OUR PURPOSE:  The Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce is 62 years old. The Chamber’s core purpose is to promote the businesses of Sunnyside individually and collectively and to foster a business-friendly climate. A positive business climate includes betterment of the greater Sunnyside community. The Chamber does this through unity, leadership, promotion, advocacy, referral, communication, education, and collaboration.

MEMBERSHIP is open to anyone who lives, works or has a business in the greater Sunnyside area, or, if outside the Sunnyside, Woodside, Long Island City area, can show a compelling case for membership to the Board of Directors.

WHAT ARE WE KNOWN FOR? We are known as being a very active Chamber of Commerce. Active people attract each other making our organization stronger and beneficial for all. For example, businesses that have become local institutions need younger business connections to attract new clientele and keep our neighborhood vibrant; younger businesses need the clout of institutions, networking opportunities of a group, and established businesses to aid credibility and provide the financial stability of the area in which they seek to grow. All of Sunnyside's groups are, to a degree, interdependent, and we all improve when we each improve.

POWERFUL PARTNERSHIPS: The Chamber seeks to have a strong relationship with as many groups as possible within the community, in addition to business, including police, religious, community board, social, civic, event-specific groups, governmental, media and educational. We are fortunate to receive office space from LaGuardia Community College, which strengthens our ability to operate professionally.  Grants have been received from the US government, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City of NY, Catherine Nolan and the State of NY, and Eric Gioia and the City Council. We have recently received a contribution from ConEdison.

PARTICIPATION of members is encouraged.  The Chamber realizes its goals through many members who volunteer for committees, sometimes committees of one. These members give time, labor and knowledge for the common good of all business, and include areas such as

and more. If you have an expertise you think might be helpful to contribute, or a gratis speaker of interest, speak up.

NO TIME?  A few members have no time to do much of anything but attend a meeting now and then, or claim membership in the larger group, and that minimal connection is useful for the whole, too. The larger the group, the more powerful for business advocacy over all. Your membership might be useful to you as a show of support for the community because that is exactly how it is seen.

POLITICS:  The Chamber does not advocate for any political party or candidates. We are chartered under section 501 (c) 6 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code which prohibits such activities of our organization. Of course, individuals may support or advocate for candidates as they wish. We seek to influence politicians in order to support the interests of business and more generally for the Sunnyside community.  Our aim is to get our members access to whoever is in office or in the city or state’s system who might help improve the business climate in Sunnyside or offer something beneficial to our community.

NETWORK WHEN BUSINESS IS GOOD: We find that when business is booming, none of us are overly concerned about being part of a group of other businesses. But some find that if they make their connections in prosperous or manageable times, they can lean on those connections when their business or personal lives are not as rosy. The Sunnyside area is one of the nicest places to live and work in the country; close to the endless resources of Manhattan, but small enough to offer a slower, less hectic lifestyle. But that also means that many of our businesses rely on each other and neighborhood clients to survive and prosper. Foot traffic alone, possible in a larger area, is usually not enough in Sunnyside. Our networking opportunities, such as monthly Chamber Luncheons, free business card exchanges held to get people inside your doors, are ways we can learn what people close to us might have to offer and what we might provide to them. We can share business strategies that are peculiar to Sunnyside, and learn a thing or two ourselves. Self-promotion at chamber events is not frowned upon; it is expected!

YOUR HIDDEN STAFF: The Chamber and its members have also achieved many behind-the-scenes solutions for its members; finding space after a fire, sharing a chef in a pinch, negotiating a truce in a personal squabble, providing moral support when life presents a challenge, providing a sounding board for new ideas, suggesting ways to improve your business, and finding like-minded community members in a big city. The Chamber may provide a lonely entrepreneur the kind of support that a large corporation takes for granted internally. And a large corporation may find the path to the customers or local credibility it needs to prosper in harmony. Our website has been a useful tool for members for thirteen years, and now is even better. The Chamber Newsletter is a way to visit the neighborhood without going outside your doors.

WHAT IS THE BID? The  Business Improvement District, also called Sunnyside Shines, is a wonderful organization and grew out of efforts by the Sunnyside Chamber. It is, however, a completely separate organization, with different governance and scope. While Sunnyside Shines seeks to assist the entire community in some areas as well as it member businesses, its actual members are restricted to a specific geographical area of Sunnyside, in a central area of Queens Boulevard and Greenpoint Avenue. BID members are taxed a certain amount each year and that amount goes to pay for its activities, and its public stands are restricted by law. Its mission is four four-fold: marketing, sanitation, holiday lights and security. The BID efforts supplement the efforts of the City. The process for creating our BID was 1) businesses in that area petitioned the City to create the BID. 2) The City then determined that over 50% of property owners wanted the BID. 3) Finally, the City enacted legislation creating the BID. All property owners in the area pay the required tax or fee, which is levied by the property owner on the renting businesses based on square footage and frontage. The governance of a BID is the responsibility of a board comprised of property owners, businesses, and elected officials. Day to day management of the BID is performed by a paid administrator, an executive director, who works for Board of Directors.

THE SUNNYSIDE CHAMBER is an organization with membership open to all, with the same $125 fee for all, and is governed by a Board of Directors who are elected every two years by the membership at large. Funding comes from voluntary membership fees, fundraising events and grants. The mission of the Chamber is subject to the original bylaws and the wishes of the membership. Why do we need both organizations? Businesses outside the BID location, organizations, and private individuals may join and work within the Chamber. Organizations, individuals and businesses both in and outside of the set geographic location of the BID also need the benefits of a strong organization. The BID was not formed to replace the Chamber, but to target an area for renewal with the guaranteed funding the levies provide. The Sunnyside and Woodside area has many entrepreneurial centers outside "downtown" Sunnyside, and need a Chamber of Commerce. The history, richness, clout, and openness of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce, working along side the focused, strongly funded mission of the BID to revitalize our "downtown," is a win for the whole community.

IN SUM, the Chamber of Commerce is strictly a business tool for some, for others also a social opportunity, and for all, a way to tap into the energy of the whole improve your business, avocational aims and quality of life. In the early days of the Chamber, the members very proudly called Sunnyside and Woodside, "the gateway to Long Island," and the old logo showed Sunnyside as part of Long Island as a way to infer status via our role as a throughway to more prestigious real estate. Now, many speak of Sunnyside as part of Long Island City in the same way. But today, our area, due to our recognition of our own time and place as having a value in itself as where we are, now, we stand where we live or work and proud and happy to be here.

(About Buster Sabba: The above quote was how Buster Sabba, 1947 – 2009, Chamber Board Member who took over the local newspaper, the Woodside Herald from his father, Joe Sabba, expressed his love for the “small town in the big city.” [Sherilyn Sabba, Buster's daughter, has now taken over the paper.]  Buster was being interviewed for a major community award, the Kiwanian Henri X. Billharz, which he did not think he deserved. Buster, of course, did deserve the award and died too soon.His vision brings a tear to the eye and lives on in all of us and helps explain how an area of Queens, right outside of Manhattan, has thrived as a melting pot and kept its odd sense of unity even in the presence of so many tight-knit ethnic and religious groups and being so close to Manhattan. On a recent St. Patrick’s Day, an Irish-born Sunnysider took some Irish visitors to a Michelin guide recommended French restaurant, owned by a Bengali. The meal, which included buttery potatoes green from a basil purée, was cooked by a Mexican-born chef, and served by an American born actor. At the next table was an Ecuadorian born businessman with his Jewish best friend, a Chinese seamstress and her daughter. Were did everyone live except the Irish tourists?  Down the block.)