El Dorado Springs Chamber of Commerce in the Spotlight Again

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Missouri Chamber Federation hosted the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Missouri Annual Fall Conference last week at the Hilton Convention Center, Branson. The conference brings together Missouri’s best and most active chamber organizations to discuss a variety of subjects impacting our state’s chambers, their membership, economic development and much more.

During the annual conference an awards luncheon is held to recognize the best of the best. There are five honors at the event each year in the following categories: Advertising Materials, Electronic Communications, Member and Community Communications, Special Publications plus Programs and Campaigns.

El Dorado Springs Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jackson Tough was honored at the annual conference with the “Award of Excellence” in the Programs and Campaigns category for the chamber’s “Sidewalk to the Future” campaign. Tough commented, “It’s a great honor to be recognized by our peers in the chamber industry. Our members, executive board and staff work hard on a variety of projects so it’s nice when someone recognizes the organization’s efforts. It reaffirms we’re headed in the right direction with our community projects.”

The El Dorado Springs Chamber actually had nominations for several awards at the annual conference including:

“Your Chamber” Radio Public Service Announcements

The project included rotating scripts on local radio. The copy was designed as an educational series to inform the public about what the chamber of commerce does and the role the organization plays in our community and for member business partners.

“Land That I Love” – El Dorado Springs Community Promotion Video

The Chamber of Commerce sought to spotlight El Dorado Springs by creating the community promotional video “Land That I Love.” The chamber contacted Fidelity Communications production, wrote the script and worked on shot placement. Footage was recorded over several months then sent to post production. The community promotion video was posted to social media and promoted throughout the organization. Without paying to boost the posting it reached 21,181 people with over 10,000 watching the video and over 200 sharing it around the world. The video can be seen on the El Dorado Springs Chamber of Commerce YouTube Channel.

Clean-Up El Do Campaign

Clean-Up El Do consisted of two events to kick-off the campaign last year, the first in April to coincide with Earth Day, the second in September. The events averaged about 90 community-spirited volunteers that assembled at the Chamber of Commerce office. The Spring City Clean Teams mobilized to pick up trash along the streets and assist community members with projects and tasks to make El Dorado Springs a cleaner community. The chamber worked in concert with the city for the municipal bulk trash week to coincide with the event so items could be picked up immediately following the campaign. Recycling bins were incorporated by Evans Drug along with electronics and scrap metals collected in the chamber lot. Plus the group gathered over 300 tires. Sponsors included MODOT, Missouri Department of Conservation, No More Trash, and the City of El Dorado Springs plus individuals, organizations and businesses that formed teams and assisted with recycling costs.

Community and Business Guide

The El Dorado Springs Chamber of Commerce designed a custom 68 page full-color Community & Business Guide for our region. Chamber staff researched information, took most photographs, created advertisements, plus compiled and wrote 95% of the articles. The publication includes relocation and new resident information, government contacts, community history, maps, member listings and much more. The publication was written for visitors, new and current residents plus it promotes the community to prospective new business and industry. The El Dorado Springs Community & Business Guide has been such a success the Chamber of Commerce is working on the next issue for 2018-2019.

Sidewalk to the Future Campaign

Safe sidewalk options for El Dorado Springs’ residents builds a more livable, accessible community for people of all ages, abilities, and income levels. The sidewalk project supports economic growth and community stability by providing accessible and efficient connections between home, school, work, medical, recreation and retail destinations. This means quality access to jobs, health care, shops and schools. It can facilitate reinvestment and economic development in El Dorado Springs. The chamber of commerce lobbied for two separate federal grants paying 80% of the infrastructure improvement projects, and 20% coming from local entities. The city agreed to apply for each with the stipulation that the community fund half of that 20% which was approximately $31,250 for Phase One and $44,000 Phase Two from the business community, citizens and other resources which the chamber raised. Phase One is a mile of sidewalk along US Hwy. 54 which was completed in July 2016. The Phase Two chamber pledge drive started in November 2016, procuring private funds from the community to insure the project had sufficient support to proceed. Phase Two will be constructed along Park Street and Hospital Road. Along with the sidewalks the chamber raised funding to purchase seven locally manufactured benches placed along the Hwy. 54 sidewalk route. There will be three more benches along the Phase Two route. The benches include artistic themed renderings of local landmarks cut into each powder coated steel backrest.

Chamber President Toshua McCormick said of the award, “Our organization is really gaining some notoriety. Between the 2016 Missouri Small Market Chamber of the Year, Jackson’s 2017 Missouri and southern Illinois Torch Award and now more state recognition for our projects, it’s just an exciting time to be a part of the El Dorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, and it’s fantastic that we can reflect recognition like this onto our community.”