The Union County Chamber of Commerce is reminding individuals, clubs, civic groups and others to take advantage of its on-line community calendar.

Director Torance Inman said Monday the chamber established its community calendar several years ago as a means of helping individuals and organizations inform the public of their activities.

“What we discovered some time ago is although we’ve got a daily newspaper and a 24-hour radio station, it seemed that people didn’t know what was going on,” Inman said. “It wasn’t that the newspaper and the radio station weren’t doing their jobs, it’s just that the word wasn’t getting out.”

In addition, Inman said the chamber found that the word wasn’t getting out to the degree that it should even though many of these individuals and groups published their own calendars.

“What we discovered was there were a number of organizations that kept their own calendars such as the Arts Council, Fairground, Clemson Extension, the schools, the university and others,” Inman said. “Not everybody had direct access to those calendars without going to them physically.”

To deal with this, Inman said the chamber set up a community calendar on its website.

“What we did was we had an intern and the intern went to everyone that we knew of that had a calendar and made a list of them all, the different individuals and organizations that planned events or activities that they wanted the entire community to be aware of,” Inman said. “We discovered that there were over 105 different groups or individuals that planned events throughout the year including civic groups like Rotary, Civitans, Lions Club and others.

“We created a community calendar on our website and we emailed or wrote letters to these individuals and groups and asked them to provide their information on their events to the chamber to be posted on the community calendar,” he said. “That way there is one location everyone can go to and find out what is happening around Union County.”

Even though the chamber’s community calendar has been available for postings for several years, Inman said it is necessary for the chamber to issue periodic reminders of the service.

“Looking ahead at the Community Calendar for 2012 I can see that many are not taking advantage of its benefits,” Inman said. “The calendar is a free service for all to list their events for everyone to see. The listing allows you to get the word out and to plan events that have a minimum number of conflicts. This tool can only be effective if it is used by as many people as possible to list their event or activity. I encourage individuals, organizations, civic groups and churches to list their activities and events on the Chamber Community Calendar.”

Inman added that events posted on the calendar are archived, allowing individuals and organizations to go back and check what they posted in the past as they prepare for new activities.

To post an event go to www.unionsc.com or www.unionsc.info and click on Community Calendar Submission. Fill out each block and your event will be placed on the calendar for all to see. If you have flyers or photos email them to ralexander@unionsc.com or bring them by the chamber office at 135 W. Main St., Union.

Inman added that this is one of the many way the chamber is looking to serve the people of Union County.