Category: Advocacy

Greater Sarasota Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Heather Kasten

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 chamber of the year finalist series, and our guest for this episode is Heather. Kasten. Heather is the President and CEO of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce. Heather is from a small town just outside of St Louis, Missouri, and has been in the Sarasota region for over 14 years. She’s currently the present CEO. Prior to coming to the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, she was the President CEO of the Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance for five years in St Louis, she worked for Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals and Six Flags Theme parks in a variety of regional management roles. Heather’s community involvement includes membership on the board of directors for career source, Suncoast, United Way Suncoast the educational foundation of Sarasota County. And she also serves on several local advisory councils, including the USF Muma College of Business Advisory Board and the 26 West Entrepreneurship Center Advisory Board. She completed leadership Sarasota in 2014 and leadership Florida in 2023 Heather received her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa in Business Administration, and she has an MBA from Webster University in management marketing. Heather and her husband, Clint, of 32 years and their three children enjoy calling Sarasota their home, but Heather, I am excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. And first of all, want to say a big congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a chamber of the year finalists. Very exciting, but I want to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening, and to be able to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Heather Kasten 3:00
Great. Well, thank you so much Brandon for having me today. I’m truly honored our entire team here at the Sarasota chamber. We are so thrilled and just blown away to have this recognition from ACCE. We’re really looking forward to Dallas and just so grateful for this wonderful opportunity. You know, something unique about me, I would have to say, you know, going back to my years at Six Flags Theme Parks, a lot of people, my husband, used to joke that I run the rides. And truth be told, on some of those early spring days before all the high school kids, everybody from the CEO, all levels of management. We’re working in the park for those early spring days. And so, you know, it’s just, it’s not too often you talk with somebody who actually, you know, worked on the ride. Worked on the rides. Mine was the giant Ferris wheel, so got very comfortable saying you keep your arms and legs and hands inside the ride at all times. And, you know, working for a theme park, it’s, it’s fun, as you could imagine, just a wonderful place. Did a lot of events there for a lot of companies. And just a really great time, you know, in that period of my life,

Brandon Burton 4:19
yeah, did you ever have to dress up in costume at the theme park.

Heather Kasten 4:22
We did have to, every ride had a ride costume outfit. So absolutely so you never knew, you know, if you were talking with a high schooler kid or you were talking with the CEO of, you know, the of the park, because we were all out there, all pitching in on those, you know those early spring days

Brandon Burton 4:42
still in all the secrets That’s awesome. Well, tell us about the greater Sarasota chamber. Give us an idea of the size of your chamber, staff, size, budget, scope of work, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion. Sure.

Heather Kasten 4:56
So our chamber, we have been around for 100 And four years, you know, going back to the early days, some of our things you know that we focused on, as you can imagine, Florida, going back 100 years ago, things like good roads, mosquito management, you know, competing for for tourism, you know, trying to get people from the northeast to come down and invest into the state of Florida, and obviously our scope of work have has truly evolved over the last 104 years. But we work with about 1400 local companies that employ about 60,000 employees in the region. Our team here, I always say we’re small but mighty. We have 12 full time and three part time team members. And, you know, I know we’ll get into the discussion about some of the program, programmatic work that we do here. It’s truly incredible what this small body of people, what we’re able to accomplish with with that, you know, tide of a ship we have. You know, we’re always looking to diversify our economy. Sarasota, as you can imagine, very big in tourism and real estate. And a lot of the work that we do, you know, is in that economic development space of trying to support other industries that make our community a little bit more resilient during, you know, economic downturns. So I know we’re going to talk about some of our programs later. We’ll, we’ll get into that, but we do a good portion of, you know, probably close to over, well over 100 events per year, ranging in size and scope, something you know, small and and more, you know, intimate type of events for 20 to 25 people, all the way up to last Friday, we hosted our Small Business Awards with over 600 people in a significant wait list on that event. Our but annual budget is about $1.8 million in annual revenue. And out, we’ll get into it a little bit. But just, you know, we’re finding that, you know, getting away from solely relying on membership dollars and some of these programs that we’ve kind of brought under the umbrella, you know, have really helped to, you know, fund the mission and the work that we’re doing here at the Sarasota chamber. That’s

Brandon Burton 7:20
great. Yeah, anytime you can talk about non dues revenue, ways to bring in the dollars, please feel free to interject that into our conversation. Today, I find it interesting where a community where tourism could be viewed as kind of the bread and butter of the community, to be able to have your mindset on economic development, what do we do as you know, to keep the community thriving economically, even if there’s a downturn or in different times of the year, where maybe tourism is not as popular, although in Florida, the weather’s always beautiful, right? Yeah, so for the majority of our conversation today, we’ll focus on the two programs or submitted on your chamber the year application, and we’ll dive into the details and what those programs are all about. As soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Heather, we. Are back, if you would please introduce to us what the first program is you’d like to address. It was on your chamber of the year application, and kind of what the origins of it were, and why that became an area of interest for your chamber to address.

Heather Kasten 10:17
Sure, the first program is called Career Edge, and we have a very, very strong workforce arm here called Career source Suncoast, which works very closely in that workforce space. They deal with a lot of federal dollars. About 14 years ago, a program was created called Career Edge, which was funded by private funders, so foundations, locally and really at a national level, funded put money into this fund, the Career Edge fund. And what we do with that money is we look at what are the top industries, we look at the employers in our region, what are their needs? And then, what are some career pathways where someone can get kind of that first level certification and really be put on a path, on a career ladder, or journey, you know, to be able to make more money over the course of their lifetime. And so for us in our region, the five industries that we really honed in on were insurance, automotive, healthcare is huge, and that’s what we started with 14 years ago, manufacturing and then the trade. So think about HVAC, plumbing, electrical. We’ve we’ve moved a little bit into some logistics and transportation as well as some technology and as well as, you know, being on the coast of Florida marine technology, so you know, the ability to work on on boats and and marine products. But what we do is we partner with a training provider. So it could be a locals. Could be our local state college of Florida. It could be an independent private training provider. We talk with our employers. First, we find out what their needs are, we find a training partner, and then we market the program. We market it through here in Sarasota, and even within our chamber, we have over 200 nonprofits who are connected with a lot of these folks who are, you know, they’re, you know, in a minimum wage job, it could be fast food, it could be, you know, it could even be someone within a current company, someone working the linen room at the hospital, that someone sees some potential impossibility. And then we put these folks through the training in one of these industry segments. We fully fund that training. If it involves buying tools. We purchase the tools if it involves, if it’s healthcare and they need certain, you know, vaccinations, or, you know, all of those things are funded. We put them through the training, and then we place them in chamber member companies. So it’s a win for the individual. It’s a win for these companies. And when you look at the opportunities that are put before these people who participate in the training, it really does, you know, change the trajectory of their lifetime, incoming, you know, income potential. It’s such a phenomenal program over the course of the 14 years. I mean, we literally have trained 1000s of individuals and placed them with local companies.

Brandon Burton 13:28
That’s awesome. So you shared a few examples of how you find these, these young people, to get into the program. But are there other examples of how you find them to kind of fill that pipeline and pull the intro. I love that example, somebody working in the linen department in the hospital or something. But what are some of those resourceful ways of finding these people to join the program?

Heather Kasten 13:50
Yeah, well, the cohorts, you know, we put them through because we do a lot of hand holding and shepherding these cohorts. We do them in groups of 15, usually is kind of the magic number, and it can be, like I said, our community partners, our nonprofits, be surprised. You know, even the churches, you know, somebody’s grandson is, you know, not on the right path, and grandma refers them to us. It they come all different ways. You know, of course, we do the traditional ways of, you know, we do a press release. But really, it’s so much more organic than that. It really comes from these partners, or even the Salvation Army, or, you know, could be any of our any of the nonprofits that we work with that refer them. And then, you know, these people, you know they’re where they are for a reason. You know, they’ve had some life circumstances that have happened to them, and so we have a dedicated person, our Career Edge manager, who really comes alongside of these folks and helps them. If they miss a class, he’s calling them, Hey, why’d you miss class last night? Oh, your car broke down. Guess what? I’m going to send over a couple of Uber gift cards. Cards. Don’t miss class tonight. Here’s your ride to class. It’s that level of intention and detail that help get these folks across the finish line.

Brandon Burton 15:09
Yeah. And so are you able to put any kind of tracker on these? These people who go through the cohorts to see their their career development, and kind of get some check ins with them along the way.

Heather Kasten 15:21
We they are checked in with through the entire program. Now, once they come out of the program and they’re placed, it’s a little bit hard to, you know, keep tabs on that, but we have some incredible success stories. I mean, there’s, you know, there’s some folks that you know constantly reach back to us and say, you know, if it weren’t for you, I, you know, I’d still be flipping burgers, or I’d still be, you know, whatever the you know, the minimum wage job is. But we do have, every year that program, we hire an independent third party evaluator. So it’s not just, you know, the chamber and career beating our chest of like, Oh, look at the great work we did. We fund an independent evaluator to come in and really evaluate the work. Look at the wage increases like we track, okay, what wage, when they started this program, they were at this wage, and when they completed the program, they were at this wage. And we can track those, you know, you know, those differentials between, you know, when they started and when they completed the program. And that’s how every year, we’re able to go out and get this private funding. And that is really what differentiates us from career source, Suncoast, which we refer people to them all the time because our money is private. There is no red tape. We make it as easy as possible to get these people into the program and then shepherd them through. That’s

Brandon Burton 16:42
wonderful. So I know for a lot of people, their experiences as they go into a career option or enter the workforce, they’re based upon their their experience, what they’ve seen from their parents or mentors that are in their life. And if they don’t have that example to look to or to be able to see what options are available a program like this is so crucial being able to just open their mind to what the options are and see, you know, just how big the world is and what they can do. Is there an application process to get into a cohort, and what kind of things are you looking for on an application to justify somebody joining the cohort? Yeah,

Heather Kasten 17:21
it really depends on which industry segment, you know, the insurance segment has different qualifications than the nursing than the electrical cohort. So it really does depend. There is an application process and we do do some personality testing. You know this we this funding is so crucial, and we want to have the absolute best return on investor investment for our funders. And so we do do some testing to see, you know, is this person you know are the odds that they are going to complete the program? And again, you have to keep in mind the population you know that you are dealing with. They, you know, they do come with some struggles and some, you know, some things from their past. We don’t just put them through the training. We also really incorporate some life skills training and some kind of emotional intelligence training, you know, interviewing skills. So they’re not going to their first interviewing and the first question they’re asking is, how much vacation time do I get? Really setting them up for success, helping them with their resume. So it’s, it’s much more than just a job training program.

Brandon Burton 18:25
Yeah, I love that. I love seeing the opportunities for people to develop their careers and see their horizons be widened. So I can just imagine that the sense of pride that you see as these people go through the program,

Heather Kasten 18:38
it really is. Brandon, yeah.

Brandon Burton 18:42
So as we change gears to the other program on your application, tell us what that’s about.

Heather Kasten 18:49
So our another program that we have, we have gotten private funding for through one of our local foundations, is called our opportunities for all program, and it has kind of two prongs. The first prong focuses on interns. So placing minority interns, uncovering what their interests are, and then placing them with companies that they can learn and grow through an eight week internship process. And we fully fund that so the employers, you know, hold those pay stubs. And at the end of the eight week internship, they submit us, you know, the pay stubs to us, and then we reimburse that company fully up to $3,000 for that eight week internship. We also, this year, something new. We added, we added an intern half day conference called spark, and that was actually just held this past week. We had about 70 local interns, 30 of which were our opportunities for all interns, but did a half day workshop on again, resume, building, networking, mentoring, how to, you know, connect with others, how to build their personal brand and and now. Work. So that’s really exciting. These are interns who really would not have had any opportunity like this to actually work within a company and get paid in their field of interest. The other prong for the opportunities for all program is minority business grant funding. So this program has been around for about four years. And last year, for example, we had, we had probably close to 100 minority businesses apply. We funded 20 of that the 100 that had applied, and we deployed about $100,000 so each minority business, you know, had different asks. For some, it was, I need, you know, some support to market my company. So we’ve, you know, funded, you know, six months of some social media advertising. For some it was capital things like a laptop, so that they could get their finances out of, maybe their personal checking and into QuickBooks and onto a laptop computer. Every ask was was different. The grants were anywhere from 1000 to $10,000 in nature. And then we really support these. These 20 companies, all were granted chamber memberships. We have programming throughout the year to support them, entrepreneurial classes that we partner with 26 West, which is our business incubator here in Sarasota, to again come alongside of them and give them resources, solutions, and also funding to really help build their businesses. And that has been so rewarding as well. We’ve got some incredible success stories of companies that, you know, have gone from, you know, someone kind of doing it as a side hustle, to, you know, being able to, you know, quit their corporate job and, you know, really come over into that entrepreneurial space.

Brandon Burton 21:54
Yeah, those $1,000 grant applications, when you said that that really pulls at my heart strings. Somebody’s needing to ask for for that amount to be able to make their business work. And I almost just on the amount, want to make sure that those ones are awarded. But it’s got to be tough to go through that many applications and and find where the money goes. Yeah. So with both of these programs, you’ve you’ve mentioned the chamber is kind of foot in the bill for a lot of these things, whether it’s helping get supplies for someone entering a workforce, or the vaccinations or reimbursing their their pay for the eight weeks in the internship. Do you mind speaking a little bit to how these are funded? You mentioned they’re both privately funded. So how do you go about funding these programs? So we

Heather Kasten 22:45
have started again. We we really track our funders. So Career Edge being that it’s been around for 14 years, we probably have eight to 10 funders, and we have two very large foundations here within Sarasota who really believe in that mission of workforce and upskilling workers. So they are great funders. The best thing you know when you’re out looking at grants is the flexibility of grants. You know, there’s some grants that are so limiting and narrowing that it’s just impossible to fulfill. You know, the request of the grants. And what’s nice about the foundations that we work with, they, you know, they support the funding of staff to run these programs. Because, as we all know, these programs do not run themselves. So without the funding for actual staff, these programs, they couldn’t occur. They couldn’t couldn’t happen. And so, you know, we, every year, are looking at, you know, private foundations, whether it be the Walmart Foundation, whether it’s Boeing foundation, you know, there are foundations who, you know, you really have to invest the time to find out, you know, what their missions are and what they invest in. And we’ve spent a lot of time doing that. And that’s really how we’ve, you know, come to have funders for both Career Edge and then, you know, funders for the opportunities for all program. These are foundations that, again, believe in this work. We’re doing the work, and they, you know, they fund it every year.

Brandon Burton 24:17
That’s awesome. Yeah, you guys have put in the work, for sure, that’s That’s great. So I like asking, especially as you guys are a chamber, that you’re a finalist. Chambers across the country are looking to you guys in your example, so no pressure. But for what kind of tips or action item might you share for a listener who is looking to take their chamber up to the next level.

Heather Kasten 24:44
You know, I’ve thought a lot about that question, and one of the things I think, well, I’ll share two things. First is process in the chamber world. It does, you know, we don’t stop, right? It is, you finish one event and you’re on to the next. Next 10. So I’m a big believer in, you know, setting up processes for everything that occurs under the roof of a chamber. And that way, you know, when you do have turnover, which we all do, you know, you’ve got a trail of breadcrumbs for that next person to come in and follow. So, big believer in process. And then, you know, I would say secondly, as chamber leaders, the importance of really taking care of your staff. I want to be able to look myself in the mirror and say, I’ve done everything in my power to keep the staff intact, to keep them encouraged and motivated and challenged, not overwhelmed. I don’t want anyone showing up to work feeling, you know, worn down, ragged out, exhausted, overwhelmed, that’s I don’t want to show up at a place and work like that. And so I would say, the last two to three years, we’ve just been really hyper intentional of the things that we’re doing with our staff making sure that, you know, we’re having early outs in the summer. We’re planning fun activities. We we’ve got a beautiful new aquarium coming up in our town, and just last week, took the team to do a behind the scenes tour. You know, nobody else got this opportunity but the chamber team. So I’m always looking for unique and special things to really bless them with. And, you know, just make sure that they are feeling good about the work and energized about the work. And you know, that’s something that you have to do with intention. It doesn’t just happen. And the timing is never good. You can say, Oh, well, we’ve got this big thing next week. Well, guess what? After next week, there’s going to be the next big thing. So making sure that you’re taking time to, you know, really engage your staff and build a culture that is one where people want to come and show up and work, and then for the chamber leaders and the CEOs, make sure, you know, in the the airline world, make sure you’re putting your oxygen mask on as well, because you cannot pour into members, pour into your board, pour into your staff if you aren’t refreshed and and, you know, refueled yourself. And so making sure that you’re taking that time and listen. I need, I need this advice as much as anybody I’m giving it as if I’m, you know, you know, I buy into it. And we really do have to plan those intentional days, you know, a half day, even if it’s once a quarter, where you get out of the office and you clear your head and you give some thought to working on the business instead of working in the business. Those would be my couple of tips. Brandon,

Brandon Burton 27:43
yeah. Fact, when you said process at the beginning, my mind went to where you just ended with to be able to take that pause and to be able to to process what you went through. So if there’s a big event that you you’ve put on, to take time afterwards to process the how things went and evaluate and take a breather, put on that oxygen mask, and be able to kind of re energize for the next thing. But to your point about taking care of your staff, I’d love that example, yeah, taking them out to that aquarium that see the behind the scenes, something special just for your team. And of course, we want to be able to take care of them monetarily whenever you can. But we all know chambers don’t always have the funding to take care, to pay what they’re deserved, right? But to be able to have those opportunities really adds to that experience. And

Heather Kasten 28:34
you know, that’s something that you do have to be intentional about, too. You know, we I do want, I want our team to be paid as well as any, you know, regular corporate jobs. So I feel that’s my responsibility, is to, you know, find that money to bring in the resources so that anybody working here at the Sarasota chamber, you know, has a, has a really good, you know, way of life.

Brandon Burton 29:00
Yeah, you’re gonna be flooded with applications. Now, I’m just kidding. No. Seriously, though, Heather, this has been great. I’d like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who’d like to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing things there at the Greater Sarasota chamber.

Heather Kasten 29:19
Absolutely. Again, it’s Heather Kasten. My email is hkasten@sarasotachamber.com. I’d love to connect with with anyone. I love bouncing ideas off each other. The great thing about the chamber world is I feel like there’s so many opportunities to share best practices. You know, as long as it’s not you know, the Chamber up the street. You know, aside from that, I mean, the world is your oyster, right? For new ideas and fresh ideas. My office line here, 941-556-4050, and really, just excited, you know, love to to talk chamber stuff. So anyone who’d like to reach out and. Be happy to connect with you and learn you know, really enjoy learning more about you as well.

Brandon Burton 30:05
That’s awesome. I appreciate that, and that’s the whole point of the show, right? Share those best practices and be able to help people connect. So we’ll, we’ll post your contact information in our show notes for this episode so people can find it there. But Heather, this has been great. I’ve enjoyed having you on the show and have I wish you and your team best of luck. It’s chamber of the year in Dallas.

Heather Kasten 30:26
We’re so excited we can’t wait. Thanks so much bringing in for your you know the opportunity today. Really enjoyed our conversations.

Brandon Burton 30:35
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Bend Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Katy Brooks

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 ACCE chamber the year finalist series. Our guest for this episode is Katy Brooks. She is the president and CEO of the Bend Chamber of Commerce in Oregon. Her vision for the chamber is to catalyze and environment where businesses and employees and the community thrive. The chamber supports a collaborative business environment and leads efforts to resolve tough issues like affordable housing and childcare shortage, assisting businesses with resources and advocating for businesses at the local and state level. Katy’s background and economic development coalition building and government relations enables her to understand public policies and issues in order to advocate for the businesses of band as well as forming partnerships and alliances that support a growing business community. Her career has included over 20 years working in public affairs and economic development for the ports of Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. She has been a public affairs and strategic planning consultant for public and private organizations in Oregon, Washington and Alaska and manage Community Relations for the Oregon Department of Tourism. Katy is a member of the Oregon State Early Learning Council and has served on numerous regional, state and city boards and committees. Prior to coming to bend, Katy served on the Public Affairs Committee for the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, and the board of directors for the Washington State Business Association. Katy received her BS at Southern Oregon University with and graduate studies at Portland State University. She’s received extensive training and facilitating public issues and resolving conflict her and her family reside in Bend. But Katy, I am excited to have you with us today on chamber tap podcast. And first of all, congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a 2024 chamber, the year finals. That’s a huge accomplishment. But please take a minute to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Katy Brooks 3:25
Well, thanks. I’m really, really honored to be here. It’s just so terrific. Being a finalist. And in this fabulous industry that we’re all in. I have been in the chamber world for about eight years since I moved from the coast and port world working for port authorities for a long, long time. And it’s been a great transition. I live here with my family, we do a lot of mountain biking enjoy a bit of a higher elevation than what I was previously at. And for those of you haven’t been to this part of the world is quite beautiful. And it’s full of great things to do outside, which is what we’re all about.

Brandon Burton 4:09
That’s right. It is a beautiful part of the country for sure. Well, please take a few moments and tell us a little bit about the Bend Chamber of Commerce. What makes you guys so special, what’s your your chamber look like the work you’re involved with? Size staff budget, that sort of thing to kind of give us some perspective as we get into our discussion?

Katy Brooks 4:33
Sure. Well, we’ve had quite a bit of population growth. So the business sector has grown as well. We are population of about 110,000. We are on the east side of the caste range. So we are a little bit removed from where most of the population of the state is. So bend is kind of a it’s a mountain community but it’s really a self sufficient ecosystem here. That’s really unique. And it’s something that we take into consideration. Anytime we put any of our strategies together. We have great networking programs. Here we have a really strong advocacy program because our state capitol is in the valley. And to lift up our voice from Central Oregon, we align with a lot of partners here. We build our leaders, we concentrate quite a bit on how we support a system of of leadership and workforce development that can sustain our growth, not just in population, but our business growth and several industry sectors that have taken off here. And we look for our niche initiatives, we look for ways to take on things that we see and our members see as obstacles and impediments or opportunities. And really try to capitalize those and bring up solutions. And I’ll get into that here in a little bit of what that actually looks like.

Brandon Burton 6:04
Yeah, well that’s the crux of the Chamber’s to solve those problems, right that face the community. So very good. Well, as we focus on these chamber, the year finalist episodes who really like to dive in, in more detail on the programs that were submitted on your chamber that your application, I think those are a really good indicator of the type of work you’re involved with and, and where you’re seeing those levels of importance to be able to make an impact in your community. So I’m excited to dive into what those programs are and all those details as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Katy, we’re back. As we dive into the meat of this episode and talking about the programs that were submitted on your chamber, that your application, please share with us what what the first program was? And we’ll dive into that and save the good stuff on second program for for a few minutes.

