Category: Advocacy

Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Scott Ashton. Because this is auto-generated there are likely some grammatical errors but it is still a useful tool to search text within this podcast episode.

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.

Voiceover Talent 0:14
Now, your host he traveled to Colorado on a mission to find his favorite ice cream. Here’s my dad Brandon Burton.

Brandon Burton 0:21
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and it’s my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Matt Morrow President and CEO of the Springfield Area Chamber in Missouri to learn how the Holman Brothers provided value to his chamber.

Matt Morrow 0:45
Holman Brothers provide a great training for our sales team in terms of just outstanding sales techniques. But maybe even more importantly than that, they were able to provide us with a system a process that was repeatable and in that we’re able to see very clearly from one month to the next how the how the pipeline is doing, what prospects are in it, what kind of progress we’re making and what we can do to coach people to success.

Brandon Burton 1:07
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

Our guest for this episode is Scott Ashton Scott is the president and CEO of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce in California. He has been on the staff at the Chamber since 1996 and took on his current role in November 2016. Scott is originally from Massachusetts, and began his career at the South Shore chamber while attending graduate school at Suffolk University in Boston, where he earned his Master of Public Administration degree. Scott has more than 30 years of experience in the chamber industry in a variety of sales and management capacities. Scott serves in volunteer and or advisory capacity with numerous local organizations as well. Scott resides in Oceanside and enjoys reading, hiking, walking and studying health and nutrition.

Scott, welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m happy to have you on the show now. And this has been a work in progress over several months. But for glad we can make it happen. Why don’t you say hello to all the Chamber Champions and and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Scott Ashton 2:20
Sure, grant. And thank you for the opportunity. And like you said, and now this has been a long time in the works. Thank you for your patience and bearing with me to find a time that works for both of us. So something interesting about myself. Well, you know, one of the statistics that I heard recently is that people entering the workforce now will have 14 different careers over their lifetime. And I don’t know if this is interested or not. But I’ve had one career in the chamber industry is all that I’ve known my entire career. So I remember growing up as a little boy, and I couldn’t think of anything else other than wanting to work for our chambers Sunday series. I’m just kidding about that. Okay.

Brandon Burton 3:07
How did you get exposed? Tell me more.

Scott Ashton 3:10
But I guess like, like most people I’ve met, you know, the, just kind of something that we fall into. So I went to I was born and raised in Massachusetts. And as of right now, I lived almost exactly half my life, the first half of my life and Massachusetts and the second half so far in Southern California, so that I went to college as a criminal justice major with a minor in Spanish, got out of college still didn’t know what I wanted to do is I went right into graduate school and had to find work while I was going to graduate school at night. So my friends, my friend, Kristen said, let me introduce you to my dad, he runs the Chamber of Commerce, and he knows tons of business people and can help you find a job. So I took her up on that I went and sat down with her dad who ran the South Shore Chamber of Commerce, which is on the south shore of Boston, one of the largest, I think it’s still to this time, one of the largest chambers in that in that state. And I sat with him for a while and he said, Well, you know, until you find something else, why don’t you just sell memberships here at the chamber? I was like, Okay, I’ve never sold anything and have no idea what a chamber does, but I’ll give it a try. And turns out I had some skills that I never would have imagined that I had and I had some success in selling memberships. I stayed at that chamber for about two and a half, two and a half years and then the membership director position opened up at the Cambridge chamber which is had an office right on Massachusetts Avenue and Cambridge about halfway between Harvard and MIT, so is an amazing opportunity. I was fortunate to get hired for that position, and did that for about two and a half years. And then my wife, who had grown up in Southern California wanted to get back here. So what I knew as a chamber career, so I just got on the phone started calling chambers and asking if they had any openings. And I connected with Oceanside, they did not have an opening, but there’s apparently something in that conversation, a conversation that intrigued them. So they invited me to fly out and have a conversation with their CEO and couple board members. And they created a position for me in 1996, doing membership and business development, which I did here for about 20 years. And then when the CEO position opened up, I really wanted it. Most of the board members at that time were people that I already had built a great relationship with. I had worked with them over the years. Some of them I had sold them their membership to the chamber. I just started reaching out to the board members and letting them know how much I wanted to position. Thankfully they hired and internally and now it’s been six years that I’ve been in the CEO role at the chamber.

Brandon Burton 6:18
Yeah, I love hearing how people come into the chamber industry because it’s always you everybody falls into it a little different. So it is yeah, it is funny most of it’s by accident, most of it yeah that’s what I say falling into it and not not that they found it or you know went after but they fell into it and but luckily the chamber world tends to attract the right people. So glad you found it. Glad you’re here will tell us some about the the Oceanside chamber just to give us some perspective like sighs staff budget type of work, just to give us some some perspective before we get into our conversation.

Scott Ashton 6:55
Yeah, so our size is about 620 or so members. budget right now is a little over a million dollars. We have a staff of eight, couple are part time The rest are full time. And last year, our chamber celebrated its 120/5 anniversary of serving the business community. So we’re we’re one of the oldest chambers in San Diego County. And I the year that I started at the chamber it was its 100th anniversary. So I was here for the 100 and 120. Pets. It’s really another

Brandon Burton 7:37
25 years and yeah,

Scott Ashton 7:39
I do not

Brandon Burton 7:43
come back as a by standard then I guess maybe yeah. Maybe a member of some sort. So yeah.

Scott Ashton 7:50
Hope to be around and be able to celebrate, but not in this position. 25 years.

Brandon Burton 7:59
Well, that that does help. As far as type of work. Are you guys chamber only? Are you tourism? Are you economic development? What what do you guys cover?

