Why the Chamber of Commerce? First, let’s answer the million dollar question “What does the Chamber of Commerce do.” Some say: “If you’ve seen one Chamber you’ve seen just one Chamber.” This means that every Chamber in every town is unique. Let’s focus on our Vacaville Chamber.
The Vacaville Chamber of Commerce was incorporated in the mid 1900’s soon after the city’s incorporation in 1892. In theory, a Chamber is a network of businesses and individuals that believe a good business climate means a healthy economy. Today we are seeing an atrocious business climate, hence an even worse economy. However, as everyone knows, we will come out of this downturn and hopefully be better off by learning from the mistakes that got us here.
What best can be summed up as to what the Vacaville Chamber does is turn to our core values:
- Create a Strong Local Economy
- Provide Networking Opportunity
- Promote the Community
- Political Actions and Represent Business to Government
Let's take the above values and dissect each to the relevance of business:
We Create a Strong Local Economy by encouraging shopping local and shopping Chamber members. We strive to give referrals to all of our members for their goods and services to anyone that calls our office.
We provide Networking Opportunities by hosting monthly Mixers and Wake-Up Vacaville’s, Business Expo, seminars, major fundraising events, and Ribbon Cuttings/Grand openings that generate over 4000 attendees annually.
The Vacaville Chamber Promotes the Community by supporting a plethora of local non-profits by not only sponsoring their events financially but serving on a variety of Boards. To name a few: Vacaville Neighborhood Boy’s and Girls Club, Vacaville Police Activities League, Vacaville Museum, Opportunity House, Vacaville Public Education Foundation, both Vacaville Rotary Clubs, and Solano County Farm Bureau. We participate in Vacaville Unified School District GOTCHA and Will C. Wood’s WildCat Night programs.
Political Action and Representing Business to Government - this can be a double edged sword. Politics-the sheer thought of it makes people cringe and in many cases, rightfully so. However, the Chamber feels that in order to have a healthy business climate you must have the right balance of elected officials that feel that business is the driving force to all other things. Without business, you can not have government - the equation just does not work. With that in mind, it’s the Chamber’s role to be at the forefront supporting business legislation whether through pro-business propositions, bills, or local measures. It’s also our role to represent our members and the business community at such events as local city council meetings or traveling to the state Capitol to voice our support for business.
Now that everyone has a better understanding of the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce—let’s ask the question; why Vacaville? Why would you want to move your business to Vacaville? Why relocate your Family? Why attend the local schools? All are fantastic questions that any prospective business owner would ask. The answer lies in the statistics. Vacaville has a history of supporting business by easing government bureaucracy in the planning process, incentive programs from the Economic Development Department and many more. Crime in Vacaville continues to be one of the top concerns of the all of the City officials and managers. We as citizens are the ultimate beneficiary of this priority. Finally schools and housing are fantastic in both selection and affordability.
The Vacaville Chamber’s Mission is to “Continually improve the economic prosperity of the business community by providing leadership, education and resources.”
We are our member’s resource for growth and the community’s one-stop informational hub. Call the Chamber and see what we can do for you (707)448.6424.