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Category: Advocacy

Paducah Area Chamber-ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist with Sandra Wilson

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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Sandra Wilson. 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.

And now your host he enjoys reading personal development books. He’s my dad Brandon.

Hello, chamber champions. Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host 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.

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Guest Introduction

This is a special episode and our 2022 ACCE chamber the year finalist series and our guests for this episode is Sandra Wilson. Sandra is President and CEO of the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce in Kentucky. She joined the chamber in 2013 after working 26 years for a large manufacturer as Public Affairs Manager. As a community volunteer. She was the first woman to serve as Chairman of the Board of the Paducah area Chamber in 1996. And later also the first woman to chair the Paducah Economic Development Board. on a statewide level, she served as chairman of the Kentucky Manufacturers Association and on the boards of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and leadership, Kentucky. She’s a graduate from Murray State University Leadership, Kentucky and leadership but Paducah.

Sandra, I’m excited to have you with me today on chamber chat podcast. Congratulations being selected as a chamber of the year finalist. Why don’t you take a few minutes to say hello to all the Chamber Champions and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Sandra Wilson 3:11
Oh, thank you, Brandon. It’s it’s my honor to be on your show today. We really appreciate the opportunity to talk about the our chamber here in our community. And so thank you for this invitation. We were thrilled to be named to finalists for chamber of the year. It’s tough competition. It’s a lot of work. And so we’re very excited about it. The Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, of course is located in Western Kentucky. We are a city of about 26,000 and a county that includes our city of about 65,000. We’ve been around a long time. We were established in the I don’t know that 80 years ago, we have over 900 members. And we just wake up every morning and go to sleep every night thinking about how we can make our community better. I bet you hear that a lot. But that’s that’s what we do. We say that anyway, it’s a great honor to serve our community. For me, you know, I did work in manufacturing for many years, and was always active with the chamber. So when I in 2013, I had the opportunity to become the president and CEO of the chamber. I was like yes, yes pick me. I’m so excited to be in this role. For a fun fact. I years ago many years ago was on the prices right? And it wasn’t the hour long version. It was a nighttime version. They were trying out with Tom Kennedy as the host who is also from Kentucky. That’s a story with itself. And I was in Watch out in California and they interview you or they did at the time and they asked me where I was from and I said Paducah, Kentucky. It’s halfway between monkey’s eyebrow and Possum Trot. And I’ll never forget the like one of the three selectors looking at me say are those names was a rural towns? And I was like, yes, yes, they are. And they said, What are you doing live in there? And I just kind of made a joke about what I’ve been asking myself that same question. So then I got on the show and was a big winner. Then about two years after that, somebody was at the movie theater, and they called me and said, You’re in a movie. And so I was in the movie, the flight of the Navigator. It’s a really fun kids movie. And the little boy is gone in a spaceship, and he’s trying to get home. And the family is trying to help him talk him into getting home, and they’re watching television or the television is on in their den. And at one part in the movie, the whole movie screen goes to the TV screen. And it’s Tom Kennedy and me standing there in the process, right? So I’ve been in a Disney movie, I’ve been on the process, right, and just had a great time. I guess I want career.

Brandon Burton 5:58
That is awesome. I love that I’d love asking this question because I get to learn these these neat things. Now I need to rewatch flight of the Navigator. We watched it during the COVID pandemic with our kids. And I can introduce them to that. But I need to go back on the Disney plus now in what three watch that.

Sandra Wilson 6:15
It’s a fun movie. And you know, I also work with our leadership pudica program. And so every year, you know, when you’re getting to know each other, I usually kind of tell that story about it. And it does. It’s not too long before somebody will either find that section in the movie, or I’ve even I tell them if they become the best class ever. I will show them the video of when I’m on the process, right? Because there’s kind of a funny moment at the end when I do when the showcase. And Tom Kennedy comes up to me and says Sandra, what do you have to say, and I just kind of froze and said, pitch me is this rail, and sock almost kind of feel that way now about being a finalist of chamber of the year. It’s just such an honor and such a thrill.

Brandon Burton 6:56
That is awesome, good, good loop coming, bringing it full circle back to the chamber of the year. So you mentioned a little bit about your chamber that you know just over 900 members and tell us a little bit more maybe you know Scope of Work size of staff budget, things like that just to help give us a better idea. Before we get into our discussion.

About the Paducah Area Chamber

Sandra Wilson 7:18
Here we have a staff of five, myself, we have a vice president of operations. We have a Member Services Director, a programs and public policy director and then our administrative assistant. So we are a small staff that we’re very mighty. And we run a lot of different programs. I would say the Paducah chamber is probably known the most for our advocacy efforts. And I think that’s one reason why I was chosen for this position as well is because I’ve been working in advocacy, really my entire career. I worked for a paper mill before and worked on stateless at the state legislature on the state level. And on the federal level, I’ve always gone to our state capitol, I’ve always gone to DC, some so I knew all of that. And we have been very involved with advocacy. We have the Department of Energy site here that closed in 2013, the week before actually started at the chamber. So we knew that things were going to be changing. They had been in operations for 5060 years. And they were closing, but they’re still going to be here another 3040 years in the cleanup phase. So we had to start working on getting that in place, making sure that the contractors were going to be part of the community that we were going to get the funding that we needed. So those are things that in our advocacy efforts. We’re known for going to DC and asking. And I’ve been told back senators and our congressmen that we’re not scared to ask, you know, Ron, pretty, we’re pretty persistent. When we say something that our community needs, and we try to be organized, we try to make our case, be respectful, and really push for things that we need from the federal level and from the state level.

Brandon Burton 9:00
That that helps. And the advocacy work is so important to and I’m glad to see you guys have grasped on to that. And that’s kind of your area of expertise as far as work at your chamber. Yes, thank

Sandra Wilson 9:13
you. It is a it is a big part of us. I would think I would also say that we really have added a lot for small business. We started a cohort program in 2021. We had 16 to graduate from it. We used to nationally known author Mike McCalla wits is booked fixes next. He actually we contracted with him to join us for two sessions. So we we’ve done a lot of seminars and you know, when COVID hit, all of us had to change the way we were running our chambers. And so we did that we pivoted we wanted to help our small businesses to stay in business. We brought in a lot of resources for them, to help them into advise them. And so I think that’s some They’ll set we’re known for and then really just being a convener of people through a lot of our different programs. We have just finished our 35th year for leadership Paducah. We just finished our 11th year for our youth league program. We have a really active particular young professionals program. We’ve started some other set to intern initiative. So all of that some time kind of ties into workforce because we know every place is short of workers. And we’re all trying to get those. So we’ve encouraged our employers to hire interns, and then we’ve encouraged them to have the interns get involved with us, because we want them to work with young professionals and to fall in love with our community and want to come back here and live and work.