Scott Ashton 8:09
Yeah, no, that’s a great question. So when I first started at the Chamber, we ran the we ran the tourism operation for Oceanside. And about 12 years ago, we helped, we helped create a separation where they are now funded through through a transient marketing districts tax. So it’s a hotel tax of I forget the exact amount, I think it’s close to 2%. It funds that operation where previously, every year or two we had to go to city council and and request a portion of the T ot taxes in order to be able to fund the visitor operation. But now they have a steady stream of income. And makes me wish at some point that we we had handled that a little differently and didn’t give up that operation because now they have a budget that’s three or four times times the size of our chamber budget. But we work really closely with them. I’m on their board. They’re CEOs on my board, we’d have a great working relationship. So yeah, so while we’re not the point of contact or the main, you know, the the main organization working on tourism anymore, it’s still a very important part of what drives our local economy. So we’re of course involved in it. Workforce development is another key area for us. Small business advocacy, which I’m sure most chambers you’re talking with, are engaged in that and then political action is is the other key element that I think we’re gonna be talking about shortly.

Brandon Burton 9:49
That’s right. And so that’s a good transition right there. So our topic for conversation today people may have seen as they look at the title of this episode, but we’re going to be talking about chain Bruce endorsing political candidates. So I know that’s a topic that some chambers you know, want to shy away from or maybe they are interested in getting into, but they don’t know where to start and there’s some fear or maybe they’re doing it and there’s something they can learn and adapt or maybe it hasn’t gone well and maybe it went really well. So we’ll we’ll dive into our discussion around that and what you guys are currently involved with as soon as I get back from this quick break.

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All right, Scott, we’re back. So endorsing political candidates. How did the Oceanside chamber come to the decision that you guys wanted to endorse candidates?

Scott Ashton 13:31
Yeah, it was a it was a slow evolution. When I when I first started at the chamber. I don’t think it’s anything that they would have even imagined taking on at that point. But at some point along the way, we started doing candidate forums and getting warmed up to that realm a little bit. So fast forward to 2018. Where we had we had done our candidate forums were that year were heavily engaged in trying to defeat an initiative on the ballot, I was the land of local to Oceanside land use initiative, which was basically for ballot box zoning, which we did not want to see happen. So we got heavily engaged in that and fortunately defeated it. So we we exited the 2018 elections with a sense of boldness and wanting to see how much further we can go in the political realm. So in December of 2018, we did a survey to our members and asked them, you know how helpful the information that we put out on that ballot measure was to them and you know, making their decision on voting and got really good feedback on that. And we asked some other questions on the survey about the candidates that have won the election. You know, do you think this person is business friendly or not? And you And then we worked our way to the question on how important is it to you that the Chamber be involved in helping elect business friendly candidates. And it was almost 90% of the survey respondents indicated that it was important to them that we help elect business friendly candidates. So, I know that can mean a lot of different things, you know, that can mean doing forums or publishing scorecards. But what I and our board took that to mean is that, Hey, we should move forward and considering endorsing candidates. So we took those survey results to the board, and our board was, you know, boldly decided to move in that direction. So when we did that survey, we also asked, Hey, would you be interested in being part of some more extensive conversations on this topic? And we had quite a few members that said yes to that. So in 2019, we started holding focus groups with small groups of our members to ask them, what was important to them. And in city council candidates, what what are the things that you want them to address and what what you want them to do. And so we were able to gather a lot of data on what was important to our members, and what they wanted to see and the candidates going forward. And from there, we will use that to develop our policies and procedures.

Brandon Burton 16:30
So I know you as you try to speak as the voice of business as as the chamber, you’re taking a collective of voices, whether it’s staff or board members, or your members, in general, to say this is a candidate that we support, or we’re behind this candidate. Did you have to work through any, you know, putting aside you know, personal feelings? Or, or maybe a board member that didn’t necessarily agree, how do you manage some of those waters that can get a little bit muddy?

Scott Ashton 17:05
So that that is a great question. You know, we have a very diverse pack. And it’s purposely set up that way where we have equal number of seats for for Republicans, Democrats and no party preference. And while when you start to talk about state national issues, there would be strong separation amongst those people. But we find that on local issues related to development. For us, you know, sand retention on our beach is a big issue, housing, workforce development related issues, that there’s really strong unity across parties on that. So. And one of the points that are, you know, when our PAC is going to make a recommendation to the board, they do make a point to remind them that, hey, you might have some personal thoughts on this. But remember, you’re wearing your chamber hat right now. And, you know, please approach it from that perspective. So, and I know we’ll talk about some of the specifics of the elections a little bit, but in the two election cycles that we’ve endorsed candidates, we get have unanimous, unanimous approval from our board of directors. So our PAC has done their homework in both election cycles.

Brandon Burton 18:27
That’s great. And I think it’s good for other chambers to hear that too. Just a reminder of once he started talking about things on a local level, it’s a lot easier to gather consensus and people around one common goal. So take, take that charge and go do it. So. So as we’re talking right now, it’s beginning it’s beginning of December 2022. So we just came off of an election cycle. And you’re just talking about that fed a couple election cycles now to go through with endorsing candidates out, how have those gone? Have you? You know, from the candidates you didn’t Dorse the process along the way the outcomes? What’s the experience been like?

Scott Ashton 19:08
Yeah, so it all goes back to 2019, where we put in that worked with our members, we had those focus groups, we found out what was important to them. And then we developed policies and procedures as to how we will approach the endorsement of candidates. And so far, it’s been just sticking with city council races, you know, here in Oceanside. And so we had this all put in place prior to 2020. And then, when 2020 came along, candidates started piling and so on. We had these policies and procedures in place that allowed us to send out questionnaires to the to the candidates that had filed just to get their feedback on business related issues. And from there, we decided who we would interview or do a personal interview with at the next step because of what happened in 2020. The personal interviews ended up being zoom interviews instead. So we couldn’t sit across the table from them. But what we decided to do, because of the volume of candidates was relatively low. We invited everybody that filled out our survey to come in for an interview, even, you know, even if they’re there, they didn’t have the exact answers to the questions that you know, that we are hoping to hear from them. We still invited them in for an interview, and we were able to manage that volume of candidates. So in 2020, we had three races, and we had two city council races and neoral race. The mayoral race became complicated because we had two business friendly candidates that had been good friends of the chamber, that they couldn’t agree for one of them to back out. And they both stayed in the race. And we basically said that we’re not going to choose between them. We just made a statement that both of these candidates have been good supporters of the chamber and of the business community. And we left it at that. So we focused our effort on the two city council district races, and I 2018, I think was our first year and going to two districts, city council races used to be city wide. So the two district candidates were incumbents that had were in their current seats by appointment. And they had been business friendly. And it was a very easy decision for us to get behind these two candidates. They both ended up winning their races. One was, I think, by less than 1000 votes. So I think we really had an impact there. And we were able to donate, I think in the range of about $12,000 total that we had raised through our political action committee. And we were able to help them out with their to get across the finish line. So we were we were successful in that in that first run, and that embolden us to keep moving forward. Very good.

