Georgia Chamber of Commerce

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is a statewide membership organization centered on a mission of pro-business advocacy and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The Georgia Chamber routinely supports good legislation and opposes bad legislation that most small and large business owners would consider a threat to their business success.

Founded in 1915 as the Georgia Manufacturing Association, the Georgia Chamber renamed itself the Associated Industries of Georgia in 1939. In 1968, the organization became the Georgia Business and Industry Association, and then in 1983 became the Business Council of Georgia. The most recent name change happened in 1992 and the organization has been known as the Georgia Chamber of Commerce ever since.

Throughout the years, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce has cultivated relationships with several smaller statewide associations, entering into affiliate partnerships with six groups. These organizations include Leadership Georgia (1971), the Georgia Self-Insurers Association (1975) the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education (1990), the Georgia Employers’ Association (2003), The Council on Alcohol and Drugs/Drugs Don’t Work (2004), and The Tourism Development Alliance of Georgia (2004).

The current President and CEO is Chris Clark, who has held the position since 2010.

Today, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce employs approximately 30 people in the areas of operations, member services, government affairs, public policy, and communications. Hundreds of volunteers from businesses throughout the state are part of the organization’s board of directors, government affairs council and policy committees.

The Georgia Chamber is unique in the sense that each of the organization’s activities are designed for business advocacy purposes – including direct lobbying efforts, membership events, the Georgia Business Action Network (GBAN), and others. Local chambers, on the other hand, tend to focus on economic development and tourism projects. The Georgia Chamber is not a competitor to the local chambers in the state – rather, it is seen as a complement to networking and economic development programs offered at the local level.

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce maintains an in-house team of lobbyists. This is to ensure business issues that matter the most to Georgia Chamber members are being watched, good legislation is being passed and bills considered detrimental to Georgia business are blocked.

Recent legislative successes include:

The Georgia Initiative is an effort launched in 2008 and designed to reposition the Georgia Chamber from a primarily reactive to a highly proactive organization.

The objective of the Georgia Initiative is to make proactive participation and leadership possible by: increasing the capacity of the Georgia Chamber to identify key legislative initiatives that enable progressive change, to develop and shape policy positions that will drive that change, to more effectively lobby to support these positions, and to dramatically expand communications initiatives and infrastructure to support this proactive shift.

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