Four area chambers of commerce are exploring ways to strengthen regional cooperation, even merging, to better serve area businesses and have a stronger voice on issues that affect the community.

"I think we do a lot of the same things and have a lot of the same members," said Debbie Robinson, executive director of the Sussex County Chamber of Commerce, which has been around for about 20 years. "I think we can conserve our resources if we come together."

The Sussex, Hopewell-Prince George, Petersburg and Dinwiddie chambers are discussing ways to increase cooperation.

"It's strategic in that we know that when a business or a family come to a locality, they look at the whole region, they don't look at a particular locality," said Becky McDonough, executive director of the Hopewell-Prince George chamber.

Previous discussions and efforts at regionalism among area chambers have not come to fruition and that has left a bad taste with some people, said Cynthia Raitt Deveraux, executive director and chief executive officer of the Petersburg chamber.

"The regional chamber still raises a red flag for some people," she said. "I'm optimistic that we have the kind of people at the table right now. . . . We're going to do everything we can to make this work."

Some business owners are pushing for regionalism because they are members of multiple chambers and believe the move would smooth things out, Deveraux said. "The reality here is that when you're doing business, . . . you don't stop at the end of your borders."

At the same time, some chamber members want to keep the identity and pride of their organization, and feel that regional cooperation would mean giving up some of that, Deveraux said.

"What we need to do is be able to make people think more broadly about business," she said. "The trick is going to be to keep both and make us all stronger."

The chambers are looking at how other chambers are working together and keeping their identities, she said.

James Dunn, who retired last week as president of the Greater Richmond Chamber, said he had discussions with the Tri-Cities and Sussex cham-bers in their efforts to become as effective as they can in representing the business community in Southside Virginia.

"We're all drawing from the same workforce and the same demographics," Dunn said. "The more we work cooperatively in the region the better off we will be."

McDonough said the Hopewell-Prince George and Petersburg chambers already work together. They have sponsored a jobs program for high school students, and in the fall they'll work together in a leadership program for emerging professionals.

Robinson said her chamber is a member of the Hopewell-Prince George Chamber, and there are discussions of working together on projects.

Informal discussions on regional cooperation among the chambers are expected to continue, but no meetings are scheduled.

Lamese K. Essey, executive director of the Colonial Heights Chamber of Commerce, said her chamber is not part of further exploration on the plan for regional cooperation. "We all have our separate identities," she said. "I don't know that anyone is interested in taking it to another level."

Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or jlizama@timesdispatch.com.