Katy Brooks 8:52
Yeah, it’s always hard. I’m sure everybody else who submitted an application feels this way, it was hard to choose in some respect. Because we just do so much. And as with all chambers, we have changed so much over the last several years. So when you look at at our programs, it looks like like today rather than yesterday. And it looks like what the key issues are that we’re struggling with here, rather than some of the more traditional things you think about in chamber world. But I’ll I’ll talk a little bit about Ben 101. So Ben 101 was established in collaboration with a bunch of folks from the community from several industry sectors, who said essentially, you know, we are growing faster than any other city in our state we have the more more jobs per capita than any other city in our state and we’re losing touch with the culture we worked really hard to establish we’re very bootstrap kind of a community here. We were lumber mill industry, which declined dramatically in the 80s, we reinvented ourselves. Now we’re biotech, health care sciences, outdoor industry, product development, high tech, all sorts of things are happening here that frankly, didn’t exist 10 years ago. And what happens when you bring that many new people and new industries together, you kind of lose touch with everyone, you go from a small little town to, you’re actually a small city. And that’s got a different dynamic. So Bend 101 brings in key leaders from our community to tell the story of our history, tell the story of our culture, which is be nice, you’re invent, and we’re collaborative, we’re dolphins, we’re not sharks. And we have a lot of ways for people to plug in. So it’s like getting a turbo charge in everything you would want to know if you move to a new place. And not only do you get the information, but we match you up with people from the community in various industries, from the workforce. So it’s not like insta friend, but it’s close to it. It’s it’s hard introductions of folks that you might find really interesting and want to have coffee with later. And then we work with the human resources, folks to really make sure that we follow up. How do your folks feel about this? Did they meet somebody there that they didn’t get to connect with that they want to and really make those connections meaningful? So you have the background information, you know, where we’ve been where we’re going to, and you have access to the people who made it that way? Yeah.

Brandon Burton 11:45
So I think it’s interesting to to inform newcomers on the culture of Bend. And I imagine that’s a tough task to try to infuse culture. But what is it? What does it look like this with Bend 101? What’s the format? How do you? How do you structure I love the overall the, you know, the high level view of making those connections and welcoming those newcomers. But when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, what what is the structure of it look like? Well,

Katy Brooks 12:15
we use a lot of humor, because we have some idiosyncrasies and little things about them, like every community does that are pretty funny. And one of ours is our claim to fame is roundabouts. They’re everywhere. And anybody who’s new to bend goes what is going on. You can’t get anywhere without going in a circle. So we kind of poke fun at ourselves, we have a really great welcoming video, where we talk about how friendly we are and kind of help people navigate the why of things and kind of laugh at ourselves a little bit. But then we we give the overall here’s how the city operates. And here’s some information for about 1015 minutes. And then every time we hold a one on one, we do it three times a year we fish feature a different part of bend. For example, last time we did this, we featured our healthcare system, educating folks on what that looks like, how do you access it? Who are the leaders there? Who should you know, what should you know, this month, we are, in fact, this week, we’re holding one that features our park system. Our Park system is amazing. It’s very robust, very well funded. There’s mountain bike trails, literally hundreds of miles you can ride and it connects different communities in Central Oregon. So we’ll share all that information. And then talk a little bit about, hey, this is everybody’s chance right now to reach out to somebody you don’t know, unless make those connections happen. So it’s kind of infusing that cultural welcome as much as we can. It changes a little bit every time we hold the event, depending on the information we share, but the outcome is the same. Right?

Brandon Burton 13:57
So does anybody come to multiple sessions have been one on one? How does that like if you want to learn about the parks? And you didn’t get that in your session? How does that work? Oh,

Katy Brooks 14:07
totally. We have repeat offenders. And because it’s really fun. And we are beer town, we have 14 breweries. And so that’s some fun, people just enjoy showing up and interacting folks that have been here for a really long time. They like to show up. In fact, we reach out to them. We want them there. Because how else are newcomers going to meet the establishment? Right? And so you need some of those people to come multiple times. And really mix it up with the old the new the the in between. And if folks are new, and they think hey, that was great. I want to learn about a different sector because I’m thinking about getting involved, then that’s great.

Brandon Burton 14:49
Yeah, that is that’s fantastic. I love that. The idea of it. I love the execution of it and making all the connections and really welcoming people to a community that really sets them up to thrive from the beginning. And I’m sure there’s success stories that you can share with people that have come in and been able to make those connections and, and be able to get their feet on the ground much quicker so to speak. Absolutely. So as we, as we move along, let’s let’s shift gears into what the second program is it was submitted on your chamber the your application. Yeah,

Katy Brooks 15:26
our workforce housing initiative. So I’m co chairing the ACC II horizon initiative that Sheri Ann is, is heading up. And I was so intrigued by this, and I’ll tell you why it matters to the workforce housing issue, asking people about what is the most pressing issue and opportunity in front of you right now? And then saying, Alright, so in 10 years from now, what would that look like? And how do we get from point A to point B, I think is a really useful thing to do. And we’ve essentially been doing this for a few years. And every year, both in the front windshield and 10 years down the line, people are worried about housing, a little bit of background about bend, it’s, it’s quite lovely here, and I’m sure everybody’s community is. But we we experienced something in Cote COVID that a lot of us didn’t see coming. Obviously, nobody saw the pandemic coming. And that is a lot of folks who are professionals who could work from anywhere, say, why not live in Bend, and they came in during COVID, much of the housing stock has been occupied, and it drove prices up 75% In about two or three years, wow, it’s kind of ridiculous. And we looked around and said, Holy smokes, this is not, we knew it was bad. But now we’re 5000 units behind in a community of 100,000 110,000. That’s, that’s significant. So we hear this from our, our business partners and members all the time, we can’t hire biggest thing that’s deterring us is folks can’t afford to live here. So we started out about three years ago with research. And the research was alright, how do we assess how ready Ben dites are to address this population issue in this housing issue, and we ask questions around density. Because this is, everybody has a little yard and your little house and or it’s a cabin or whatever, and started that conversation about so we’re gonna have to go up, we’re gonna have to get more dense, people are going to be living closer together in certain parts of town. And we’ve tested that. We tested what made everybody accept it and feel better about it. And we use that information to form our platform. And one of the things that we ask that I think is really important is who should be leading this effort. And in that public poll, business sector came out at the top, as did the bend Chamber of Commerce, more than government and more than Housing Authority, nonprofits, etc. So we decided to take this on. So we developed several, several, I guess, strategies from they’re all based on research. And one strategy was alright, what we learned from the initial poll is, folks are hesitant to really talk about densification of a community that was an old mill town. But when we talk about what you get in exchange for that, they’re really willing to do it. So we launched a social media program called I Am bent, trying to educate folks on what this is, we’re not talking about everywhere, we’re talking about places in Bend, that are designed for people for community for Makerspace for art, and also here are the people we want to live in this. It’s a full range. And we would feature nurses and firefighters and massage therapists and artists and restaurant managers, the folks who could not afford to get a place here, rent or to own definitely not own. So we started that education process about two or three years ago, and it’s been going really well. So that’s one piece. The other piece was, what is the go fast button? And how In other words, how do you get more inventory out there as quickly as possible? accessory dwelling units. ADUs are one of those ways. If you have extra property, which a lot of people do here in Bend. If you put a small living unit back there, you can create some income for yourself and help solve the workforce housing issue. So we put together a website on how to build an adu. How do you finance it? How do you permit How do you manage it over time? And it’s just an easy step by step process and then we’ve partnered with the city of Bend to have pre approved plans. And we’re going to be starting to populate that here in the next couple of months of choose your style. And you go through a streamlining process streamlined process. So you’re permitted and ready to go much, much faster and much more less expensive. So the adu is another strategy. The other strategy really dovetailed with our advocacy program. How do we raise our voice as a region, the state level and at the federal level, on the need for affordable and attainable housing. So we met with the Tri County leaders in our area, it’s a pretty big area, and came up with one platform that we went to our legislature with, and it was very effective housing was top of mind with Governor Tina Kotek, this session, and a lot of great programs came out of that. And then finally, we brought in expertise from across the country to really take a look at our zoning, and look at our methodology of getting homes on the ground that are affordable and quickly, and use that person and those methods to inform policy at the local level too. So that was pretty successful. And during this time, we also wanted to do the thing, not just talk about it. And so we raised money, we raised a couple 100,000, and just did an initial investment in a nonprofit Land Trust, who was doing an experiment and the experiment was getting some subsidized housing and a cottage style. So for a lot that’s like 6000 feet by 3000 feet, which is typical city a lot you could put in maybe three to four cottage style homes in there. And so they built these, put it on deed restricted property, but lowered the price enough. So folks in in a below area median income could actually afford the downpayment and to purchase that house, and own the house, not the land, but the house. So we bought down that cost, those homes are net zero, they’re worth about, probably about 600,000. Here, we got it under 200,000. Wow. And all of those homes are now occupied by people who work invent. But the real unique thing about this was we decided we wanted to take a risk. And we wanted to demonstrate how employers can actually participate in solving this problem. So what happens is when you donate money for a certain amount per house, you get extra points preferential points in a lottery. And that lottery is alright, if I own Katy’s ice cream shop, and I give X amount of money to one of those houses, I know one of my employees is going to get that house as long as they qualify. And those qualifications included, you have to earn under 80, ami, you have to have had a job and bend for a year, you have preferential points if you’re a minority, and so on, and you have to be pre approved, you’ve got to be able to buy this house and pay pay the mortgage, that

Brandon Burton 23:13
I was gonna ask about that about the qualifications to purchase that house because I could see somebody say, Oh, what a great deal, like get a $600,000 house for 200,000. But the criteria and the application process for that. And I imagine so the the businesses that help pay into that fund, kind of get first dibs, so to speak as far as their employees being able to apply for that routing, is that correct?

Katy Brooks 23:37
That’s absolutely right. And it’s deed restricted for 99 years. So if the house ever sells the same restrictions apply to the next buyer. The great thing is that shit, that preferential chick comes back to you as an employer. So another one of your employees get a shot at qualifying to buy the house. So we bought down four houses. And instead of using it for my employees at the Chamber, we pushed it out to do a demonstration project with any business event. So if you agreed as a business at Brandon’s candy shop, if you said okay, I’m going to pay $2,500 down to help my employee with the closing costs. And here are my five employees that qualify, you would have had a shot and those employees would have had a shot and that’s what we did. And so, folks all throughout the city, radiology technicians, manager, Windows Store, folks who you think of when you think of middle class or or entry, you know, mid level that had access to this home these homes and it was so successful, that they built 50 more this year. They’re in the process of it, and almost all those 50 homes have been subsidized by employers. They built another 100 You In the adjacent neighborhood, to the west, and another 100 plus to the north of us in another community, and they’re doing the same methodology. So in one year, we went from let’s experiment with four houses and just put these these opportunities out as an employer subsidized formula, and proved a concept that is now over 200, or over 100, no 200 homes that will be occupied and subsidized by employers in the area for 99 years. That

Brandon Burton 25:32
is awesome. I can see it being a template, even that some of these bigger employers might might do their own system, right, where they do housing for their own employees, and almost like a military base used to see you know, military housing, but you could you could do something similar with some of these big

Katy Brooks 25:50
kids so that that people earn equity, the whole point to home ownership. Is that generational wealth, yeah. And so that has to be a part of this and doing it with a partner who’s a nonprofit on deed restricted property was the way to go. And we’re just now rolling out our next investment. We raised about a half a million so far, we’re trying to get over the million for a revolving loan to help nonprofits and builders just put more mid market product out there on deed restricted land. So we’re doing our next experiment. Yeah. Which is what chambers should do.

Brandon Burton 26:34
I love these creative solutions. I mean, starting with the the adu website and encouraging people to build the smaller dwellings on their existing land. I mean, that’s, I think any community would rather see that than a big high rise apartment complex or something, you know, it fits in the community a little better. And then, you know, this path with housing and being able to help people own it own a house is amazing. So kudos to you guys for thinking outside the box and really taking ownership of this and finding a solution. I love this. It’s a it’s a great model that can be followed in other areas, as well. So yeah, as we begin to wrap things up here, these chamber the year finalist episodes, I think are special because you guys are top of the game at the moment, right? So for those listening, who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what can a tip or or action item might you suggest for them to employ to try to accomplish that goal?

Katy Brooks 27:38
Be willing to take risks, have a have a board? That is you bring along, work with your board? And identify, ask the hard questions identify what the issues are, that’s preventing folks from growing or the opportunities that would help businesses grow, and go for the ones that are gnarly and tough to do that require convening. And a lot of work to bring partnerships online. That is what we are made to do. And get people on board, do your research and make it happen. Because I think there aren’t very many organizations like chambers, who are built for this. And that’s how we’ve all changed right over the many of us went through COVID. And that changed a lot. But I think it’s much, much bigger than that, over the last 10 plus 20 years, something like that. I think that as businesses change, we have to be the first ones to we have to see it, identify it, predict it and do it.

Brandon Burton 28:46
Yeah. On those gnarly goals. That’s what people can get behind. Right? If it’s just something that’s barely going to move the needle, it’s hard to get get their interest and getting behind it. But yeah, there’s big hairy audacious goals, right, that that’s what people can get behind and and get some ownership in. I love that. So I like asking everyone I have on the show as we look to the future. And I understand you’re working on the horizons report as well. So you might have some additional insight. But as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see their future and purpose going forward?

Katy Brooks 29:22
So I think chambers are the leading edge. I think that we have an intrinsic design of who we are, to convene, to go beyond partisanship, to ask the harder deeper questions and take things on that don’t have an apparent immediate answer. There aren’t any other types of organizations who can do that in the private sector is a huge responsibility and it’s super fun, by the way. And so I think that is our Our future is asking that what’s 10 year out? Question? If it’s 10 years out, what are the signs? Read it? If you don’t know, ask somebody. That’s the other thing that we do is ask a lot of folks with great expertise. We don’t have to have the answers. We just need to know who to ask. And we have to have the the fortitude to identify things that make sense for us to take on that really requires collective effort, and foresight, and a little bit of risk. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 30:32
I love that chambers being the leading edge and taking on those things that don’t have an apparent answer. And that is the the DNA of what a chamber is, though. And especially when you think of AI and advancements in technology, like there’s there needs to be that continuing purpose of a chamber. And that’s it right there. I love it. So Katy, you mentioned asking if you don’t know as somebody so I’d like to see for people listening who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn a little bit more about how you guys are doing things, doing things in band, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Katy Brooks 31:11
Well, anybody can give me a buzz but my email address is katy@bendchamber.org.

Brandon Burton 31:22
Easy, we will get that in our show notes for this episode as well to to make it easy to look up and connect with you. But Katy, this has been great having you on chamber chat podcast and again, huge congratulations to you and your team being selected. As a finalist. It really is a indicator of the impact you guys are making in your community as as indicated through our discussion today. So you guys are are moving that needle and big. Congratulations to you guys.

Katy Brooks 31:49
Thanks so much. We’re so thrilled.

Brandon Burton 31:52
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Vail Valley Partnership-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Chris Romer

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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You’re joining us for a special episode and our 2024 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series and our guests for this episode is Chris Romer. Chris serves as the President and CEO of Vail Valley Partnership or the VVP. Vail Valley Partnership is a Regional Chamber of Commerce, destination sales organization and economic development organization representing Eagle County, Colorado and was named Chamber the Year by ACCE in 2016 and 2020. As CEO of the Vail Valley Partnership, he brings a wealth of experience in strategic planning, business development and partnership building to the organization. With a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities facing Colorado’s mountain region. Chris is dedicated to driving innovation and collaboration to ensure the continued success and sustainability of local businesses and communities. Chris is a macroscopic thinker who believes in tackling big issues through localized solutions. He is a graduate of the US Chamber Foundation’s IOM program and is CCE certified chamber executive. He’s also been named a top 25 Mind in hospitality sales, marketing and revenue management by hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International Chamber Executive of the Year by the Colorado Association Chamber of Commerce and Industry Colorado chamber executives, and was named a PEDDIT award winner by the Western Association of Chamber Executives. Chris is a respected voice in the chamber and economic development fields and is known for his ability to bring stakeholders together to achieve common goals. Chris has a is committed to making positive impact within the Vail Valley and on a broader scale, serving on advisory boards and participating in initiatives aimed at advancing community prosperity and enhancing quality of life. Chris, first of all, congratulations to you and your team on this great accomplishment of being named a ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist again, that’s a huge feat, but uh, welcome to the show, I’ll give you a chance to say hello to all the listeners out there and and I love to have you share something interesting about yourself as well as we kick this off.

Chris Romer 3:32
Yeah, Brandon, thank you so much. And you know, it is such a such an honor to be recognized by ACCE as a finalist for chamber of the year. It’s such a testament to the people and the board and the community that we represent. And it’s something that we never, ever take for for granted. You know, we really try to keep our foot on the proverbial gas pedal, to move things forward and to represent the interests of our business community. So, such a great opportunity to share a little bit of our story with you and to be recognized by ACCE for those community programs and community impact that we that we strive to make so thank you so much. I also certainly realized that an interesting thing about me is probably the fact that I can’t write a short bio, that bio was awfully long and awkward. So I would I would love to have a second crack at that and just keep it a whole lot shorter. So we could talk about the fun stuff because talking about me not so much fun talking about our chamber and our community and our programs. A whole lot more interesting to people.

Brandon Burton 4:49
I could agree with that it talking about the the great work you guys are doing is much more impactful and meaningful anyway but it is fun to get to know the background on yet and you I’ll share a fun fact I think you are the first three Pete chamber chat podcast so there should be I feel like there should be a trophy or something for you for being I’ll take a trophy

Chris Romer 5:14
I would love to take a trophy for being the first three time visitor or three time guests on the on the chamber chat podcast.

Brandon Burton 5:22
Yes, yes, you You deserve it. So well tell us about your great team, their the Vail Valley Partnership, the the work you guys are involved with the size of your staff budget, scope of work all that as we get into our discussion today.

Chris Romer 5:37
Yeah, we have. We’re really fortunate I have a great team. We have a team of eight full time and two part time. Employees We are located in Edwards, Colorado. That’s Eagle County, Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts, home to Vail, Beaver Creek ski resorts for those who might not know what Edward’s are or know where Eagle county might be. But we’re right in the heart of, of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. We have you had asked about our budget and membership size, we have just under 800 members. And our community is about 55,000 people. And that represents nine nine towns and we’re a countywide regional organization, our annual budget is about $1.3 million per year. You know, and I think the last part of what you had asked for in regards to giving people a perspective, we are a we’re a program driven chamber. We are a program driven chamber we have we have multiple 501 C sixes, we have c threes. And we have these different initiatives and we branch them off. And we’ll talk a little bit about more more about this, I think as we go through the podcast, but very program driven. And it reflects in in how we approach problems. And if that leads to some of our retention and other components that we may or may not touch on but we are we are very program driven group and you know, we’re not afraid to take big swings we take we take some really big swings within our community and in sometimes we strike out and sometimes we hit a double and occasionally we hit a homerun Yeah,

Brandon Burton 7:29
I think chamber works should be about those big swings make an impact. If you’re not if you’re not swinging big, what kind of impact are you making right? So I am excited to dive into this. So on these chamber the are finalists series for those who may not be familiar with the format, I’d like to really focus on the two programs and being program driven will focus on the two programs that were submitted on your chamber the your application and dive into some detail around those and why they worked for Vail Valley and we’ll dive into this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Alright Chris, we’re back. So let’s let’s dive into these programs you submitted on the chamber the your application, I know. It can be tough sometimes to kind of narrow down the focus and what you want to put on the application and really highlight the work that you guys are doing. But how did you land on these on these two programs? And what are they?

Chris Romer 10:08
Yeah, it’s, you know, how we landed on them is a little bit what I talked about earlier in the podcast, around taking big swings. And recognizing that big ideas require big solutions. Both of our both of our Synopsys, both of our case studies are around that idea that big ideas require big solutions. So our first Synopsys is the Eagle Valley Transportation Authority, where we lead the yes for transit ballot campaign to create a transportation authority, which is something that had been lacking in our community. Our second synopsis is the eagle county Collaborative for career pathways. That is a talent pipeline, Workforce Initiative, in partnership with our K to 12 school system to identify and train young people into the jobs that our community needs. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 11:12
So just from our background, and having on the show a couple times before, I guess I have a little bit of maybe added perspective, I think about your community and and why these, these two programs specifically would be of importance. But let’s dive in a little bit more on the Regional Transit Authority. Why? Why was that a hot topic? Why Why was that a big swing in your community? What was the need? And and how did you guys go about addressing that?

Chris Romer 11:41
Yeah, it’s so it’s so important for us. So we started this process. Actually, before the before the pandemic we had brought together, we recognized our population is growing, our ski resorts need to be world class destinations, our visitors are continuing to come. And yet our community growth, strained our housing and transportation systems, and our ability to move our workforce from one side of our valley to the other. We’re about a 40 mile wide, 40 mile long valley, and about a mile and a half wide, right, you’re surrounded by mountains and national forest on two sides. So we’re along linear Valley, and our housing prices, our median housing price is $1.3 million. So we really needed a transportation system that could effectively and efficiently move our workforce, up and down our valley or housing is a little bit less expensive, on the western end. So our basic premise is that improved transit supports workforce that helps our residents get to work home and school, it allows our visitors to better enjoy their experience. And this is a regional issue that required a regional solution. So we initiated the business community, we brought together our local municipalities and county, some of them run their own transit authorities. But there was nothing collaborative and nothing that was truly Valley wide. So we did focus groups, we did phone surveys of voters, we looked at what different models exist for funding transportation. We looked at 18 different models and governance structures, and landed on the Regional Transportation Authority as our best bet forward. Then we looked at how do you fund this thing. And we could have done property tax or a sales tax. And we made the decision. To move forward, we made the call in June of 2022, to go to the ballot in November. At the time for it’s hard to think about now. At the time, inflation was at 9.2%. So when we talk about having having courage and taking big swings, we said we’re gonna go to the ballot, and we’re going to ask people for a sales tax to fund this. And by the way, knowing inflation was over 9%. And we made that call, unfortunately, inflation dropped a little bit by the time we had the election. But we passed. We passed in November of 2022. Pretty overwhelmingly, I think, because we really helped to tell the story and identify the need and what this would create. As we sit here today. We have a complimentary free bus system that runs the length of our valley. Ridership for this past winter season was up 164% over the previous model, and it’s saving people time and money.

