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Category: Childcare

Foundation-Driven Disaster Relief with David Jackson

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Brandon Burton (00:00.465)
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to 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. Today’s guest is a dynamic community leader and voice of the high country. David Jackson is the President and CEO of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce. Since stepping into his role in 2016,

David has transformed the chamber into a powerhouse of regional engagement and innovation. Under his leadership, the chamber launched its own foundation, expanded to over 700 active members, and was recently honored as the 2025 Carolina’s Outstanding Chamber of the Year by CACCE.

David’s work has earned him multiple accolades, including being named Community Advocate of the Year by the North Carolina Rural Center and the North Carolina Main Street Champion. In 2025 alone, he was recognized with the Town of Boone 1872 Award and the Community Inspiration Award from the Watauga Community Foundation. Appalachian State alum and longtime resident of Boone, David has deep roots in the region.

He’s served on the boards ranging from Applecart, I hope I said that right, to the town of Boone Central Resource Development, and even teaches as adjunct professor in the Walker College of Business. David, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

David Jackson (01:40.578)
Yeah. Well, hello friends. I feel like this might be the most niche podcast I think I’ve ever been on. so that’s, that’s exciting. I know I’m talking to people that get it, as, a listener myself, this is, it’s going to be fun. my interesting fact, I was prior to chamber, life, for 16 years was the radio play-by-play announcer at Appalachian state university, for football, basketball, baseball.

I was around for the App State Michigan upset back in 2007. Occasionally you might still hear that play call get thrown out there and I’m the one that’s screaming the softest trying to make sense of what’s going on. My broadcast partner was saying something to the effect of yard sale in the big house during that moment, but I enjoyed long career as a sports broadcaster. I still do some of that work. I do ESPN plus broadcast for App State now as well as.

Brandon Burton (02:14.567)
That’s right.

David Jackson (02:34.956)
Some work with the Carolina Panthers on occasion, just, you know, it’s a hobby rather than a lifestyle. And I found that working in college athletics for as long as I did, there are so many parallels to that work and chamber work. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but it took me about 20 minutes to get into this job and think, this is the same gig. It’s just new people and maybe a little bit less crazy hours.

Brandon Burton (03:00.507)
That would have been a really cool episode for us to go down that rabbit hole. Those comparisons. Yeah. I thought I recognized your voice. Yeah, you’ve got a voice perfect for being on a podcast. So this is fantastic. Well, tell us a little bit about the Boone County Chamber just to give us an idea of the size staff, the type of work you guys are involved with, budget, that sort of thing to set the stage.

David Jackson (03:04.287)
Yeah, there you go. It’s a fascinating comparison, it really is.

David Jackson (03:28.194)
Yeah. Yeah. So, so first off, the Boone area chambers in Boone, North Carolina, we are one of four that we can count chambers that have some reference to Daniel Boone in the name. We get a lot of calls and occasionally some mail for the Boone, Iowa chamber and have developed quite a relationship with them over the years. But Boone, North Carolina is in the Northwest corner of North Carolina, about an hour and 45 minutes, Northwest of Charlotte.

So if you’re looking at a map and you see where North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee all converge up there in the Northwest mountains, that’s where Boone is located. We’ve got a population here of right around 20,000 inside the town, about 60,000 inside the county. And as I mentioned, we’re home to Appalachian State University. They’ve got about 19,000 students here in the area locally, but an enrollment of a little over 22,000 now with a lot of online and graduate programs.

spread really throughout western North Carolina. They’ve got a campus in Hickory, which is about an hour south of here that has recently emerged as well. So this is a very tourism heavy area. It is one that in the wintertime as we record today, we’ve got something frozen falling from the sky and that coincides with really opening weekend for the ski industry here.

in North Carolina. Skiing brings in about $125 million a year to the state’s economy and all of that is really located within a two county area here. In the summertime, we run about 10 degrees to 15 degrees cooler than Raleigh and Charlotte. So we are a tourism Mecca from that perspective. And if it gets up to about 84, 85 degrees in July, people are melting in the streets up here. So.

Tourism heavy economy, about 3,500 feet in elevation for the most part in the county. This is a special place. A lot of folks that live here have the university as a magnet of some sort. It either brought them here, it brought them back here, or maybe was the reason why they wanted to stay around as a local because they’ve been able to get educated and find life here. it makes our…

David Jackson (05:38.934)
mix of businesses, very unique. Again, a lot of service industry, but then a lot of innovation tied to the university as well and the community college system here in North Carolina. So no dull moment, like for many of you that are listening, but certainly a part of the state that is unique and we try to play into that as much as we can.

