Milford Chamber Celebrates 25 Years

By Mike Finney
mike.finney@doverpost.com
@MikeOnMilford
Posted Jan. 14, 2015 at 7:08 PM

Angela Dorey, who is now in her second year as president of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Milford (CCGM), says she wants to know more about the organization’s past.

Meanwhile, David Burton, who served as CCGM’s first president a quarter of a century ago, said he feels the same way about the current organization.

Dorey and Burton will get the chance to break barriers and answer each other’s questions when the CCGM kicks off its 25th anniversary celebration on Tuesday.

“Our 25th anniversary kickoff event is going to be like a mixer and it is going to be free and open to the public,” Dorey said of the event, which will be held from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the i.g. Burton BMW dealership at 509 Bay Road. “We want everyone to come and participate, as well and learn about the chamber and all that it does for the city of Milford.”

Dorey said she is looking forward to learning some tidbits about the mostly undocumented history of the CCGM.
“That bothers me to a point, because there is a heritage to it, but I’ve only been part of the chamber for six years myself,” she said. “At the kickoff celebration, we want to ask people for memoirs and stories about things that occurred back then.”

Burton was there when the modern chamber raised its presence in the community in 1990.
“What happened with the new chamber is a group of us got together and decided we needed to professionalize it,” he said. “We raised the dues and attracted membership to a new group and hired a professional manager and that changed everything. With that, many good things came because the chamber had a sound group of people behind it and had an office where somebody would answer when people called.”

Yet, Burton said the chamber’s history extends back further than 25 years.
“I think my father and a lot of other people from Milford had something to do with it,” he said. “They were all very interested in our town and they were working hard. Most of the members back then were men who were volunteers. They didn’t have much of a budget, but they met monthly.”

Dorey pointed out that the CCGM’s board of directors used to be made up of all men. Now its members are all women, although Dorey said that’s not by design.

“We do have several gentlemen who do serve on the general board,” she said.
Burton said there were plenty of active women involved with the chamber in his days as president, even if they weren’t on the board.

Read more: http://www.milfordbeacon.com/article/20150114/News/150119891#ixzz3QJYC1zTB