Brandon Burton 14:58
That’s amazing. It just it to be able to see it through to. So a lot of times when we’re talking about these programs and maybe leading a ballot initiative, you haven’t seen it all the way through to this point, but being that you’ve been able to lead that been able to collect the data, you know, have a successful ballot measure, and then to be able to see the results, the fruit of it right now happening throughout your Valley. That’s, that’s amazing. And I’m sure you’re seeing economic tickers, you know, the different indicators that you can measure to see the impact throughout the community as well. We are

Chris Romer 15:36
we’re able to see the increase in ridership, we’re able to see how many routes are are scheduled, how they’re completed. We did include funding for air service development in our ballot initiative. That’s a program that we’ve run for years at the chamber. And we always fundraised for. So we actually baked that into the ballot question to fund that. And we have two new flights this summer that we’re able to use that that funding to support two new Air Service flights. So we’re seeing the benefits on a local level, from a workforce standpoint, from a visitor standpoint. And we have long term enhancements that are baked into this as well, which included affordable workforce housing for transit employees, and included zero admissions, conversion, to help meet our climate goals for our region. So we’re really we’re really excited about not just the bus transportation, which is a big part of it. But the secondary components that were able to be part of that ballot initiative and more part of our storytelling around air service development and increasing opportunities for visitors to get here and locals to go on vacation. And to help achieve our climate goals. So we’re really, this one’s a was a big swing. For all the reasons we talked about, and a really nice success story that is helping make people’s lives easier. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 17:07
So with the bus system, it’s a it’s a free transit, right? So is there a way to track when people get on how long they’re on? Or is it just kind of hop on hop off as you go. And now there’s

Chris Romer 17:20
bus counters, there’s counters to know what the ridership is and how it increased. You know, in January, for example, of 2024, we had over 218,000 unique riders on the bus. And that’s an increase from 167,000, the year before, in the same timeframe in January. So we’re huge ridership increases. And we’re, we’re paying for it through the sales tax instead of having people pay a fare. And we have new routes because of the new authority and able to bridge a lot of what the individual communities were already doing to provide that connectivity.

Brandon Burton 18:01
Yeah. So as far as bringing workforce into the valley, is that are you able to see that direct tie in where they’re coming from the west side of the valley? Like you’d mentioned?

Chris Romer 18:10
Yeah, we are a route. Again, we saw a 64% increase in in transit ridership from the lower part of our Valley. So we can track that. The new authority tracks it, they share it with us, our work is kind of done on this one. But yes, it’s a it’s a huge success. And the community recognizes the role that the Chamber played in initiating leading and passing this ballot initiative to create the new authority.

Brandon Burton 18:42
That’s great. And it’s always nice when you can hand it off when it’s done. And you don’t have to keep ownership of it ongoing. Right.

Chris Romer 18:47
You know, we we at the chamber at the partnership, we might be experts on our community. And we’re certainly experts on on convening leaders in order to get things done. We’re certainly an expert on being a catalyst for for business growth. We are not an expert on how to run a transportation authority. Right. So we’re happy to have this one off.

Brandon Burton 19:11
Absolutely. Well, let’s switch gears to the second program that was submitted on the application around that building that talent pipeline and kind of again, the the origins of it and how it developed and in the impact that it’s making in the community. Yeah,

Chris Romer 19:27
so the second is synopsis was the eagle county Collaborative for career pathways. And that was a program that had had grown and morphed. We’ve been running a youth apprenticeship programs for a number of years. We have a very successful youth apprenticeship model. We’re involved with career exploration, in partnership with another local nonprofit in our school system. And this we really recognize that There are a handful of us doing great work. And there is still an opportunity gap at the end. So we work in sync to create viable, affordable alternative pathways to get people into high quality careers, with the idea that those need to be transparent about the outcomes and the cost, help young people obtain their relevant job skills, and ensure that employers value recognize and hire from the kids that we put through this pathway. So in Eagle County, specifically, Brandon, our businesses show an average 10% gap in securing and retaining young professionals across industry sector, with health care and education, are rising to near 30% levels of that gap. So working with our business community, our school district, youth serving nonprofit agencies, were able to target those key sectors and build the collaborative, we’re very fortunate to receive a million dollar grant by which to do this work with the idea to strengthen the systems that already support the career pathways, increase student readiness to pursue pathways and increase students exploration and experience in career exploration, and exploring those career opportunities. So it’s a really nice partnership. It’s a really meaningful program with very tangible results. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 21:43
I think that’s a struggle that a lot of chambers have is trying to retain the workforce that you put them through K through 12. And, and for whatever reason, it’s like these students graduate high school, and they want to move on to the bigger and brighter things outside of the community they grew up in, right? And, you know, what can we do to try to keep them local, show them how great this community is, and, and maybe they go away to school somewhere and you’re, you know, get some kind of education, but bring them back is such a key to be able to entice them, show them what there is in the community to bring them back why it’s a place for them. So having a program like this, I think really hits on those points of need. And I could see being something that and I know a lot of chambers have some sort of a workforce development, you know, pipeline or program with the school districts and whatnot. But to be able to draw that attention and keep them, keep them in the community is so key. So I think this is great work that you guys are involved with this program specifically. There’s anything else stand out to you with this program? As far as trying to retain this workforce here? Is there any any kind of secret sauce that you’re seeing that’s really been the AHA kind of moment, or they just with how the partnership has developed that is really made a big, big impact? I

Chris Romer 23:13
think so I think the secret sauce or the the aha moment is that this needs to be a program that is business centric, right? It can’t be a program that is just a feel good or a do good for the kids. It has to benefit the business. And it has to strengthen the systems that support not only the career pathways for students, but solves problems for the businesses. And I think that’s a that’s a big component that sometimes when we think about workforce, even in the chamber business, inherently, to serve the needs of our businesses. When we ask businesses to donate their time, we ask businesses to donate their expertise, instead of flipping that equation and saying, we’re going to do this for the business. And it happens to help the kids. We do it for the business. We do everything we do to build a stronger community and stronger businesses, the kids and the career pathway is a way to build stronger businesses. It’s not asking the businesses to help kids.

Brandon Burton 24:23
Yeah, I think that is that is a key. I’m glad you made that point, that distinction, because I think it’s easy to look at the kids and they Oh, we want to help give them a good career. And that’s noble. That’s

Chris Romer 24:35
Yes. But but that’s a that’s a that’s a secondary outcome. That’s not the primary purpose. Exactly.

Brandon Burton 24:40
Yeah. So you get the businesses on board by letting them know this is about you. This is about strengthening your business and providing good talent, you know, to keep the strong. I’m glad you made that distinction. That’s great. So I like it, especially as a as a chamber the year finalists? I think chambers can can look at you as kind of the top of the game right now, you know, as a chamber, they are finalists, and for a chamber listening who’s trying to elevate their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tips or strategies might you offer for listeners to try to accomplish that goal and to try to give that their organization that boost they’re looking for?

Chris Romer 25:24
Yeah, it’s it’s such a great if thought challenge for for chambers of commerce, to think, how do we what is that? What is that one tip? What’s the one thing you would share? And I’m going to answer that by suggesting and challenging chambers, to move away from thinking that what we do have it fixes technical challenges in our community. We don’t have technical challenges. Technical challenges are things that can be fixed by engineers, they can be fixed by surgeons and people with specific training. There’s not too many of us that came into this business, trained to run a chamber of commerce, right, we’re trained in a more of an adaptive way. So that’s my takeaway. Recognize that you have adaptive challenges, not technical challenges. And let me expand on that a little bit. Because I expect that doesn’t make much sense. Without context. When we think of adaptive challenges, the things that we face in our community, maybe it’s early childhood, transportation or workforce, maybe it’s homelessness, it could be any number of different things. We have the white. So then the question is, so what? Right, so what right that that’s a problem. And then it’s now what? How are we going to do that? So the framework, and the challenge to listeners thinking about adaptive challenges? is learning learning the what? Listening, taking action, I think we collectively do a great job of listening. Every chamber listening to this listens to their businesses listens to their community does surveys, they listen. It’s the question of taking action, how do we take action? How do I identify the steps to take action. The two last parts I’ll add on this is adaptive challenges have long term implications. They’re not transactional, they’re not, we’re going to do this, they have long term, community benefit, long term benefit to the chamber to the, to the community, to the businesses. And we’re really never ever going to fix quote, unquote, fix, and adaptive challenge. All the things I listed early childhood, workforce, housing, workforce development, talent pipeline. It’s homelessness, when we say fix what we mean is make better chambers have a very unique positioning and a position of trust within their communities, to tackle these adaptive challenges that are hard, they’re long term, and fixing the endzone always moves. So fixing these challenges really means making it better. And that that changes year after year, initiative after initiative, it never really goes away. And that creates stability. And that should hopefully create fundraising opportunities and grant funding and membership retention, and all the things. So that’s my one takeaway, and it was a really long answer. But I really want to share that if we can do that. And we can shift our thinking away from technical into adaptive, that chambers are going to fly, we’re going to thrive, because we’re going to be so uniquely positioned that no one can do what we do.

Brandon Burton 29:01
Yeah. So I like the idea that that adaptive challenges have long term implications. And I know you mentioned at the beginning of the episode about retention, and that kind of plays into here. Is there. Is there more you wanted to touch on with the aspect of retention before we wrap things up? Um,

Chris Romer 29:22
no, I don’t think so. I mean, I think that if anything, it’s really just when we talk about retention, there’s so many ways to spin that as retention of employees retention of people in our communities retention of business, retention of membership. I think if we as chambers, have had this mind frame of tackling big problems in our community and approaching it in an adaptive relationship driven manner. Then our work becomes central to the success of the community. And if we become central to the success of the community, we have solved retention at each of those levels that I talked about.

Brandon Burton 30:06
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. So the question I asked everyone as they haven’t on the show is about the future of chambers, which I think you kind of touched on with your your tip there. But how do you see the future of chambers in their purpose going forward?

Chris Romer 30:21
Yeah, I did lead into this a little bit or leak into this, if you will. But the I think the future of chambers is really, really bright, with a caveat. And that caveat is if we roll up our sleeves and tackle the big problems, our purpose, our purpose needs to be around that, that problem solving. And again, when I say problem solving, I mean, making things better versus versus traditionally fixing things. But we can make things better. I think all the finalists that you’re going to be talking to throughout this series, probably have one, if not both of their synopsis, focusing on how they made their community better. And I think that’s a lesson for everybody within the chamber of business. And if we can focus on our purpose being problem solving, and how we do that, knowing that it’s really hard, knowing that it’s long term, knowing that it causes some sleepless nights, knowing that it’s probably not going to go over well with everybody in our community. And we’re going to have the courage to do those things. Boy, the future of chambers is so bright.

Brandon Burton 31:31
Yeah. encouraged as important in that, as you mentioned, so absolutely. Swing big and have courage. Chris, this has been fun to have you back on chamber chat podcast. I love the pieces of advice you share the experiences you have, and especially the impact you guys are making. They’re there in the Vail Valley. I’d like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who’d like to reach out and connect with you and learn more about what you guys are doing there at the VVP we’re what would be the best way to connect with you. Yeah,

Chris Romer 32:06
you can find all of my contact information on our website at VailValleyPartnership.com. That’s VailValleyPartnership.com. I can be reached at cromer@VailValleyPartnership.com. And you can find me on most of the social channels and my phone numbers on the website as well and all of that, but VailValleyPartnership.com is your best place to go.

Brandon Burton 32:31
Very good. So back from Episode 21, I think was your first appearance and we’re at episode 285 Now, but this has been a blast, Chris. Thanks for being with us. Again. Here. You’re on chamber chat podcast today and wish you and your team the best of luck.

Chris Romer 32:48
Thanks so much, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 32:51
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Opelika Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Ali Rauch

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series. And our guests for this episode is Ali Rauch. Ali is the President and CEO of the Opelika Chamber of Commerce. And she was a recent guest back in episode 266. So not too long ago. So if you wanted to go back and listen to what we talked about back then she’s kind of a firecracker and has a lot of energy coming into the chamber. So she’s been in a Opelika for I guess about three and a half going on four years now. Yeah, four years, four years and in that time of have earned a five star accreditation through the US Chamber of Commerce and really making a big impact there in Opelika. Prior to her role at the Chamber, she served in a wide array of industry including software manufacturing, higher education, and most notably, franchising and food services where she served eight years as director of marketing for Chicken Salad Chick. I remember stumbling on that last time as well. But Allie, we’re excited to have you back with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast. I want to start by saying congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a chamber the year finalists what an accomplishment. But good and saying hello to everyone listening. And if you’ve got another interesting tidbit about yourself to share, we’d love to hear it.

Ali Rauch 2:39
Thank you. I don’t remember what I shared last time, which was funny. I should have listened back to remember but thank you for having us. We are so thrilled I remember setting like watching the West Alabama chamber who was you know, a major leader in our state and in the country, watching them win and I had this little inkling like, I’m a competitive person, but I was like, Man, I really want I want to do that Sunday, and I thought it was going to take like a really long time. Like and honestly, it just, you know, I went on a walk with one of my board members last night and he told me he’s like Alec No, you have just gotten into hyperdrive it’s not that it doesn’t take that long to do great things you’ve just somehow you know gotten your the right people around you and have been able to make a major impact very quickly so we’re thrilled we’re excited we’re grateful can’t wait for Dallas but yeah, I guess let’s see. Little known fact about me is I am also I’m a shareholder of the Green Bay Packers wait I heard that was

Brandon Burton 3:39
my last I was

Ali Rauch 3:40
discussing okay different one. I used to drag race cars I drag race to 1973 Camaro nice all throughout high school I’ve won a Wally which is a the official trophy of the National Hot Rod Association.

Brandon Burton 3:57
Awesome. I’ve got a six random string. Yeah, so we do the cruise together someday.

Ali Rauch 4:06
Okay, that sound that sounded just love

Brandon Burton 4:09
it. Love it. Yeah. Awesome. Good deal. Well tell us a little bit about the the Opa Locka chamber your team your wonderful team that with you to to make this achievement and just give us an idea of size staff Scope of Work budget just to set the stage. I’m

Ali Rauch 4:28
so open like it is a smaller, I would consider to be a rural community in Alabama. We’re in East Central Alabama and we are the sister city to Auburn, which is home of Auburn University. So we have that like super cool college town adjacency but up like it is a tip older sister that has a really special and unique downtown area. We have a massive number of entrepreneurs and businesses in the area. It’s a very prosperous area that tends to be Knock on wood be a little bit recession proof, because between the university and the hospital, and we’re very much on a transportation kind of hub that we tend to still continue to do well, and we’ve got a lot of growth happening in our community. We’re the third fastest growing city in the state of Alabama. So very, very proud of kind of our growth. But our chamber is, you know, we are the Opalite chamber. So we represent the city of Oberliga. However, because we are in a larger MSA area of about 170,000 people, through Alberto Blanca and the county, we have a lot of businesses who fall outside of that actual city of OPA Leica. And so we’re kind of, we’re kind of in this in between where yes, we have, we have a town of 33,000. But we’re serving a larger region as well. So we have about 1000 Members, we’re 13 shy of 1000 members right now. And we are very excited to break 1000 and stay broken, stay over that 1000 home. In 2024, we’re almost there. We’ve got a budget of under a million dollars, we have a team of currently a team of seven. And then of course, we utilize some interns for help as well. But we have a really great partnership with our city where we have a contract for services where we’re responsible for entrepreneurship, we’re responsible for kind of business development, we do not do economic development, we do not do tourism, we have great partners for that. So we really stay hyper focused on making sure our business community has what it needs. And we do that and stay focused on our mission of strengthen our community as the champion for business. Awesome.

Brandon Burton 6:42
Awesome. Yeah. So you guys are kind of in a weird, not weird, but it’s a interesting situation. I mean, you’re not just the typical, you know, hometown chamber, right. It’s kind of a quasi Regional Chamber as well. So and

Ali Rauch 6:57
we have a fellow chamber right across the street, across the street, but you know, seven miles up the road in our other sister city who’s just as large and doing the right thing. So it’s really interesting.

Brandon Burton 7:08
Yeah, that is cool. Well, on these chamber the year finalist episodes, I like to spend the majority of our time really diving into the the two programs that you submitted on your synopsis and the application for chamber the year and we’ll get much deeper into those details and what those programs are as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Ali we are back. So as I mentioned before the break we’re going to be diving into the two programs synopsis that were included on your chamber that your application I understand the first one has to do with food trucks or something like that. Yeah, dive into that and tell us what that program is about and the impact it’s made in the community.

Ali Rauch 10:09
Yeah, absolutely. A few years ago, it was actually in response to COVID. We had numerous restaurants closed in our historic downtown and our historic downtown. It’s beautiful. It’s, it’s very cool. We have a courthouse square, we’ve got a railroad tracks, and then we’ve got downtown merchants. And, you know, we had some businesses, specifically restaurants closed during COVID. And we are also home of the very first legal distillery for bourbon and vodka and everything in the state of Alabama, since prohibition is made right there in our downtown. And so we’ve got a distillery, we have two breweries, we’ve got a brew shop. So it’s a very eclectic, cool space. And people weren’t coming downtown, because they there were such few restaurants that they couldn’t get into them. They’re great, but they’re busy. And so they couldn’t get into those restaurants. And those brew shops and such were like, how can we get people downtown, we’re struggling. And so the idea came to maybe bring one food truck down. And then I thought, well, instead of just one want to, I don’t do anything small. So why don’t we do more and make it kind of like an event. And it started by almost by force, because our city ordinances do not allow food trucks in our downtown, that were a special event. So I had, I had to create a special event for the food trucks to get approved. But then on top of that, I had to go to our city council, there was a lot of advocacy efforts put into this because we had to convince the city council to allow us to create this event and bring these food trucks in. And it didn’t just stop with Okay, let us do it once we had to prove ourselves. So we came back every three months and reported on results and said, This is good for business, this is bringing people down. And so what we do is we bring about 20 to 25 food trucks to our downtown, we do not close all of the streets, because we’ve got a lot of street parking. And so it’s important that people can get down and be convenient. So we block off some parking spots, and we put the food trucks in place. And they’re right up against the sidewalk. So all that pedestrian traffic stays right there on the sidewalks next to the businesses. And it’s on the third Friday, every month from five to 9pm. We’ve got about 30 trucks down there. And we’re seeing an average of 3600 people every Friday night that come down for this, which is amazing. We have grown from having I think 11 Food Trucks registered to do business in OPA Leica to nearly 60. And so that’s sales tax revenue for our businesses. That’s, you know, permits for our city government. But then, of course, that also has driven membership for us. So we have a good number of food trucks who choose to be a member, you actually don’t have to be a member to be a part of food truck Friday. But you know, we charge a fee to every truck that participates. They’re required to be licensed and health department and pay their taxes and all of those things. And so it’s a really great partnership for us that has just built so much community for our for our citizens, we have, we have a very good community that’s about 5050 When it comes to African Americans and white people and and then we’ve got a growing Hispanic population. And I was always told that, you know, a lot of African Americans didn’t feel comfortable coming downtown, and it just didn’t feel like their place. And it could not be more different now, because of food truck Friday, it has been just life changing. Because again, a lot of the food trucks that we’re bringing, these are businesses, you aren’t ready, they maybe they don’t have their finances in order to have a brick and mortar store. But they can get themselves together for a food truck. And they’re traveling around. And so we also have, we have a ton of African American food truck owners, which then bring the African American citizens to come down and get that food. And it has just created this true melting pot that our community on future Fridays looks like our community in downtown and it’s just really special. That’s

Brandon Burton 14:27
awesome. I think it was just this past week, I had seen a meme if I remember right, I think it was put out by the 13 ways organization, you know, 13 ways. And it said something to the effect of show me a vital downtown and I’ll show you a vital community, right. So essentially, downtown is going to be a reflection of your community as a whole. So being able to put that focus on it, I see a huge value and I love being able to see that representation of your community in the downtown. You mentioned it started Did through the pandemic? And I’m sure restaurants shut downs and things like that. Are any of those restaurants? Did they go from a brick and mortar to a food truck? Do they still operate that way? Or how? What’s that dynamic look like today?

Ali Rauch 15:15
It has been so cool on to watch the growth. So we had, one of the ways that we really made this work was a few in the early days, we didn’t have that many food trucks. So we had some caterers that really wanted to grow. So we would let the caterers prepare their food in their Commissary Kitchen and then set up in the brewery. And then they would serve their plates from the brewery. And so we have had, let’s see, I think one caterer that became a food truck, we’ve had another caterer who now has one brick and mortar restaurant, she was just nominated for Business of the Year for our annual awards. She’s working on her second location. We’ve had trucks, we’ve had another truck that was just so popular, called last Latinas. They have now opened up their own Commissary Kitchen, for catering services and for takeout but are still operating their truck as well. So there’s been a lot of growth and success as a result of open like a having a hub for food trucks. And now it’s turned into brick and mortar and just expanded service in the area. That’s

Brandon Burton 16:21
awesome. So you had also mentioned you had to go back to city council, like every three months to state your case, and really show the evidence of why this works. What are some of those more compelling pieces that made them decide? Yeah, this is a good thing to have on a regular basis?

Ali Rauch 16:38
Well, you know, what we showed them is that when you’re when food trucks are parked, closest, like close to a restaurant, you might think, oh, that’s bad. We can’t do that, because it’s going to take business away from the restaurant. But what we were doing is that we were driving such an influx of people, the food trucks couldn’t handle the demand. So what we saw was that people would be hungry and decide, oh, I’m not waiting in that line. And they’d go into the restaurants. And so we provided photos of our restaurants being packed to the brim at seven o’clock on a Friday night. While there are still 1000s of people out and about downtown. So we proved that. I think there just was such a high number of people downtown, like the mayor would come out and get his Friday Night Dinner every Friday night. We had asked restaurants if they could provide reports if they were up or down. And the vast majority of them were up. Interestingly enough, the the restaurants who refused to have a truck anywhere near their restaurant, did not see success. They didn’t, they decided I don’t want to be a part of it. So we respected their wishes and kept the trucks farther away from them. And they’re the ones that aren’t experiencing that influx. My one of my biggest wins is there’s a brewery that was pretty against it. They didn’t like the idea. And so we respected them for the first couple of months. And then I went to them and I said, Will you just trust me? Will you let me try this for two months, let me close this street right in front of you. Let me put a truck right in front of your doors. And if you don’t see an increase, then we’ll go back. And now they’re our biggest advocate because their restaurants back or their breweries back doesn’t

Brandon Burton 18:29
say that, that seems like such a perfect match, you know, at the food truck so

Ali Rauch 18:34
well, they serve food. And so they serve pizza and pretzels. So they were like kind of standoffish about it. But again, now they’ve seen such an influx. And now we put this really great milkshake shake shop right in front of them. That’s beautiful. That’s, you know, got great LED lights on top. So it draws a crowd. It’s just like a, you know, a beacon of light to send them over.

Brandon Burton 18:56
I love it. That’s awesome. So our time goes quick in these chamber, the your interviews. So let’s let’s shift gears into the second program, if you want to introduce it. The second program was submitted on your application.

Ali Rauch 19:09
Yes, our second public. Our second program was the public policy program that we have put in place. And, you know, the world today has a lot of political fragmentation that we have to overcome. And it was really important for us to be that unified champion for public policy. And so we started by creating an issue focused public policy agenda to engage our public sector. We host candidate forums. We supported our school system by being the main voice and advocate for the five miltax referendum renewal. And then we also started distributing regular public policy newsletters to ensure our members understood that big picture impact of federal and state legislation on their actual business.

