Now here at Black Water Honey we try to stay sweet and keep from unfairly bashing people. However, we are not above saying what needs to be said when it needs to be said. And right now it needs to be said that the Conway Chamber of Commerce is a joke. There. It’s been said and now that the it is out there we might as well get into the nitty gritty. Take for instance the festival Conway holds somewhere around the fourth of July every year. At one time it was an awesome festival. There were big time vendors, food, crafts, music, and everybody who was anybody went. Now look at it. The Chamber got scared after the year we had close to two thousand people show up (obviously that kind of tourist flow is very bad for business) so they "toned it down" a bit by renaming it and having the local bank sponsor the whole thing which amounted to a cheaply done festival with weak entertainment and no big venders. Basically They ran it into the ground and have continued to do so every year since, to the point where no self-respecting local even wants to be seen there. But the July 4th festival isn’t the only thing caught in the Chamber's massive wave of mediocrity... The poor Christmas parade has been another helpless victim of their bumbling stupidity. First off, they charge way too much to put a float in the parade. Earth to Chamber: You are not New York and in no way does your "orchestration and parade organization" resemble that of the Macy's Thanksgiving extravaganza. Secondly, they have a huge beef with pageant queens (obviously beauty is also a big no-no in the Chambers book) so they regulated them to one giant float where they all have to crowed together regardless of the fact that they have no ties or connections to each other’s respective pageants. Oh and they have to pay $100 EACH to even be a part of the queen refugee float. That's right, instead of letting each queen ride on their own car they have to either ride on the sparkly/economy float or not ride at all. Guess what!? Turns out they would just rather not ride at all which results in a terribly short parade with a tiny pitiful crowd to watch. And finally, they have to be one of the most moronic offices in Conway for this simple statement on their Facebook page,
"The Conway Chamber of Commerce is looking for volunteers to run our front office. This entails answering incoming phone calls and greeting our visitors to Conway. If you are interested in giving back some of your time to our great community, please call us at ***-***" - (Check it out for yourself @ http://www.facebook.com/#!/conwaychamber )
Yes people, they are asking for VOLUNTEERS to RUN their front office, so one of the biggest non-profit organizations in the city of Conway, that is receiving all sorts of grants from the government to run itself, has volunteers running its front office. I now have the utmost faith in the Chamber. I cannot wait to go in their front office and have to deal with overworked volunteers that are not getting compensated although they are completey resposinble for the offices very public "front office". Way to strive for best organization of the year.
So there you have it. Maybe its shouldn’t be said. Maybe this is a chocolate chip cookie, sugar high, fueled rant. Either way I feel better, the Chamber is still a joke, and until someone does something the City of Conway will continued to suffer from the humiliation of below-averageness.
