Ann Ormond, president of the Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce and Industry wants to know who wants to play. And she’s not talking about hopscotch.

Ormond believes that despite economic conditions local businesses have to play to win.

Ormond said: “Now is not the time to drop marketing. Now is not the time to retreat … You have to work it. If you don’t know how, we’ll show you. Sealing the deal is your baby.”

Newburyport is a city that banks on its unique shops, its business people, and the day tourist. But many people do not understand what a chamber of commerce does, and often chambers are expected to go above and beyond.

The Chamber provides strength in numbers; just one of the means to get a business out there, to convert a lead to a customer, a member or an advertiser, said Ormond.

According to the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, “a chamber of commerce is an organization of businesses seeking to further their collective interests, while advancing their community, region, state or nation.”

“Chamber missions vary, but they all tend to focus to some degree on five primary goals: Building communities (regions/states/nations) to which residents, visitors and investors are attracted; promoting those communities; striving to ensure future prosperity via a pro-business climate; representing the unified voice of the employer community; and reducing transactional friction through well-functioning networks.

Chambers have other features in common. Most are led by private-sector employers, self-funded, organized around boards/committees of volunteers and independent. They share a common ambition for sustained prosperity of their community/region, built on thriving employers. Most are ardent proponents of the free market system, resisting attempts to overly burden private sector enterprise and investment.”

Ormond took over as president of the Chamber of Commerce about three years ago, and she has grown to love her adopted community. She grew up in Waltham, worked for many years in Waltham, and says this Chamber is “a little different” from those in other cities.

“This is a destination, whether people like it or not,” she said. Newburyport does not have a tourist bureau such as the one in Salem, Destination Salem. She added: “We try to promote our members and the tourist industry.”

The local Chamber has two primary roles: as an advocate for its 800+ members and as the tourism and visitor’s bureau. The first is the usual; the second is not.

Only about one-third of the chambers of commerce in the U.S. serve as economic development corporations and/or tourism and visitors bureaus. From the Spring Festival to the Fall Harvest Festival, the local Chamber hosts events that are designed to draw people to the downtown – both residents and tourists.

Ormond said that resources she cultivates are visitors – a lot of writers, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the last three fairly new on the chamber scene. The Chamber also conducts familiarization tours with North of Boston and seminars and social events for its members.