Brandon Burton 19:56
Awesome. I’m taking notes as you’re going you guys covered a lot of things lot of issues there from the candidate forums, the school district and the newsletters. Are you able to see like engagement with the newsletters as far as informing the community and any feedback you’re receiving as providing that information? You

Ali Rauch 20:13
know, funny enough, it’s quiet, always quiet and quiet is okay. Because

Brandon Burton 20:18
there’s something of buzzworthy right, then then everybody’s

Ali Rauch 20:23
quiet is okay, we’ve really taken that stance of trying to make sure that informing is the goal, we’re not taking opinion. And we’re not, you know, advocating one way or the other, we are simply informing and so our public policy emails, I think, have at least a 45%, open rates. And we do send them on a regular basis just throughout the year, we will send them no more often than once a month. But when our state is in session, for those two and a half months, we try and do it every other week, so that we’re updating people on Friday afternoons for what’s happened in the past week and or so. And so, it is, it’s a segment of our membership that’s interested, but they’re not really loud and vocal, but that’s okay. Our goal isn’t to create this movement, we’re simply trying to inform people and make them better educated. Right?

Brandon Burton 21:14
Yeah, I think in in so many communities across the country, there’s local newspapers or local radio that used to cover these things that now maybe they don’t have the bandwidth, they don’t have the reporters, some of them don’t exist anymore. And chambers perfect to fill that void to be able to keep the citizens informed of policies and things going on in the community and from the public policy arena. And it’s a it’s a perfect alignment. And I’m actually kind of surprised more chambers weren’t involved with it before there was that kind of need, where there was those local news outlets.

Ali Rauch 21:47
It’s kind of scary, you know, like, you don’t want to get involved. But at the end of the day, I think Sherry Ann has shared this in the past, there’s that I think it’s the Edelman barometer of trust. The community trust the business community more than they trust the government more than they trust the media. So why not us to be that communicating force. And so, you know, we do, we do a lot of intentional efforts. So we connect with our legislators through our leadership programs, we do a 20 under 40 leadership program where we bring our legislators into connect with them. We do our Lee County Young Leaders program for high school juniors, where we go to see them at the state capitol and visit with the governor and lieutenant governor. And so we’re doing all these little things that are getting just informational, just trying to create those relationships and connections. We also host our annual State of the City event, which is kind of like an inaugural address, but for our mayor, and that is a great way for him to celebrate what’s been happening at the city. It’s a way for us to really establish our foothold as the voice for business and our community on all things advocacy. And it’s really been, it’s been exciting to see us take that elevated approach. And there was nothing more prominent in that elevation than us leading the charge for the tax mill increase, or the tax mill renewal for our schools. We you know, we put out yard signs, and we did text messages and email reminders to people to vote, and we had a 92% voting approval rate for the tax bill. So like, Hey, it works.

Brandon Burton 23:24
That’s awesome. And I think I’ve shared it before but our, in our community, we had a recent bond being proposed for the school district and my wife works for the school district. So she had a little bit of insider knowledge as far as the conversations going on about the number of participants voters coming out to vote on this bond. And we’re talking obviously, millions of dollars for this bond. And there was such a tiny percentage of the community that is making big decisions for the entire community and, and committing the community and the school district to huge debt. I mean, it’s a it can be a good thing and good purpose and everything but when it’s such a small percentage of the overall community that participates, it’s so important for a chamber to take ownership of that to drive voter turnout and to just get the general public involved with sharing their voice and, and their values in the community. So kudos to you.

Ali Rauch 24:24
Thank you. And I will say I’m just going to pull out a little brag because I realized that 45% open rate was actually 57% which i Hey, wow.

Brandon Burton 24:35
That’s awesome. Yeah, and as far as email open rates go, that’s a that’s huge. Wow. That is awesome. So, as you know, recently being on the show, I like having my guests on the show talk about any tips or action items for listeners who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level. especially as a chamber, the year finalist, you guys are kind of top of the game right now. So for those listening who would like to elevate their chamber, what kind of tip or advice would you offer for them?

Ali Rauch 25:12
I would say start small. You, you eat the elephant, one bite at a time. You know, it is not something where, you know, you go to sleep one day, you wake up the next day, and all of a sudden, you are this, you know, legendary public policy person on behalf of your community. It’s those little steps what our first step was to build a public policy agenda. We’ve never done that before we leaned on each other to do that. We connected with other communities that have done it before, to get a good baseline. We surveyed our membership, we built a partnership with other chambers in the area and said, Let’s do this together. So start small, what does that what’s that top priority and start there? And then we realized, okay, we need to do more. How do we update that our members on what’s happening every week in the legislation later, so then we started our newsletter. And then before we know it, we get asked to be the leading voice for the tax mail. And so it just kind of snowballs but start small, don’t be afraid to start small and it will grow and grow and grow as as you’re ready for it to grow.

Brandon Burton 26:16
I think great advice. I think the especially the point about partnering, partnering with other chambers, especially when a when you’re talking about public policy and advocacy efforts, work with other chambers work with your State Chamber, they provide so many great resources, that they’re doing a lot of the legwork and you’re able to pass along the information and and share it locally, right? Yes.

Ali Rauch 26:38
Well, that’s the important thing to note about our public policy newsletter, we are not writing anything from scratch in that newsletter, every single thing that we are sharing. It is it’s a press release from the governor’s office, it’s articles from the US chambers email or from ACCE easy now that it’s talking about specific policy that’s happening. We are simply copying, pasting it sort of shortening it for our format, from an informational prospective, and that’s it. And so you can absolutely do that. And they actually encourage it, which is really nice.

Brandon Burton 27:13
Yeah, yeah, it’s great having partnerships with these organizations that say, We’re doing this for you, please take this uses, your communities. They want you to do it. So. So the other question I like asking is, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Ali Rauch 27:35
I think you know, what I said last time still applies. I think we’re going to have an even bigger role and space to be those catalytic leaders for the future. How do we be I think, Sherry and says it, how do we continue to be the same center that makes sure that we are helping our business community in ways that matter? Let’s I think the future means that we’re not just going to do what we’ve always done. The the chambers that are going to be successful, that are going to make waves and do great work for many, many years to come. are the ones that are adapting and trying to do bigger things versus sticking to what has been traditionally considered what a chamber does.

Brandon Burton 28:16
Yeah, absolutely the same senators that it resonates very well. So especially in this crazy world,

Unknown Speaker 28:23
crazy world.

Brandon Burton 28:27
Well, Ali, I wanted to give you a chance again, to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and connect with you and maybe learn a little bit more about these programs that you guys are highlighting that are definitely making an impact in the open like a community what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you. You

Ali Rauch 28:43
can find us at OpelikaChamber.com or on any of the social channels at Opelika Chamber and we are of course you can find me as well my email addresses listed on the website and you can find me on LinkedIn and Ali Vice Rouch but I’m really excited, grateful and appreciative and looking forward to July

Brandon Burton 29:06
Yes, and I can I can say your your social media, your LinkedIn stuff you like eat, eat, drink, breathe everything chamber so great, great person to find you

Unknown Speaker 29:21
nothing halfway Brandon.

Brandon Burton 29:24
That’s right. We’ll get all of that in the show notes to make it easy for people to reach out and connect with you. But again, congratulations to you and your team. What an honor to be selected as a finalist and I wish you guys the best of luck in Dallas.

Ali Rauch 29:37
Thank you so much, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 29:40
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Policy & Advocacy with Brian Francis

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

Becki Womble 1:03
I’ve been using Community Matters for probably six or seven years now. And in a previous life, I sold commercial printing so I can highly recommend Community Matters because it’s a complete turnkey job for any busy chamber exec and it’s a wonderful, beautiful printed product whenever you’re finished. And I just I’m very sold on Community Matters. And with a printing background I just big endorsement from me.

Brandon Burton 1:44
To learn how Community Matters can support your chamber with your next publication. Please visit communitymattersinc.com/podcast To request your free media kit and request a proposal to find out what kind of non-dues revenue you can generate.

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Our guest for this episode is Brian Francis. Brian is founder and CEO of Lumin Strategies, a firm that helps Chambers of Commerce build eight plus advocacy programs through one on one consulting and a signature of advocacy framework online program. Brian’s experience covers nearly all facets of the policy and political world from political campaign leadership on successful bond referendum to successful advocacy as a registered lobbyists. He is past public affairs officer for Mecklenburg County and past vice president of public policy programs at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. He founded lumen strategies in 2016. This year, Brian joins the faculty for the US Chamber Institute of Organizational Management. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Davidson College, whose basketball program he’s supported since before Steph Curry. Brian, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Well,

Brian Francis 3:11
great. Thanks, Brandon. I’m really excited to be with you all today. And you hit on one interest, perhaps interesting thing about me I’m big, big college basketball fan. So the last couple months have obviously been a lot of fun for me, both for my alma mater, Davidson College, but also in the Big East. My son is a freshman at Butler this year. And so we’ve been following them. A more controversial thing about me perhaps one of my passions is that I think we should eliminate timezones. And we can certainly talk about that. But that’s probably a different podcast.

Brandon Burton 3:42
Yeah, you can get on your soapbox there for a moment right. Now, that’s great. So I’d like for you to take just a few minutes and tell us a little bit about lumens strategies, what the company is like, who you serve, and it’s about advocacy, but just maybe in a brief nutshell, to kind of set the stage for discussion. Yeah,

Brian Francis 4:04
probably like a lot of companies. You know, we’ve evolved over time. So we’ve been in business for about eight years, we started as a strategic communications consulting firm, that really dabbled in a lot of different areas. But over the last several years, we’ve really honed in on chambers of commerce and helping them build advocacy programs. And we we do that two ways. One, we work one on one with chambers in a consulting role many times serving essentially as the VP of public policy for their Chamber of Commerce. In fact, some of our clients put us on their staff page as their Director of Advocacy or VP of public policy. And we also work with chambers of commerce through our signature online program, the advocacy framework. This is oftentimes for chambers that maybe are a little bit smaller, aren’t looking for the kind of the investment required to have somebody working directly with them. But what to get involved with advocacy wants to learn how to do advocacy, and through our program, we basically teach them how to institute and run a public policy or advocacy program.

Brandon Burton 5:06
That’s very helpful. And as listener might guess, we’ve decided on a topic for our discussion today to be centered around advocacy since you guys are kind of the experts on that. So we look, we look forward to dive in deeper into this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Visit ChamberNation.com to learn more.

Alright, Brian, we’re back. So before the break, when you were telling us a little bit about lumen strategies, it’s obviously a company that you built around helping chambers of commerce and build advocacy programs. Why do you think that advocacy programs are so important for chambers to be involved with?

Brian Francis 7:23
Well, if you think about chambers of commerce, historically, really, the whole reason we have Chambers of Commerce is to help businesses in a community grow. And chambers do a lot of great work around networking activities, helping their members meet potential customers. But I think a core part of helping the business community grows, ensuring that there is a public policy climate that allows for businesses to grow. And really, Chambers of Commerce were instituted to represent business interests in their community. And so from a foundational perspective, I think it’s really important. I think it’s also really important as you talk to maybe your higher investor members, you know, a lot of times if you have a manufacturer in your community, they’re not looking to sell to the community, their market is global. If they’re going to get involved in the chamber, they need a different value proposition. And really the value proposition for them is what are you doing to make the overall business climate better, so their business can succeed? Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 8:25
And I know chambers of all different sizes, you know, they’re in different areas of spectrum, right, as far as being involved with advocacy. So I’m hopeful that our conversation today will help shed some light on different ways to get involved on an advocacy front, whether that’s bringing in somebody like yourself to help with that effort, or just to expose them in ways to to better support those business members that they have. So kind of along those lines with advocacy. I think there’s a real argument to have ag advocacy as an investor hook. Right. So as you’re going after new members, you’re trying to bring in new businesses to join the chamber. How would you see using advocacy as an investor hook? Well,

Brian Francis 9:15
I really do think it is something and you have to think about your high level investors, it is a way to get them to participate more in your chamber and to put more money into your chamber. And you there’s some four boxes out there people will have probably seen when you think about your Chamber members, you have chambers who Chamber members who are looking to get something from your chamber, and you have Chamber members who are looking to get something done. And one of the things we talked about is you we often think about the return on investment for members and a lot of members are looking for that return on investment. And if you think about you know a lot of your smaller members, your local retailer or maybe a residential realtor or a copier salesman, they’re looking to find customers and they’re going to measure their return on how many customers? And how much revenue Did you directly produce for them? Like I mentioned for a manufacturer or maybe even a bank or a bigger member of your community, and oftentimes the longer member longer time members of your community, those who are the pillars of the community, as it were, they’re not really looking for that so much the return they’re looking for is, how much can they grow their business, because you have helped foster a climate that is positive to them. I would also say, you know, for those smaller members, there is a direct return as well in in North Carolina, a couple years ago, there was a tax issue related to PPP loans, that local Chambers of Commerce got behind and ultimately saved small business in North Carolina $640 million through their advocacy. Now that 640 million was 5000. Here, 5000. There, but that was it made a big difference to a lot of small chamber members. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 10:57
absolutely. And I think there’s a lot of examples through the pandemic, and the PPP loans and things of that nature, where you can really see the advocacy efforts of chambers really being recognized, especially by those businesses that maybe were more transactional, to begin with, and kind of moves them over to the transformational side of things and understanding the bigger picture of what chambers can do. You didn’t necessarily use those that phrase of transactional, the transformational, but are there other ways that you can see where you can take somebody from a transactional relationship to more than transformational in this kind of a advocacy conversation

Brian Francis 11:36
100%. And in fact, one of the things I would say is you need to talk about that value. I’ve seen this with a lot of chambers we work with they they’ll have a tiered do structure, which I 100% support, and I think it is the direction all the chambers need to go and if they don’t have one already, but when you get to those higher tiers, the value that the Chamber often puts on that piece of paper is we will give you a foursome at our golf tournament, or we will give you a table at our annual meeting. And a lot of times, that’s not necessarily what those larger investors are looking for. What they’re really looking for, is we saved your company money by helping navigate this regulation or changing this local zoning regulation, or, you know, we were at the forefront of this tax policy change that is making a difference of 10s or hundreds of 1000s of dollars for your business. So part of it is changing what you talk about and recognizing the and giving credit to those people because of your investment, we were able to do this advocacy. And because we were able to do this advocacy, you saw this return.

Brandon Burton 12:45
Absolutely, yeah. But just the examples he gave there, I can see where some members may say I’m, I’m really just not a golfer like that doesn’t appeal to me, or I really don’t need to go to another meeting, like as much as I appreciate the prime table at the annual meeting, I don’t really care to go, you know, whereas if they can look to the chamber and say, Man, you guys really helped us tackle this big issue of child care, or workforce or whatever it may be, then they can really see where the needle is moving with their business with the involvement with the chamber. So

Brian Francis 13:18
absolutely, I mean, we I think we forget, sometimes sometimes it can be a hassle to have to try to fill a table. And so you’re actually making your members life more difficult on by trying to give them something that they really aren’t looking for. Right?

Brandon Burton 13:32
So great arguments for being involved with advocacy, what from your experience, and just reasonings that you can see why. What holds the chamber back from getting involved with advocacy.

Brian Francis 13:44
I would say the first thing and I hear this all the time is chamber presidents executive directors and their boards say, we don’t want to get involved in politics. And oftentimes that comes from a bad experience that maybe they had years ago where somebody said the chamber is too political. And so we’re dropping our membership. And one of the things that we emphasize to people, we’re not talking about getting involved in politics, we’re talking about getting involved in policy. And here’s the distinction that I make politics is about people and power. Policy is about laws and regulations. And I will put the caveat out there. There are some chambers out there who get involved in politics, they have PACs, they endorse candidates. And I would say that’s kind of at the end, you talked before about a spectrum that’s at the end of the spectrum. If you’ve never done anything in the political realm or the policy realm before, that’s not where you start. Where you start is identifying the issues that matter to your members and working on those issues, regardless of who supports them. So this isn’t, hey, we’re going to support this ordinance because the mayor asked us to it’s we’re going to support this ordinance because we had a rigorous process to identify what is important to our members. And they’ve told us this is an important issue that needs to be corrected in order for their business to grow.

Brandon Burton 15:03
Absolutely. And I would even say even some of the pushback that they might have gotten in the past, I think getting involved with politics rather than policy is an obvious reason why they might hear some of that pushback, but there’s always going to be somebody who’s not happy with something, and they tend to be the loudest, right? So if you’ve got 1000 members, or 400 members, and you hear that one squeaky wheel, you know, that’s not indicative of what everybody else is thinking. So everybody else is cheering you on, even though they may not be coming to your front door to patch on the back.

Brian Francis 15:37
You know, that’s 100% Correct. And I imagine most of your audience are chamber staff, folks. And that’s one of the things that we talk about. When that squeaky wheel starts to squeak, we think it’s very important for your chamber to have a member driven policy process where you have a committee that’s developing the policies, it’s reviewed by your executive committee, it’s approved by your board. So when that squeaky wheel calls up the director and says, Why did you decide this? The director can say, Whoa, I didn’t decide this, this was decided by our members, by the people who participate, who learned about the issue and identified it as being something important for us to be involved

Brandon Burton 16:15
in. Right, right. And I think for all the staff to be able to understand this is how you respond when when there is opposition. I think that’s very important. So I can understand your chambers may not want to get involved with politics. But to think more on the policy side, I think would hopefully generate some interest for chambers to get involved. Are there other reasons that that you can see why chambers hesitate from getting involved with advocacy? Yeah, so

Brian Francis 16:45
I think once chambers make the decision, they want to get involved in policy. The next step is where do I start? And where do I find the time to do it. So a lot of chamber executives don’t have experience in the policy world. They, they literally don’t know where to start. And then also, you run into this all the time, especially with your smaller chambers. You know, there’s 1000, things that they have going on, you need to get your invoices out, you’ve got business after hours, you have to plan annual meetings coming up. The local school system wants to talk about workforce development, where do you find the time to put together a policy program and and I’ll say, that’s really where we step in. Both from our past experience, I’ve been involved in the political and policy arena for more than 25 years, we kind of have the expertise of how the process works. But then also, from the capacity standpoint, we try to make it easy for our clients in either our consulting or our online program by providing email templates, draft agendas, really all the work that needs to be done behind the scenes we do for them, so that they can just go out and execute on on running the policy program. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 18:00
no, I can see where where the expertise and capacity could be, you know, hurdles to overcome. Maybe starting with with expertise, if you don’t feel like you’re equipped to be able to handle this, what are some solutions or ways to overcome it? I think every chamber needs to be involved on some level on that spectrum with advocacy and policy. But how do you overcome that big hurdle of not having, you know, the not being fully equipped, or you may not feel like you’re equipped enough to handle these these topics? Well,

Brian Francis 18:32
I think the first thing is to accept and feel confident that it’s okay that you don’t understand every issue in the middlee. Elected officials don’t lobbyists don’t There are a lot of niche areas. And so the first thing I would do is say, look for your experts. So if there is an issue that a lot of members are talking about health insurance costs, and you have an insurance agent or representative who’s a member of your chamber, go to them to look for information, go to the local hospital system. If broadband is a a coming issue in your community and and investing there, look to the telecom providers that may be involved. So within your membership, you have a lot of expertise. And one thing you can do is look to your members to help educate you on their areas of of expertise. The second thing I would do and this varies a little bit from state to state, but oftentimes the State Chamber of Commerce can be a great resource. We work in South Carolina quite a bit and the South Carolina chamber does a great job every week of putting out a an email and a social media post that has just three things to know. And oftentimes, those are focused on policy issues that are moving through their legislature. And so you can often kind of repurpose that content and share it back out to your members and establish yourself as an expert just by finding the information for your members that they don’t have time to find.

Brandon Burton 19:57
Yeah, and that that helps with The Capacity stand front too, if you’re able to have a trusted source, like a State Chamber who’s doing a lot of the legwork, they have staff members who are facing, you know, the advocacy issues, and being able to put that out, be involved, like tap into that resource, but then repurpose it, then it shows Hey, we’re tapped into knowing what’s in the know, and what’s important to you. And, and all of that, are there other ways as far as tapping into the capacity issue, that time issue for chambers with getting involved? Or is that the the main thing you’d go to?

Brian Francis 20:34
So I think those are definitely helps. You know, I would say, if you have volunteers who have capacity, this is a great way to plug them in. One of my favorite tricks, so to speak, is to find a former chair of your board, who still wants to be involved. A lot of times, you know, these chairs kind of they they have their chairmanship year, they’ll have their immediate past chair year, and they still want to be involved with the chamber, they’re not sure what to do next. And so getting them involved in chairing a policy committee, you’re drawing on somebody who has a lot of experience and a lot of leadership within your your organization. And so you can rely on them. You know, and I’d say, your drawl from other Chambers of Commerce. You know, a lot of that one of the important things to get started is developing a legislative agenda. And Chambers of Commerce typically will put those on to their websites. So go around to other communities that are of like size to yours in the state are maybe even a little bit bigger, maybe more involved with it and see what they’re talking about. And use that as a jumping off point.

Brandon Burton 21:39
I love that. It’s it’s always good to collaborate good ideas from other chambers. And and the the idea of using a past chair, I think is is crucial, because they’re intimately involved with the the goings on with the chamber. They understand the mission and vision they’ve been highly involved. And to be able to keep them involved in a meaningful way, I think is a great way to utilize a past chair, that’s a great idea.

Brian Francis 22:03
Well, the other thing I would say to with working with other chambers in advocacy, coalition building is really important. And so sometimes people are like, Why do you still want to take what somebody else did, and I can make some arguments, you shouldn’t just do that, because you want your members invested in your policy positions. So I always say use them as ideas, rather than just taking something old cloth from somebody else. But once you say, hey, childcare, and ensuring that we have more childcare workers is an important issue to us, and we want to work on it, you can leverage the other chambers who have said the same thing to work together. And not everybody has to be the leader and carry all the water on each issue. Sometimes simply saying me to our chamber to supports this can really help move something forward. And the other people who have already identified that issue will be happy to have you working with them, and won’t really see it as you’re taking something from them, but rather, you’re adding something to their efforts.

Brandon Burton 23:02
Right. And I think as far as coalition’s go, especially with a regional focus, if you’ve got the chambers within your county or a Tri County area where you’re facing a lot of the similar issues together, it’s one thing from a chamber from another state, there’s still value that can be found there for sure. But you definitely wouldn’t want to copy paste, you know what they’re doing. And then South Carolina if you’re in Tennessee, for example. But if you’ve got other chambers in your county, that you can collaborate together and really build something that’s efficient and meaningful for your members. I agree.

Brian Francis 23:36
And particularly because we’ve really tried to focus our clients on working at the state level, what we have said is at the federal level, it’s just so big. And the process, especially these days is so unwieldy. It’s hard to have influence. And at the local level, a lot of stuff just happens kind of ad hoc, you know, you run into the mayor, and you talk about an issue and it gets resolved. But the state process, it’s it is more of a process. There’s a timeline that needs to be involved. There’s, there’s a lot more work, that move happens to move something through. But chambers really can have a lot of influence. You’re seeing your state reps, hopefully, you’re seeing your state senators, they’re calling on you for advice, and it’s a place where you can really have an impact. Right?

