What is a Chamber of Commerce

A chamber of commerce is a business network, for example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community. Local businesses are members, and they elect a board of directors to set policy for the chamber. The board then hires an Executive Director to run the organization.

The first chamber of commerce was founded in 1599 in Marseille, France. Another official chamber of commerce would follow 65 years later, probably in Bruges, then part of the Spanish Netherlands.

The world's oldest English-speaking chamber of commerce is the Jersey Chamber founded in February 1768, the same year the New York City Chamber was founded. The oldest known existing chamber in the English-speaking world with continuous records, the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, was founded in 1783. However, Hull Chamber of Commerce is the UK's oldest, followed by those of Leeds and of Belfast in Northern Ireland.

As a non-governmental institution, a chamber of commerce has no direct role in the writing and passage of laws and regulations that affect businesses. It may however, lobby in an attempt to get laws passed that are favorable to businesses.

Our Board of Directors 

President: Michelle Garner, Clay County Banking Company Fairfield Branch
Vice President: Amy Vaughan, Wayne Co Press

Tim McBride, Save-A-Lot
Edwin Potts, Ed's MediCenter
Tina Turner, Black’s Flowers and Gifts
Shauna Williams, Fairfield Memorial Hospital
Carrie Halbert, Frontier Community College
Jerry Gill, Gill's Sales & Service
Alyssa Parrott, Wayne Whit Electric Co-Op
Abbigayle Rivers, Edward Jones
KaRissa Miller, Career Development
Heidi Attebury, Peoples National Bank
Jen Vaughan, Vaughan’s Diesel Repair
Roderick Vaughan of The Vaughan Ins. Group
Luke Harl, Fairfield National Bank
Executive Director: Libby Lingafelter

 Our Board of Directors meeting are the 3rd Tuesday of every month. Meetings are held at the Chamber building at 7:30AM.