Brandon Burton 22:12
So do you feel and I don’t know, maybe you have some data to back this up? Or not? Maybe it’s just a feeling but how do you feel the impact of your chamber supporting candidates? How has that helped to motivate people to vote? I mean, to me, it’s always discouraging when you see such small numbers, turnout for elections, and trying to engage that that big population that just doesn’t vote? Do you? Do you have any feeling or any data on how maybe that needles moved over time?

Scott Ashton 22:45
I really don’t. I think we were a little early on in the process to see if we’re making any impact on on voter turnout. But I think we are, you know, the Chamber brand is very well respected in the community. And as we’re able to put forth our candidates, I think people pay attention to that. The other part of it is we have found common ground with there’s two other major organizations in Oceanside that endorse candidates, and that is our Police Officers Association, and our Firefighters Association. So going back several years, they used to endorse the candidates that would basically tell them, you know, what, what they wanted to hear that they would be taken care of. But these are the same candidates that were opposing development and gross. So one of our PAC members had a conversation with with both of the unions and, and just, you know, shared with them that, hey, if you if you want to get paid, what you should be paid, we need growth in our community, we need that development, we need to expand our tax base. And they have been really on board with that and supporting pro development candidates. So you know, the we’re going into it where it’s not just the chamber endorsement, but it’s our candidates have been endorsed by the chamber by the police and fire associations. And that’s a big deal. And in a relatively small city. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 24:13
I love that. And I like that you guys are doing interviews too, with these candidates to be able to help share the story, what their vision is, and give a more informed option or choice to voters. Yeah, I know, not every community is has done that or is equipped to do that unnecessary or maybe they don’t think they’re equipped to do that. But I see a tremendous value because I mean, most times you go to the ballot, and you see names of people that you don’t know who they are. And the especially the common person in the in the community has no idea who some of these names are set to create some exposure and some connection as to what these people stand for besides an R or D next to their name, I think is very helpful. So Do you have any any tips for chambers who want to maybe get their toes wet in this as far as conducting some of those interviews? Or how to get started?

Scott Ashton 25:12
Yeah. So just for clarification, are the interviews that we do are just for our path or not public interviews? So we’re asking them, you know, the questions are important to our business community and how they would approach those issues. And that’s, that’s what we’re using as to decide on where we’re going to put our endorsement. But there are, you know, there are other great resources in our, in our community, we have a local TV station that allows for, for each election cycle for a candidate statements, and, you know, people in the community can hear from the candidates directly on that. But what we’re doing is we’re doing our interviews we’re bringing, we’re bringing our recommendation to the chamber board of directors, and then we’re sharing that with the community in a variety of ways. One of the things that we have is, we do a quarterly magazine that gets mailed out to a lot of the business people and residents. So what we’ve done when we have endorsements, is we target the distribution of our magazine into that district. So ideally, you know, most if not all of the residents in that district, are hearing from us and on who are endorsements are and those endorsements are on the front cover of the magazine.

Brandon Burton 26:35
Awesome, awesome, great idea. So, overall, I like to asking if, if you have any tips or action items for listeners who would like to take their chamber up to the next level? What might you suggest for them? And maybe it has something to do with endorsing candidates, maybe it’s something totally different.

Scott Ashton 26:58
I would say, ask your members what they want. And that’s how we get started on this path, is we you know, we decided to just reach out to the members and see if they wanted us to be engaged in this. And like I said earlier, I know there are a variety of ways for our chambers to influence elections. And it can be just, you know, doing forums, which we did, and publishing scorecards, which we’ve done, not so consistently over the years. But I feel like endorsing candidates is a chance for you to have a real mark on on the elections and to make a real difference. But the starting point is to ask ask the members. The other important tip is to know when to stay out of a race. So I mentioned in 2020, how we stayed out of the mayoral race. This year, we had two districts up for election, one of them was a was a pro business incumbent that we chose not to endorse because of some complications within that race, not the least of which was somebody from her same party, that that would not back out of the race. And we just mathematically didn’t seem like there’s really any path for her to win. So instead of us, and she did not win. And so instead of us, you know, diving into that race and potentially burning a bridge, we stayed out and now we’re trying to build a relationship with a person that that did win that race and with some success. And but the race that we did indoors in one of the districts was a retiring fire chief, who is very well liked in the community, the chamber, police and fire associations all got behind him and he had a strong victory. And that was our first time getting involved in doing an independent expenditure, is there now caps on how much we can donate directly to a candidate. So we put some money into a mailer to support the candidate and there’s no limitations and how much you can spend on independent expenditure on behalf of the candidate.

Brandon Burton 29:09
Okay, so I know, chambers that are listening there, they’re having questions like, but what about this? What about that? What if so, has there been any negative fallout for that’s come from endorsing candidates?

