The value of a Chamber of Commerce

Recently I took my five year old grandson to Coeur d'Alene to spend the day.  I was looking forward to a day planned for a young boy and his GrandMarie that might be out of the ordinary and something we'd both remember for quite some time.
My first thought of course, was to go to the CDA Chamber website and search for children's' activities.  I have gone to the lake city each year of my life, so I know there are many fun things to do, however, most of them are to be done in warm sunny weather!
Imagine my disappointment when I found that so many of the places I wanted more information about were not chamber members!  I already knew about Silverwood (which isn't even IN CDA) and Triple Play, but nothing else was listed on their website for children.
I went to Facebook and asked my 'friends' what they would do with a few hours in Coeur d'Alene and received some promising suggestions!  I went back to the chamber directory to search for specific names of places that were suggested, and sure enough.....not chamber members.  This was very disappointing to me for a number of reasons. First, where is the support from the local businesses for what the chamber does for tourism and business advocacy?  Second, why wouldn't a business want to be listed in one place that is searched by visitors everywhere?  How could I find the Kroc Center by a name that I didn't even know?  How would I know the coolest toy store (more about that later!) by the name Figpickles Toy Emporium?  Both of these places completely missed the boat by not belonging to the CDA Chamber, in my opinion.  It took me quite a while to find the names of these two businesses and to get information on them.  With one click on a web directory, I should have been able to find both of these under 'family activities' if they had belonged to the chamber.
My further disappointment has less to do with chamber membership, but more to do with good business.   After searching the web and finding a one page information sheet, with only a phone number listed, I dialed up the number.  It was a Sunday evening, so I was prepared for an answering machine, but hoped to be given some information on where they were located and their hours.  Again, disappointment.  No website information, no voice mail information.  I should have given up there.  While continuing my search for the toy store (and believe me, it was a lot of work to search for) I found that they had a page on Facebook.  I got excited when I saw the photos of the place!  My grandson was going to love it!  I checked on the address and found that their hours included Monday's.  Oh boy!  Finally, I got the information I needed, and while I was still frustrated with their lack of chamber membership, this was going to be a highlight for me and my grandson.
After picking up "G" on Monday morning, we went to a local restaurant for our start to the day: breakfast.  I told him all about our upcoming day with swimming at the Kroc Center and a visit to the coolest toy store ever.  He was so pumped!  He ate most of his breakfast and climbed excitedly back into my van to visit this cool store.  We practically ran to the store front and we were stopped in our tracks as I reached for the front door handle and it doesn't budge.  The door is locked.  The lights are all off.  The sign on the door states their hours.  Monday is listed as closed.  Poop.  This is about the time that I'm fed up with Figpickles Toy Emporium.  I grab my smart phone and give some smart advise to them on their facebook page.  List your hours correctly, update your voice message, and join your local chamber.  I hope they got the message.
Marie~ExDir