“I want you!”

This was a very popular sign that was seen through our nation during World War II and it was used to bring young men into the folds of the U. S. Army. With the picture of Uncle Sam pointing fiercely at his audience - arguably, this is one of the most popular posters in our nation’s history.

Many years later, I am stealing those words for Scotland County. I do want you…to volunteer for your chamber. Actually, I’ll take it a step further and say “I need you!”

This chamber is only as strong as the volunteers who help make up the chamber. There are so many ways that you can help and I hope you will consider something that is an interest to you professionally or personally. Committees meet at various times, so if you are interested in something, please call us at the chamber and let us sign you up. Your ideas, your talents, and your time are invaluable to the chamber and to the success of this county.

We have a variety of committees that focus on different areas of our community and chamber. We have a green committee, which is a group of members who are concerned with making sure that our county is “Clean and Green”. This committee runs the Green School Jam, Litter Sweep, and more. Another committee is our education committee, which plans our Junior Leadership, Third Gear, and other educational activities. We have a membership committee combined with our ambassadors to help be the voice of the chamber in the community, calling on our membership and potential members. Our governmental affairs committee works to have great communication with our elected officials. Of course, like most non-profits, we have a Finance Committee to ensure that we are financially stable and good stewards of the money our members entrust to us. We have a group of retail merchants that focus on how to make our retail industry more successful. I hope you remember hearing about our “Shop Local” Campaign just before Christmas. That event didn’t just happen, there was a wonderful group of volunteers working to help make that happen.

We do have a few groups that are very specific for someone’s interest. First, we have a human resource professionals group, as well as a plant managers group which meets every other month to discuss issues facing that population and we have speakers to help educate these individuals to help them in their daily work. Second, we have a safety managers group, which much like the previous groups mentioned, spends their meetings getting educated on the issues that affect them specifically. In addition to that, we have a Re-entry Council group, who works to help previously incarcerated individuals to re-enter the workforce to become productive citizens for our community versus going back to the life they led before their imprisonment.

Lastly, we have great events that we plan and it takes committee volunteers to make each of those events happen. These events include the Chamber on the Half Shell Oyster Roast, the Annual Meeting, the Christmas Parade, and the Laurinburg After Five Concert Series.

It takes a lot of people to make each one of these events a success, so if you enjoy one of these areas, we need you!