Scott Ashton 29:24
Nothing measurable. You know, it’s interesting going back to that mayoral race, in 2021 conversation I had from a member that was upset was that he couldn’t get out of his mind that he kept selling me you guys endorsed selling science like No, we didn’t endorse in that race. But I guess the fact that we put out a statement saying that these two candidates have both been business friendly was enough to digital but no, the feedback has been great. I think people appreciate that. We’ve taken that had a bold step to put ourselves out there. And they were very thoughtful about how we approach it and try to be very transparent. And we share why we’ve endorsed the candidates and how they aligned with the goals and objectives of the chamber. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 30:17
I think that makes a lot of sense. When with the feedback from your survey, like I said, 90%, saying, yes, if they wanted you to endorse, I didn’t imagine there’d be much negative fallout. So as we wrap up, I wanted to ask you, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Scott Ashton 30:39
Yeah, I, the direction has certainly changed a lot. And in COVID, certainly had had an impact on that. For us. We’ve slowly moved away from being dependent on events. In the coming year, we actually are doing away with our largest event that really just did not have a strong connection to our mission, and our vision as an organization. So in the event represented about 12, or 13%, of our gross revenue, and so so that’s, it’s hard to let go of something like that. But it’s the right thing to do. So but what what’s freeing us up is, it’s given us the opportunity to focus more on the things that are essential to our business community, the the advocacy, the political action, workforce development, and also, we’ve created a Leadership Academy. So by turning away from some of the things that that brought in money, but didn’t have a strong value to our business community, it’s given us a chance to create some some new programs that do bring value to our businesses. Right.

Brandon Burton 32:00
That’s great. And that is a bold step to step away from from that, that much of your income.

Scott Ashton 32:08
Yeah, and I’m, I’m seeing, you know, just in general, because I know you weren’t just asking about our chamber, but I’ve seen that with other chambers too, and just moving in that direction of being problem solvers in their communities, and, you know, focusing your efforts and using that, to drive revenue opportunities rather than events.

Brandon Burton 32:31
Right, keeps you relevant. That’s for sure. So Scott, I’d like to give you an opportunity for anyone listening who’d like to reach out and connect and learn more about how you went about this process to decide to endorse and the whole process what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you?

Scott Ashton 32:51
Yeah, so well, and I love talking about this, I hope people will not hesitate to, to give me a call. So best thing is just pick up the phone call me at the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce as 7607 to 21534.

Brandon Burton 33:06
Very good, I will. I’ll get that in our show notes for this episode as well, so people can look that up and give me a holler. But um, Scott, I appreciate you hopping on here and visiting with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast for your bold leadership and being willing to share these experiences you’ve had and how things are going there in Oceanside. Thanks for coming on and joining us today.

Scott Ashton 33:30
Thanks, Brandon. I really appreciate the opportunity. If you

Brandon Burton 33:33
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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Marc Cohen. Because this is auto-generated there are likely some grammatical errors but it is still a useful tool to search text within this podcast episode.

Feel free to join our Chamber Chat Champions Facebook Group to discuss this episode and to share your own experiences and tips with other Chamber Champions.

Introduction

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.

Voiceover Talent 0:14
And now your host. He is happy to see so many conferences going back to in person. He’s my dad Brandon Burton.

Brandon Burton 0:22
Hello Chamber Champions. Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host Brandon Burton, where it is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your members and your community.

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Matt Morrow, President and CEO of the Springfield Area Chamber in Missouri to learn how the Holman Brothers provided value to his chamber.

Matt Morrow 0:47
Holman Brothers provide a great training for our sales team in terms of just outstanding sales techniques. But maybe even more importantly than that, they were able to provide us with a system a process that was repeatable, and in that we’re able to see very clearly from one month to the next how the how the pipeline is doing, what prospects are in it, what kind of progress we’re making and what we can do to coach people to success.

Brandon Burton 1:09
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting HolmanBros.com.

Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Marc Cohen. Marc is the Chief of Staff at the Greater Rochester Chamber in New York. Marc became the chief of staff at the Greater Rochester chamber in December 2018. In his role, he directly oversees government relations, Legislative Affairs advocacy, and as the primary policy adviser to the Rochester chamber CEO Robert J. Duffy. Marc is charged with identifying process improvement opportunities, best practices cost saving measures, working with partners to promote and enhance regional workforce and economic development efforts. Serving as Mr. Duffy’s and the Rochester chambers representative at outside forums, and on community work groups and overseeing the daily operations of the chamber executive office. Marc serves on a variety of boards in his community. He also serves as an EMT with Brighton ambulance and as a 2021 Rochester Business Journal 40 under 40 recipient, Marc grew up in Amherst, New York, and graduated Summa Kumada from the University of Alberni. While at the University of Albany, Marc worked as a research fellow in the Office of the Provost, and co authored the book diversity at college real stories of students conquering bias and making higher education more inclusive. The book was named as a finalist for the 2020 foreword indies award, and was chosen as a silver winner of the 2021 distinguished favorites of the independent press awards. That Marc, I am happy to have you with me today 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 share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Something Interesting About Marc

Marc Cohen 3:03
Well, Brandon, I want to thank you for this incredible podcast that you do. I’m a fan of yours. And I think that your efforts to connect chambers of commerce and staff in this way is really outstanding. You pretty much took all the wind out of my sails with that bio, there’s nothing else about myself. That’s it. I mean, I I’ll tell you, I sat behind Contestants Row at the prices right and I shouted out answers, you know, to the to the contestants, as they were guessing and for our show, the one that we were that we were at when it was recording. The person went all the way to the to the big prize and they won they won the whole show. So I guess in some way, that’s that’s an interesting fact about me.

Brandon Burton 3:39
Did they invite you on their vacation with you too, for helping them out?

Marc Cohen 3:43
You know, you know, they didn’t and they also want a boat and I haven’t gotten a trip on the boat yet, but that’s alright, I’m not too sour about it. There were only like 1000 Other people shouting things. Alright.

Brandon Burton 3:53
So fun fact on prices, right? Totally off topic, but it’s pretty cool. My wife’s uncle was on prices right in the late 80s. And he won the whole Showcase Showdown. You know, the car the whole that is so cool. Yeah, the whole thing, the whole shebang. And that Bob is just about four months ago, he was on it again. And did it again. He won the all Showcase Showdown for a second time. It was like 28 years later, some 30 years later. I don’t know what the exact timing was. But the whole thing was to cars and the trip and boat and everything the whole shot. So it was pretty cool. They were showing his footage from the 80s. And he was on it. And in the 80s I think when he spun the wheel, he got $1. Exactly. And then this second time I think he ended up with 90 cents but still, yeah, he’s got the special touch but that’s you got that.

