Meeting in the middle is the usual practice for so many things. You can't expect it to be any other way. So it goes for Chamber membership, too. To get all you can from your membership, you must also give it your attention. If you hear someone say they didn't get anything from their membership, I can assure you they did nothing to avail themselves of the many benefits. Just recently I met with a man who wanted to know how Chamber membership could benefit him and I showed him how we can help - if he'll help himself. Our calendar is full of events to put our members together for networking, to introduce them to opportunities, to make contacts and connections they might otherwise not have but if the member does not bother to involve himself in any of these things, then he won't benefit. It's the old "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" scenario. In other words, Chamber benefits and opportunities are waiting for you to grab them and use them. Where else can you gather with about 180 other interested individuals to network and fellowship than at the annual meeting? Or, doing the same at the quarterly meetings will put you in a crowd of 80-100 of your fellow business people where you can connect, exchange business cards and make new contacts. We also have some Business After Hours events scheduled for purely social time to connect with each other. Most Chamber executives will tell you that their biggest responsibility is to put people together so they can establish relationships. Look at the Chamber Calendar in this issue and mark your calendar now to attend as many of these gatherings as you can. Remember, if you don't attend you're missing out on the benefits you can receive by networking. Help yourself by being proactive, set some goals to meet new people and you'll be surprised how much you'll gain.