Brandon Burton 24:18
Absolutely, you can make that impact. And I’d like to argue that maybe it does make an impact on the federal level if enough states are doing it and the broader level can see what’s important. But Brian, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask for the chamber listening who’s interested in taking their chamber up to the next level? What tip or strategy might you offer to them to try to accomplish that goal?

Brian Francis 24:43
So the first thing I would say is have a conversation with your board. You know, this is really I’ve started by saying needs to be a member driven process and that starts with your leader members who are on your board of directors. Talk to them about why you You think advocacy is important, we have on our website or by contacting me, I can send to you a PowerPoint draft presentation that you can literally drop your Chamber’s name into. And it kind of walks through how to have that conversation, a lot of what we talked about today about how to talk to them about being involved in policy, not politics. What you need to do to get started with kind of the steps are that you’ll go through the process, but the very first thing you need to do is have buy in from your board, because this is not an easy thing to do. If it is staff driven, you really need to have that volunteer leadership on board.

Brandon Burton 25:34
Absolutely. So I like asking this question to everyone that I have on the podcast, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Brian Francis 25:48
So the first thing I would say, obviously, we know we’re a much more global economy. So the the hometown member to member transactions become less and less prevalent, it’s easy to find a website provider who’s across the country across the world. And so I think there is a need for chambers to evolve, and to continue to provide that value. But I would also say, when you look at the political world these days, I would say that we are oftentimes dominated by extreme conversations or folks who are more at the the ideological fringe. And I think there is a need for a common sense, bro business policy advocate in just about every community. And it’s if the chamber is not doing it, we always say if the chamber is not the voice for business, then business has no voice in the community. And so I really think the futures of chambers, if they are going to continue to be relevant, they have to be involved in providing that voice to say, regardless of all the stuff that people are talking about, that elected officials are talking about, here are the things that we really need to do to invest in our community, to invest in our workforce and to promote our businesses so that our economy can continue to thrive.

Brandon Burton 27:07
Right. And I think you hit on the political fringes, I think so much of that we see on the national level, right? Watch news channels and things like that, where you get in the local levels, you get into local policy and and even state policy. And you don’t see quite as you know, dramatic ends of the you know, the those political fringes that the opposite ends of the spectrum, there’s a lot more in the middle. And there’s a lot more that chambers can can stand on as being that same center and being able to bring people together, that I think that that vision you have of chambers, the future, I think is spot on. So thank you for sharing that. I wanted to give you an opportunity, Brian to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you or ask for the PowerPoint that you mentioned, to be able to have these conversations at their board, what would be the best way for listener to reach out and connect with you?

Brian Francis 28:04
Well, I’d say there’s two great ways. First of all, you can always email me is bfrancis@luminstrat.com, that’s L u m, I n s t r a t, or connect with me on LinkedIn on Brian Francis, from North Carolina, Davidson College, that should give you enough to find me, we try to put out a lot of content that is helpful for chambers of commerce through the LinkedIn. And so that would be a great place as well. That’s

Brandon Burton 28:32
perfect. And we’ll get that in the show notes as well make it easy to find and, and I would encourage everyone to reach out to Brian and ask for that PowerPoint to be able to start these conversations with your board. They will to get ideas of where on that spectrum you want to jump in at and getting involved with policy and advocacy at your chamber. And, and maybe you’re already involved. But let’s see, you know, how can you continue moving that needle. But, Brian, it’s been great having you with us today. I appreciate you taking some time to deal with us here on Chamber Chat Podcast. And I think you’ve pulled back the curtain on a lot of important topics and around policy and chambers getting involved and overcoming you know some of the hurdles that they might see as hurdles, but to see that it is possible to move, move past and move through those obstacles to really get involved in a meaningful way. So I appreciate you being on here and sharing your expertise with us. Well,

Brian Francis 29:29
thank you for having me, Brandon. Maybe I can come back and talk about Thompson sometime.

Brandon Burton 29:33
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Civic Engagement with Candance Brake

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

Learn how you can partner with Community Matters, Inc. to produce your next Chamber Directory, Community Guide or Map.

Our guest for this episode is Candance Brake. Candance is the President and CEO of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce in Kentucky. She has held the CEO position since 2015 and has a career dedicated to Community and Economic Development. She served as a three term city commissioner from 2004 to 2010, serving on conditions that led to the downtown placemaking strategy and the region shift to a knowledge based economic development strategy. Prior to holding public office, she served as executive vice president of the greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Corporation and deputy judge slash slash executive for the Davies county fiscal court. She has also served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Government at Western Kentucky University. She served on numerous boards and Ken Ken Commission’s throughout her career. She’s also a member of ACC and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce executives and the Kentuckians for better transportation. That candidates I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little bit better.

Candance Brake 3:13
Well, thank you so much for having me branded and thanks to Carlos Phillips for passing my name on to you. He’s a rockstar around here. So and hello to all my fellow champ chamber executives. We you know we’re all right now grinding it out. And I’m think we’re all probably dealing with legislative sessions no matter where we live around the country. So it’s it’s such an energizing part of my life to be a part of a group of people who are really pushing our country forward as we push our communities forward sometimes against all the odds. So thanks for having me here today.

Brandon Burton 3:46
Yes, absolutely. Tell us a little bit about the Owensboro Chamber of Commerce. Just to give us an idea of the size of the chamber scope of work, you guys are involved with staff budget, that sort of thing, just to set the yeah for our discussion.

Candance Brake 3:59
So we actually are in the Evansville, MSA to put it in perspective of where we’re located. So we’re close to Illinois, Indiana and content. We’re in Kentucky. So we’re in a tri state area. And we have around 180,000 and RMSA. Ellen’s borough is a town of around 60 in a county of around 120. And our chamber we represent around 1000 members. Our membership goes all the way from health care to nonprofit to churches and mostly predominantly small businesses most chambers are our annual budget is a little over a million dollars. And so we operate small we have a small team of four that serves those 1000 members and we’re always trying to like every other chamber our size, we’re trying to offer more programs and and do more things for our communities because we know that that what we can do even from a programming perspective is going to translate into economic growth for our region. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 4:58
absolutely. Yeah. for staff to service 1000 members, you guys are hustling you guys are you’ve got really good efficiencies and programs in place. So

Candance Brake 5:08
I would say both I would say yes really lucky to have each other to great team.

Brandon Burton 5:14
Very good. Well, I’m excited for our topic today as we dive into that, around the the idea of civic engagement, and I think you have a unique perspective to bring to this topic. And I think across the country, there’s, you know, chamber chamber leaders from all different walks of life, some that are just starting day one today, and others that have had a whole career as a chamber executive. And you know, maybe some feel like they haven’t been given the keys or the permission to get involved civically, so I’m excited to dive into that with you as soon as I get back from this quick break.

Visit ChamberNation.com to learn more.

All right, Candance we are back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re diving into the topic today of civic engagement. So I would like to hear from you. Just to start off, let’s let’s hear from your perspective. What should a chamber be thinking of when it comes to being involved civically in their community?

Candance Brake 7:55
So yeah, I think a lot of that Brandon depends on the size of the community or the chamber is our community. As I said earlier, we’re we’re considered a rural area. But we do have an urban center, we’ve got just a really interesting mix of what we do here economically, but also, you know, with with people who live here, we have a rising M Afghan refugee population, and then several other refugee populations that are coming to our community that we’re very excited about. And we actually have, I believe I’m bragging, but sometimes I can go just a little too far. But I believe we have the highest refugee certification rate in the country. And that’s due to the fact that we have people in our community that are that are working tirelessly to do this. So in that that person who’s in charge of that is actually our chamber executive committee. So we try to have had built a bench that really understands the community engagement piece. People who don’t see big pictures often have a hard time understanding why chambers would need to be involved in civic engagement. You know, but all the the national studies that you’ve seen, show that communities around the country that people are dealing with an ever growing sense of isolation. And isolation is not good for human beings for mental health, but it’s also not good for economies. You know, people need to feel like they’re part of things to be productive citizens. So that’s where we start started. A few years back deliberately, we engaged a data person to look at our civic engagement levels and where they were as compared to around 50 other peer communities around the country. And those peer communities would have been communities without interstates like our community and without for your public universities we have to private colleges in our community, but that public universities we know it was a giant game changer for our community. So we looked at peer communities to see how we stacked up to those with regard to civic engagement. And what we found was we were we were clearly lacking in some some very critical roles. And our board at that point said, Okay, it’s time for us to do something proactive and jumpstart where we are, as a region, or we’re going to fall behind. And that’s when we came together. And we developed a Leadership Institute. And that we started it at the chamber, and we nurtured it over a year long period. And now it is a standalone nonprofit, that it’s a nonpartisan, it’s a think tank, but it’s also a do tank, okay, we’re, we’re they’re really making things happen. But that that organization, which is in our building, but but separate, it’s really, it’s already making some great headway in civic engagement pieces.

Brandon Burton 10:55
That’s fantastic. So I would love to know a little bit more about the Leadership Institute, kind of the purpose and mission behind that kind of the work that’s driven there. But also, as I touched on in the the introduction, those who have been in chamber work long enough, have figured out how hopefully, they figured out how to get a seat at the table, how to be involved civically, but those who are brand new, maybe we can just, you know, work it into the conversation as to where they can feel the ownership and the responsibility to really take charge. You

Candance Brake 11:30
know, and I do think, and this is coming from a female perspective, but I do see, you know, a lot of chamber presidents around the country, this, this disposition is being occupied predominantly more and more by more females, I think. And that’s just anecdotal. But women have a harder time of getting sometimes just taking their seat at the table. That’s what we do. That’s what we need to do. So you know, it’s not a matter of asking for it. It’s just taking it. And, you know, stepping out of our comfort zone, we’re representing the business community, we’re representing nonprofits, and people who want to make things happen. And, you know, to me, anytime I would feel hesitant on getting that seat, I think about this isn’t about me, this is about all the people that I’m representing that write a check to my organization to fund our work. And I have to do this for them. Right.

Brandon Burton 12:22
Yeah. I think that’s a really good perspective to bring that it’s not about you, you gotta get over the uncomfortable kind of situation and just take charge and realize it’s for the people you represent.

Candance Brake 12:33
And that makes it a lot easier to be to push your way in the day when you realize it’s this isn’t about me. This is about, you know, it’s about all those other folks.

Brandon Burton 12:41
It is and as you push a certain agenda to it’s not about you or your political views at all. It’s about representing the business community. So yes, yeah. So tell us a little more about the Leadership Institute, then about what that involves. And kind of the the origins of that and how it’s how it’s become what it is now spun off into its own nonprofit. It

Candance Brake 13:00
was really an origins of, of business community and business leaders around our table and nonprofit execs and higher ed leaders and people that were seeing that we had. We don’t if you don’t know how to say this in a constructive way, but a lack of intergenerational leadership in our community. The majority of our elected officials at that time, it was actually a maybe all of them were white men, Catholic, over the average age, I think was 71. That’s

Brandon Burton 13:35
normal, right?

Candance Brake 13:38
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s, you know, that’s, that’s city and county. Okay. That was all of our elected officials. Local. So, you know, it’s it was a matter of of the chamber going, Okay. This is not working for us, you know, we have to bring everyone to the table. Everyone has a unique perspective. And we have to create a city where people want to be if we’re going to compete, and we’re all saying this, and everybody that’s listening to it is shaking their head, because this is what we all deal with every day. But but the Leadership Institute was formed on that knowledge and the foundation that we have to do something we can’t be passive, and wait for someone else to do something. A cultural piece in our community has been really over the last 30 years, is to look to elected officials to lead and to kind of acquiesce, the role of citizen engagement to them. So our leadership institute is it’s more about Grassroots Leadership. It’s involving everyone and teaching people in their role as citizen teaching them how to get power for things that matter to them and that they feel like matters to the community. We have bases on the Kansas leadership Center’s adaptive leadership model And we do adaptive leadership training quarterly for people who have been in other leadership programs in the community that are interested. And that’s been really, really interesting and cool to watch. People, the light bulbs come on in people’s eyes, you know, like, oh, I don’t have to be an elected official, I don’t have to make this change. And we have some really great things happening now because of that.

Brandon Burton 15:23
Yeah. So personally, you took civic engagement to another level, right? You worked at the chamber, and then became an elected official for a time period. And all right back to the chamber. And I understand there in Owensboro, there’s a little bit of a history of, of a chamber staff becoming elected officials. So but I’d love to know what perspective that brings for you, as well, from having the chamber point of view. And then as the elected official, and then bringing it back to the chamber. Yeah.

Candance Brake 15:53
And also with the county, because I was on the county staff to was their administrator for a while. So yeah, I think the local government experience as an elected official, but also as a staff person, it gives it really gives you an inside an inside knowledge on the nuances of how they operate, first of all, you know, but also, you know, it’s kind of there’s no mystery in it kind of takes the veil off. It’s, it’s, you know, it’s representative government, and they’re here to represent us. And, you know, that’s all I don’t know. So that’s, you

Brandon Burton 16:27
know, that’s, that’s good. In that experience, was there talk about chambers of commerce that are trying to get the local chamber involved at different things are very siloed. No, the

Candance Brake 16:40
chamber, the chamber was always, what’s the chamber going to think about this? What’s the chamber gonna say? And then, when we did our we did that massive economic development placemaking strategy piece downtown, the Chamber support for that was critical, because we did write attacks to find it was $150 million in infrastructure improvements, and then 40 million from the federal government’s thanks to Senator McConnell. But but we had to raise those, we had to raise taxes. So the chamber coming to that meeting, when we raised it, and we had a, we had a City Commission chamber full of very angry, very loud, as anyone can imagine. And there was, it was one of the toughest meetings I’ve had, and I’ve had some tough ones. But having the chamber there to stand up and support us, was invaluable. It didn’t slow the den of the The cave people, the citizens against virtually everything. But it did, it did. It did give us the wind, I don’t know, in the courage, you know. So as a chamber president, now I know how important our role is, to those elected officials and to the staff, you know, because sometimes the staff are doing things that the elected officials don’t like, but the chamber wants them to do it. So it, you know, we have an important lobbying role within all the things that happen in the community,

Brandon Burton 18:04
right. And every community is so different on what their needs are and what those hot topics are at the moment. But for, for somebody who may be newer in the position, what would be a good first step to try to maybe level up there or get involved civically? And really? No, it’s about taking the seat, but really making the introductions trying to go to lunch with somebody like what what would you suggest, like tactic wise, to try to get involved?

Candance Brake 18:33
So I think I think the adaptive leadership model is the most important, you know, because your core constituents are going to depend on what issues you know, and if you were moving into a new community, I think that would be one of the more difficult chamber roles to take, because you have to find out, you know, who, where’s the power? And who are the players? Who can you trust that you have to do a lot more listening? than speaking for I would say here, you know, and that’s what I did you have to learn the rollback, but you do have to learn? who’s listening to whom, and, you know, who are the experts in what areas and and who are the, you know, we’re the hidden roadblocks or the hidden. I don’t say enemies, but the people that are going to try to kill projects in progress.

Brandon Burton 19:21
Yeah. So do you find that as a chamber, you’re taking issues to your local governments? Or are you seeing what the local governments do and trying to get behind those things that support local business? Or does it go both ways? How does how’s that relationship?

Candance Brake 19:35
It’s absolutely a mixture. You know, it’s there every day is a different, you know, piece of our partnership, but some days, it’s them coming to us and some days, it’s our going to them. But regardless, it’s that partnership is is very important to all of us here. And it’s the only thing that we can when people stopped talking, we stopped moving forward,

Brandon Burton 19:56
right, right. Now I think that’s so key. You So I always like asking this question. So for listeners who are out there who want to take their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item, might you suggest that they can maybe try implementing at their own chamber to see some positive results?

Candance Brake 20:17
Well, I think, for smaller chambers, one of the problems is that we don’t have, we don’t have the time to do things that we need to do. And I think one part of what what I did when I got into this position was we had all of these active committees. And I have a different philosophy on that of the committee meetings, because I worked on the echo chamber days where we had small business committee that had to meet once a month, we had to have the programming we had to do, and then staffed for other committees, and all I was doing was staff and committees, and not doing work, or not doing the important work for the community. So we have, we did an essential, basically an inventory on really where we are the chamber, we are a small business committee, I there’s there seems to be, so we eliminated things, and then we shifted to programming. And that has been, that’s been something I think that’s made us very successful. It has helped us engage a different group of people in the community through our programming. And it’s also given us an opportunity to develop some non dues revenue potential. And I mean, we all know that the non dues revenue is very important to our, to our existence.

Brandon Burton 21:32
Yes, no, I think that’s such a key point to touch on and, and really just taking that inventory of, you know, what is it that’s that’s sucking all your time out? Doing

Candance Brake 21:41
this? You know, why are we doing this? And is this really feeding our mission the way it needs to? Right? Yes.

Brandon Burton 21:46
So it’s not only the time, but it’s the energy that gets sucked into, like you were saying these different committees, right. So then when it comes back to that important work of really moving the ball forward, there’s nothing left in the tank. So I think being able to reassess, eliminate, shift those priorities and programming, I think you guys are, that’s, that’s great. A great tip. For listeners to really take inventory and see what they can do.

Candance Brake 22:12
You gotta be brave to do it, because it ruffles feathers. And you have old timers who have had been on the Small Business Committee for 35 years. And you know, that’s that was their thing. So, you know, but you got to find a way to get those people can onboard to. That’s

Brandon Burton 22:25
right. In fact, we just we did an episode a few weeks ago about overcoming the vocal minority. So if you miss sang, go back and listen to that, like

Candance Brake 22:34
we can do. I think we need to know a lot about that. That’s right.

Brandon Burton 22:38
Absolutely. So I like asking everybody, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Candance Brake 22:49
Well, I think as our local communities across the country become more nationalized in our politics, I think chambers are going to be more and more important than ever, we have, we have an existential piece, particularly in in areas like islands burrow, where we have lost corporate headquarters, and those corporate headquarters, when they move to other communities around the country, they lose that loyalty that they would have to their local chambers. You know, Walmart was thinking that they’re not members. But we do, you know, everything that we do helps Walmart, and but you look at so many different companies that have taken chambers off of their radar screens. And in essence, what they’re doing is making money in a community. And throughout, then they’ll give some money to a non charity, and then think that checks their block when the chamber is doing the heavy lifting for the charity as well. So we have to figure out how to articulate to those those corporations, why we are important, and get people to understand that and care about it. So I think that’s going to be a real challenge. But the scary part is there’s that big challenge there. But there’s also the vacuum that we have to fill with the leadership piece. And you look around the country, and I look at my colleagues and the great work they’re doing. And and I believe more than ever, you know, and I, I believe that chamber chambers of commerce, can can make our country better I really do. Because they don’t care what party you’re in. They don’t care what your private agendas are. We’re just trying to move the community forward. We’re to me with a great example of, of really how, how our country can work, you know better.

Brandon Burton 24:41
Yeah, no, and I think you hit on something there with really getting that that messaging down to these big corporations that are more national national chains because they do they look at the bottom line and what’s going to make the most profit and then they’ll give something back to the community but it’s not. It’s not hitting where it counts the most. Yeah, it’s for show. It is it is. It’s for show. And I’ve seen that and seen the messaging that these big corporations put out about, essentially just that it’s about the bottom line. Yeah, yeah. So if if anybody hits on something that works well, there, you know, please share it with us. I’ll have you on the podcast, and we’ll talk all about it. Yeah. Both candidates for for anyone listening who would like to reach out and connect with you or learn a little bit more about how you guys approach your civic engagement there in Owensboro, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Candance Brake 25:38
My email, which is cbrake@owensboro.com. That’s love to hear from from colleagues from around the country. Yeah, energizing and empowering because we are really all going through. And I will say one more thing that I would give to a younger or a new person in the chamber world is find another chamber executive, somewhere that’s leading that’s similar to your organization that you can call, and you might be calling to cuss about the the mayor, or you might be calling to cry because your board chair, you know, did something, you know, but But it’s having that person that you can trust. And that really understands, because, as we all know, nobody understands like how insane this world is, until they’ve been in it and the complexities and the balancing act and everything we do every day. There’s just there’s not a lot of folks that understand it. Yeah. So when we talk to chamber time, because chamber time here, you know, one week is actually about two years, it feels like right, I mean, yeah,

Brandon Burton 26:42
so now it’s true. And I think that’s such a great piece of advice. And I would even add to it that as you look to the other chamber executive, the other chamber professional to connect with and have your chamber time. Look at where you are professionally and look at someone who’s maybe a step or two ahead of you, however you determine that. But there’s some real icons in the chamber world. It may seem unattainable to get to where they’re at, if you try to connect with them right away, but look at somebody who’s a step or two ahead of you. That’s doable. You can you can get there and you can look to the adding more people to your chamber time,

Candance Brake 27:21
we all know and we all know Brandon and I know you feel the same way we all know that, that it’s feels makes us feel just as good to be that person that’s called the younger and the more aspiring and makes we could just as much as all of it, you know, as we do when we call the person that’s two years or two things at the wrong from us. It’s yeah, it takes all of us

Brandon Burton 27:40
you get all those reminders of when you were in that position a few years before and like, oh, yeah, that’s why we do this now. Right?

Candance Brake 27:47
And also, you know, it always works out.

Brandon Burton 27:49
That’s right. That’s right. Well, I will get your email in our show notes for this episode. So anyone can look you up there and connect with you. But I really appreciate you setting aside some time today amid your busy chamber schedule to view with us and offer your experience and insights especially on this important topic of civic engagement. So thank you for being with us today.

Candance Brake 28:12
Thank you so much for inviting me and thanks to everyone else for all the great work you’re doing.

Brandon Burton 28:17
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State Chamber as a Resource with Amy Cloud

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

Learn how you can partner with Community Matters, Inc. to produce your next Chamber Directory, Community Guide or Map.

Our guest for this episode is Amy Cloud. Amy currently serves as the Executive Director for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Executives. In this role, Amy maintains the level of professional development services that KCCE makes available to the local chamber executives and key volunteers. She activates statewide business advocacy and grassroots networks of local chambers and member companies. She plans and executes her annual conference and several smaller educational events each year. Amy also oversees the KCC e communications advises chamber executives and supports other local chambers in a variety of different ways. Amy has also previously served as executive director at the Jessamine County Chamber and at the Girard County Chamber. That Amy, I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and if you would share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Amy Cloud 3:03
Hey Brandon, thanks for inviting me on your show. This is wonderful. Like you mentioned before I have been in the chamber industry it’s been about 17 years I got my start on a fluke at a chamber in Middle Tennessee and beautiful McMinnville Warren County in Tennessee, so shout out to them. It’s makes me feel old and I’ve been in this industry so long. But anyway, a little bit about me. I’m a proud graduate of the University of Kentucky Go Cats, farm girl at hearts, got a farm with some sheep and cows and horses and my amazing Border Collies got a great partner in crime my husband of almost 30 years and two great kiddos, one’s a freshman in college, and one is a junior in college. So just a little bit about me chamber. Life is in my blood. And it’s great to find a job that you’re passionate about. I’ve been fortunate enough to not only work as a volunteer to chamber be a member of a chamber as a business owner, but also direct a couple three chambers and now work at the state level. So this is definitely my passion and definitely my career.