Marc Cohen 4:49
He’s got that special quality. That’s a great I think I can’t think of a better way for you to start your show. Isn’t that

Brandon Burton 4:54
Yeah. Totally unrelated but it’s fun. So tell us A little bit about the Rochester chamber is the size location budget staff just to kind of give us an idea of kind of the perspective you’re coming from is when are discussions for today?

About the Greater Rochester Chamber

Marc Cohen 5:11
Sure. So Greater Rochester Chamber is a Metro Chamber of Commerce. So we represent the nine county Finger Lakes region in upstate New York. Your listeners probably know the Finger Lakes for its outstanding wine. And we are known for many, many other things as well. But we are larger Chamber of Commerce, we have 1300 members. We are located our headquarters, our physical building is in downtown Rochester, New York in the in the sort of urban core. And our staff is about 30 people. Something unique about our chamber is that we’ve got the chamber of commerce side. So we’ve got our membership office and the Communications Office and the policy office and you know, those folks, but we also have a staffing division, and a screening division. So a member calls us and says, Hey, I need 50 temporary employees, we hire them as our employees, and then we we sort of staff them out to the various folks who need them. So in that way, we’re sort of our for profit size as a staffing agency. So that’s known as RBA, staffing and screening. We also do background checks for, for employers for tenants for tenant screening. And we have found that it’s a great way to what to earn revenue so that the chamber can continue doing the great things that we do. But it’s also a really great service to to the community at large, especially at a time, and I’m sure we’ll talk about this a little later. But when, at least for us, the number one issue we hear from, from business leaders is access to talent. So we can say not only do we support workforce development and talent, strategy and theory and you know, by supporting various initiatives, we are literally doing it every single day, we’ve got placement specialists who are putting people in jobs, supporting our members, supporting businesses in the community, in the most direct way possible. So our chamber is a full service Chamber of Commerce. And you know, we are we’re really proud of our membership and our staff loves what, what they do. And I certainly love what I do.

Brandon Burton 7:12
I love that idea of of having the staffing agency there on hand to really give that support to your members. That’s a great idea. And hopefully one that other chambers can think hey, that’s that’s good idea. Let me explore that. Yeah. So is it all full time employment placement? Or do you do temp arrangements at all? Or how does that set up?

Marc Cohen 7:35
It’s great question we do. And by the way, you’re helping me out because our director of staffing services is going to love me for this for this free publicity that she’s getting in her team. But no, we do. We do temporary placements, and then a lot of temp to perm. We do direct placements to so for the higher level C suite officials, C suite officers or middle management level officers, we will place them directly. And it’s you know, it’s interesting, like I said, it’s our VA staffing and screening. And if you look at our website, see the jobs that are posted. I mean, we post for veterinarians and dieticians. And, you know, and then the day laborer, you know, sort of manufacturing jobs and everything in between. I mean, it’s crazy, the, you know, the scope of the folks who reached out to us, we do a lot of work with our healthcare systems, in helping them to place to place workers, which again, in the wake of COVID-19, has been crucial. And so it’s, it’s every level of employment every length of time of employment. And, and it’s it’s a really, really impressive operation that that our team leads and again, folks are finding that, especially now before it was great, and it was important, and we, you know, did a lot of good in the community. But especially now, when COVID-19 has, you know, wrought havoc on businesses in every way be able to sort of be a one stop shop to help them to recover and build back stronger. Is is outstanding.

Brandon Burton 9:05
That is a very unique offering that you guys have there. And we could we could spend the whole episode diving in deep on it and maybe we will in the future. I think that’s a great, great topic to dive into. But for our discussion today we’ll focus more on the role of chambers it as it comes to advocacy and policy. And we will jump into that discussion as soon as I get back from this quick break.

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Topic-Role of Chambers in Advocacy and Policy

Alright, Marc, we are back. So as we look at the role of chambers in advocacy and policy. I know some chambers are a little hesitant maybe to get their feet wet in this topic in this arena. But I’d love for you to kind of take from your perspective how you add this to the value proposition there in Rochester. And keeping in mind, you know, the chambers listening who maybe don’t have a formal role in advocacy, how things can apply to them and how they can get involved in in advocacy and policy in their communities?

Marc Cohen 12:18
It’s a great question. And it’s an excellent topic, and you’re going to probably have to cut me off 10 or 15 times because I can talk for hours about sort of the role of this, but I’ll do my best, you know, I know brevity is key. So the role of chambers in advocacy and in policy is is one that might not be immediately obvious, but but is really interesting. And it’s something that any chamber can do. So as a Metro Chamber, we have members who join and our membership team is second to none. And they’ll be asked why do you want to join? You know, what, what is interesting to you about the greater Rochester chamber and sometimes people say, You know what, I just I really want to do networking events. And I want you know, the spaghetti dinners in the, you know, the, you know, go out to a bar and get a drink ticket and just kind of chat with people. And that’s an amazing sort of role of a chamber of commerce, it’s not really what we do. So we have something like 30 to 40 local chambers within our footprint. And we have no problem. And you know, our membership team, like I said a second to none, but they’re also just remarkably ethical. They have no problem saying, You know what, that’s not really what we do, right? We don’t do those weekly mixers. And we do it every once in a while, but sort of what the what your mainstream chambers will do. So we will refer them to wherever town or city they’re in, will refer them to their chambers and say, Hey, we have great partnerships with these local chambers, definitely join them, because that’s sort of what you’re looking for. When people approach us and say, look, the reason I want to join is because I need a voice to help me advocate for a policy that would be very helpful for my business, or advocate against the policy that would be detrimental to my business. It’s sort of one of our wheel houses. And and I’ll talk a little bit about that, you know, when at the state, county, local, or other state county, you know, and local levels and federal levels, we are approached about a policy issue or about, you know, a particular statute or you know, sort of red tape bureaucracy that adversely impacts a business or that will support a business. We have the relationships to help right and, and legislation can be daunting legislation can can be difficult to read. legalese is not, you know, is not always the most reader friendly. But the spirit of the legislation is probably well known, and chambers of commerce are incredibly well positioned to advocate for or against a policy because of who they represent. They represent a constituency that would be impacted by that policy. And so, I’m going to end my rant on that first question here and just saying that, you know, while we are lucky to have a staff that can, you know, read through pick apart And then you know, establish advocacy plans based on individual pieces of legislation or based on legislation packages, any local chamber of commerce with even just an all volunteer staff, all volunteer board, one part time staff, they can come together with their businesses, and submit a letter to the legislature, to the governor, to the county executive to the mayor, and just say, hey, look, we know this legislation is out there, we don’t want to 100% know, every aspect of it, but I’m telling you that based on what we do know, it’s really harmful, or it’s really helpful. And we, you know, we want to use our voice to, you know, to speak in favor or against against that policy. So, I got all wound up there, Brandon, I’m sorry, no, it’s gone. The introduction to it is so

