EDITORIAL: Come together now

In almost every edition, the weekly Washington Business Journal lists the top 50 to 100 businesses in a particular category in the metropolitan area. The top banks, top law firms, top architectural firms, top defense contractors, top insurance companies, and so on are ranked on the basis of annual revenue or number of employees.

In scanning those lists, one thing is clear: Prince William is not a center of commerce. On every list are businesses from Gaithersburg, Rockville and Bethesda. Loudoun, Chantilly and Dulles.

Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax. McLean, Reston and Rosslyn. Rarely is there a business from Manassas, Gainesville or Woodbridge.

That must change.

It must change if Prince William is ever going to be anything more than a bedroom community whose residents must endure horrific commutes to work every day.

It must change if Prince William is ever going to be anything more than a bedroom community forced to rely on residential property taxes to support its local governments.

A major step toward that change was taken last week when the boards of directors of the two local chambers of commerce approved a letter of intent to explore a merger.

Decades ago, when Prince William was two distinct communities, having two chambers of commerce may have made sense. One traditionally served businesses in the Manassas area, and the other served the central and eastern parts of the county. But as better roads and growth have brought the two sides of the county together, having separate chambers is duplicative, confusing and unnecessary.

The two chambers compete in a crowded marketplace for attention and for members. The Prince William business community speaks with two voices -- which means it's rarely very loud. And

businesses such as this newspaper either must choose which chamber to join or must join both -- and either decision reduces the effectiveness of being a chamber member.

The new Prince William Chamber of Commerce will be the largest business organization in Northern Virginia. Members will have expanded opportunities for networking and growth throughout the county

and the cities. The new chamber will combine the best talents, resources and strengths of each of its predecessors to serve its members more cohesively and effectively. And it will be able to work

closely with the local economic development departments, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and other groups whose missions are to grow business in our area.

Even better, both chambers are financially and operationally solid. This is a merger born of opportunity, not necessity.

That is the best kind of merger, because when our area comes together in a positive way, we can do great things. The Hylton Performing Arts Center, which will open in the spring, and Leadership Prince

William are just two examples of that. Our community has too many external competitors to waste resources on internal competition any longer.

Many details of the merger remain to be ironed out. Members of both chambers have been invited to informational sessions over the next month to learn about the merger and to offer opinions and ideas.

The final vote on the merger rests with the members, too, and that's the way it should be, for the chambers exist to serve their members.

Ultimately, though, members such as ourselves would be served better by one chamber instead of two. And our communities of Prince William, Manassas and Manassas Park would be served better by one chamber instead of two. The opportunities are exponential. The time is now for Prince William to claim its spot on the business map of Northern Virginia.