Rosen: Cedar Grove Chamber Still Growing

Cedar Grove Chamber of Commerce president Allen Rosen believes the organization is slowly growing and making a name for itself in the township.

“We are an infant right now but we are putting things together, we are growing, organizing businesses and beginning a lot of projects,” said Rosen.

Rosen has served as chamber president the past two years. The Cedar Grove chamber was established four years ago and currently boasts 45 members.

For the last 32 years, he has owned Treasures Unlimited Jewelers, located at 574 Pompton Ave. in Cedar Grove.

Recently, the chamber has been instrumental in the installation of planters throughout the township.

The chamber has also been working on changing the appearance of the town while working with organizations such as the Rotary and UNICO, he said. 

“We are trying to organize and work together to take Cedar Grove up to the next level,” he said. “Our plans involve scholarships, fundraising and trying to hold business in town. Our goal is to keep our business local and keep everyone in town supporting the businesses as they become more prosperous and give back to the town.”

Rosen recently sat down with Verona-Cedar Grove Patch to discuss the chamber and his role with the organization:

What are your responsibilities as chamber president and what has been the toughest part of your job?

“My role is to set the priorities and dictate criteria, organize and show a way to achieve a goal. The biggest problem we are having, and most chambers are having, is the apathy in the business community today. It is very difficult to be in business in the state; cooperation between federal state laws is pretty difficult.” 

In your opinion, what has been the biggest success of the chamber?

“Our biggest success was that we finished the largest fundraiser in Cedar Grove history for scholarships. We ran a 50/50 $20,000 raffle in which $10,000 went to scholarship recipients and $10,000 went to the winner of the raffle.” 

“We have bigger and better things in the works. Our ideas are to pick and choose one or two major functions a year. We feel you need to do a few things well instead of a number of things poorly. If you start too many projects you cannot succeed at them. If you do one or two things and concentrate on them, they will be successful.” 

How often do you acquire new members and how do new businesses join? 

“We acquire members on a continuing basis. Some people don't join right away, some members drop out and we require participation. The best thing a business can do is not wait for someone else to help them with their business, but to help themselves. We want businesses that want to get involved, that understand the ideas and the concepts we have about working with the town and moving both entities forward together.”

“Businesses can easily join on our website, see our complete history, check out our members, stories, mission and projects. There is an application process right on the site.”

How has the economy affected local businesses and what do you do to ensure business growth?

“The economy has been very tough, the unemployment (rate) is very high and people are sitting on their hands in spending, which affects all of the businesses in town. What we try to organize in the chamber is to offer the best value for your dollar and do business on a local level instead of traveling to the malls or big chain stores. They may be able to offer better prices on certain things but they can't offer the service that a local businessman can offer.” 

What are some things that people don't realize about the Cedar Grove Chamber of Commerce?

“A lot of people don't understand what a chamber of commerce is — they think its like a better business bureau. We are trying to educate the public that our involvement with local projects is an accumulation of all the businesses in town that are members, trying to help the town. It’s a place to get an opinion, a referral, ask a question and get an answer. We are not just a resource. Our involvement in local activities is what a chamber is really meant to be, a group of businesses helping a community and in turn the community helps the businesses.”