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Published
by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. CLICK FOR NEWSPAPER DELIVERY
Saturday, August 4, 2001
Hispanic chamber wins Texas title
Local chamber of commerce to compete for regional honors
By Naomi Snyder
Caller-Times
The Corpus Christi Hispanic Chamber of Commerce recently beat out all the bigger cities in Texas, including Dallas and Houston, to be named the Large Chamber of the Year by the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce.
Growth in membership helped the chamber get the award. The Hispanic chamber saw its membership almost triple in two years, from 213 in 1999 to more than 600. The chamber also has gotten active in communitywide growth efforts and helped increase the percentage of its members connected to the Internet.
"I feel ecstatic,'' said Manuel Ugues, president and chief executive officer. "It gave us the benchmark for the hard work we've done in the past couple of years.''
Among other work, the chamber went after members who didn't have Internet connections and persuaded them to go online. The percentage of members connected to the Internet grew from 35 percent to more than 85 percent.
Ugues said the Internet connections both help the chamber communicate with members and help businesses compete.
The chamber also took a stance on some economic development issues - members appeared in commercials in support of the Packery channel dredging and went door-to-door urging "yes" votes for a sales-tax increase to build an arena and improve the seawall.
The group moved into bigger space earlier this year on the fourth floor of the Wells Fargo Tower, moving from 700 square feet to 2,400 square feet. The chamber has three staff members.
Ugues said the Corpus Christi Hispanic Chamber is the smallest city of the top seven metropolitan areas that are eligible for the large city award. All other cities fall into the small category for the Texas association, he said.
The award, which was presented at the state convention July 28, means the local chamber will go on to compete for regional and national titles.
Contact Naomi Snyder at 886-4316 or snydern@caller.com
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