Brandon Burton (05:57.18)
Yeah, I’m always fascinated with college and university towns where your population fluctuates depending on enrollment and the time of year and whatnot. But it’s its own unique circumstance to try to manage.

David Jackson (06:11.214)
Yeah. And, and, you know, football game days are a big part of the economic driver here. Uh, you know, app state in the good years, uh, they, will miss a bowl for the second time in as many years. And that’s kind of unheard of around here, but, but for a normal game day, they can push up a past 35, almost 40,000 attendees. Kid Brewer’s stadium is one of the highest ranked stadiums in the country for a percent capacity. They usually go well over a hundred percent. think last year they were at 107 % of their capacity.

So, you you pretty much triple the size of the town when they come in and bring all the ancillary fund to that. And those are the six dates that people block off and schedule life around and businesses do the same. know, so those, when the schedule’s released in March, everybody scribbles furiously and then we try to plan everything else around that. But it’s a very big part of the university’s influence here.

Brandon Burton (07:03.631)
Yeah, I can imagine. Man, I’m thinking we should have chosen a different topic, but what we did settle on was to talk about disaster relief and specifically how you guys were able to utilize your foundation to help with disaster relief after Hurricane Helene. So we’ll dive into the details of that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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David Jackson (07:23.661)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (07:26.983)
All right, David, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about disaster relief and how you guys were able to utilize your foundation as a tool to help in that effort. Why don’t you set the stage for us, give us the background and how the foundation came to be and then how you went to implement it.

David Jackson (07:43.238)
Yeah. So first I want to say thank you to a number of chamber colleagues that reached out to our community and communities throughout Western North Carolina during what was an incredibly difficult time for us in September and early October of 2024. As I mentioned at the top, this is a very tourism heavy economy throughout the Western side of the state. Basically from I-77 West, are

the Mecca of the state’s tourism attention for the fall. Because of the leaves and because of the scenic views that you get, you look out over a 45, 50 mile range view at fall color, you can’t beat this location. To have Hurricane Helene’s impact right at the front end of that part of the calendar was catastrophic for us economically. And that’s not just here. Obviously a lot of lenses were focused on the Asheville area. Asheville’s about an hour and 15 minutes to the southwest of here.

And our communities are incredibly interconnected. And one of the ribbons that ties us all together is the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is the most visited national park in the country, stretching from Southern Virginia all the way down past Asheville. That road was decimated by the storm. And in a normal October, you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of visitors that are driving up and down that road and venturing into the small and large communities off the parkway.

on any given day. we saw what was our top month for economic performance get turned off before it ever got turned on and turned completely off. So we had a lot of colleagues reach out and help those that have been through disasters before. We talked to colleagues in Hawaii and Iowa, Florida, Louisiana, all over the country really, that helped us understand what was next in the FEMA process, the SBA process.

We learned very quickly never to schedule your natural disaster in the midst of a contentious presidential election. That was all kinds of bad for all of the reasons you would imagine. Yeah, and we are still going through some of that reorganization of FEMA dynamic and what that meant for trust in our community. This is an area of the state and really of the country that is deep rooted in Appalachia culture. So it takes a lot of time to trust people. And when you’ve got

Brandon Burton (09:42.715)
Make a note of that, yeah.

David Jackson (10:02.712)
people wearing federal jackets and badges running into your community after it’s been turned upside down. That’s not exactly the warm, friendly, hospitality-based response that we normally have. And it’s taken some time to get to that. So I set all that context to say that what we learned in our unique situation is just how much local partners and trusted partners matter. We, back at the beginning of 2022,

We signed a contract with Watauga County to provide economic development administrative assistance for the Watauga County EDC. So we are essentially the backbone of economic development for our county. The previous economic development director had retired from the county. We hired him here at the chamber for his kind of post-government life. And he maintains that same role now, just working for us instead of them.

So at that time, we decided that we needed to start a 501c3 foundation to do the economic development sidecar work. So if we’re going to go buy land or support a project, we need a place to raise those funds. Very similar to every other chamber in America, it seems like. We were one of the last to the party in that regard, but had a lot of help in setting that up. So when the storm hit, our director of communications and I were sitting at a coffee table inside

Appalachian State Student Union. We had no power or internet access at the office and Appalachian State happened to have both because of their robust system and a little bit of self-sustaining ability there. So we’re sitting outside the coffee shop and my director of communications looks at me and says, do you think our foundation might be helpful right now? And we’re less than 24 hours away from the impact of the storm. We’re trying to figure out where everybody on the staff is, let alone what our response is gonna be.

and said, you know, it’s not really what it’s designed for, but yeah, I mean, we know we’re gonna have to raise money for something. We don’t know what that something is yet, but yeah, let’s give it a shot and make it available. Just happened to have a Watauga County commissioner walking by who works at App State. And I said to him, said, Charlie, I think we’re gonna use our foundation as a landing space for funds. And he said, yeah, man, that could get money. I don’t know. Good luck with it. And that was that.

