Philpott kicked out of Woodstock Chamber

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Yesterday I received a phone call and was told that, in effect, my membership in the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce was no longer wanted. And today my membership is gone from the Membership Roster. Only 17 days have passed since I was first billed for my renewal dues. I wonder if the Board allows that authority to the President and to the Executive Director to railroad a member out.

If you want to know how many members there are in the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce, all you have to is go the Chamber's website. On the homepage, click for the membership list and you'll see a counter.

Today it reads 219. Yesterday it read 220. A few days before that, it read 219. And a few days before that it read 222. That was the day that The Woodstock Independent reported that the Chamber's membership was "almost 300".

Over the course of my past year's membership I have provided information about a lot of things that could have been done better. However, there was a gatekeeper system at the chamber (for me), and I was told that, while the Chamber would consider my ideas, I wasn't going to be on a committee, such as the membership committee.

I'll have to admit that some of my ideas were quite silly and unbusiness-like. For example, I thought the date and time of the Board meeting ought to be on the monthly calendar. And the dates and times of meetings of the Membership, Communications and Retail Committees. It's not a secret society.

I thought there ought to be more membership functions. And I thought that membership meetings and mixers ought to be on the calendar. That's where busy business people look to find out what's going on.

I'm sure glad I checked the list today. It saved me 45¢ to mail in my dues, which undoubtedly would have been returned to me.

Oh, a couple of other things. On September 27 I was told that the new Panera Bread in Woodstock had joined the Chamber. Yesterday I learned that it has not, and that it won't be joining. The franchise management company in Springfield, Missouri, won't join, and it recently dropped its ten-year membership in the Crystal Lake Chamber.

And a ribbon-cutting is scheduled on October 30 at the new Advance Auto Parts store. Ribbon-cuttings are typically held for Chamber members. As of today, Advance Auto Parts is not listed as a member.