I am canceling my membership in the Lompoc Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber’s new plan is to put in a new “tiered” system of membership dues with the top tier being $150 per month, to buy access to goods and services. This new system of membership is far more than a revenue vehicle; it is a systematic destruction of what the Chamber is supposed to be. No longer are we equals at a large, healthy table of community. Now we will be segmented, put into cliques, forced into segregated clubs of differing levels.
All this is being done to the members. Not for them, not with them, but to them against their will or consent. I am told that two years of work went in to this new scheme without even one discussion with the members it is going to affect. I am told the board of directors has voted, it’s a done deal, too-bad-so-sad-thank-you-for-your-concern-but-we-don’t-need-your-input-good-day-sir.
That is not a form of representing the Chamber members, or the people of our city. That behavior is elitist snobbery, and I won’t be a member of any organization that treats its members with reckless disregard.
This article appears in Jun 2-9, 2016.