David Jackson (12:22.958)
So we put out on social media, because again, we had internet access, that if people wanted to donate to local causes to support the business community, here was a place to do it. And here was a mechanism for it, got a QR code and got Stripe working. And all of the sudden, before we knew what happened, in about seven days, we had $200,000, a little more than that, that had been raised in five and $10 increments for people all over the world. People that had a heartfelt connection.

to the mountains of North Carolina for whatever that reason happened to be. They may have learned to ski here, went to school here, whatever. They wanted to give back. So we, since then, in total, we’re knocking on the door of about $2 million that we’ve raised since September of 2024 in just hurricane-related disaster funding. We’ve used, and we can talk here in a minute about the variety of ways we’ve deployed that, but I think that…

The lesson learned here is that for all of us, people have a connection to our communities that maybe we feel like we understand, but we don’t necessarily understand it as deeply if we are in the community. What I mean by that is the people that would desire to live next door to you, they want to be back in the place they went to school or that place that’s special to them, they have connections and again, that heartstring pull that we can’t imagine living in that place every day.

It’s that yearning desire to be there and help. And that saved us because it took weeks to get any kind of major substantive funding out of the federal government, from the state government. Those dollars were slow to come. Once they did come, none of them were there for small business support. I think that’s something that we’ve heard echoed around the country. There are no small business grants that are coming from the government to help those businesses that again saw

significant turnoff of their revenues at the busiest month of the year, right? So there was hurting that was going on there and nobody else was coming to help. So that’s kind of one of the lanes that we moved into and we were just heartened and it gave us some pep in our step after some incredibly long days, some that are still going on as a matter of fact, that people care. And that was really the adrenaline that kept us going there for a while.

Brandon Burton (14:40.529)
Right.

Brandon Burton (14:45.019)
Yeah, so questions are coming to my mind. I’m sure they are to listeners as well. So a lot of those listening have gone through the process of establishing a foundation or maybe they’re considering it or maybe they came into their position and was already set up. But when you guys set up your foundation, as far as the documents and everything, your, the charter and whatnot, so what…

David Jackson (14:48.461)
Yes.

Brandon Burton (15:09.908)
How was it set up that allowed you to deploy the funds for disaster relief? Usually it’s very specific what the funds are for, right?

David Jackson (15:14.454)
Yeah, yeah, and that’s a great question. So we set the foundation up to be very vague in economic development support. The reason for that was that we didn’t exactly know at the time that we created it where those levers would ultimately be pulled. If that was going to be, say, in housing support, you know, like everybody, we have affordable housing issues here and we wanted flexibility to be able to maybe buy land.

or donate money to a specific project that we could fundraise. So we didn’t want to go, and some foundations are so incredibly specific, we did want to give some flexibility to work within five core buckets. So like many communities, would imagine housing is one, childcare is another one, workforce development. We have a bucket for our chamber capital needs here to support our business.

And then we’ve got another general fund that allows us to support community events, run our leadership program, things along those lines. So we tried to establish it like that first. The key that came around on the disaster side was that word disaster. And as we raised funds and put them in that general account for community support, we were able to then deploy those funds. Part of that went to childcare. We can talk about that in a minute, but.

the disaster grant program that we’ve run. We’ve run four rounds of a disaster grant program for small businesses over a three county area here, not just Watauga, but Ash and Avery counties as well that border us. And by using the word disaster, you get away from some of the IRS issues there. Those businesses that receive grant money still have to report that, you know, it’s income for them, but it’s cashflow as much as anything.

we were able to put about $1.4 million of the money that we raised into that specific program itself. And then had businesses apply to us over four rounds. Each round had a different flavor to it. And we were able to deploy those grants in the name of the disaster itself. As long as we were a disaster declared county.

David Jackson (17:31.15)
Our accountant said that was the way to handle the language and the flexibility of that community support mechanism was really what helped drive the vast majority of what we’ve done.

Brandon Burton (17:41.349)
Yeah. So that leads to my next question. I was going to ask about how the money has been deployed. so you touched on one aspect of it there. Is there other areas, other ways that those funds have been dispersed?

David Jackson (17:46.776)
Mm-hmm.