Brandon Burton 10:45
I love that. So for our topic for our discussion today, being that this is a chamber the year finalist episode, what I like to do is focus on the two programs synopsis you guys submitted with your chamber that your application will dive into that discussion with those programs as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Sandra, we are back. Why don’t you tell us maybe just at a high level first what the two programs are that you guys submitted on your your chamber that your application and then we’ll circle back around into a little more detail on each of them.

Topic-Chamber of the Year Application Programs

Sandra Wilson 14:04
Great, I think the application boy it really helps you evaluate what you’ve done. And so we had part of our advocacy efforts had been to work with the FAA through the Department of Transportation, the US Department of Transportation and with our state about our airport. We are one EPA is one of only five commercial airports in Kentucky. We had united service to Chicago for two flights a day with through the local cons of local carrier with Sky West and we are an EIS airport, which is the central air service. So we do get a subsidy from the federal government on that. And we were operating out of a terminal that was built in 1953. So it really was preventing us from growing and so thinking back this was written 2018 and 2019 there was I’m the actually the call about the possibility of us being able to get 20 million from the Federal Aviation Administration to replace our old terminal came to the political chamber. So we took that on. And we’ve worked very closely to raise the money. And we have, you know, the community itself has been very successful in getting that money. And we had a groundbreaking and have that under construction right now to get a new airport terminal here. Excuse me, the second one, the second program that we submitted was called leaders for the future. And we, during COVID, you know, we were working really hard to keep all of our leadership programs viable and relevant. But you know, when you’ve got 30, or 40, people on Zoom calls, and they’re listening to speakers all day, it kind of totally changes the direction or changes the focus of your leadership programs. So it really helped us just there were two things that helped us to establish our second synopsis. And that was the Leadership Center. And we had a foundation with our leadership for the foundation. And we thought that that would be a way to expand our funding was to use our foundation, which many chambers do, we’ve had our change our foundations, and we felt like we wanted to grow that. So we raised half a million dollars in our community during COVID, to establish the leadership center so that we could enhance our current program and expand our program as well.

Brandon Burton 16:29
So talk let’s talk about that one. First that talk to us a little bit more about the leadership center. Is that a physical location where people come in is that in general, kind of the the infrastructure is it both tell us what that is exactly what it’s,

Sandra Wilson 16:47
it’s housed here at the chamber. And I would say our goal for this that we really focused on in our synopsis was establishing the Leadership Center and raising the funding for it and determining the direction. So we there was a gentleman by the name of Dr. Nick brake, who’s with Western Kentucky University, who had done a study of small cities and some of the things that they were lacking. And we looked through that and studied it and Lee studied it studied Paducah. And leadership training was a was something that was missing on a on a broader level. So that’s where we felt like we could come in, we had a proven track record with our leadership, Paducah class, and our youth lead and our young professionals and the different programs that are involved with that. And we felt like we could expand and enhance that programming. And to make it stronger. We also are active with association of leadership programs. It’s a national organization for leadership programs. And you see, in the end, those about a lot of leadership centers are indeed separate independent in their community and that half are run through the chamber. We want to keep all of that bass through the chamber. We just wanted to make it a new branding, I would guess a new branding and a new way to enhance all of our programming.

Brandon Burton 18:08
Okay. All right. So it sounds like you already had the foundation setup before you went down that road. What was the basis for the foundation? How long have you had that I’d like to share more information about that for chambers that maybe don’t have a foundation set up yet. And the value in having one and being able to leverage that to further the mission of your chamber.

Sandra Wilson 18:32
Well, of course, if you’re involved with ACCE, you know how important foundations are, and they’ve really focused a lot of the attention on that. And I appreciate that because it is a new way to change some of your funding and to leverage being a 501 C three foundation. So it is a process to go through. We had established ours for the leadership pudica foundation many years ago. And it was it prior to me being here, but it was for our leadership programs that I don’t think we had leveraged as as much as we could. And so we took that on and to try to really make it more visible in the community. We did not want to do a capital campaign to raise money for our leadership center our community had has a lot of capital campaigns going on for other organizations, that was not our intent to compete with those our intent was to just reach out to those that we felt like would want to be with Bob with us on it and we could benefit from it and raise that money in and start the programs.

Brandon Burton 19:37
Okay. Now that that gives a good idea of kind of that that founding and structure leading into that that program. So let’s say circle back with the at the airport terminal. At some point as you guys are going down that path with you know, getting the money for it and kind of seeing In the development of it, the COVID pandemic hits, right. And what were the thoughts as you guys kind of navigated through those waters to see the first when travel in general really got shut down, but then all the other ramifications that have come with that.

