Countywide chamber in place by April? (From Andover Advertiser)

Countywide chamber in place by April?

9:02am Friday 5th February 2010

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A NEW Hampshire Chamber of Commerce fit for the 21 st century could be formed by April.

Members of North Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NHCCI) are set to vote on joining forces with Portsmouth & South East Hampshire (PSEHCCI) and Southampton & Fareham (SFCCI) chambers to form Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

NHCCI will be holding an extraordinary general meeting at the Red Lion Hotel, Basingstoke, on Tuesday, February 16, starting at 2pm, where mem bers will decide whether to go ahead with a merger.

In a letter sent out to members this week, NHCCI chief executive John Harrocks said: “If the member ships of all three chambers approve the proposal for a single chamber, it is hoped to start trading as Hampshire Chamber of Commerce from April 2010, the start of our new financial year.”

In February last year, Hampshire Chambers of Commerce was launched at Winchester Guildhall, where members from the three Chamber organisa tions hailed enhanced networking opportunities and a stronger lobbying voice, which can speak on behalf of the Hampshire businesses, having more influence on county-wide issues and the regional economy.

Mr Harrocks said that since then, the boards of all three Chambers decided the time was right to explore the benefits of converging to form a single Hampshire chamber.

Late last year, task groups were formed to look at how core services – membership categories, events, training courses, news magazines – could best be aligned and how ICT and telephone systems could be networked.

Members of PSEHCCI and SFCCI are set to hold their own meetings to discuss the merger in the next few weeks.

Should the merger go ahead, Mr Harrocks said: “During the first year, there will be little visible change in the day-to-day running of the Chambers except that members will be able to benefit from a common and co-ordinated membership package cov ering the whole of Hampshire, and there will soon be a Hampshire-wide Chamber magazine and a sin gle-access website. All of this will be under the new Hampshire chamber branding. “At the end of the first year, all activities and serv ices would be merged under a single management structure, with local offices.”

He added: “In agreeing to combine their strengths to form Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, and with a membership spanning virtually every sector and size of business, they would be marking another major milestone in their long and distinguished -history and ensuring that your chamber is well placed to serve the needs of business in the 21 st -century.”

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