Brandon Burton 4:08
Yeah. So you mentioned you came into it as a fluke. I love hearing the origin story of how people came into chamber world if you don’t mind sharing what that Fluke was.

Amy Cloud 4:19
Well, sure. I got a great opportunity as a 20 something to join a large corporation in their marketing department and moved me from my home state of Kentucky to Middle Tennessee. It was in like I said the marketing department. Six months after I started they had a corporate restructuring. So our facility closed and moved to Mexico and the marketing department was reduced from seven to one which was my boss. So I lost my job in a new city in a new state with my first home. My husband was first time out of state as well. And I answered an ad in the local week. The paper for a public relations marketing professional, and that ended up being the Vice President of Operations for the McMinnville Warren County Chamber of Commerce. I don’t even know what a chamber was when I went to the interview. So it was a great experience. And I was hooked. I was hooked after that.

Brandon Burton 5:16
So you come from that perspective of not knowing what a chamber was, and now being over communications and being able to help relay what that story is, is very helpful. I’m sure. It is. It is it love it. Well, tell us a little bit about the KCC II just give us an idea of kind of everything that you’re involved with. I know I touched on a little bit of it with the bio, but there is a lot to it. So if you don’t mind helping to set the stage for listeners just to understand what what your role is, and, and what the organization is all about.

Amy Cloud 5:49
Absolutely. KCC E is a resource to local chambers. We offer professional development. For the staff, we offer board training for their volunteer board members, or their volunteer Ambassador group or committee chairs, whatever that looks like strategic planning services, networking opportunities, we are a resource, so they don’t feel like they’re alone. So many local chamber professionals feel like an island because no one else in the community does what they do. A Chamber of Commerce is the only organization in town that is solely dedicated to the prosperity of the business community. Other people have that as part of their plan, you know, banks, banks, or community colleges, or whatever that looks like. But the sole business of a chamber is the business community. And so I feel like we try to be that partner for them that champion for them. They can call on me for advice. A lot of them just say, Hey, this is what’s going on, what would you do, as opposed to, hey, we’re planning this new event, and we don’t want them to reinvent the wheel. So we gather up continually resources as people do new projects, new activities, new events, they rewrite their bylaws, they have new policies and procedure manuals. I mean, all that in the weeds kind of stuff. And we make sure that we don’t allow other people to reinvent the wheel, there’s no need for it. It’s a joke around our industry that plagiarism is Latin for Chamber of Commerce. It’s the highest form of compliment compliment for one chamber to steal another chambers idea. So we certainly encourage that. And we do a lot of r&d, which is ripoff and duplicate. A great thing in Kentucky is I’m a full time staff member at the State Chamber. So that makes a great relationship between our local chambers, and our State Chamber and that empowers them to be even bigger and better than ever.

Brandon Burton 7:52
Yeah, no, I love that. And that leads in well to what our topic for our conversation is today about using your State Chamber as a resource. So listeners across the country as they listen to this obviously will have their own State Chambers. So you don’t necessarily represent all of them. But hopefully this gives them ideas of how to utilize their State Chamber and to see the great power that can be there as having that advocate and that that resource to go to. So we will dive much deeper into this discussion as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Amy, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about utilizing your State Chamber as a resource. So from your vantage point, you’ve been on both sides of the desk, so to speak, where you were, you know, at the the local chamber level, and now as a State Chamber employee and and KCC II, how do you see the value or as a local chamber? What should they be looking to the State Chamber and organizations like yours to support them? Absolutely.

Amy Cloud 11:20
And I’ll speak coming from Kentucky, it’s a little bit different in every state the relationship that local chambers have with their State Chamber, as well as their state association. Not all state associations are in house with their State Chamber, that shouldn’t keep anyone from building relationship with both. A great advantage with being connected with your State Chamber is your grassroots advocacy. Your State Chamber is probably one of the largest, if not the largest lobbying efforts in your state at your state level of government. They know the players they know the constitutional officers like your governor and your Secretary of State. They have great relationships with the representatives and senators from across your state, not just yours at the local level. They understand what’s good for business across the state because they get input from folks across the state, the state chamber membership has members just like a local one, that varying from single owner businesses to the fortune 500. So by having a relationship with your State Chamber, you can get a lot of that information about bills and laws that are being passed or being defeated. At the state level without a lot of legwork on your part. You can also encourage your community to have a voice and to be an advocate. That’s why it’s grassroots advocacy. It’s from the root up. And the root is the local community. Having a voice holding your elected officials accountable, is what we all need to do as voters in our country is we need to exercise that right. And I believe chambers can do that without being a political entity. local chambers don’t need to be political entities supporting individual politicians, but they can certainly be a public policy entity where they educate the voter. Let the voter know what’s going on at the state capitol at the National Capitol. What’s happening in government, what’s good for business, what’s happening that’s good or bad for business and how they can be proactive about it. I can’t say it enough, how engaged our local chambers are in Kentucky because of the relationship they have with the Public Affairs Department at the State Chamber through KCC II.

Brandon Burton 13:47
As far as the grassroots efforts, part of it goes with the with the chamber. And by definition, I picture these topics, these pieces of legislation, maybe the need to get a little more traction are coming from a lot of the local chambers up to the State Chamber and then maybe you help disseminate it to other local chambers. Is that how you kind of see that model typically working? Or what’s that flow of information look like?

Amy Cloud 14:15
grassroots advocacy works both ways. We want to hear the pain points of our local communities, and we count on our local chambers to share that with us. That’s grassroots, you know, from the root up, we certainly want to hear things that we should focus on that will be beneficial to their business community. And we count on that relationship for that. Likewise, we also have information that we have researched that we have heard about that our councils at the state level have taken into account and helped with Bill writing and supportive bills that our legislators come up with. And we know it’s good for business community statewide. And so we share that to them downwards. So it works both ways. As we we have lobbyists that actively during session are at the Capitol and are talking to the legislators and pushing this agenda for the State Chamber. We have researchers that understand the bills, these bills can be 80 pages long, and nobody has time to sit around to understand that bill. But we have researchers that all put it into two or three paragraphs that we get to share with our local chamber. So they understand really what the bill means who it’s good for, who it’s not good for, if it’s something that they should be supporting, or something that they should be against. We offer that to them. So it’s almost like on their staff, they have researchers and on there, they have lobbyists, we certainly don’t encourage local chambers to be political as in supporting a political candidate, the State Chamber does that we have a political action committee, that that’s kind of what we do. We’re a lobbying organization, local chambers, we want them to be public policy, which is different than political, because public policy is educating your voter. And we all know what happens when you don’t have educated voters. So the more we can educate the public, the better. And we utilize our local chambers for that. We encourage them to come to the Capitol, we host our local chambers, all year long, to come to the Capitol to have meetings with our constitution officers to meet with their local legend. Legislators, excuse me, Senators and Representatives, we help facilitate that. We don’t want that conversation to be easy. We want them to hold their elected officials accountable. And a way to do that is just by keeping that relationship and that communication open. And the State Chamber is very good at doing that for our local chambers. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 16:44
So you had mentioned about the wanting to hear about the community pain points. And and I just had this vision in my head of there’s different ways that that gets translated and that information gets to you. And is there a more effective way of sharing community pain points with your State Chamber and state associations where it doesn’t come off as whining or complaining about whatever’s happening? But to be able to really go to you as an advocate and say, here’s what we’re seeing in our community? And does it ever come across that way? Where it’s just whining and complaining? Or?

Amy Cloud 17:18
Of course it does, and that’s okay. But I mentioned before, you know, relationships are the key to everything, you know, if if a local chamber has a good relationship with the State Chamber, whether it’s me, or someone on our public affairs team, work with our foundation, whatever that is, I think that it can be a an adult conversation with, Hey, this is what’s going on, hey, this is what’s happening. They can say to someone who is probably complaining to the local chamber about something, here’s a friend that I have at this State Chamber, give them a call we we virtually hand out our emails and our cell phone numbers. So that local chambers can be the convener, they don’t have to be the communicator, they don’t have to be the, you know, the one with all the knowledge. But they can be the convener and say, Hey, let me share this person with you. Let me share this list of priorities the State Chamber has with you. Let me share with you what this bill looks like broken down. Let me ask them about this bill. I’ve not heard of this bill, look chambers, or I might even say that, let’s find out. So it gives them that next step to be that all inclusive community organization that wants the business, you know, businesses grow. So it gives them that next step of saying, Hey, we don’t know the answer, but we know people who do and what a great organization to have locally that you get you understand your friends with you trust you see every day, as opposed to someone at the State Chamber or someone in the legislature that you don’t know at all, and would be afraid to ask the question do not even know how to ask the question to our local chambers or that information booth. And they can share with us and then we can share stuff back with him.

Brandon Burton 18:55
Yeah, no, that is great. The relationships are so key and being able to have that level of trust to where yeah, it might seem like you’re complaining, maybe like you said maybe to another local chamber, but they have those relationships and put you in touch with people that can help and, and all All in all, it’s a very supportive effort. So it

Amy Cloud 19:16
makes us look good. It makes us look good. You know, I mean, we can be superficial about stuff. If people are supporting the state chamber and supporting KCC II communities. We have 120 counties in Kentucky, every county across the state. The people then will recognize when we are talking when the State Chamber is talking. We know what we’re talking about. They trust what we’re saying, because they’ve heard in detail what we’re doing because our local chambers have given the testimonial to that. They believe in us because who they believe in believes in us. So it’s a whole relationship even if they don’t know me. They understand that a local chamber professional believes in me and knows that I’m Gotta give them good information. So they trust me, even if they don’t know me. That if that makes sense. It’s just it’s that relationship. It’s all about everybody understanding, we’re all on the same page. We’re all after the same results. And we’re at a higher level, because it’s not just local government you’re dealing with when you’re talking about advocacy, its state and national government where you feel like as a local community, you have true representation.

Brandon Burton 20:24
Yes. So as a state as a resource, state chambers for local chambers advocacy and supporting those grassroots efforts is so vital. But I know that’s just a percentage. So what are some of those other benefits that local chambers can turn to you for as as support?

Amy Cloud 20:45
Absolutely, yes, that is just a little bit. But it’s important. That’s why I wanted to make sure we talked about it. We do offer professional development opportunities. KCC II is a huge supporter of Institute of organization management. It’s a national program that the US Chamber puts on, we are a huge supporter of ACC and the national convention that happens every year with them, as well as different programming throughout the year. So our association and our State Chamber offers scholarship opportunities for these folks to be able to attend programs outside the state. That is, that only makes them a better version of themselves. So then the chamber is raised to a higher level, we offer networking opportunities for folks to get together and share, like I mentioned earlier, you know, you feel like you’re on island, when you run a local chamber in a local community. But understanding there’s people just like you and every community across our state, that might have some of the same pain points, or be champions for each other that they want to share in the winds. And they want to steal a great idea. And they want to do regional partnership, and they want to do stuff together. And they can’t wait to see each other and get caught back up again. And they you know, they utilize each other now for judging awards and for coming to different summits and different Angel dinners. And you’ve formed that relationship with people that get you, you know, people support you and a local community as a as a chamber director, but they don’t get what you do. They don’t sit behind that desk, even your board members don’t. But connecting with people who get you is rewarding. And it’s it’s a stress reliever, because you know that you can pick up your phone. And if you can’t talk to them, you can certainly talk to me, but you can say, oh my gosh, this is what happened with a board member today. How would you handle this member? What would you do if this event didn’t work? Or how do you? What do you do when this event is overwhelmingly successful? How do you capitalize on it, you’ve got people across the state from every size community, and the tiniest to the biggest that will talk to you and share with you and be your best friend and partner, when you’re trying to figure out next steps for your local chamber. Other than that, like I said, we have word resources, and a huge server at work full of information, whether it’s bylaws or evaluations or how to do a golf tournament. You know, do you have a copy of mission statements, whatever, you name it, we’ve got some sample from somewhere and I collect those from all over the country. So people can form their own, but they have a sample of what someone else has done before them. Let’s not reinvent the wheel, we don’t have time for that. I do strategic planning for chambers. It’s a it’s an additional fee. But it’s a four to five hour strategic planning session that I offer our local Chambers as well as board development training, to help get their board on board to help the volunteers understand what’s expected of them at the chamber. It’s not a nonprofits, it’s a it’s a not for profit, and what the difference means when you say that, but it is to be a 501 C three, as opposed to a 501 C six, you know, there’s the difference in those two things. Understanding you know, what your mission is and how you support your paid staff. And if you’re a volunteer chamber, how you step up as a board member, so there’s resources like that, that that people use constantly and I love it. I want them to people like oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m calling you on Saturday afternoon it’s like that’s what I’m here for. You know, I know most of their most of their issues and most of their stuff comes up after work hours you know they they deal with their day and then they need to know I mean that’s why to add such everybody my phone I’m like I got my cell phone with me all the time if I’m awake, and not on vacation because I don’t answer my phone a vacation. I will answer you text me call me. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Just because I know what it’s like I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to go oh my gosh, what I do what I do, I’ve been a staff of one. I’ve had a staff around me as well. You know you there’s a lot of plates in the gear and you want just a group of people are someone to say am I doing this right? Is this okay? And at the same time I also constantly want to tell my chamber professionals you are rockstars I tried to be a chair linger for them, because I know what it’s like to not have cheerleaders, you know? So there’s a lot. That’s just kind of in a nutshell, I’m sure I’m missing a bunch of stuff. But oh, that’s,

Brandon Burton 25:08
that’s terrific. And all of it in the end is it’s helping to raise the bar of the local chambers and making them better be more successful represent their business community in a much better way. And that’s all based on resources that you guys are able to offer.

Amy Cloud 25:25
And, you know, we can brag a little bit they award at national chamber of the year, ACC. And the last statistic I had was that Kentucky has the most applicants, the most finalists. And I think we still might have the most winners since it started in 2007. Little mini all Kentucky. Yeah. So I mean, we want people to be proud, we want them to be proud of their chamber. We want them to utilize best practices, which you have to in order to apply for awards like that. We always have one or two people on the 40 under 40 list every year for executives in the chamber industry. We have at least two people enter IOM every year. So we have eight to 10 people in the institute program every year. We’re just proud of our chamber professionals, and we try to do everything we can to make them better, because then it makes their chamber the best version of itself if their leadership is the best version of itself, if that makes sense.

Brandon Burton 26:28
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Not only make us

Amy Cloud 26:30
look better, yeah, they only make us look better when they are achieving at top notch level. It makes us look good. And we count on them as a resource, you know, the better they are, the better we the better information we get.

Brandon Burton 26:41
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I’m glad you shared that that tidbit there. As a for chambers that are listening who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, you’ve offered a lot of great counsel, I’ll say resources using your State Chamber. But what other maybe tip or action item might you have for listeners who are looking to elevate their chamber to the next level?

Amy Cloud 27:08
Oh, goodness, I keep saying this word. But you know, build, build relationships. I don’t care what other people say about an elected official in town, or someone who runs a large company or a small business, you need to form your own relationship with them and make it work. You need to be proactive and say, what’s going to work for you? What do we need to do for you, you’re a service organization. So make sure you’re servicing your members, they invest in you, I’m encouraged chambers. So not say you have dues, but you have investments, what is your annual investment, because when people talk investments, then they also talk about return. So you want to be able to give a return on your investment and ROI to your members every year. And that’s a relationship that’s an asking and listening of what can we do for you. Let’s try it. We tried it, it didn’t work. We tried it, it did work. That’s a relationship. Gen Y and Gen Z are go getters, they just don’t understand why they have to pay to pay to be a part of an organization. That’s your next group of leaders, Gen Y and Gen Z are the ones that we’re gonna fix into be CEOs in the next five to 10 years. So for me, I think chambers needed to find a need and fill the need. What do they need? And how can you fill that need? Where do you offer expertise that isn’t common knowledge that they would be willing to in vast, the ROI invest in their local chamber? Where they wouldn’t be able to get that opportunity anywhere else? How can they help entrepreneurs? How can they help small businesses in a way that no other group can? And that you can’t do it by yourself? That’s a big thing for me is understanding that next generation of leaders and how the chamber can still be a relevant organization for that group of

Brandon Burton 29:01
people. Yeah. Which that that leads right into our next question. So you’ve seen in worked with chambers of all different sizes, and focuses of work, we’ll say. So as you look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Amy Cloud 29:21
There’s there’s room there’s room for chambers. I think the more that chambers become public policy chambers that people understand it’s a well rounded organization. Just as recent as 10 years ago, a lot of local chambers were considered the like the the Welcome Wagon. They did the Christmas parade and then they took, you know, welcome goodie baskets to a new business. They might have done ribbon cuttings, you know, it was kind of a Hospitality Group. And in the last 10 years or so, I think people have seen how it is changed into And truly, what can we do to make our businesses better? How can we help with economic development? How can we help with public policy? What needs to change at the local level to make our business community more successful? How do we need to help recruit businesses? How do we need to help keep people, you know, working with the school system, working with local government, working with transportation, housing, you know, you start you’re starting to see that local chambers are taking on more of that responsibility. But that’s good, because like I said earlier, they’re the only organization whose sole purpose is for the growth and prosperity of the business community. And that doesn’t just mean economic development. That means you have to support employees, and what they let what kind of environment they live in, is there good housing? Are there good schools? Are there good roads, so they’ve been able to expand their reach, because they are being asked to handle those situations. I think that if they continue to focus more and more on that, than they will be growing into that business organization, that people need them to be, as opposed to the hospitality organization that they are on the front end.

Brandon Burton 31:10
Yeah, I love that. And they even said that, we’re kind of refined it down to that sole purpose of fostering that growth and prosperity in their community. And I know every chamber should have their their mission statement. And hopefully, that’s embedded somewhere in their mission statement, and in one way or another. But Amy, I wanted to give you an opportunity for those listening, especially those in Kentucky that need to reach out and connect with you but but even others who are just curious about what you know what all you guys offer or tips direction, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you? Oh, goodness,

Amy Cloud 31:48
um, you can reach me on my phone. Emails really good. My email address is acloud@kychamber.com. You can find resources that we offer on the Kentucky Chamber, a website, KYChamber.com. You’ll see under local resources, there’s a KCCE website. Reach out to me, I’m happy to talk with anybody about what I do. And I would love to learn what other people are doing as well. I like to be a student as much as a teacher, and pride myself. I’m trying to learn something new every day. So if anybody wants to share some great ideas that Kentucky can be doing, I’m happy to hear that as well.

Brandon Burton 32:31
Yeah, let’s get the information going both ways. I love that. Absolutely. I appreciate you being with us today on chamber chat podcast has been a great conversation have provided a lot of insights and hopefully, maybe open the eyes to some local chambers about what resources they can tap into at their State Chamber organizations. So thank you for sharing all that with us today. And hope you guys continue doing great things and making a huge impact in Kentucky.

Amy Cloud 33:01
I appreciate it, Brandon. Thanks for having me.

Brandon Burton 33:03
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Clean Energy & Chambers with Ryan Evans

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.

Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

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Our guest for this episode is Ryan Evans. Ryan joined the Chamber for Innovation and Clean Energy in March 2019 and serves as the executive director. Prior to being named Executive Director Ryan was a member of CICS National Advisory Board for six years. Previously, Ryan served as president of the Utah Solar Energy Association for three years, which is a trade association he co founded was an executive for 13 years with the Salt Lake Chamber, which is one of the largest chambers of commerce in the country, and served as the Executive Administrator for the Utah State Chamber of Commerce. Ryan is a recognized leader and regional speaker both locally and nationally on renewable energy policy and economic impacts of air quality community engagement and relationship building. Ryan is an IOM graduate, and now serves on the US Chambers National Board of Trustees. Ryan attended the University of Vermont and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Utah. Ryan, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Ryan Evans 3:12
Thank you, Brandon, appreciate the opportunity to be on the chamber chat podcast. Listen to you a bunch of times. And this is great to actually be able to speak with you and speak with the Chamber Champions listening in today. Something fun for me, I guess, in terms of interest for me, I’ve been in the chamber and association industry for just over 20 years now. It’s kind of crazy how that journey started. I was an entrepreneur. Prior to being in the chamber industry, I own my own restaurant, I was a trained chef at one point when that when I left that partnership as a lot of restaurants don’t, you know, have the tendency to fail. I was one of those. One of those cases, started looking for a job that would maybe help given or maybe work given my managerial background, but not something that actually I didn’t want to start from scratch again. So I started looking for sales positions, knowing that at least that way, if I worked hard, I could make money. And sure enough, the Salt Lake chamber was hiring at the time. And little did I know that that would lead to a 20 year career after starting they’re making $13,000 An hour plus or $13,000.

Brandon Burton 4:18
Are they still hiring? Let me sign up

Ryan Evans 4:22
1000 a year plus commissions and I made it work pretty good. But yeah, 30,000 hour would be one heck of an opportunity. That’s right. So I know that that all steamrolled into, you know getting into clean energy and eventually this role here where I get to meld both the clean energy world and the Chamber history that I have, and it’s a great relationship. So it’s been great. Absolutely. It’s

Brandon Burton 4:44
like your background has been perfect for this union to bring into the chambers for innovation to clean energy very much. So speaking to that, tell us a little bit about the chambers of the chambers for innovation, clean energy, just kind of The size, the scope of work staff, just give us some perspective of where you’re coming from, with the organization to kind of set the stage for our discussion today. Absolutely, thank

Ryan Evans 5:10
you. So chambers renovation and clean energy as we affectionately like to call it, CIC II, as you alluded to Brandon, we are a national network of about 1300 chambers and economic development associations across the country, doesn’t mean we work with every single one of those every single year. But those are the groups that we stay in touch with quite a bit that we work with. Our whole role is to help advance the clean energy economy, at chambers innovation in clean energy, we’re not an environmental group, we’re not anti anything, we are strictly clean energy experts, and help to look to educate chambers on how they can capitalize on this growing segment of our economy, how they can be better involved in promoting good clean energy policy, how they can what what they need to know, to better understand the technology that exists and how to get past a lot of the misinformation that’s out there, whether Pro or negative regarding clean energy, we do a lot of best practice sharing of what chambers are doing across the country. And then we’ll get in and we’ll even advise chambers on particular public policy issues at the state or local level that they may be experiencing. firsthand. So again, we you know, our whole role is to work with chambers. And we do that for free. We have funding in place that allows us to work with any chamber anywhere. Typically, I mentioned 1300. But typically we work with we try to work in about seven or eight priority states at one time. And he states where we spend a little extra time, given that they’ve got more opportunity for clean energy or more challenges being presented for clean energy. And so we sort of rotate that out on on any given year. But as of right now, the states where we spend most of our time are Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, South Carolina, Virginia, and in some work in the Northeast as

Brandon Burton 7:04
well. All right, well, that definitely helps give some perspective as to the kind of work you’re involved with and the the approach you take with some of the these chambers and 1300 chambers that you work with. As we focus our discussion today. I’m kind of halfway joking. But when I say we’re going to talk about clean energy and chambers, even if they don’t think that it matters or something that they care about at the moment, we’ll talk about why it does matter. And how your local chamber can get involved, why you should be involved, what opportunities are out there. And we’ll dive into this discussion much deeper as soon as you get back from this quick break.