Sandra Wilson 20:21
Who could have ever predicted what was going to happen with COVID-19, and how it was going to impact what areas, you know, so many things have rebounded quickly, and travelers certainly rebounded quickly. But we were in the midst of that we had, you know, we have a relative, we’ve gone to DC every year for the last 20 plus years, we take about 50 to 60 people every September, and meet with the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation with, we also have a large river industry here. So we’re very active with the maritime industry, Mayor Ed in DC, of course, we would meet with most of the all of the congressman from Kentucky, we’ve actually met with Congressman from Tennessee, and some in Mississippi at different times that are on committees that would impact operations that we might have in here. So we had been talking about our terminal for years with the Department of Transportation. And in fact, in 2007, we were in DC and I we we included a copy of this in our application, the front page story, we were on the front page of the newspaper, that FAA was going to give us a certain amount of money at that time that we could use for a new terminal. But we came home and we were going to have to raise a lot of the money ourselves locally. And at that point, you know, just did not happen. The timing was not right, I would say. So circle back, we continue going to DC every year, we continue talking about the Essential Air Service how important that is to us. We build great relationships. And the FAA has a program that will help provide funding for new terminals. And we find out about it. In fact, I love to say the call came in to the chamber that this funding was available and $20 million. And so you had to have a lot of matching funds. There were a lot of qualifications that you had to do to get that 20 million, but we embraced it. We knew that the only way we were going to be able to continue to grow our airport was to have a new terminal. We were very severely restricted for a lot of things out there with our small, almost 70 year old terminal. So we met with the Federal Aviation Administration, we can actually out let me back up and say we convened the people in our community that can make that happen. We made the call to the mayor, we made the call to the board, chair of the airport, the Regional Authority Board for the airport. We brought them together, we coordinated phone calls with the Department of Transportation and then we brought in the Memphis district of the FIA to Paducah. It met with them and started this whole process. But we then it became very evident 20 million was not going to build a new airport terminal. So at that point, we started looking at on a statewide level, because our chamber is also very active in the state. So we have state priorities that we develop every year that we’re working on while our legislature is in session. And so we determined that we were going to ask our state legislature for money for the new terminal as well. About that time, we had a governor’s race going on which booths becoming pretty hotly contested. And so we have hosted forums before and we decided, well, let’s go for a gubernatorial forum, and see if we can get that. And we have a really good reputation for doing those and keeping them nonpartisan and making sure that the crowds very respectful. In fact, when people come to our forums are not allowed to even clap or talk during the forum so that we have the media asking the question, but we typically reserve it where we can ask a chamber related question to so because the airport funding was on our state priorities. That was our question to the current governor and his challenger. Where do you see the state being able to help our Paducah airport, Barclay Regional Airport with racing funds to build a new terminal? And both both knew that that question was going to be on there. They were very prepared and both pledged to help that. So at a minimum of 5 million, we were hoping for more but they both pledged that day for 5 million. So this was in November of 2019. And then, you know, of course there it was there at that form was in October of 2019. So then, the election is done in November and the new governor takes office and we immediately are Frankfort meeting with him at our state capitol reminding him of that pledge. And he comes to Paducah in February of 2020, with a check for $5 million.

And, you know, we have the big announcement at the airport. So, you know, we’re beginning to get a 20 million from FAA, we see other funding we can apply for with FAA, we’re getting the 5 million from the state. So we’re beginning to build so much momentum. And then of course, COVID, hit March of 2020. But we didn’t give up because we knew that once COVID was passed, that we really did feel like the air, you know, people would begin to travel again. And we wanted to have our new terminal ready for when that happened. Never would we have imagined that we would have the pilot shortage that we have. Now, I don’t know how you could have predicted that. But you know, the major airlines have a lot of their pilots over 6000 have retired during COVID. So they have been utilizing smaller airport terminals, smaller airline carriers, getting those pilots to go to work for them. So there’s just a shortage right now of pilots. But we haven’t stopped. I mean, we are continuing, we may be changing carriers or a lot of things that may be changing with the airport. But we still have a new terminal under construction, we’ve ended up raising over $42 million for it, our city and our county both are participating in it, we were able to get more money for during the COVID many. So we are in a really good place right now for the airport. And we felt you know that we helped to launch that and feel very proud that to play the role that we did to get the thing going on the funding.

Brandon Burton 26:43
So you had mentioned you know how often you guys are going to Washington and and you know, advocating for for Paducah. How is it that you had mentioned you got a call about the FFA FAA funding? How is it that you are on their radar? Is it because of your trips to Washington and those relationships that you built you built over the years? Or how did that had? Looking back? How do you see things as they came together?

Sandra Wilson 27:11
Well, I do think it’s relationships and, and being vocal about what you need. You know, our senators and our congressmen knew that we wanted to try to get funding for a new terminal, that we were growing our airport, it’s very important for our economy in this community. And we’re very proud to be one of only five airports in Kentucky commercial airports. It was, you know, we had two flights a day go into Chicago, and they were both full pre COVID. And that has been picking back up. It’s I think, you know, it’s it’s critical that you know, the people you have relationships, and they know your needs.

Brandon Burton 27:53
Yeah. And I think I love this program, because when you think back 70 years ago, I mean, I wasn’t around, but the technology and aircraft alone, and how it syncs up with these terminals and everything, I’m sure, yeah, it was overdue for an upgrade, just to keep up with the times and technologies.

Sandra Wilson 28:15
You know, they’re one thing about in community sometimes or in with with chambers, I think sometimes we can be humble. And we, we like to put the credit to others in our community. And so it’s hard for us to say, well, we helped lead that effort. But we did I mean in. And I think that’s what that was kind of a good process to be able to talk about that. In the in the synopsis, we had all of the research from the airport about why we would need a new terminal we’d been fighting for, you know, looking for funding for years. And it just all finally came together. And it takes an organization like a chamber of commerce, that has the the the knowledge and the grit, and the willingness to take it on and really to help push. Now, again, I’m going to say we’re just what we were one part of it, I’m gonna push all a lot of the credit, our city and county both got involved. We had a great air later at the airport, you know, their board was very active. So you know, it’s a lot of credit goes to a lot of organizations and individuals that we were very proud to have played our part to help get it launched and to bring people together to begin the discussion. And to have the attitude that yes, the time is now we can do this. Why would we wait? Why would we not embrace the fact that we we can make this happen?

Brandon Burton 29:44
Right. And I believe that you do need to talk about those wins, those influences you’ve had in the community and showing that you’re able to convene those leaders and influencers to make something happen. Otherwise, how do those leaders and influencers realize how to get some something big like this done in the future if they don’t fully understand the role of the chamber as a convener as a champion as a catalyst, you need to be talking about it. So good job to you guys. Thank you. I wanted to ask you has it as the chamber, the year finalist, how do you see the role of the Paducah chamber in your community?

Sandra Wilson 30:22
We are a strong convener of people, we are a I hope people would look to us as the leader, that if they have an at an advocacy issue, and we saw that during COVID-19, a lot, you know, a lot of companies would call us and ask us specific questions, and we knew who to put them involved with. If we didn’t have the answer ourselves, we were connecting them with Department of unemployment or the Small Business Administration. So a connector, a convener and a leader. Those are some of the roles that we really embrace the most.

