North Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce founded
Staff reports

SCOTTSDALE – Four North Scottsdale business owners have created a new chamber of commerce in hopes of putting a greater focus on companies in the area.

“We want the community to be more aware of what’s going on ... Scottsdale is a big area,” said Sharon Covey, one of the founders of the North Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce.        

Creation of the new organization means Scottsdale, which has a population of approximately 225,000, now has three chambers of commerce.

Covey and co‑founders Don Rice, Lisa Kaiser and Bon Morrison held a preliminary meeting at a North Scottsdale restaurant earlier this month.

The response, Covey went on to say, exceeded their expectations–175 people attended and 50 people thus far have become dues paying members.

The first official meeting will be held in January, as the new chamber’s organizers establish committees.   

Whether formation of this new organization will foster an atmosphere of competition among chambers remains to be seen. Founders of the new chamber and presidents of the other two chambers, however, said they do not think they will become rivals.

Covey said the new chamber does not aim to compete with the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce and the Pinnacle Peak Chamber.

“We just want to be able to give the people in this area a way to socialize without being lost.”

“The bottom line is, if it benefits the community (then) it’s a good thing,” said M. Kameron Hawkins, who founded the Pinnacle Peak chamber last year.

All four founders of the new North Scottsdale chamber were members of Hawkins’ group.

Hawkins does not believe the new chamber will act as a competitor and lure away members from his group or the Scottsdale chamber.

“You can choose to do business with whomever you want ... people don’t just belong to one chamber,” he said.

Chambers of Commerce are not fashioned in such a way as to compete with each other.

The Pinnacle Peak chamber Web site indicates it has 118 members, including Hawkins’s online monthly business publication and The Desert Advocate.

Rick Kidder, president of the Scottsdale chamber, believes the new chamber will compliment the efforts of his chamber.

“I doubt that it is going be competitive in the sense of taking members away ... they (founders) obviously felt they have a need to gather a group” in North Scottsdale, Kidder said.

The Scottsdale chamber has over 2,200 members, according to that chamber’s Web site.

Kidder said his organization serves all of Scottsdale. “Geography has never been a factor.

Our events are all over the city.”