Greater Watertown — North Country Chamber of Commerce receives 5-star accreditation
TIMES STAFF WRITER
The Greater Watertown — North Country Chamber of Commerce received its first five-star accreditation from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber, which earned a plaque to show off its accreditation that was hung on Monday, is the only five-star accredited chamber in the state and one of only 75 in the country. There are about 7,000 chambers in the country, but only 234 reach the first level of accreditation.
“The accreditation comes with a rather strenuous process,” said Peter J. Whitmore, former president and chief executive officer. “We submitted a lot of information and addressed best business practices. But it’s great for the membership and great for the community.”
Mr. Whitmore worked on the material to submit before he left the chamber post. Lynn M. Pietroski took the CEO job in September.
The chamber received four-star accreditation in 2002 and 2006. This time around, the chamber made improvements in government advocacy.
“The big thing was the chamber just had a lot more involvement politically,” Mr. Whitmore said. “We don’t necessarily have to follow the national chamber’s agenda and we had several well-documented events, including the Assembly race debate and a visit from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, so we’ve tracked those things.”
The chamber was examined by the U.S. chamber’s accreditation program on its governance, finance, human resources, government affairs, program development, technology, communications facilities and benchmarking.
“The five-year accreditation aligns with our strategic plan, so we will focus on what we can do for small businesses in the community and help them grow,” Mrs. Pietroski said.
The chamber was praised for its level of board involvement, strong finances and human resources categories.
“We will focus on government affairs and see how we can support our businesses and we want to work on program development, too, and find out what we can do to improve and be a valuable asset to our members,” Mrs. Pietroski said.
