 1993, the Fremont Chamber voted to hire an Executive Secretary. Intended as a part-time, hourly "paid volunteer" position, this quickly became the greatest expense of the Chamber - and a drain on the treasury. A secretary requires paper (to write letters), ink (ditto) and the occasional file folder (to store said letters). A fax machine, computer and office rent eventually added to the list of necessary expenses. Technology added to the efficiency and effectiveness of the Chamber - but also cost us.

In 2003, the Fremont Chamber divided $38,050 among budget items. This budget shows the advance of time. Membership dues (done on a sliding scale based on number of employees and starting at $50) averaged out to 200 members at $50 each. Meeting income went up since 1990, by a whole $350, and the committee expected to lose money on them over the year. Advertisements run in The Bridge brought in money, but only 5% of the cost to print and post it. Fundraising, in the form of The Fremont Oktoberfest, brought solvency to our organization - and constitutes the lion's share (66%) of our income.

Expenses have, by 2003, become larger, lengthier and no less fixed. The Bridge no longer costs the most - needing only 17% of our income. Now the Executive Director heads the list of expenses. After those two, rent, public relations and meeting costs sucked up some of our hard earned income. Then came signs of the times - telephone, web site maintenance and hosting, and consultants for taxes and legal issues.

What Is Important

Fremont Chamber members have run some amazingly successful businesses. They grow their companies, expand them and show a profit. The irony - that our Chamber cannot make a profit - appears comic. Until you consider why we do this - to improve our neighborhood and see it flourish.

Budgets are rarely exciting or popular. However, with planning this organization has managed to over come obstacles and achieve some amazingly impressive goals. Those achievements, and the potential for more growth, expansion and assistance available to those who need help in our area, keep us all going. And, hopefully, will bring those hearty and stalwart souls back to the table again this year to hammer out yet another budget - to see us through yet another year of work.

February 2005