Did you know that your Chamber of Commerce has brought together 11 other Chambers from across the Upstate of South Carolina to provide one unified voice for business advocacy at the statehouse in Columbia? In addition, the Upstate Chamber Coalition (UCC) was created to improve our region’s business conditions, which will ultimately help to create jobs, lower the unemployment rate and to raise per capita income. The Coalition represents 8,000 member-businesses and over 200,000 employees. The Chambers that make up the UCC are: Anderson Area Chamber of Commerce Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce Clemson Area Chamber of Commerce Greater Easley Chamber of Commerce Greenville Chamber Greenwood Chamber of Commerce Greater Greer Chamber of Commerce Laurens County Chamber of Commerce Simpsonville Area Chamber of Commerce Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce Walhalla Chamber of Commerce Westminster Chamber of Commerce Each Friday during the legislative session (January-June), we send out a weekly legislative update to interested business leaders and communicate the same message to all Upstate Chambers. We call on our grassroots members to contact their legislators when there is important legislation before the General Assembly. We hold regional summits during the calendar year focused on topics that are important to the Upstate business community. We bring the Chamber leadership from each Chamber together to discuss issues that impact our region. Since we formed the Upstate Chamber Coalition, the Columbia Chamber and Lexington Chambers have created the Mid-State Chamber Coalition. This just goes to show that regionalism works when advocating for business conditions. You can find out more about the Upstate Chamber Coalition by visiting our website at http://www.upstatechamber.org. Here you can sign up for our weekly legislative updates, grassroots emails, learn about our legislative agenda, etc. You can also follow us on twitter @upstatechamber or visit our Upstate Chamber Coalition page on Facebook.