The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce is highly relevant to member businesses and performs well across categories including promoting the community and building business relationships.

That’s according to your responses to an annual survey distributed to members of chambers across the Western United States.

The SLO Chamber scored well above average in every category covered by the survey, developed by the Western Association of Chamber Executives in conjunction with Charlton Research.

How relevant is the SLO Chamber to your business?

How relevant is the SLO Chamber to your business?

On the question of relevance to your business, WACE Vice President Russell Lahodny said the SLO Chamber’s scores were “through the roof, literally” — he had to adjust the graph to show the 60 percent of respondents saying the SLO Chamber is highly relevant to their business, compared to a 41 percent average.

The SLO Chamber also ranked well above average across five key performance areas—champion for stronger community, representing business interests, catalyst for business growth, help build business relationships and promoting the community.

Building business relationships earned the highest score, at 83 percent, compared to an average of 71 percent.

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How respondents ranked the SLO Chamber in several key areas

Respondents also rated seven other characteristics and functions, with the SLO Chamber posting some of the highest scores Lahodny says he’s ever seen. As a “trusted convener” and “hub of info,” the SLO Chamber earned high marks from 81 and 84 percent of respondents, respectively, compared to averages of 63 percent in both areas.

About three-quarters of respondents rated the Chamber highly in generational diversity, catalytic leadership, innovative/embrace change and keeping up, compared to averages closer to 50 percent.

On the “ultimate question” of whether you’d recommend joining the Chamber to a friend, the SLO Chamber earned a weighted score of 52 percent, far outpacing the average of 37 percent among chambers and 5 to 10 percent among average firms overall.