FOLEY, Ala. - Later this month, local businesses will voice their opinion with a simple "yes" or "no" on the proposed merger of the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce and the Alabama Gulf Coast Area Chamber of Commerce.

The voting date for the proposed merger has been set for May 25.

"The board was voting (Monday) afternoon to set a date, time and location for a special meeting," Donna Watts, president of the South Baldwin Chamber, said.

South Baldwin Chamber members can vote at First Baptist Church in Foley and Gulf Coast Area Chamber members can vote at the Wharf Conference Center from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on voting day. Votes also can be made via proxy, with the packets sent out to chamber members this week.

"They can scan or email the proxy in, they can fax it back in to the chamber office or they can drop it off or put it in the mail," Watts said. "If they send in their proxy, they do not have to come to send in their vote, because that proxy will be voted on their behalf."

There will be an actual meeting, Britton Bonner, chairman of the South Baldwin Chamber, said, in order to begin the official vote.

"It will just be for the motion to have the vote," he said.

The proposed name for the unified chamber is the Coastal Baldwin Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The two chambers' Board of Directors have discussed the possibility of merging since February, and the two boards voted in March to bring the information about a merger to the members of each chamber in order to seek the approval of a merger into one regional chamber.

Watts said there must be at least a 75 percent approval from all members in order to approve the merger. She said if a member does not vote, then it does not count as an affirmative vote and basically works as a negative vote.

"A non vote is a 'no' vote," Watts said. "There must be 75 percent of the entire membership voting affirmatively for the consolidation in order for it to pass."

The proposed plan is for a maximum of 50 board of director members on the unified chamber, with up to 38 board members being voting members. County Road 10 is known as the "joining line."