Sep 15, 2026 · 38 min · 11 segments
Doug Peters, CEO and President of the Chamber of Commerce, joins Chip to talk about why getting involved with your local Chamber matters. It’s one of the best ways to connect with like-minded business…
So I know here in Abilene, like there's the there's like the military affairs committee, you mentioned IS Air Force Base, you mentioned the B1, and I feel kind of compelled to say, There are only two bases that I know of that house the B-1 in the United States.
And then what makes that special? The B-1 bomber, as has been presented to me by pilots that I've trained and taught with, is the world peacekeeper.
And our local guys from right here in Abilene are all over the world in that plane, maintaining peace just through strength in their presence.
And it's, it's a powerful thing, but in the chamber, there's like the military affairs committee and there's several development groups and kind of branches.
Can you speak to those just a little bit? Uh, so that people understand when you join your local chamber, you're not just joining a networking group, right? That's right.
So kind of talk maybe about a couple of those kinds of branches and lines that it or inside that chamber.
My staff kind of rolls their eyes because they've heard it so many times, but what I tell people, particularly during our onboarding with new members is, is that if you can imagine an organization that is made up of people like you who come to a room like this to talk about a challenge in the community or an opportunity, and all the gloves are off.
Everybody said, you know, Chip Townsend may be in that meeting and say, what if we did this to help advance this part of our community today? somebody's probably gonna say, there's no way we can do that.
But there's gonna be one other person in that room that's gonna say, what if we did? And we've got history that proves that that works.
The Golden Gate Bridge came from a meeting of people like Jim Townsend in a conference room at their local chamber who said, how do we grow San Francisco if everybody has to drive four hours around the San Francisco Bay to get here? And somebody said, well, let's build a bridge.
Our history, and I share that to tell you that back in the mid-50s with the closure of Camp Barkley, which was an Army post, somebody at the chamber said, what if we... bought some ground and took it to Washington and donated it for another military base.
So I know here in Abilene, like there's the there's like the military affairs committee, you mentioned IS Air Force Base, you mentioned the B1, and I feel kind of compelled to say, There are only two bases that I know of that house the B-1 in the United States.
And then what makes that special? The B-1 bomber, as has been presented to me by pilots that I've trained and taught with, is the world peacekeeper.
And our local guys from right here in Abilene are all over the world in that plane, maintaining peace just through strength in their presence.
And it's, it's a powerful thing, but in the chamber, there's like the military affairs committee and there's several development groups and kind of branches.
Can you speak to those just a little bit? Uh, so that people understand when you join your local chamber, you're not just joining a networking group, right? That's right.
So kind of talk maybe about a couple of those kinds of branches and lines that it or inside that chamber.
My staff kind of rolls their eyes because they've heard it so many times, but what I tell people, particularly during our onboarding with new members is, is that if you can imagine an organization that is made up of people like you who come to a room like this to talk about a challenge in the community or an opportunity, and all the gloves are off.
Everybody said, you know, Chip Townsend may be in that meeting and say, what if we did this to help advance this part of our community today? somebody's probably gonna say, there's no way we can do that.
But there's gonna be one other person in that room that's gonna say, what if we did? And we've got history that proves that that works.
The Golden Gate Bridge came from a meeting of people like Jim Townsend in a conference room at their local chamber who said, how do we grow San Francisco if everybody has to drive four hours around the San Francisco Bay to get here? And somebody said, well, let's build a bridge.
Our history, and I share that to tell you that back in the mid-50s with the closure of Camp Barkley, which was an Army post, somebody at the chamber said, what if we... bought some ground and took it to Washington and donated it for another military base.
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