Brandon Burton 30:55
I love that and such important roles as well. So I’d like to asking if you might have any tips or action items for listeners who may want to take their chamber up to the next level, what would you suggest that they maybe look at or try implementing at their chamber,

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Sandra Wilson 31:14
I think it’s important that you have a strong board that support you. And looking at the big picture of what your community needs, and you can’t, you may not be able to be all things to everybody, but maybe you pick up the things that you see are the most important and that your board is supportive of, and just really work on them. I know I’m you know, I can be persistent, hidden and probably pushy sometimes. But if we have an issue that we believe in so much, and that our community has identified as really important way, I just feel like we have to fight for it, we have to go for it, and try to do things that will help your community to grow and be a stronger community. So I think you have to have strong leadership. And you have to have a great plan, a strategic plan of where you want to go and what’s important to your community.

Brandon Burton 32:16
Yeah, I think it’s so important to have that strong supportive board. And to realize that you as the chamber, you have some some direction, on who those people are, how they support you, like, dive in deep and learn how to work with a board to develop a strong supportive board. So

Sandra Wilson 32:37
very important, you can’t you have to have a strong board, we’ve talked about that we had a training in Kentucky this week, where we just talked a little bit about board orientation, recruiting board members, onboarding them, and I just can’t stress enough how important it is that you have the right people on your board.

Brandon Burton 33:00
And I’m sure every time you hear a training on board development, you always hear something like, oh, yeah, and it may not be something brand new, but it’s like, I need to do that better, or I need to implement that. But you know, it’s usually stuff you’ve heard before, but it’s how to make it all work as a well oiled machine.

Sandra Wilson 33:18
Absolutely. I came away with notes this week. And I’ve been doing this for a long time now. But you know, on the legal side, the financial side, the obligation side, those are the things you know, we have, we do have a strong board, and we have great board meetings, and we have great participation. But boy, then you start talking deducted. I have reminded them of that, do they understand that all of these others, the simple things, I like to look at the big picture things,

Brandon Burton 33:44
right? Absolutely. So I like asking everyone I have on the show, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Sandra Wilson 33:54
Why ICC is doing a lot of study on that, how to build a chamber for the future. And I know that they have a lot of information about it. But I think you have to be ready to be the leader in your community, and be accepting of that role. And be willing to do that. And I going back to what we’ve talked about earlier, you have to determine what’s important for you and for your community and be really willing to take that leadership role. And let’s face it, every community has different issues, you know, larger communities have may be able to take on different projects in what we would larger chambers can take on different issues in what we can with a staff of five. So you have to be collaborative with other organizations in your community if you’re a small community and, and be willing to have courage. I would think that with courage and purpose those are two words that ICCE talks about and I would say amen to that you have to lead with courage and purpose.

Brandon Burton 35:00
I love that. So Sandra, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and learn more about how you’re doing things. They’re in Paducah what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you.

Connect with Sandra Wilson

Sandra Wilson 35:16
Well, my direct email is swilson@paducahchamber.org. I’m going to spell Paducah. It’s p a ducah.org. But it could chamber.org. Or if you forget s Wilson, you can always send it to info at Paducah, chamber.org. And it’ll come to me, always happy to help. I have gone through the IBM program with the US Chamber. And, you know, I’m not saying I have it all down, Pat. But I’m happy to tell you this challenges that we’ve seen, the trial and errors we’ve gone through and the successes we’ve had that have been some of the big, you know, just great celebrations, and I believe in celebrating the wins when you have them and in our community. And you need to look for those every day to try to celebrate the things that you’re doing right and not get caught up in the little things that are in the weeds. And I’m talking to myself right now, while I’m saying that to you because it’s easy to do. And in our meeting earlier this week with other chamber execs, if you’re not in the chamber world, you don’t really understand what goes on in the chamber world. And so we have to really support each other. And that’s why I’m always happy to talk to anyone and support them in any way that I can.

Brandon Burton 36:28
I love that. And that is such a great trait amongst chamber leaders as well being able to offer that support and mentorship. I’ll say that so

Sandra Wilson 36:39
absolutely. Thank you, Brandon for what you do with the podcast that what a great resource for our profession.

Brandon Burton 36:45
Thank you. I enjoy doing it and hope everybody’s getting a lot of value from from listening to people like you that Sandra this has been great having you on the show. Thank you for spending time with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast and wanted to wish you and the Paducah area Chamber Best of luck as chamber of the year.

Sandra Wilson 37:04
Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 37:07
If you are a chamber professional, please subscribe to chamber chat podcast

Brandon Burton 33:27
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Being the Sane Center with Bill Connors

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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Bill Connors. 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.

Now your host, he is ready for Summer. He’s my dad, Brandon Burton.

Hello Chamber Champions. Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, 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.

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Jason Mock, President and CEO of the San Marcos Area Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for his chamber.

Jason Mock 0:45
Two years ago, we brought in Holman Brothers to help our organization go to that next level. And in those two years, our team has transformed the way that we think about sponsorships and non dues revenue. And I would really encourage you if you’re looking to take your chamber to the next level to bring on the Holman Brothers.

Brandon Burton 1:01
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

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Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Bill Connors. Bill has been the president and CEO of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce since June of 2009. Prior to coming to Idaho Bill had broad national experience in the travel, aviation and convention industries. He was executive director of the world’s largest business travel organization, the Global Business Travel Association, from 2002 to 2009. Prior to that post, he was a senior executive for the American Society of Travel Agents and the travel Institute. President George W. Bush appointed bill to two key aviation panels in Washington DC. The Aviation Security Advisory Committee and the FAA is next gen air transportation system Council. Bill served on the National Board of Directors for the convention Industry Council, the travel business roundtable and the travel Institute. He designed and authored the national travel agency proficiency exam or tip test used throughout North America today. He was a key adviser on Marriott Hotels sales specialist program and the certified travel counselor associate designations. He has been on the Board of Governors for the Alexandria Virginia Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and a member of the GBT A’s sports travel Council. He is a longtime member of the meeting professionals International and the American society of Association Executives. As the national spokesman on travel industry issues he has been featured in or on ABC World News Tonight, CNN CNBC, the USA Today, The New York Times, the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal. He’s frequently testified before the United States Congress on travel industry issues locally. Bill was appointed by Vice Chairman of the Boise airport commission in 2013. He also participates on the Boise chambers travel industry board. He serves on the board of Boise Convention Visitors Bureau, the Pacific Northwest chapter of ASEA and is a member of sky international Boise. He is a member of the US Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100 and has served on the board of ACC. In 2018. He was elected to the board of the United States Travel Association in 2020, he was appointed by the Idaho Senate to the Idaho intrastate Air Service Committee. He was named CEO of influence by the Idaho business review. And the chamber has been named one of the top 10 places to work in Idaho for four years by the same publication. He’s a graduate of St. Lawrence University and holds four master’s degrees. Bill I’m excited to have you with me today here on chamber tap podcast. If you would take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are listening and go ahead and share something interesting about yourself so we can continue to get to know you a little bit better.

