Members of St. Charles, St. Peters Chamber to Vote on Joining

Members of theand St. Peters Chambers of Commerce will vote today whether to merge the two chambers into the Greater St. Charles County Chamber of Commerce.

Members of the St. Peters Chamber can vote from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the St. Peters Chamber office at 1236 Jungermann Road.

Members of the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce can vote during the General Membership meeting which is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Banquet Center of the Little Hills at 111 Transit Street.

Two-thirds of the votes cast or a majority of those voting in each chamber, whichever is smaller, must approve the plan.

If the merger is approved, the Greater St. Charles County Chamber of Commerce would have an estimated 900 members.

The resignation of former St. Peters Chamber President Ed Weeks prompted the discussion to combine. In early November, the two chambers announced the plan.

Current President of Scott Tate would be president of the merged organization which would be run out of the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce office on First Capitol Drive.

Eight board members from St. Peters and eight board members from St. Charles Chamber would sit on a joint board along with a person who is not currently on a either board but is a member of both chambers.

The new dues struture would be the same as the one in St. Charles, which is lower than the St. Peters dues structure. The 100 businesses who were members of both chambers would recieve some sort of break in dues based on what they've already paid, Tate said.

"Our budget will take a bit of a hit in eliminating duplicate memberships but we've got together a three year budget to see where we'll be at the end of the year. "Anytime you have a merger you eat some of the costs."

Tate said he hopes to get all of the votes tabulated and make an announcement by the end of Wednesday. The next step would be to submit a plan of merger to the Secretary of State's office.

"Then we'll start looking at new logo designs and most importantly for the members, events and programming for 2012," he said. "That's been on hold so far."

Joint programming could start as soon as January.