Brandon Burton 15:43
in a couple of different thoughts on this, so I had Brad Hicks on the podcast back in episode 143. From Oregon, and he was talking about advocacy and, and how important it is for chambers, really of any size to to advocate for pro business policies, pro business candidates, and, and I know it can be a sticky topic for some chambers. They don’t want to get into it because they don’t want to offend anybody. But being able to look at had a policy and say this is going to help business or this is going to hurt business based on those constituents that you’re representing, I think is so important and vital. Do there at being a Regional Chamber, do you guys work with some of the smaller local chambers to help gather support and input from their members to take to the state level or national level? In some cases?

Marc Cohen 16:40
We do. And you brought up a point, I’ll answer that question. And I want to go back to the point about sometimes it getting sticky, because it’s really important. And maybe some, you know, some tips of how to navigate that. But we do so we created the greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce created something called the Advocacy Coalition of Rochester area chambers. So it’s at crack, which is just the, you know, an acronym we sort of put together. And we started it as just a super informal gathering of local Chambers from actually the Finger Lakes region and the southern tier. And Rochester just being sort of a larger city in our region, we chose to include that in the name for for advocacy sake, and sort of to catch the eye of elected officials. But what started as a super loosely, sort of arranged group of people talking about policy turned into a real advocacy group. And so we will hear from, you know, one of our local chambers, and I don’t want to shout out names, because there are so many, they’re also grateful to hear from a local chamber, who said, hey, you know, what we’re hearing from a lot of members, that exe is a real problem. And then another local chamber will chime in, in the email and say, You know what, we’re hearing that too. So we’ve got five or six, and rather than a chamber with 87 members, or a chamber with 112, or chamber with, you know, 500, we can all come together and say, we represent collectively 1000s of businesses, we are opposed to this, we are supportive of this, this will hurt, this will help. If this will hurt, here’s how you can adjust it, here’s how you can tweak it, and we’ve made impactful change. I mean, legislators reach out and say, Hey, we saw your letter of support, we saw your letter of opposition, you know, what can we do to make this better what we do to help get this passed. And it just, it’s really cool that sort of that we were able to do that. And I say we not the greater Rochester chamber, but we the coalition of you know, of the, you know, 15 to 20 active chambers involved in the group. So that’s been a really great thing and a cool way, maybe for Metro chambers who are listening or State Chambers who are listening to engage the more sort of local grassroots, you know, organizations regarding the stickiness. Oh, go ahead.

Brandon Burton 18:52
No, I was just going to just mention that hopefully, most smaller chambers are part of some regional or state coalition, as far as advocacy goes, just to voice a opinion of their members. I hope that’s happening. But I wanted to put a little bit of attention on this, because I know, there’s been a lot of turnover in the Chamber Leadership in the last year or two. So if somebody is new to chamber work, and they need to get their feet wet, NAFTA See, that’s a good way to do it is to find out on a regional level or state level, is there, an organization that you can, you know, tag on with and be a part of to help represent the businesses in your community? So thank you for talking to that.

Marc Cohen 19:34
No, it is and you know, I’ll say we, as you know, a Metro Chamber are part of the Business Council of New York State, that’s our state chapter and my boss who we have a little bit of an advantage in terms of advocacy. My boss served as Mayor of the City of Rochester and then it Lieutenant Governor of the state of New York. And so the relationships that he’s been able to forge have been helpful for our members and, and for the region as a whole The various boards that he sits on help to shed light on issues that are critically important to the entire regional economy. So we are privileged in that way. You know, but But to your point, you know, he sits on the Business Council of New York State’s board, he sits on the council of 100, for the US Chamber of Commerce board. So, you know, we understand the importance of connecting to our larger associations, right, affiliating with our larger, you know, parent, if you will, parent organizations. And, and we agree that, you know, local chambers, should engage with Metro chambers, and there ought not be and I know, there are, but there ought not be turf wars in terms of who’s got the members and who’s collecting the revenue, but rather, recognize that we’re all in this for the same reason, the spirit is the same. Sometimes the capacity is just different because of the various, you know, financial or resource, you know, positions that folks find themselves in. But no, I agree with you wholeheartedly.

Brandon Burton 20:53
Yeah. So go ahead and touch on the point as far as it being a Sticky, sticky topic for some people to to wander into.