Bill Connors 4:50
Sure. Well, thank you, Brandon. It’s a it’s an honor and a pleasure to be with you and I appreciate what you do for the chamber industry by getting the word out there Something interesting that doesn’t show up and that very long resume you just read. I’m kind of a minor league baseball Kook baseball cook in general, but I’ve been to all the major league stadiums and and I’m up to 225 Minor League ballparks across the country. And whilst it’s a odd and somewhat obsessive hobby, it has taken me to places I normally wouldn’t go. And every city has got something interesting going on. I mean, normally I wouldn’t plan necessarily a trip to go to Fargo, North Dakota. Yeah. But I wanted to go see the ballpark in Fargo and you discover Fargo is kind of a cool little town. And they’ve got a cool little downtown going on there. And as a chamber guy as a Metro Chamber guy, now, my hobby, I can almost claim as research because I, I check out cities and see what some are doing well and what some are not doing so well. And you know, a lot of cities have the same issues that we have. And it’s so it’s a fun hobby, but it’s also sort of increased my portfolio of knowledge about metro areas across the country. So it’s, it’s been fun, and my wife puts up with it. She’s been to quite a few herself, but she’s happy to let me go and I let her go out some rural trips. And that’s it all works.

Brandon Burton 6:30
Yeah. Now you beat me to it as far as learning about those communities to where those ballparks are because there’s a lot of research that goes on there. And, and I’m sure you can explain that to your accountant. You know, it’s recently

Bill Connors 6:46
I haven’t been successful in that particular. No, write it up.

Brandon Burton 6:53
That’s good. That is a good good pastime, and a lot of fun. I personally like those minor league ballparks, and you see a lot of personality. And I’ll say as you as you travel around and see that so you

Bill Connors 7:07
see families and like I say you get to know the composition of a city, even a place like Las Vegas, where you go to the minor league park and you actually see people you don’t see on the strip, you see families, the people who work in Las Vegas, and it’s, you know, it gives you a whole different picture of every city USA.

Brandon Burton 7:27
That’s right. Well, before we get into our topic today, I’d like to have you give a little bit of background about your chamber, about the Boise Metro Chamber. Just give us an idea of size budget staff just to give some perspective before we jumped into our discussion today.

About the Boise Metro Chamber

Bill Connors 7:46
Sure. Well, the Boise Metro Chamber is almost 150 years old. We are older than the state of Idaho, we predate statehood. So we’ve been around for quite a while. I’ve got about 2000 separate business members. And they represent about 250,000 employees, and like a lot of Metro chambers and got big fortune 500 companies and I’ve got the little sandwich shop down the road. Size wise as far as staff goes. There’s about 14 members of the chamber staff. We also have were consolidated chamber. We also have the Convention Visitors Bureau with us. And we also have the economic development regional economic development agency with us. So total, we’ve got about 2829 staff here.

Brandon Burton 8:41
All right. Well, that does help give some perspective especially, you know, being more regional and having the Economic Development and Tourism and everything under that umbrella as well. It’s a unique characteristic and some definite advantages that come with that and being able to leverage some of those different things. But for our topic for discussion today, we settled on the the topic of being the same senator, which I’m looking forward to getting into this discussion with you, especially with what today’s political climate looks like. I think this is a very timely topic to discuss. So we’ll we’ll get into that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Topic-Being the Sane Center

All right, Bill, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re focusing our discussion about chambers being the same center. And we hear that saying quite often throughout chamber world. But I think in practice, it can become very difficult when you especially when you have very polarizing points of view on either side. And you guys have introduced a program there your chamber where you can kind of address this head on? Why don’t you take a few minutes and tell us about that program and kind of how that’s developed.

Bill Connors 12:19
Sure, we, during the pandemic, you know, when a lot of things were getting pretty dicey politically, not just here, but everywhere, you know, mask mandate versus not mask mandate, people just generally becoming nasty to each other about things. And you would think at a moment in time like that the country would unify itself a little bit, but we didn’t see that. So one of our members, who is a former state legislator, who now runs an association called the association of Idaho cities, talked to us and said, you know, we need to do something to try to create some civility, not just at the statehouse, but you know, within our own lives. So we started a series, a web series called In Search of civility, whereby we had, we invited people from both parties talked about one particular issue, and let the Republican have their five minutes of here’s what I think let the Democrat have, here’s what I think. And maybe have a more conservative Republican, here’s what I think and a more liberal democrat, here’s what I think. And just let him sort of go at it. And by the end of each one of these broadcasts, we, we have moderators that would sort of bring people to the center and say, you know, there are things you can agree on around this issue. What are those things? And like you said, how do we get to that sane center? Because that’s where I think most Americans are. It’s just the far ends of the political spectrum seem to have the loudest voices right now. So it was our attempt to give voice more to the Seine center, that messy middle, if you will, and it was highly successful. We had, we didn’t have any problems getting people to sponsor that we, we have tons of listeners every week. And again, when you’re talking about touchy issues, everybody wants to tune in and hear what’s going on.

Brandon Burton 14:38
That’s why news channels do so well. Right? Is it they’re polarized? So they do it for the negative emotions, where you guys have the polarizing for a positive purpose, which Yeah, that would sell sponsorships.

Bill Connors 14:50
Absolutely. And again, I think what it did is at least bring some legislators who were warring against each other to the table too. At least talk about why they feel the way they feel. And, and learn a little about them as human beings. That’s the other sad thing both I saw in Washington and my time there. And in any state capitol is, it’s become so polarized, people don’t talk to each other anyway, they don’t go out and have lunch together anymore. And if you, if you know people’s families, and you know who they are, you’re less likely to get nasty behind the scenes. And again, this was our small little attempt to, again, try to carve out some sanity in some of these touchy discussions. And again, it was very, very popular, and we’re going to keep doing it.