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Donna Novitsky 9:33
Hi, everyone, Donna from Yiftee here with another fun fact about small businesses. Did you know that there are 77 million people working in small businesses in the US? That’s almost half of the entire civilian workforce. But I know that you already know the value of local businesses. That is why we created community cards. They bring revenue to your members’ businesses that today is leaving your community and going to national brands and e-commerce companies. In addition to consumers we see schools, hospitals, city governments and companies buying community cards in bulk instead of buying big box store and online gift cards. Community cards keep local dollars local. For more info come to a demo or email us at sales@yiftee.com. We look forward to meeting you back to you Brandon.

Brandon Burton 10:27
All right, Ryan, we’re back. So as I alluded to, before the break, today, we’re diving into how chambers can get involved with with clean energy, why they should care, maybe that’s a good starting point, as far as why chamber should care about focusing on clean energy. And then you mentioned a couple items, you know, before the break is to, you know, the economic impact and things like that. But talk to us a little bit about why chambers should have clean energy on their radar and be intentional about trying to promote clean energy in their communities.

Ryan Evans 11:02
Sure, thank you. You know, honestly, this conversation would have been pretty different five years ago. But now, I think there’s no doubt that anybody, you know, nobody has a doubt that we are in the midst of an energy transformation in the United States of America and across the across the globe, really, we are, over the last several years, clean energy speed between solar and wind have been responsible for more than 90% of new electric generation built across the country. So in other words, we still have a lot of our electricity coming from natural gas, which is the number one on the fossil fuel side. And again, we’re not anti anything, we’re all of the above, we just truly know that the Clean Energy Economics will win out in the end, as natural gas started to actually overtake coal. Many years ago, when coal was the workhorse for electricity, then it became natural gas. And it still is natural gas. But now it’s really starting to shift towards more renewable energy sources. So that’s sort of number one is that we’re looking at the future of America being very much powered, whether it’s 100%, like some people think, or at least very high into the 80s, a 90%, by some sort of cleaner energy than we have now. So that’s a significant number one. Number two, your members care about their utility bills. That’s one of the highest costs of doing business in any state. So what is your electricity and heating bills look like? And where is that source of that pain point coming from? In most states, that’s still natural gas. And for a long time, natural gas was a great lower cost option for communities. Now, however, we’ve seen, especially in the last two years, the fluctuation within the volatility of natural gas pricing. So a lot of corporations are really being attracted to the fact that solar and wind are now the cheapest form of electricity you can get. And when you enter into a contract for these corporations that again, are members of chambers all over the country, they’re locking into those price points that they sign these contracts for, for anywhere from 20 to 35 years. So there’s absolute predictability in their electrical costs going forward, at least for that segment that they’re getting from clean energy. The other factor that I’ll mention is it just brings it back to home wherever you are, there are clean energy jobs being created on a regular basis. There are more people in employed in the solar industry alone than all of fossil fuel industries combined. That’s just solar. That’s not wind, that’s not electric vehicles. That’s not batteries and energy storage, and energy efficiency. So clean energy is a job creator, like no other. And then it brings home capital investment, it brings home economic opportunities and tax revenues for communities. So there are lots of reasons why chambers should engage or at least be interested, and at the very least be willing to provide good information to their communities, because there’s just there’s a lot to it. And a lot of voices get heard. And I think it’s given the amount of opportunity and challenges there are, it’s just important to at least be a good provider of information for your members and your community as a whole.

Brandon Burton 14:32
Right. So it’s been a couple of years ago now but our electric provider, I’m in Texas in our electric provider, we’re part of a co op and each year they do a brisket dinner, you know so we can go and as a member of the Co Op, they provide the brisket dinner, they do a little dog and pony show about the work they’re doing and at this particular dinner I was at they put up on the slideshow, this solar farm that they had and like, Wait, that’s like, right around the corner from my house. And I had no idea that the solar farm was there. And sure enough, I’m pulling up the Google satellite images, and it’s, you know, probably a mile from my house, and had no idea. But if it was a natural gas plant or something else, like, other things would definitely stand out, and you would notice, but um, just the clean energy can make such an impact in a community without being, you know, super noticeable. But so I think that our Electric Co Op did a good job of explaining that. But as far as the chamber goes, he said, you know, most importantly, even if it’s just sharing, you know, accurate good information with their community with their members. Obviously, we can point them to you to your organization to get some that that good information to share. But as the chamber looks to get involved and say, Yeah, this is important that we create jobs in clean energy, because that’s where the future is going. Or it’s important for us to help lower those utility rates for our member businesses, and for just our community in general to be able to thrive more and have more discretionary income, all these different points that you touched on the job creation. If a chamber wanted to get involved, where do they start with being able to try to move the ball try to move the needle, so to speak in their community?

Ryan Evans 16:27
There’s, there’s quite a few places you can start. And actually, I want to jump back really quick if it’s okay, Brandon, and just common, Texas, just because you brought up Texas and you brought up two things that I’m pretty passionate about. One is realistically, most solar installations you don’t notice. So you’re absolutely right, there’s a lot of misinformation that they’re obstructive that they’re an eyesore. But yet, most times people have no idea that they’re within a mile or two of their home, because they have that low profile, and you can put up trees around them, you can put up shrubs and bushes around them. So I appreciate and love the fact that you didn’t even notice not necessarily. But then also just on Texas really quick. It’s Texas is one of my favorite stories to tell because even though they have been traditionally one of the the number one oil and gas state in the country, and they are known as an oil and gas state and Houston particular huge oil and gas market, right. Yet, Texas is the number two state in the nation for most solar installations in terms of size of those installations combined. And number one, as far as wind, this is a state that truly embraces the all of the above energy form, you know, mentality in an incredible way. And, you know, chambers, like the Greater Houston partnership, for example, are all in on this all of the above factor and even looking at new technologies like carbon capture, and all these other great things that we see out there. So I just want to throw my you know, throw a shout out for taxes just in terms of, you know, that typical state that has learned that they don’t have to just be dependent on that fossil fuel economy that there is this huge other opportunity out there for the state and for electrical ratepayers and whatnot.

Brandon Burton 18:07
I will say if you ever drive between Abilene and San Angelo, you will see the wind. As far as your eye can see, you will see windmills. So

Ryan Evans 18:16
yeah, there’s a lot of places around the country that are like that, where you just see them. But a lot of cases, there’s really not much else there. So they may as well, Saturday. Right, right. And you know, as far as how you get involved, there’s lots of ways number one, I guarantee that almost every single chamber in the country has some sort of clean energy industry a company within their membership, it may not be a solar installer, it may not be a manufacturer of solar or wind turbine parts. But it might be somebody who supplies workforce to that it might be a company that is a fencing company that puts up temporary fencing around renewable energy installations as they’re going up. So there’s, it’s incredible the supply chain that exists out into the clean energy world. So one, look at your own membership and see who’s there and see what the important issues are to talk to your utility. I always recommend you, you know, work with your utility on clean energy, because ultimately, they’re going to be the one that does a lot of it outside of the private companies that develop. But don’t also take the utilities word for it completely ask questions, look for what might be the best opportunities for your entire region and start a business Coalition for you know, that looks at sustainability and clean energy by starting a committee like that. It’s amazing what you’ll learn from your members in terms of what they’re doing to either procure clean energy on their own or through the utility, what they’re doing internally to improve their emissions outcomes so they’re more sustainable. It’s it’s pretty impressive to see what businesses do and it’s one great thing chambers can do is promote what their businesses are doing. Proactiv basis as well, that’s that’s just a great thing. Another thing that you can do, if you want to get involved is reach out to us, of course, I’m not going to give a sales pitch there. But that’s what we do. If there’s, you know, we’re happy to chat with any chamber anywhere all the time, just to say, hey, here’s the hotspots that we see, maybe this is a chance for you to engage. And lastly, look in your state for some sort of a state level clean energy or solar industry association. So prior to, as you mentioned, in the my introduction, I was the president and founder of the Utah solar industry association, we worked with chambers all across the state, trying to help educate them on solar policy and clean energy policy and how they can help protect the jobs that, you know, we’re being built by this industry within the state. So look to those associations and bring them as partners or ask them to be members, so they can kind of make sure your members are informed on the hot topics of the day regarding the clean energy industries. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 20:58
So I don’t mean to keep going back to stuff to this example, in Texas. So chambers are known for being conveners, right. And as I see a lot of this land, like with these wind farms that we’re talking about, not only are they wind farms, but they have their oil rigs that are going, they have their cattle that are grazing on the fields. And so they’ve got multiple streams of income using this land that’s very agricultural based. And if a chamber can see and recognize these opportunities, be that convener to make some introductions to help introduce some of these clean energy capabilities. On to that, that rancher or that person who has an oil rig set up or whatever it may be, I mean, we’re talking things that are very hyper focused in Texas, for sure. But other parts of the country, the land may be used for something else, but it could also be used, in addition to for wind or solar. So that convener make those introductions. Yeah,

Ryan Evans 21:58
no, that’s a great point number one. Yeah. So always and chamber should know this. And they do know this. And mean, chambers are conveners of the voice of business, the, you know, the, they’re the convener of the business communities, and realistically for their whole community. So there is an opportunity just to talk to people about what is possible. And yeah, in Texas, you will often see wind turbines right next to oil rigs, and maybe cattle grazing as well. In Ohio, you may see a solar installation, where, you know, maybe 5%, of a generational farm is being utilized for solar energy along with 5% of another farm nearby them and 10% of another farm nearby them. But those, that five or 10% of the farm property is actually giving annual revenue anywhere from 100,000 to $300,000. A year to those farm owners. And a lot of cases, it’s helping keep farmland in a family name and helping them not to have to sell it off, or because it’s a lease arrangement, or even turn some other land into a subdivision for homes. I mean, that’s, that’s just and once you put homes in that property’s gone with a solar installation for, you know, for example, in a rural farming community, typically those panels have been in the ground for, you know, 30 to 35 years, but at the same time, like you say, you’re farming on the rest of your property, you can still do some agriculture underneath the solar panels. And a lot of case you can still graze animals like sheep throughout an entire solar area. So yeah, there are lots of other ways that you can promote the land and utilize the land for economic or just community benefit.

Brandon Burton 23:40
Right. And from the farmer perspective, I say, you know, there’s a lot of government subsidies for farmers to either not grow a crop or to grow, you know, more, you know, mono cropping, you know, which has its own issues. So to be able to introduce another stream of income for these farmers could really help them actually farm what they need to and want to farm versus what the government’s paying them to do. And it gives them a lot more freedom. Absolutely. And

Ryan Evans 24:07
if you get farmer start on this, a lot of them are going to tell you, this is a property rights thing. If I want to put solar on my farm, I want to put solar on my farm, and they get pretty passionate about it speak out in lots of different state houses across the country on their property rights. And it’s don’t get in the middle of a farmer and their property rights. I’ll tell you that much right now.

Brandon Burton 24:25
That’s right. So for chambers that are listening, I’d like to hear maybe a an innovative example or two where you’ve seen whether it’s a chamber stepping into introduce clean energy policy or just implementation of some sort. What are some of these innovative things that you’ve seen across the country as as people try to lean more heavily into clean energy? Yeah,

Ryan Evans 24:52
there’s, I don’t know if I can go to innovative on how chambers participate, but I can give some really Good examples of how chambers have engaged. Okay. Oh. And that’s it’s just sometimes tough because chambers are generalists for the most part, right, they need to know a lot about a lot of different industries. And so sometimes it’s really hard to dig really far into one particular topic or subject matter. But you know, in the case of chambers, one thing that we are always encouraged by is when we see coalitions of chambers that stand up for clean energy. So we’ve seen it in Ohio, when Chambers as a collective whole, all stood up and spoke out against negative anti renewable energy legislation a few years ago, in the Northeast, and now in the southeast, we’re seeing a lot of rallying by chambers to support the possibility of offshore wind development, off the coast of the East Coast. And we’re beginning to see a little bit of that in the, in the south er, in the in the south, and in the West, and the Gulf Coast and off in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, and Oregon and Washington. So we see a lot of this convening and working together. We’ve seen everything from electric vehicle ride and drive and demonstrations, to clean energy industry, hosted forums and conferences, all around renewable energy and sustainability. We’ve seen energy tours. So in Utah, where I used to live, the Salt Lake chamber had few years in a row had done energy tours, where they took their members out to various energy installations. And one of them was all about clean energy, taking them to wind taken to a solar farm, etc, etc. In and, you know, clean energy, sort of a broad topic, but, and even just a couple of weeks now, the St. Pete chamber in Florida is doing a sustainability and resilience tour, they’re going to take some of their members down to see how, amongst other things, clean energy benefited certain areas to keep the lights on, as well as other resilience efforts from some of the other communities that they can bring back to St. Pete to learn from so that they are a more resilient, more resilient community for future storms. So lots of different ways that chambers have been engaged, whether it’s op eds, whether it’s events, or just, you know, fighting for good policy at a state house or the federal level.

Brandon Burton 27:29
Very good. Those are all really good examples and ways that chambers can definitely get involved. So this question may be coming from left field for you. And if you don’t want to answer it, we can edit it out. How have you seen any integration with with Bitcoin miners? And no, there’s been a lot of talk about the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining. And then Bitcoin miners trying to make the argument with clean energy and using some of these resources to offset some of those carbon emissions and whatnot. I’ll be

Ryan Evans 28:09
honest, you may want to edit this out, I don’t know Brandon, I can give a little editorial on that. It’s, it’s a tough sell, because it is high high energy usage. So we, however, did see you know, in for a little bit in Miami, we started talking about it because the local government in Miami was really trying hard to attract some Bitcoin industry there. But that energy usage was really tough, because, you know, Florida can only expand so much in terms of their energy development, their energy usage, etc. And, you know, one of the selling factors was they have such a huge nuclear, new as nuclear energy is such a huge part of their overall energy resources. And, you know, the Bitcoin it was trying to sell that, but all of that energy was already being utilized for something else. So all of this would have just been, they would have had to develop new energy. And at that point, you’ve for the most part, it’s going to make sense to build solar. So I think in general, when it comes to Bitcoin, it’s great. There is an opportunity there, but it should not be done trying to sell it as utilizing existing resources. I think in a lot of ways. If you are going to law and try to get some bitcoin manufacturing and mining going on in your communities, you really do need to look at how are we going to provide new generation to, to supply that particular operation? Yeah. All right. Well,

Brandon Burton 29:40
we’ll we’ll see what we do with that. So I’d like to ask everyone I have on the show, if there’s any tips or action items that you’d be willing to share with those listening, if they wanted to maybe get involved more with clean energy in their communities or We’re maybe something totally off topic, but for these chambers who want to take their organization up to the next level, what would you offer for them?

Ryan Evans 30:07
Thank you. Yeah, I’ve got a few things. So number one, if not every chamber is engaged in advocacy. And I understand that, at the very minimum, though Chambers as the voice of business and conveners in their community should look to be a good source of reliable information. And much like a lot of other things in the world, there’s so much misinformation put out in the world about clean energy. There are so many groups that are not local, yet, they’ll bring in people from, you know, from far away to come in and fight renewable energy projects in small communities, and make it seem like this opposition is so loud, we call them NIMBY groups, so not my backyard groups. So if nothing else, I think it’s really important that chambers look to be sources of good third party reliable expert information. So that those that actually live in the community can, you know, can really look at the facts and say, We want to make a good informed decision. So that’s, that’s sort of number one. Another just sort of tip and maybe a tidbit that I want to throw out there. There is, you know, chambers by nature tend to really love bipartisan policy. That’s sort of how we work right, we bring people together so that we can find the common ground, what’s best for the business community, what’s best for an economy, an advocate for that, whether it’s coming from the AR side, or the D side, it doesn’t really matter, we try to find the best possible policy for business businesses in our state. You know, and we certainly saw a really good example of that in the bipartisan infrastructure package that was passed two years ago, phenomenal is twice something 20 years in the making, it’s something we should all be proud of in the chamber industry that we’ve all fought for it. And that’s going to lead to everything from bridges and roads, but also to transmission lines for more utilities, for more electric vehicle charging infrastructure out there in the world as we make this transition. So there’s lots of clean energy angles on that. But the tidbit that I want to share that, yeah, I built it up to get to it. There was, you know, not a lot of chambers love the fact that the inflation Reduction Act was passed on a partisan basis. And I understand that, and I completely agree, this is a tidbit that I think is really important for people to understand. If you take away all of the other aspects of the inflation Reduction Act, and only look at the clean energy provisions within that which, you know, amounted to about a $379 billion package way, way less than what that quote unquote, green New Deal was being presented as many many years ago. But that particular legislation, just the clean energy provisions, almost every single major component of that policy has a history of bipartisan support. And a and a lot of them have a proven return on investment for that type of state tax incentive. As a lot of people say that inflation Reduction Act is really carrot heavy, and very stick light, meaning it’s all about the incentives trying to you know, trying to drive innovation and spur this new aspect to our economy, rather than penalizing and putting out more regulatory efforts that none of us really like to see in the world. So again, just I think it’s really important that something that I’ve been very passionate about is saying, if you just take out those clean energy aspects, you will see that so many of them either had bipartisan support, or suggested by and promoted by Republicans versus the Democrats that voted for the package. So really just go beyond the talking points of partisan and say, Ah, actually, there’s some really great stuff in here that’s proven value, and has proven to be supported by both sides of the aisle and people across the country.

Brandon Burton 33:56
Right. I appreciate you sharing the tips and tidbits with us there. As we look to the future of chambers, and I see a lot of the work you’re doing is future leaning. But as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers in their purpose going forward?

Ryan Evans 34:15
I think chambers have a more important role now than they’ve ever had before. We’ve, you know, been building up the chamber industry for 100 years, you know, over the last 10 years, I think they’ve gotten more and more influential. Really, there’s so much within the industry that’s really looking to lift up chambers, whether it’s a rural chamber, a State Chamber, a Regional Chamber, whatever it may be. But I think now is maybe more important a time than ever, because there is so much that at least that I see legislation that tends to move from state to state and Statehouse to statehouse and so it’s an opportunity not only to really stand up for your business community and those things in your state or your region that you see as important to your quality of life. But it’s, you know, it’s really this chance to look and say, Hey, what’s happening over in this state? And is that going to come to my state? Because chances are these days it is. And I bring up things in my own mind when I say this, but things like dei policies, so you know, something that the Chamber world has been super passionate about, and very much engaged in terms of advocating for more dei within their communities within their businesses and building up certification programs around Dei. Yet, in a lot of states, we’re starting to see anti from various administrations and now maybe state houses of the legislature, we’re starting to see sort of pushback on that dei work. And it’s, you know, this isn’t even in the world of clean energy for me, but it’s really important to chambers, and therefore, it’s sort of just a good example of things to look for, that you can learn from other states, what they’ve already gone through and say, Hey, is there a good chance that’s going to come to my state? And how do I either fight it off or engage it depending upon what the policy might be? How do we best represent the business community, rather than being caught off guard, let’s make sure that we’ve got our best arguments upfront and ready to go to help be, you know, again, that longtime voice of business for our community and represent our members the best we can. I

Brandon Burton 36:27
love that perspective. And that’s really one of the greatest opportunities of living in the United States is you’re able to look at other states and the models that they do and, you know, be in these individual laboratories and saying, This is what worked well there. And this is didn’t you know, and as we apply it in our communities in our state, this is why it could be good, or why it would be a disaster and really be able to make a good argument based on facts and data. So I think that’s a great perspective. Well, Ryan, this has been a for me at least, it’s been a fun conversation. It’s been an eye opening conversation, I’m sure for many, but for any listeners who wanted to reach out and connect with you to learn more about what the Chamber’s been have raised innovation and clean energy can do and, and how you can maybe work with them, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect? hit

Ryan Evans 37:16
our website, which is ChambersforInnovation.com. Feel free to email me directly my email is revans@chambersforinnovation.com. More than happy to chat with anyone, whether it’s just a question, you want to do more, you’ve got something that you’re just not sure about whatever the case, the issue may be, and again, this can be anything from electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging, to offshore wind supply chain to solar and wind, whatever it is, if we don’t know the answer within our team, we certainly can point you in the right direction to some some great experts out there in the world, that can be a really good news resource for you.

Brandon Burton 37:57
That’s awesome. I will get that in our show notes for this episode, as well. So people can pull that up and get in contact with you. But it’s been great to have you on the podcast. Ryan, I appreciate you setting aside some time and and to share some of these insights with the Chamber champions that listen and to really help sharpen their focus on why focus on clean energy in their communities is important. So thank you for being with us today.

Ryan Evans 38:22
Thank you, Brandon. I appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 38:24
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Gwinnett Chamber-2023 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Nick Masino

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

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Our guest for this episode is Nick Masino. Nick is the first Gen X President and CEO of the Gwinnett Chamber and Partnership Gwinnett. At the helm, Nick is known for a strong leadership commitment to Gwinnett and more than two decades of making an impact in the community and economic development arenas. As President and CEO Nick shepherded the most diverse board of directors and chamber history, reinvigorated its public policy focus, implemented new strategic plan and is currently overseeing a massive renovation of two Georgia’s largest Chamber of Commerce facility. He also led like Gwinnett Chamber to receive its first ever Five Star Accreditation rating from the US Chamber of Commerce in 2010. In 2022, the former Chief Economic Development Officer for partnership Gwinnett and the Gwinnett Chamber, Nick oversaw the business recruitment and retention efforts for Gwinnett and the implementation of partnership Gwinnett strategy. The chamber led initiative has since delivered roughly 357 company expansions or relocations, representing more than 28,000 new jobs and $4.1 billion in private capital investment. Prior to these achievements, Nick was an executive in the recruiting and staffing industry while serving as Georgia’s youngest mayor in the city of Suwanee. In addition to his day job, Nick serves on a plethora of boards including the Regional Business Coalition of Metro Atlanta, the Coalition for Quality Growth and the Georgia Chamber and the Water Tower Global Innovation Hub Aquanet. His influence in the greater Gwinnett region has earned him many accolades such as most named Most notable Georgians, power 100 Most Influential Atlantans, and 100 most influential Georgians. He holds a bachelor’s degree in interpersonal, interpersonal and organizational communication from The Ohio State University and resides with his wife Suzanne, in Suwanee, Georgia, and they’re the proud parents of three adult children. Nick, I’m excited to have you with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love for you to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Nick Masino 4:29
Awesome. First of all, thank you so much for having me. It’s an honor to be here. And I’m sorry, you had to bore everybody with my bio. But I appreciate you introducing me. Interesting thing about me I’m, as you mentioned in the bio married to Suzanne Masino. And we actually met in a swimming pool in eighth grade. And she went on to become my high school, college sweetheart and we got married about six months after college, and we’ve been married for 29 years. In two Sundays, so really excited about that.