Marc Cohen 21:03
It’s such a good question. And it’s one, you know, with which we’ve grappled as well. So advocacy comes in many forms, right? So there is everything from you got a chamber that’s got 46 members, and, you know, their dues are $25 a year and their dues dollars go to, you know, one annual letter and maybe one dinner, great. And that’s, that’s a perfectly great way to set up a chamber of commerce. And they can advocate just like any other can, by doing something as is, you know, seemingly simple as writing a letter making a phone call meeting asking for their local town council member or county legislator supervisor, you know, for a meeting state legislator, to discuss an issue that’s important. And then obviously goes all the way up to having a political action committee. So the Chamber of Commerce has a political action committee, which is not part of the chamber, right. It’s a separate entity. But you know, so we don’t have, you know, a majority of our board members on it, it’s it’s sort of an independent body, our CEO is not on it, there’s no chamber staff representation on the committee, but it bears our name. And our members support it, and our members contribute to it. And our pack interviews and endorses candidates. And so that’s just political, you know, as it can get right where you’re interviewing. And we’re bipartisan, we endorse Democrats and Republicans proudly. And, you know, and interview based on issues versus based on party. And we’ve got really diverse and great representation on the pack, to ensure that the voice of large and small businesses, that’s the voice of diverse businesses and minority and women owned businesses and veteran owned businesses, that all of that is brought to the table. But it is still inherently a political process to political action committee. So. So you know, we’ve we’ve gotten, you know, from time to time, questions about how you maintain relationships, and it’s a, I say, simple answer. It’s by conducting interviews and conducting endorsements and an ethical, fair and honest way, which we always do. And it’s by ensuring that, you know, you maintain a degree of separation, where, you know, our staff is advocating for members based on the feedback that we get, we get an email from a member saying, Senate Bill x is going to be really, really helpful for us. And we’re hoping you can help us to find a state assembly sponsor, and that you can help to advocate to the Governor to sign the bill. That’s great. And then we put together memos of support. And the same thing is if it’s opposed, working with, you know, our federal representatives, and Senators Schumer, and Gillibrand, and congressmen rally, you know, who represent us on the federal level and letting them know where we stand on various issues, where our members stand on various issues. It’s not rocket science and legislation and government is so again, daunting, and it’s, you know, can be wrought with bureaucracy and red tape and confusion. But if you kind of push all of that aside, and realize, wait a minute, this is just an issue of, you know, another mandate on businesses, I don’t know. And I don’t know the history of it. I don’t know the future of it. I don’t know who’s in favor who’s opposed. I don’t want any of that. What I know is that I have 46 members, and that one of them, or four of them, or all of them don’t like this new mandate. It’s my job now to go out and call my legislator and just say, Hey, I don’t have a big operation. But I’m telling you that my membership is opposed to this. And, and the impact that something like that can have is so massive, and that’s not political at all. That’s not sticky at all. It’s not because a Democrat or Republican, you know, proposed it, it’s because it’s a helpful or a harmful policy, and you’re doing what your membership wants you to do.

Brandon Burton 24:39
That’s right. And if you can imagine, you know, a handful of chambers across the state calling their representatives saying this is good or bad for our business, that it gets the attention of those elected officials who are representing you. That’s right. That that’s really what it boils down to. I think we’re people tend to shy away from getting into the politics side, because they feel like they might lose certain sponsors, certain members, if they endorse, you know, one policy or another. And really, it just it comes down to what’s what’s going to be best for business is what it really boils down to.

Marc Cohen 25:19
It does. And if I just had one more piece of advice, I would I would offer this there is a school of thought that in order to successfully advocate, you have to hold a press conference, you have to pound your fist on a podium, and you have to yell at people and be angry, and, and, you know, call people liars. And, you know, you’re a liberal, you’re conservative, you’re terrible, you’re awful we Stanford’s, and you know what you might get some really good press out of that every outlet in your community or in the state might come and listen to you. And that’s fine. You know, my boss has a saying that politicians have a memory of about 30 to 40 years, you know, if you offend these elected officials, they’re not going to forget, you know, maybe in 40 years, they’ll forget, but they’re not going to forget, if you try to make something political, if you try to embarrass them, or force them into a corner, it’s not going to go well. But if you write a letter you’re being you can have a strong language as you want. You write a letter, you send it to them, you don’t then post that letter on Facebook or Instagram or, you know, other social media, but rather send them the letter, you know, ask them that you’d like a response, and have a conversation with them sort of behind the scenes behind closed doors, where you’re advocating in the best interest of your constituency, but you’re not doing it in a in a, you know, in a way to try and garner attention, you’re doing it in a way to be constructive and productive, you will be successful. And even if I say you’ll be successful, because even if you don’t get your way on that piece of legislation, that elected official or that, you know, leader in their, in their office, the staff member will appreciate that you didn’t try and embarrass them or try and force them, but rather just tried to have a dialogue and in the future, eventually, you will absolutely, you will absolutely, you know, get wins. And they’ll start to look to you for advice on policies so that you can get in at the ground level and be proactive versus reactive.

Brandon Burton 26:59
I love that. And I think by approaching it from behind the scenes behind the closed doors, it’s a way where even if that elected official has some kind of preconceived notion of what the chamber represents or what they do. It really takes it to more of a level ground, kind of that same center, where you’re not in there to play politics, where you’re saying this is what’s best for our organization for the members of our chamber. And it really takes the divisiveness out of out of politics. So I love that typically,

Marc Cohen 27:31
right? Yes, exactly. Right. And, you know, I don’t know how we’re looking on time. But I have one more I have one more suggestion if we have time

Brandon Burton 27:38
for Yes, please.

Marc Cohen 27:39
So there is a lower there is an attractiveness to meeting with the principal right to meeting with the governor and the lieutenant governor to meeting with the Congress member to meeting, you know, with whomever it is right, because you want to be in front of them. I worked in Albany, I worked for my boss when he was lieutenant governor, I worked for our now Governor Cathy Hoko, when she was lieutenant governor, I have seen how advocacy works firsthand. These elected officials, everybody from our state assembly members to state senators, to county legislators, they are taking meetings like crazy, they meet with so many people in a day, you get your 10 or 15 minutes. And I’m not saying they’re not listening to you because they are and I’m sure they care, and I’m sure they’re great. But in order to be effective, you don’t have to meet with the principal. In fact, I would say that when I advocate, I often get further by meeting with their staff, their chief of staff, their legislative director, or legislative assistant, you know, a constituent Relations Director, because these are the folks whose job is day in and day out to be behind the scenes to be the person behind the person to help them get things done. So whereas you’ve got the principal who absolutely takes time to meet with constituents, but also has to take time to vote on bills, and also has to take time to do media and do fundraisers and do all of the other sorts of things that they have to do. If you can get in the ear of a staff member, not only are they more likely to probably give it more attention again, not because the legislator or the elected official won’t, but because it’s the staff member sole job to do that. If you can get them on your side, if you can get them to see your way. You might get five or 10 minutes with them, you know, you might even get five or 10 minutes with the elected officials themselves. These staff members are what the elected officials 10 hours a day. So if you can get one of these staff members on your side and get them to support your position, they will hammer away at that elected official day in and day out until the official sees it the staff members way which is also your way. Right. So my piece of advice is ask for a member with a meeting with the member or the elected official. Do it absolutely. Because it’s great to get a picture and put it on social media and show your members what you’re doing. But don’t discount the importance of meeting with staff as well because oftentimes staff are the ones who can help you to get it done. And you’ll find a lot of success in doing that.