Brandon Burton 15:44
And I think that’s so key for chambers, especially in today’s world, with social media and everything, you can watch news channels and, and jump on one side of the boat, you know, left or right. And then you follow a group on Facebook, that’s like minded. And even if you don’t follow the group, those algorithms are going to put that more of what you agree with in front of you. And it makes everybody that sees things sees the world differently than you to be wrong. And it’s not a matter of right or wrong necessarily as it’s different perspective. And as that happens, it separates people to where you’re not talking to one another about the real issues, because you’re only talking to others that are like minded, and that causes even more of that division. I’m curious what some of these topics were, if you can just, you know, name off some of these topics that you guys covered in this in search of civility series.

Bill Connors 16:43
Sure. A lot of it around the COVID mandates. You know, we we were fairly open state. But some on the far right, felt we weren’t open enough and requiring masks and the whole nine yards. And pushing against that. And others, of course, we’re on the other side of it. And like you said that our whole purpose was to try to try to have Fox News meet, see us NBC, on our little program. And that’s what it provided, it provided me here’s my rationale for why I think this way. And we tackled all sorts of issues that pop up in our legislature, just like I think it’ll pop up in your Texas Legislature. You know, there’s there’s gun control issues, they’re just issues of every kind, particularly social issues that get people wound up. But again, I think the pandemic probably pitted more people against how are you going to regulate health? You know, we have discussions around who’s got the authority, our health districts, or the governor or the legislature? And, and who, who really, are the authorities? Or do we trust the doctors and the healthcare industry? That’s, you know, to me, the experts? Or do we listen to the extremes on both sides? So, so yeah, lots and lots of different issues. But again, the point is, let’s hear both sides, try to get people to at least know who the other person is. And get them talking. And I gotta admit, and I don’t think it has much to do with us. But this legislative session was much tamer than the last one than last years. And I can’t say that we can take credit for that. But if we move the needle even a little bit, that’s a good thing.

Brandon Burton 18:57
I was gonna ask what sort of outcomes you saw from that? Hopefully, that was an outcome from this. But maybe before I asked that question, Was this on YouTube or what? What platform did you use to facilitate the show this series? Yeah,

Bill Connors 19:13
it was on all of our social networks, YouTube, Facebook, the whole nine yards. We used a service called stream yard. And yeah, like I said, the viewership was was pretty significant. And again, while we were a lot of chambers are kind of shut down in terms of doing events. We created a lot of online kind of programming. Not just this programming, which, again, we’re pretty proud of but but hundreds of programs about how to utilize the federal resources that are coming in. We didn’t want to be one of these places that just posted the federal regulations on here’s how to apply for a PPP loan. We have experts get on Zoom calls and explain, here’s how you can get your application to the top of a bank’s inbox. You know, Pratt going through practically and explaining how to how to fill things out. Because again, if you’re just posting regs, who’s, who’s got the expertise to read through that stuff. So again, using using zoom and using social media, we took full advantage of that during the last couple of years. But I’m happy to say we’re, we’re doing events again, and we will have one up for 600 people next week. So

Brandon Burton 20:36
we’re back in business. That’s great. Yeah, I mean, it’s a brave thing when you go into the world of social media and put this type of content out there, because it’s open up to, you know, comments and criticism and sharing and do whatever else that that goes on there. Did you have to do any sorts of controls or moderation? Or how did you approach that?

Bill Connors 20:58
Yeah, we we had a pretty tech savvy moderator. And if you were able to read everything in the chat, you wouldn’t be in a pretty sight some of it. And we were able to edit out some of the bad stuff. But again, that our purpose isn’t to highlight the extremes, it’s to highlight that, how do we get to the middle ground? So while I didn’t think we were censoring anything, we also didn’t want the conversations to break down into ugly feud. So that wasn’t the purpose of the thing.

Brandon Burton 21:35
So you can take the most ugliest comments, and they can be one of your next guests. You know, you just pit him against somebody on the opposite side. And

Bill Connors 21:43
well, yeah, we did a little bit of that. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 21:47
It’s just It’s a never ending supply of content. That’s true. So is this, uh, are you guys continuing the insert disability program? Or is that something that was more focused during the COVID times, or

Bill Connors 22:02
we’re gonna continue, we’re gonna continue it. And as a matter of fact, we’re giving one of our highest awards to, to this gal I mentioned earlier, a former legislator who came up with this idea. And we’re giving her a big award on Tuesday, just to highlight the that particular program. So we’ll keep it keep it going.

Brandon Burton 22:24
That’s great. I know, there’s a former a co worker that I’ve talked with a lot, and we see things very differently politically. But things never get ugly between us when we talk because we’re able to be civil about it, we’re able to recognize you’d have your view of the world, I have my view, and there is a lot more that overlaps than what doesn’t overlap, and to be able to help bring up that common ground, and really just elevate society in general. And unfortunately, these social media companies and new major news outlets, they’ve got so much control over our attention, that it just steals our attention away to tell this negative. So the more positive discussions, positive unity that we can provide is so important in chambers are that place to be that same center and and they say that that’s how, you know if you’re being successful, right? Is it the far right, thanks, you’re too liberal on the far left thinks you’re way too conservative, then you’re doing a good job.

Bill Connors 23:30
Yeah. Well, no matter where you stand on an issue, you’re gonna lose a couple people on either side. Sometimes that’s hard for me to fathom, but that’s the nature of the business.

Brandon Burton 23:43
Yeah. So had any of the discussions or outcomes from these discussions? Help project anything as far as advocacy goes from your your efforts there?

Bill Connors 23:56
Well, yeah, like I said, the this legislative legislative session was a lot tamer, we had a lot of what we called crazy bills that appeared. And most of those were shut down by our Senate, which is a little more rational. And we were able to stop some of the really crazy stuff. You know, that we had a and it not all of it was about the pandemic. I mean, there. Like I said, touchy issues when it’s critical race theory being taught in the universities, that kind of thing. We killed a lot of those crazy bills. And again, I can’t We can’t take credit for our little, our little program. But the discussions at the legislature this year actually produced some bipartisan agreements and some good things for business, which of course is what we’re all about. We got both I used to agree on a personal income tax cut, and a business tax cut, and at the same time increased our education spending to record levels this year, because we had a pretty nice surplus going into this. So yeah, I think I think in general, good things happen when you can get people talking to each other. And as you’ve been talking about, just keep stressing the the majority of Idahoans, the majority of Americans are somewhere in that middle, or not way out on the fringes, even though the fringes might be the loudest. Most of us are in the middle. And that’s where you get stuff done. And we got stuff done this year.