Brandon Burton 5:03
That’s awesome. Congratulations, you must have been a mature eighth grader because usually those interactions at a swimming pool don’t turn out well. So

Nick Masino 5:13
I don’t know that I was, but he was also only in eighth grade too. So that helps. That helps. Yeah, I think he was forgiving.

Brandon Burton 5:22
Well, and tell us a little bit about the Gwinnett Chamber and Partnership when and just to give us an idea of the type of chamber scope of work you do size, staff budget, that sort of thing to kind of set the stage for our discussion.

Nick Masino 5:35
Sure, absolutely. So the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce is located in Gwinnett. County, which most people have never heard of before. We’re situated directly northeast of Metro Atlanta. Gwinnett has a million residents. In 1987 8889, percentage wise was the fastest growing county in the United States. For three years, we’ve been in the top 100 fastest growing counties for the last three years, we average about in the last 10 years, I think we’ve averaged about 18. It’s probably 17 to 18,000 new residents, that’s births and relocations. I’m one of those. I graduated, as you mentioned, from the United State University. And about four weeks later, I moved to Gwinnett County, and I was in search of a job and a career and the Olympics were happening in Atlanta in 1996. This was two years before the Olympics, and there just seemed to be a lot of energy. And I don’t think I was alone. I think at one point, we were the the we had the most the highest percentage of Gen X’s of any metro area, the United States. And I just think it was a lot of people from the Northeast and Midwest. They were looking for something new and a little warmer. And apparently for about a 10 year period. We all moved to Atlanta. Some people moved, moved back home and some of those state. So I’m here in Gwinnett, lived here for 29 consecutive years. I live in the little hamlet the little city of Suwanee, Georgia, of which I was a mayor for eight years, and really, really enjoyed Gwinnett is made up of 16 municipalities, but the most of the counties unincorporated. But we have like every suburban area, we have jobs here we have about 24,000 companies 10,000 sole proprietors. And so we’re a really large suburban chamber, we have 32 to 34, based on the time, full time employees, we are in a 60,000 square foot chamber building, I do believe outside of the US Chamber. It’s the largest chamber building in the United States. We own the whole building, and we’re overseeing a massive 23 year update to the building and which is involving $4 million worth of construction. And hopefully in November, they’ll be delivering a million dollars worth of new furniture. And we’re really excited. With this reinvestment into this incredible building. We’re really unique. We’re right next to an arena and a convention center and to full service hotels. And we also have this is really unique. We have a first class steakhouse on the top floor of our building and a private club. The Chamber members the board members started the private club in the year 2000. The same year, the Chamber building was open. And we introduced in 2017. The Steakhouse and it is first class is the top five to top five revenue producing restaurant in Georgia. So it was really unique little hub of activity here in the middle of Gwinnett. County.

Brandon Burton 8:46
So does the chamber still operate the club and steakhouse or is that been going off?

Nick Masino 8:52
Well, we’ve never operated it. We just our board members started it. I mean, I’m the landlord. I’m a board member. I’m an executive board member of the private club. We have the lease agreement between the private club and the steakhouse. So it is like I had some guests up there for lunch yesterday. And they were like, Oh, this was really nice. And we’re like, yeah, we’re really that’s a really nice cafeteria bars.

Brandon Burton 9:18
That’s fantastic.

Nick Masino 9:19
It’s pretty awesome. It’s some of my peers at ACC. I was able to host I think it was in the summer of 21. I hosted a peer group of about 20 CEOs and I actually forgot to tell them we had a steakhouse. I just said, Oh, we’re going to dinner and I just told them where it was, but I did tell them it was on the third floor of the chamber. And they thought I was sandbagging, like as a show off. And I was like, Oh yeah, they were like Nick, you brag about everything. You didn’t brag about the steakhouse.

Brandon Burton 9:49
That’s awesome. I love it. Yeah, so you mentioned as far as the size of the building so had is it just like over the years hearing the size of a They’re chambers buildings, he kind of benchmark, you know, and where you guys kind of fall in there. It’s really

Nick Masino 10:05
interesting. I think in like 2007 or eight, we had that that years Chair of the US Chamber doing a road show. And he had been to like seven teen, like large suburban and Metro chambers. And he said, he said, I have been to almost every large chamber, you know, of a certain scale and above, he said, This is by far the biggest building. And so that just got us interested. So we’ve been kind of on the lookout for a building that might be bigger than ours. And we’ve yet well, we did find it, it was the US Chamber of Commerce. Yeah. We actually have two buildings in DC, which are both bigger than ours. qualify it?

Brandon Burton 10:47
Yeah. That’s good stuff, though. So you guys, obviously you’re involved with economic development, though? twos, as far as the chamber work goes?

Nick Masino 10:55
Yes, absolutely. i It’s funny, I failed to mention that, because you asked me. And I did lead our economic development initiative for almost 13 years, called partnership Gwinnett, which is a community collaboration between the county our municipalities or school system, or in community improvement districts, and then the private sector and the chamber. And we lead that effort. And it encompasses about 10 of our 34 employees. And they get up every day to recruit, retain and expand businesses, both domestically and internationally.

Brandon Burton 11:28
Awesome. Awesome. Well, what I the way I like to kind of structure these chamber, the or finalist interviews is to really focus on the two programs. So you guys submitted on your chamber, the your application, so if you could just tell us what those two programs are at a high level, and then we’ll circle back and go into more detail on each of them.

Nick Masino 11:49
Sure, absolutely. And so we really just set the stage for the one of the two, which it was our partnership with that initiative. And this is the community initiative. As I mentioned, it has three goal areas, recruit goal one, goal two, is to make sure we have the right workforce in place. And then goal three is all those it’s kind of that bucket that holds everything else from community development, to transportation to redevelopment. So it’s a three legged stool, economic development strategy, not uncommon to other large chambers. And then our second section that got us to where we are is our public policy initiative. And I think that that one probably is not super unique to large chambers. I think what was unique for us is, in our five US Chamber fivestar audit, for the previous audit we got, I don’t know that we got to zero, but I think we got to 20 out of Ardrey. So that’s pretty much a failing grade. And and then a few years later, when we really focused in the three years we were we went we’ve hired a full time public policy person put a lot of effort in initiative. And not only do we have the effort, and the action and activity, we have results, and we and then the US Chamber recognize that and gave us 100%. So we went from 20 I think it was 20% to 100%. So ACC the they recognized all of what I just mentioned. And I think we also did a really nice initiative this year with our state, House and Senate. I’ll talk more about that and follow up questions on on the Gwinnett day at the Georgia Capitol. And they went over really well. Yeah, no,

Brandon Burton 13:39
that’s great. So that that gives us a good idea what the two programs are. What we’ll do is we’ll take a short break, we’ll come back and we’ll dive in deeper on both of these programs and learn more how you guys structured them and maybe some of the origins of them as well.

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Brandon Burton 17:06
All right, Nick, we’re back. So before the break had mentioned what the two programs are, if you don’t mind, let’s let’s dive in a little deeper on the partnership when it and you had mentioned it has kind of the three legs to that program. And maybe just tell us a little bit more about the program, the evolution of the program, kind of how you got to where it is today to be recognized on national stage.

Nick Masino 17:32
Thank you so much. I’m really proud of it. Because I was hired as the first partnership with that chamber employee and Ay, ay ay, ay, took the strategy. And then I hired all the employees raised the funds. So it was really, it goes back to 2007 When I started here at the chamber, and it was kind of my baby for 13 years. So it started in 2006, where Gwinnett County government, again, one of the fastest growing counties in the 80s that continues in the 90s got to the point by 2006 that they said, Hey, we probably need to have an economic Recruitment Policy. So they created their first ever economic incentives. And it was basically crickets for six months. And they thought, well, if we create it, they will come. Well, they didn’t because there wasn’t someone getting up every day, beating the drum to say consultants, corporate consultants, doing recruitment real estate consultants. So they said, Okay, we need to do something. And in communicating with the chamber, and the private private sector industry, there was a there’s a company, which everyone’s heard of is called Cisco. They have a major presence here in metro Atlanta, and then a huge office here in Gwinnett at the time, and they said, Okay, we’ll write a $50,000 check to do an economic study. And then that was matched with another $90,000. And they hired a consultant, they did a nine month strategy. And out of it, we came partnership on it, which is as as mentioned, and 2007, we rolled out this, it was a five year strategy. It had a three legged stool, which was focused on we need people to get up every day and targeted industries to recruit. So goal one is to recruit, recruit, retain expand jobs in our targeted industries. Number two, make sure that we’re aligning all of the workforce efforts, from K through 12, to post secondary to retraining retooling into those five target industries. And then make sure that we have a safe, clean, vibrant community that is continually redeveloping and investing in itself with new roads and infrastructure. And those three things if we stay focused on that we should have economic success. And so we implemented that strategy in 2007 to 12 months later running into Great Recession. We’re like so ready to go. And that was a bit of a pitfall. And we retooled. And it actually brought Market Street back and we said, hey, just 16 months ago, you said we’re supposed to create. It was something like 40,000 new jobs in five years. And they were like, Yeah, that’s probably not going to happen now. So they gave us, they brought him in for a couple of months. And they re told us a little bit, and we got going again. And it was really awesome. Because right out of the gate, in our first five years, we ended up landing NCR fortune 500 headquarters. And then literally, four months later, we landed Asbury automotive, another fortune 500. And then two years later, we landed and retained the merger of two companies, which became rock 10, which was another fortune 500. So we started the recession with one fortune 500 company and ended it with fours. So people were like, Oh, my God, this is the greatest thing ever. Let me tell you, we’re really good. But a lot of it is happenstance and being at the right place at the right time. And it all just worked out for us. And we have a lot of success. And we continue to have lots of success. But we went from like the high of here we go in 2007, to the low of eight, nine, to end that first five years with having, in our time starting the recession, with one fortune 500, ending with four it was, it was an amazing rollercoaster ride. But we’ve continued on an every five years, we brought in a consultant to do a top to bottom soup to nuts review of our strategy and our community. And we roll out a five year strategy plan, we then do a fundraising campaign behind it, to raise the money to fund the strategy that we’ve done that now for almost 20 years. We’re in year, I guess, like 17 or 18.

Brandon Burton 22:00
Wow. So as you kind of talked about the origins of it back in 2006 2007 kind of timeframe. And thinking, nowadays, a lot of things, you know, rely on social media to help, you know, perpetuate a message or, you know, whatever messaging you’re putting out there to try to attract and retain and everything. So at that timeframe that was before, I mean, that’s still like MySpace days, right, like 2006. And so there has to be different strategies starting off and building that momentum. Right.

Nick Masino 22:33
Yeah, 100%. And I have to say, I’m gonna be very quick. So I want to I’m sure you’re familiar with IEDC, the International Economic Development Council. So I was very involved in that as an economic developer. And I went to my basic 101 training. It was actually right here in Atlanta, Georgia Tech. And we had a session on social media. So the social media I knew was LinkedIn. Yeah. And, you know, we’ve all been on it, our resumes there. I was in the recruiting industry for 12 years. So I knew LinkedIn. Well, I left that session, and I was signed up for MySpace, and Facebook. We know how all that worked out. But it was funny is it 2008? Like, I’m doing all kinds of like, a posting stuff on Facebook, about the community. And my wife’s like, what are you doing? You’re wasting time. And she’s giving me such a hard time for being on Facebook. And then I could I love the like, two years later, she gets on it. And she’s like, Oh, okay, I was such a hater to Facebook. And I kind of didn’t understand what you were doing. Right. And of course, my face was completely creepy. And two weeks later, I turned the thing off. Never went back on it. Because of IDC, that course and we got super focused on creating Instagram. And we I think we maybe had one of the first Twitter economic development accounts. And we actually won an IDC award for like the best social media of a large IDI organization in the country. So like around 2010. So we’re really proud of that. But so yeah, there was really just that was just the beginning of social media. So I’m not kidding. We must have done a dozen a month of these community meetings that some like two people would come to and we were really pumped when we’d have double digits and people would come. And we had to just do it. I was I was at every rotary every cuantas club, every community HOA meeting, just tell them the story. This is what we’re doing. And not even I wasn’t really trying to raise money. I was just trying to get awareness out there. Yeah. It was really interesting. You know, people asking, you know, raising their hands. Why are you doing this? Why does it matter? And it was really awesome, because professional meanings people aren’t going to really put you on the spot, go to an HOA meeting. The hard questions and they’re like, they almost like revel in it. But it really helped me with my talking points and And after my first year of doing that, I was like I could take on any talking point I was. So I was like, excited to go out to public meetings.

Brandon Burton 25:06
That’s funny. Yeah. So with the three legs you talked about, the one that really stands out to me that I’d like to learn a little bit more about is how you approach the you’d mentioned aligning the workforce efforts from kindergarten on up to be able to keep and retain them in the community and have that workforce pipeline, what are some of those key things that you do to help align those workforce efforts?

Nick Masino 25:30
Absolutely. And I will tell you in 2008, to 10, really, up until almost it feels like the beginning of COVID. This was completely unique. People were barely talking about this. Now, every chamber in the United States, it’s their number one priority. And it’s very innovative to talk about the last three years. But in 2006, and seven, when we were kicking this off, it became very clear that we were pretty good at already doing this. But we had to create some formality around it, which was committees and goals and Task Force and action committees around getting the talent creators together with the employers. And so we literally started this, I guess, you know, 18 years ago, projecting, hey, we’re starting this new division. And we’re going to need this type of workforce. And we started at the same time creating career academies in our high school. And even now, it’s actually now all the way down to middle school. We that was one of the epitomises to start what we call the Gwinnett School of Math, Science and Technology. We went to go visit one on a peer tour outside of DC and Fairfax County. And we created it a year later in Gwinnett. And it’s been the number one academic school in Georgia, for the last 11 years. We’ve since because of this connection between the workforce, and in education, we now have four STEM schools, one focused on AI, and it’s actually a K through 12. Ai, integrated system. So a whole school cluster on AI. But we’re, we’re probably year five or four on our engineering STEM school. So if you want to be an engineer, mechanical, electrical, you have a specific engineering school. And then the last one is health, and it’s anywhere from EMT to a doctor, if you think you’re gonna go to medical school or become a nurse or a PT or an OT, you could go to this school. I also think it’s important to point out we have 183,000 students, and our K through 12 public school. And then we have a municipal school. And we have some very large private schools. So we have well over 200,000 students being educated K through 12, not including our college, and our 12 or two year technical school. So we have a lot of people like this past May, we grant we had we had 15,000 graduates in Gwinnett. County between all those school systems. So we don’t leave out the private schools or the city schools, the alignment, and we do the same with the technical college and the four year college.

Brandon Burton 28:12
Wow, I love how you refer to them as talent creators, instead of just schools, not just the school system and their talent creators. And I think if they can really adopt that, that title, it puts out that that talent and workforce with a specific focus on what they want to do and what they want to become when they grow up. Right?

Nick Masino 28:32
Yes. And in two weeks, I will be in front of 1500 new teachers, just because of turnover and our system is so large, it’s about 12 to 1500. And it’s the big orientation of all the new teachers. And I’ll go, they gave me five minutes as tamper CEO, and when I was Chief Economic Development Officer, and I just do five minute pitch on them. And they’re the future is on their shoulders, because the future workforce or Gwinnett. County is in your kindergarten class or is about to graduate in the next nine months. So that the talent creator, I’ve been using that for some time, and I give them I hopefully inspiring speech about what their impact is in the classroom, what it means to Gwinnett County’s future.

Brandon Burton 29:14
Absolutely. There’s so much focus these days on content creation. So to be a talent creator, that’s important. No, no pressure to those teachers, you know. But let’s shift gears a little bit over to the public policy initiative that you guys had on your your application for chamber the year and tell us about that. And, and what makes that stand out?

Nick Masino 29:36
Yeah, and just briefly, the standout is we were doing very little, and we started doing some stuff at a quick fast paced level. I always say whatever you put in your budget is what you do. And so we budgeted for a full time employee and we budgeted for them to have funds to invest. And right out of the gate, was it The first year of our first new leader in public policy. And almost seven years, we were up against a big community vote to for one cent sales tax to fund capital improvements for our cities in our county, which means police departments and 911 centers and parks and libraries, in roads and sidewalks and bridges. And so we said, we’ve got this, we’re going to take the take this on, we’re going to, we’re going to lead this effort through our newly staff position. And we raised monies and hired money and we hired consultants. And we actually at the end of that vote, we actually had that was the highest vote yes, in the previous three campaigns. And so that was huge. And then we said, well, we need to start doing one that Day at the Capitol again, and go down there. And we did one last year, which was pretty COVID centric. Last year spill, we’re very limited, but we were there. And we did it was within the rules of COVID. But this year, those rules were removed, and we’re all back to normal. And we’re trying to find the date that worked best for them. And for us. It actually ended up being Valentine’s Day. So our awesome marketing and communications graphics team came up with you remember in elementary school you gave Valentine’s out? Yeah, yeah, we created Quinn net loves Georgia, Valentine’s. And we’re giving it to all of our legislators with candy. It’s awesome. It is awesome. And I just say it’s cording, but apparently no one had ever done that before. And I was really shocked. Because our we have a state legislature that needs annually, and it meets from January to March. So Valentine’s Day is always there. Like, how are we the first I think it is, but we have a really, really creative marketing team. And they came up with it. And I thought it was 100% corny, but I didn’t want to do it. And they were like, no, no, we got to do it, we’re really gonna stand out. And I was like, I don’t know if we’re gonna stand out for good or bad. But well, we’ll go for it. And everyone loved it. I was wrong. They were right. It was it was super positive. And all the photos were super cool. And it was it was really memorable, which is what was important. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 32:21
it’s nice when you can have a little bit of humble pie when something really, you know, is well accepted. And it’s okay, you know, to accept that and give your team all the credit for their good ideas, right?

Nick Masino 32:34
Oh, yeah. If they would have listened to me, we would have would have not done it. And we would have not been a finalist in the ACC. I give all the credit other places? Absolutely not, I

Brandon Burton 32:45
think you hit on something important that you know, where you put the budget is what gets the attention, right. So being able to align your intentions, you know, fiscally towards public policy, you’re gonna see more focus and more attention and more results by doing so. So I think that’s a good leadership note right there for others to take note of that if you don’t budget for it, it’s not going to happen. So

Nick Masino 33:11
totally agree. That’s, that’s definitely one of my mantras.

Brandon Burton 33:15
Yes, for sure. Well, Nick, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any tips or action items with listeners who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level. What piece of advice might you offer to them?

Nick Masino 33:33
Absolutely. I think this one’s actually I’ve read it. Like he first stopped me when it when you kind of gave me the heads up, I needed to answer that question. It but I think the answer is so obvious. Because this is what I’ve done for my entire career. When I was a mayor, I got involved in the Georgia Municipal Association, surrounded myself with peers learn best practices. And I think just as important is to avoid the mistakes that they shared with you that they made. Then I became an economic developer, and I joined the International Economic Development Council did the same thing. And it literally, I started on as the chamber CEO, July 1 of 2019. Two weeks later, I was in Huntington Beach at the annual conference, learning best practices. And I literally showed up like I took a flight really early, so I could go attend the board meeting of which one I was not allowed to attend because I wasn’t on the board. And I tried to play the well no one said I couldn’t do it. Let me sit in I just like I like if I’m going to do something I’m all in and they were like Well, sir, sorry, you cannot see. First of all welcome, but you’re not here. You can be here I need to be just not in this office. So So I went I you know, I went to the new member orientation and then I went to the big welcome ceremony, and it was all awesome. And the next day I got on a peer group I have which I’ve been on for four years, I’ve met some incredible chamber leaders from literally across the country across. There’s great folks from Canada as well in the Caribbean. And it’s been awesome. And I have learned so much. When anytime I dive into something, I want to hear what the people that have done it, what they what, like, we didn’t have a foundation at our chamber. So I’m sitting there in a room with 40 CEOs, me and one other CEO did not have a foundation, I immediately went back, why don’t we have a foundation sound out we did. And we had created our Community Foundation 20 years prior, we just found it out. And they were doing a really unique, important work of the community. But it wasn’t around business. So we actually created a chamber foundation focused on helping businesses that have owners that have been historically left out people of color women, veterans that haven’t been given their fair share of the pie. So we’re focused on that group, because nobody else was doing that work. And so that those peer groups are so important. You never know what you can learn. And also, just as importantly, what you can avoid. So sorry, that was a long drawn out answer is join, well join ACC, get on one of their peer groups in there based on the size and complexity of your chamber. So there’s a peer group for anybody, any chamber CEO,

Brandon Burton 36:23
right. And that’s one of the main reasons why this podcast became what it is, is to be able to share some of those best practices, get to know others in the peer group and learn from mistakes and successes of others. So do do all of the above as far as learning from your peers and those best practices to adopt those. I appreciate that. Nick, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Nick Masino 36:53
Well, I see a bright future for chambers. I do think that that’s a complex question, because it really depends on the community. Because not there is no cookie cutter chamber. They are as different as the individual communities. And I think it’s a great question every chamber leader needs to ask themselves. For us. We’re a very, we’re the fifth most diverse county in the United States, again, a million people, a quarter of them 250,000 People were born outside the United States of a million people on my community. And so we’ve been super intentional about inviting people into the chamber. Because if you don’t know a chamber, you’ve never been involved with one. A lot of people think chambers are government. And we find people that are first generation American, don’t have a lot of trust in government. And so we have to be super intentional about inviting people. That was what it was for us. And we knew that our physical structure of our chamber wasn’t super inviting. So we had to make it more open and bright and welcoming. So we’re doing a $4 million renovation right now. And that’s what it meant for us. But I think, you know, view as 10 chambers that question, you might get 10 different answers. But I think what’s important is you’ve got to think where is your community headed? And are you headed? Are you in a parallel direction, because if you’re going east and your community is going west, that’s that’s not good for your chamber. You’ve got to be mirroring your community have what they need. And that means thinking differently, as your community might be changing.

Brandon Burton 38:24
Right now, that is such a great answer. So every chamber is right yeah, every chamber every community is so unique. And you need to be able to listen to that community see what direction you need to go and, and it’ll kind of chart the course for you. But every every answer is slightly different. As I asked that, you know, now in 238 episodes, we get different answers from everybody. So I love it. Nick, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect and learn more about how you guys are doing things or when it would be the best way for them to reach out and connect.

Nick Masino 39:02
Sure you go to GwinnettChamber.org I will point out when that is two ends in two T’s by the way, Gwinnett you’ve never heard that name before. It is one of the three signers of the Declaration of Independence from Georgia. You’re gonna love this the guy’s name was button. Bu t t o n button good at

Brandon Burton 39:27
just don’t name their kids Button anymore.

Nick Masino 39:29
No, I know it’s such a classic thing. So what net chamber.org You can reach me at Nick@GwinnettChamber.org Pretty, pretty simple.

Brandon Burton 39:39
All right, we will get that in our show notes for this episode. Make it easy for people to find you but Nick, this has been great having you on the show and hearing about the exciting work you guys are involved with. I wish you and your team Best of luck as chamber the year and it’s been great having you on the show.

Nick Masino 39:55
Thanks so much. It really was an honor. I appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 39:58
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