Overview

The Alamo Asian American Chamber of Commerce (Alamo AACC) is a non-profit organization, originally established in 1996 by a group of local Chinese restaurant owners. Due to the demanding schedule of the restaurant industry, the Chamber became dormant beginning in 1999. Alamo AACC was reorganized in 2004 with the efforts of now immediate past President Ms. W. Elisa Chan. She implemented three important changes to the organization. Her first change was to conduct all board meetings in English, as they were mostly previously held in Chinese. Second, she found it important for board members to be represented by different ethnic groups, not just Chinese ethnicities. Third, she wanted the chamber to focus more on increasing awareness to the overall San Antonio community, not only the Asian community. The Alamo Asian American Chamber of Commerce promotes, connects and advocates for Asian-owned businesses and businesses interested in trade and commerce with the Asian community both locally and internationally by creating alliances that support business growth. The chamber has helped bridge the gap for companies that currently or in the future would like to do business in Asia. Today the chamber has a membership of all different ethnicities and is growing at an increasing rate. The chamber focuses on supporting San Antonio’s efforts in economic development, its Asian sister city and friendship city relations, supporting the city’s arts & culture initiatives relating to Asian culture and also maintains committees to put forth initiatives that reflects the chamber’s values and help represent the goals and needs of its members and the Asian American community at-large.