Brandon Burton 25:48
That’s great. And then the trick is, tends to be the fringes show up to vote. So how do you get that that segment of the population that doesn’t show up to vote or to share their opinion to voice or to share their voice? How do you get them engaged?

Bill Connors 26:06
Yeah, and that’s part of what we do, too. We do candidate forums, we do a lot of voter education kinds of things. But you’re right, there’s a, you know, it’s almost shameful. If you look at the percentage of voters in the primary elections, which, here in Idaho, become particularly important. Whoever wins the Republican primary in many areas of the state becomes the candidate. And very few, you know, I think it’s 17 18% of the people who are eligible to vote in primaries. But this is a big one this year for us. And I think we’re going to have our governor has a primary challenge. Our lieutenant governor has a primary challenge. Our State School Superintendent has a primary challenge, our Secretary of State has a primary challenge, our Attorney General has a primary challenge. So when those big statewide offices show up, we make a point of, hey, this is one of the most important elections we’ll have in a decade. So at least as far as Idaho is concerned. So get out there and vote on May 17, which is our primary day.

Brandon Burton 27:21
Yeah. So we currently as we’re talking right now, we have a school bond election going on in our area, and, and we’re in a small community in North Texas, just outside of Dallas, and our areas just been exploding with new growth. And a lot of people from out of state moving here. And we have a very small school district, and there’s a big need to accommodate, you know, all the classrooms are already full. So this bond has been proposed. And it’s a thing, it’s a $380 million bond, I mean, something, it’s a big amount of money. And my wife happens to work for the school district. So some of the early numbers, they could send me you don’t get all the data. But when there, as of about three days ago, there had been 500 votes cast in total. Those 500 votes are dictating $380 million worth of bonds, and then only about 80% of those votes for people that have no affiliation with the school district. So they don’t work for the school. They don’t have kids in the school, they don’t have. And it’s like, I don’t know what you do to get people engaged to vote for what matters show up, because it matters either way, you know, on a bond issue a state, you know, elections, you know, Senate’s governor’s national elections, that all matters, and to get them to see, you know, especially the things and your community level, this is going to affect property taxes, like you need to voice your opinion, you need to go cast your votes. So

Bill Connors 29:03
well, you guys in Texas are going through what we’re going through, and that is, you know, 1000s and 1000s of people moving in a lot from California. We have on the average in 75 people a day moving into the Boise Metro. The majority of those are from California, the rest are from Seattle, the Bay Area. La and you’re right i mean it’s we have to rebuild our infrastructure to to accommodate all these things, whether it’s schools, roads, transit, you name it. And you know, the natives get restless. Let’s face it, but you know, it’s part of the Our job is chambers to let people know that, hey, growth is not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, your property tax free will probably look a little different. But so does the value of your home all of a sudden, you have some way health equity that you didn’t have, you know, five years ago. And I know that’s hard to tell somebody who’s living on a fixed income. But that’s one of the issues, by the way that, you know, we I really think we’ve got to rethink how we fund public education. You know, I hear a lot of it depends on property tax. But our legislature also, more than half our budget goes to public education. And I just think we have to rethink how we fund it. And one of the things we did this year and and it was one of those bipartisan agreements, was offer every school district in the state of Idaho, offer all the teachers to go on the state’s MediCal benefit plan, which is much more robust, robust than some of the local districts can afford. And really was a boon to local school districts in terms of affordability, because it benefit packages are one of the biggest cost centers for, for any school district, and with the state, stepping in to really lower rates significantly, and then 1000s of dollars to every single teachers benefit package. And that was a bill that everybody agreed on, on both sides. For the very issue that you’re talking about, you know, eventually, what you’re looking at is, hey, maybe we don’t have to go out for a bond, if we can successfully funded schools in a creative way.

Brandon Burton 31:36
Right? Yeah, that’s a great point. But I wanted to to ask you, if you might have a tip or action item that you’d like to share for Chamber Champions listening to help take their chamber up to the next level?

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Bill Connors 31:53
Well, I don’t think it’ll be any surprise to anybody who your listeners, I think we as chambers, are going to have to, at least in the next five to 10 years really focused on workforce issues. This, you know, shortage of workers is everywhere, in every industry, and it’s going to be a problem for us. And so, you know, talent, retention, talent, attraction, those are going to be key issues. For us. That’s, again, why we’ve invested a lot of resource into some of our young professional programs, because I think, if you’ve got a good effective young professional program, that is a talent retention tool, if you get people engaged, they’re less likely to move from your community to another one. And we have one of the largest young professional programs out there. So I think that’s something that’s got to be on all of our radars. And then here, like I said, we’re fairly unique, there’s only a handful of chambers that have all three entities under one roof, the Economic Development Group, the Convention Visitors Bureau, which we merged in with us a few years ago. And I’ll tell you, it’s, it’s, it’s good for to two big reasons. One, the efficiency you get toward from for the community, you don’t need three sets of accountants and three sets of receptionists and three buildings, and three, you know, we think we give this community a lot more bang for the buck by consolidating. But what I see is more important, is the synergy between the three groups where in a lot of cities, those three groups are separate. They’re all competing for the same resources, and oftentimes are competing with each other. And here, the strategic nature of getting all three of them to work together give a classic example if I if we got time. Yeah. So my economic development guy who’s right down the hall, comes to me a couple years ago says, Hey, we’re getting a lot of inquiries about data centers coming to Idaho. And I said, why? Well, because Idaho has got plenty of water. We’ve got affordable electricity, and we don’t have natural disasters, and that’s what they are looking for. And I said, why aren’t we getting them? Then? He says, Well, what we don’t have that 17 other states do have is a tax exemption on equipment. And these things are very equipment dependent. So the chamber guy and our advocacy group goes to the legislature gets a bill passed to get a tax exemption on equipment. Then I walked down the hall to my Convention and Visitor’s Bureau gal and say, see if you can get the National Association of data center managers convention to come to Boise, who better than to have five of those people walking around town. And sure enough, this year, we just got announced MIT from Facebook, they’re gonna build a huge data centers. But that’s, that’s three other organizations all working together to help get something done. We’re in. Whereas I think in a lot of places, those organizations sort of compete not only for resource, but you know, trying to claim victory for one thing. But we’re all in the same business, we’re promoting our particular city or state. So, you know, my advice, and I know a lot of people don’t like to hear this, but work as closely as you can with your economic development guys and your year’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau people.