Brandon Burton 29:51
That’s right. And the thought that came to me with as far as meeting with the staff is if you can turn your advocacy efforts into creating an advocate You know, in the office there, the staff member that you win, you know, that’s awesome.

Marc Cohen 30:05
That is exactly where I’m gonna steal that now. So all of your listeners will know that I stole that from you. But that’s all right. But but others won’t that’s, that is a perfect way to put it. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 30:15
Well as we are kind of getting short on time, I do want to ask you what would be maybe one, I mean, you just gave a great tip, but I was asked for one tip or action item for listeners that they can do to, to help take their chambers up to the next level.

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Marc Cohen 30:31
I want any chamber listening who’s not already doing it, to go on Google type in who is my representative, whatever the first, you know, the first site that pops up is click on that type in your address or the address of your business or your chamber. Whoever it says is your elected leader or the various leaders, pick one of them, send them a note, tell them who you are, tell them that you’d love to show that you are a resource for them the community that you represent businesses that you care about, that you care about sort of the future of the economy of your region, your city, your state, and see what they say. And I will bet you I bet you a cup of coffee next time any of your listeners are in Rochester, New York, and any of them who can prove me wrong. I bet them a cup of coffee in Rochester wherever they want that or glass of wine, that they will get a response. And not only do they get a response, but they’ll have earned a friend because the legislator, elected official staff member who responds to them will appreciate that they took the time to reach out. Hey, my name is Marc Cohen, I’m with the greater Rochester chamber. I value advocacy and I value my role in advocating for constituency, I’d love to talk to you about the state of the the economy, the state of the business community in insert city. Have a great day, Marc Cohen. Every one of your listeners should do that. If they’re not already. And I bet you they’ll find really, really great success.

Brandon Burton 31:54
Absolutely. It sets the table for good common ground and to be able to vote to establish a good relationship. I love that. Rafi right? Yeah. So yeah. As we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Marc Cohen 32:11
You know, you and I were talking about this a little bit, you know, pre show, I think we want people to understand the spirit and the value of chambers of commerce in the community, right? So not necessarily, you know, quantitatively what I get for this, I pay you $50? And do you send me a coupon for a cookie every year like, not, not like that, but understand that the value of chambers comes from who we are and what we do and how we represent businesses and nonprofits, and again, our members in the community. That’s what I would love. And I hope that you know, there are larger businesses who are headquartered in various cities who continue to appreciate that, you know, here, we’ve got paychecks, and Constellation Brands, and Wegmans and massive companies who very rarely need something from even a Metro Chamber of Commerce, but they believe in us in our mission and our spirit. So that is what I hope now, here’s the reality. I do believe not just because I’m biased, because it’s my portfolio. But I believe that the future of chambers especially now is in advocating for their constituents and advocating for nonprofits in the business community advocating for policies that will drive the economy. And the last thing, which you’ll have to have me back at some point, so we can talk about workforce development, but the role of chambers of commerce in talent strategy and helping businesses to find the employees they need, so that they can grow and expand and flourish within their community. So I think that sort of those things represent the the future of chambers and in a macro way. And by the way, I have to clarify the value of chambers in terms of networking, and, you know, a brand new business has just come to, you know, your state or your city or your county, they don’t know anybody, they’re looking to make connections, there is no better organization than a Chamber of Commerce to do that. Because they’ve got the credibility, they’ve got the relationships. So that is, it is always going to be, you know, for chambers to be a connector that will always be a role and responsibility. And we can never lose sight of

Brandon Burton 34:16
that. Absolutely. And I love that, you know, taking the role of advocacy and moving it forward in the future. And I think it’s for a lot of businesses just joining the chamber, they may not fully understand or appreciate that mission or vision that the Chamber has that greater mission. So you need some of those things and networking kind of things, some of those events, some of the things that draw people in initially until you can get them to see the bigger vision and and really see the the great work that a chamber can do. So I think that’s a great tip there. Marc, I wanted to give you an opportunity to put any contact information out there that you’d like for anyone listening that might want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about how you guys are doing things that are in Rochester what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Connect with Marc Cohen

Marc Cohen 35:06
So GreaterRochesterChamber.com is a great way I’m going to give you my my email address and really anybody listening who has any questions about this, if you’re looking for templates or sort of boilerplate emails or pass advocacy agendas that we’ve done, I would love to share so my email is Marc.Cohen@greaterrochesterchamber.com. And, and it’s not an empty offer. I was so honored that that you reached out to me to be part of your show, and to talk a little bit and I don’t take it for granted. So anybody listening should should feel free to reach out to me. And you should feel free to share my contact information if if folks

Brandon Burton 35:48
want it. So I will put it on our show notes for this episode, which is at chamberchatpodcast.com/episode 162 But Marc be ready for some emails from Chamber Champions they’ve we’ve got a very engaged group and people that want to learn and and further advance their communities. So I’m sure you will have people reaching out and asking for some of those templates and boiler plate boiler plates that they can use to further advance our communities that I would love to anytime. Well thank you for being with us today. You provided a lot of value, great perspective that I hope everybody can take and and help their communities move forward, strengthen their businesses and make sure that there’s pro business candidates and policies in place. So thanks a lot, Marc.

Marc Cohen 36:37
Hey, Brandon, thank you for doing this. Thank you for your advocacy and you wouldn’t be around for as long as you have been with as many episodes and incredible guests as you had if you weren’t great. So thank you for all you do and I look forward to keeping in touch.

Brandon Burton 36:50
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