SIDNEY -- Elections and the cost of membership were discussed Monday morning when Chamber director Joe McCarn met with the Cheyenne County Commissioners to present his quarterly report.

Commissioner Phil Sanders asked Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce Director Joe McCarn what the County's contribution goes to. The County supports the Chamber with $7,500 annually.

"The easy way to say it is supporting businesses, but I don't necessarily like that word support business because it's too broad. We really do six major things with that. The most important is we advocate for our businesses," he said.

McCarn said one of the roles of the Chamber is to advocate for county businesses before state agencies and legislators.

"Businesses come to me and say 'hey, we're having this issue.' For instance, the sick leave thing that came through the State. People come and talk about that, then I take it to a State level," he said.

McCarn said he talks frequently with the State Chamber and the U.S. Chamber. The Chamber also markets local businesses and organizations, and organizes events including ribbon cuttings and social hours. He said the County's $7,500 is used with other membership fees.

McCarn said membership fees are the Chamber's primary income. He said the baseline membership is only $200 annually. 

"It does vary, but the base level membership for a storefront business is only $200 a year. Some businesses package, for lack of a better term, they want to give more to the community and support the things the Chamber does more. So, some businesses give up to $6,000. But the base level is only $200," he said.

Sanders said the concern is the County's payment is taxpayer money. Sanders said he will continue to support the Chamber no matter what.

Sanders also said he has been asked about rumors the Chamber is not holding board elections this year. 

McCarn said elections are in the Chamber's bylaws. He added the bylaws do not specify how many are on the board.

"The elections are in the bylaws. Also in the bylaws is the fact that we, I want to make sure I'm wording this correctly, we don't have a set number of ... of board members. The bylaws say we can have up to 50. Basically, what we've done this year is because we're going through as much transition as we are, we're trying to get that done by like February/March, we felt like, the board felt like, if we did elections right now it would delay all of that because then we'd have to get those new folks ... so basically what we did, we didn't stop elections, basically what we did is we're decreasing the number of board members until February/March when we get things done and then we'll reevaluate at that time," he said.

Sanders said he thinks it is important to have elections so members have a chance to have a say in how the Chamber is run. He said there are people threatening to get off the Chamber if there are no elections.

McCarn said there are 12 board members presently with two planning to step down. 

Sanders said he feels the Chamber has been growing, and he doesn't want to see it torn down by something as simple as an election.