The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce is performing well above average, according to a survey comparing chambers of commerce throughout the western United States.

“The San Luis Obispo Chamber has always been viewed as one of the better chambers in California and this kind of cements that,” said Steve Snyder, vice president of local chamber relations at the California Chamber of Commerce.

The survey, developed through the Western Association of Chamber Executives (WACE) in conjunction with Charlton Research, focused on five core competencies and how the chamber met expectations in these fields.

The core competencies researched include: creating a strong local economy, representing business interests, promoting the community, providing networking opportunities and political action.

The SLO Chamber ranked above 60 percent in performance in all five categories by surveyed members and even exceeded expectation in providing networking opportunities.

“If you can get 60 percent of your members to agree, that’s huge,” Snyder said.

When asked what the main drive of the chamber should be, survey respondents’ number one answer was to create a strong economy.

SLO Chamber members rated that goal – to create a strong economy – noticeably higher than members of other chambers.

On average, of the 135 chambers whose members were surveyed, most put the importance of creating a strong economy at 86 percent and ranking their chamber’s performance at 50 percent.

SLO Chamber members listed the importance at 93 percent and the chamber's performance at 67 percent.  

“The member survey continues to show that between our staff and dedicated volunteer’s commitment to our members, we continue to outperform other chambers in respect to membership satisfaction and value received from the chamber’s programs and services,” said Michael Gunther, board chair of the SLO Chamber.

The ultimate question, according to Snyder, is whether the members would recommend joining the chamber to another business. Of the responses given, San Luis Obispo Chamber members said they would do so six percent more often than other chamber members.

“That’s a great way to measure satisfaction,” Snyder said.