Harper TX Chamber of Commerce

I have added a new page titled “Churches” and listed all of the churches that I am aware of on there.

If any of the churches has a web site, please send me that link and I will add it.

I just got through updating our member directory and rearranging some of the advertisments so that it looks better.

You can print it out at any time by going to the “Member Directory” page and selecting the 2008 member directory.

As always, we welcome any suggestions/comments on how to improve the services that the Chamber offers.

Just wanted to say thank you to Jim Guyton of Texas-Built for joining and helping to support the Harper Chamber of Commerce.

You can find out more information on Texas-Built by looking at our member directory and a link to his web site on our “Support Our Members” page.

If you’re needing a storage building, a garage or wanting to add on to your existing buildings, you need to give Jim a call at (830) 864-5152

I believe that the three most important things that a Chamber of Commerce can do are:

• Support our existing member businesses
• Attract new businesses to our town
• Promote these businesses to people that are enquiring about our town

I believe that we are doing a pretty good job in promoting these businesses to people that are enquiring about our town over the internet, but by not having a office that is open to the public, I feel that we are falling down in respect to our local presence as there are many who may not see our web site or even have access to the internet.

I have been trying to find a place for us to use as an office using my own personal resources which are very limited at the current time and I have had no luck.

But I am not one to give up, so I am thinking about setting up the Chamber Office at my own house so that people will have a place to pick up member directories and other such information.

I believe that an organization such as the Chamber is a organization where members help members and so I wanted to run this by you to see what you think ?

I believe that Harper needs what it had in the past when I was a young kid and that is a plan put together by a cross section of residents and businesses working together to plan for our future and that when this plan is finalized that we need a office such as the Chamber where our friends and neighbors can come discuss the pro’s and con’s of this plan.

If you too feel this way, please let me know by coming by and visiting me at 171 Palmer Avenue, by calling me at 864-4726, by faxing me at 864-4799 or emailing me at vbiersch@ktc.com and I will work with you to get your thoughts in front of the right people.

I also believe that we need what we used to call a “Champion” when I was working at the large corporations. This champion was somebody that understood the big picture and worked with everybody to promote this big picture. I have done it in the past and I could do it now, but I do not have the resources to do so.

If you know somebody that does have the resources and a good rapport with the members of our community, let them know that we need them to be this “Champion”

I have added a new page titled “Map of our members”

You will find it under pages.

Click on that and then click on the link that is there and it will automatically pull up the map

using the scroll wheel on your mouse you can zoom in and zoom out.

if you hold down the left mouse button, you can drag the map to view different areas.

This is only a prototype, but I believe that you can see how easily we can make it for new clients to find your business.

Please help to support the Chamber of Commerce so that we can add additional capabilities to help promote your business.

Last year I had a map feature that worked pretty good and showed where all of our member businesses were located at for anybody to view.

When we changed to the new system, I lost that ability and I’m in the process of adding it to this new system so that we can once again show where all of our members businesses are located at with links to our members website (if they have one)

Now adays most people have a GPS either in their car, or possibly know of someone that uses one for hunting or other outdoor sports.

If you would like to have your business added to this map, please send me the GPS coordinates for your business and your web sites address (if you have a web site) and I will add your business to this map.

Its good to see those abandoned old buildings in the center of town coming down.

Hopefully that means that the new post office we need to handle the additional people will be getting built soon.

Who knows ?

Perhaps the old post office will be available for lease sometime next year for a new business to move into.

I added a link to the Junction Chamber of Commerce under the “Links” section

We wanted to thank the Harper Fix-It Shop for joining the Chamber of Commerce.

You can find more information about their business by reading the attached flyer by clicking on the link below

harper_fix_it_deposit

I’m not sure if many people realize how many people look at our Chamber of Commerce Web site so I’m going to attempt to show you.

This picture is a monthly view of the number of viewers looking at our web site.

The bar on the left is August 2008, and each bar to the right would be an additional month as in jul, jun, etc.

Since the totals didnt show up when I saved the picture, I will also show the totals in a different format for you to look at.

These people that are looking at our web site are actively looking for your business or organization. If you are not a member of the Chamber, then there is a chance that they might not find your business or organization.

Please consider joining the Chamber of Commerce to help promote your business and the town of Harper as well.

Most active month June 2008 : 21,642 pages sent. 30,693 requests handled.

Monthly average: 5,792 pages sent. 11,233 requests handled.