Brandon Burton 35:39
I think that’s a great tip, if you are able to get a lot more leverage and a lot more bang for your buck, as you’re saying, by being able to combine those resources as much as possible. So I like asking everyone this question, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Bill Connors 36:01
Yeah, I think we’re always going to be in the role of convener. And, you know, if we ever lose that, then I think we’re in trouble. A lot of what we you and I just talked about bringing people to the middle. That’s the only way you get things done. And I think, chambers have always got to play that role going forward. And like I said, the other thing is, we really got to think harder about talent, and how, how we’re going to fill all these jobs in the future. And think about, you know, does everybody need a bachelor’s degree? Or can you win, you got people out there who go get their CDL license and can make $100,000 a year driving a truck? Maybe we are rethink about, you know, where, where we put our educational resources, our higher educational resources. So, again, I think the Chamber’s roles will always be to be to be effective. We’ll be as conveners bringing people to the middle and getting stuff done.

Brandon Burton 37:10
I love it. So I wanted to give you a chance bill to share any contact information for any listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you. And also if they wanted to check out your In Search of civility program, where can they find that as well? Yep.

Connect with Bill Connors

Bill Connors 37:26
Our websites boisechamber.org. And my email is bconnors@boisechamber.org. Yeah, happy to talk to anybody and I, what I what I do love about this business. And as you said at the head of the program, I’m pretty active in ACCE and the US Chamber and I’ve gotten to know my counterparts all over the country. And we’re very good at stealing each other’s ideas. And that’s, that’s always a good

Brandon Burton 38:02
thing. That’s right. And I’ll get this contact information in our show notes for this episode. But Bill, this has been a great discussion. I’m glad to have had you on the podcast. And I appreciate you sharing this example of of establishing yourself as that same center and the place where all chambers really need to be residing. So thank you for that.

Bill Connors 38:26
Well, thank you very much, Brandon, and thanks for what you do for chambers all across the country.

Brandon Burton 38:31
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Advocate as the Voice of Business

You Have Seen One Chamber

As the old saying goes “if you have seen one chamber, you have seen one chamber.”  I understand that every community has different needs. They are different sizes and have different problems. They also have different things that make them uniquely great.  I often wonder about the confusion of business owners who belong to multiple chambers.  

Hypothetically, a business could be a member of a larger, more robust chamber that has multiple events each week and several ways to educate and market their business members.  This same business (maybe a secondary location) could also be a member of a more rural chamber who has a totally different vibe.  Both chambers are doing what they feel is best for their community. However, this hypothetical chamber member is having a very different experience with each of these organizations.

Common Member Experience

One way that every chamber could offer a similar experience for each of their members is through advocacy.  Many chambers claim to be the voice of business for their community but what does that mean?  Do their members know what that means for their business?

Some chambers tend to shy away from jumping into the advocacy arena for fear of offending people. They may worry about losing funding from a city contract or a large sponsor. Some worry about losing members because of the chambers stance on a topic.  

Advocacy Creates the Voice of Business

If chambers could agree to represent the voice of business in their communities by promoting pro-business candidates and policies, then their members would better understand the value that they get from their chamber.  They would understand why the chamber is branded as the voice of business.

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During election season, I have seen chambers invite local candidates to be interviewed on the chamber’s podcast.  This provides a platform for residents to hear the ideas each candidate offers up, especially as it relates to business in their community.  (If you are interested in starting a podcast for your chamber, see my free resources at chamberchatpodcast.com/pivot.)

I really like the idea of chambers in the same region banding together to support certain causes.  This way as you advocate at your county or state levels, you can leverage the numbers of businesses who feel a certain way about proposed legislation that would impact their business.  You can do this type of advocacy on your own, but a regional effort carries a much larger impact.  This could even be taken to a national level as you bring chambers together across your state, province, or territory.

Advocacy Examples

I recently did a podcast interview with Marc Cohen, Chief of Staff at the Greater Rochester Chamber in New York.  Marc offered up a great tip that may serve you well with your advocacy efforts.  He suggested rather than trying to meet with the elected official, it is very effective to connect with a member of their staff instead.  It is often easier to get a meeting with one of the staff members than it is to sit down with the elected official.  If you can successfully create a relationship with the staff member, then you can create a great advocate on the inside.

When I visited with Roy William, and Brad Hicks on Chamber Chat Podcast, they both mentioned the great value of their chambers having political action committees.  Setting up a P.A.C. requires more commitment and legal help but it can also become another source of revenue for your organization.

Here is a list of some ideas of ways to incorporate advocacy at your chamber.  You may be doing some of these things already, and this list is not exhaustive by any means.

  • Learn about proposed legislation, taxes, regulations, or expiring regulations.
  • Talk to your business community/take polls about the expected impact of these proposals.
  • Look up who all of your local, county, and state elected officials are and start introducing yourself and your chamber to these leaders and explain who you represent.  Write them each an email of encouragement and optimism of working together with them to represent their constituents in your community.
  • Coordinate letter writing and phone campaigns to show support or displeasure for certain proposals.
  • Organize or join a group on a regional or state level with other chambers to leverage your numbers.
  • Interview candidates in a forum to share their views to inform voters.
  • Endorse pro-business candidates and policies.
  • Consider creating or supporting a political action committee.

Summary

Your chamber does not need to set up a P.A.C. to make an impact advocating for the businesses in your community. But you should be doing something to make the voice of business heard in your area.  I would encourage you to not let fear deter you from standing up for what is right for your business owners, their employees, and their families.  Hold public forums, conduct interviews on your chamber’s podcast, YouTube, or Facebook page.  Conduct polls to get real feedback from your business community.  All of this will allow you to collect the information you need to help pro-business policies and candidates thrive in your community.

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Role of Chambers in Advocacy & Policy with Marc Cohen

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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
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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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