David Jackson (17:53.486)
Yeah, so one of the early conversations that we had with our foundation board, you we gathered them about 10 days after the storm. We had money coming in, you know, we had about, you know, $250,000 at the time. So it was, was a good bit of money, more money than we’d ever seen, but also in the totality of, you know, a couple billion dollar storm, not going to move the needle in any one direction very far. So we, we said to them, you know,

We’ve got this money, we need to get it out. What do you want to do? Here are some options. We talked about business grants then, and to give you an idea, the storm hits in late September. This is probably the second full week of October we had this conversation. And so we felt like business grants was going to come. were holding out hope that some conversations around the General Assembly in North Carolina, the governor’s office, Roy Cooper at the time, now Josh Stein, that there were going to be some…

mechanisms far greater than ours that were going to come into play, which never did. But we would hold tight there. And one of our board members said, you know, we ought to be about what we’re about. And we’re about childcare support. We believe very firmly and are one of the state’s leaders in this thought that childcare is an economic development issue. It’s our core economic development issue, access and affordability and the ability for

to support the workforce that supports the workforce. So we said, you know, we knew at that time we had 36 centers, licensed care centers here in Watauga County. All of them were dealing with enrollment issues related to the storm. School system was closed here for about three and a half, four weeks, just in Watauga County. It was longer in surrounding areas. And because of that, people weren’t working. There was fluctuation in need for childcare. There was certainly a lot of cost issues.

across everything that made the expensive childcare bill at the end of the month almost insurmountable. So we said, let’s take about $210,000 of this money and let’s invest it in those childcare centers and let’s make sure that they can be open in November. But we saw that investment as a twofold thing where one, we could stabilize the industry and North Carolina has got a litany of issues with its childcare support mechanisms statewide. That’s another whole episode we could get into.

David Jackson (20:16.237)
But we wanted to make sure those businesses could open again, know, full force when they needed to and that their workforce was supported. But we also thought if we could provide some tuition assistance here, we’re going to free up cash for people that are going through the process with insurance, going through the process with FEMA, and it’s going to take a while for them to get money and they need to make repairs. know, we’re talking bridges washed out, roadways washed out, a lot of those private and nestled into little nooks and crannies in the mountains.

It’s not easy to repair necessarily and certainly costly. So any money that we could free up for immediate needs, we felt like that was going to be a benefit. So we made an allocation to our local Smart Start agency of $210,000 to support tuition for October for everybody that was in a licensed childcare center. They were able to pull some additional money to work that grant off of another grant. And we ended up deploying just shy of $240,000 to that effort.

which nearly covered every student that was in licensed childcare here in the county. We had a few centers that opted out because they had other funding that backed that up so they didn’t want to take money away so we could spread it farther. And we were able to provide that tuition assistance for that first month. And that was a life changer for not only the centers, but the families. And that really got us started. Then we were, because of that success, I think people saw our foundation as a trusted destination for funding. The vast majority of what we got,

In that 1.4, I was talking about earlier, were locally driven funds. We’ve had three allocations from two different large grantors that totaled up about $750,000. So about half of that came from the private sector. And again, small gifts. There was a house party at App State that donated a couple hundred bucks to us from their proceeds. it really got crazy there. But I think part of that was also telling the story of how we were spending the money.

not wanting to toot our horn by any stretch, especially at that time. But I think if you don’t tell the story, people don’t understand what your capacity is. And we wanted to let people know, like we said, if your dollars come here, we’re gonna keep them local and we’re gonna keep them going toward community function. And that childcare allocation was the thing that kickstarted the whole process.

Brandon Burton (22:33.02)
Right.

So you had mentioned that the foundation is fairly new as the storms coming and you saw an opportunity to be able to utilize it in this way. Had you guys raised any funds for the foundation ahead of time? there, I guess, how have you proactively gone about, obviously after a storm happens, after there’s a catastrophe, it’s easier to broadcast that and get people to donate. But for those listening who want to be proactive ahead of time, who maybe already have a foundation,

trying to collect funds and be a magnet so then when it is needed to be deployed, it’s there and ready whether economic development or disaster relief or whatever the need may be. What was your guys’ situation like?

David Jackson (23:19.499)
Yeah, that’s another great question. know, thinking back a little bit, yeah, first off, I wish we had this foundation longer. You know, knowing what we know now, there are so many uses for something like that. And every community’s got their need and their specific set of needs. Prior to the storm, we raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 total.

in the history of the foundation for things outside of childcare. Now in the childcare space, we had been involved and part of the reason why this was the thing that we chose for about an eight year period of time. Now we’ve been involved in a deeper community conversation around that childcare industry support. years ago, before the economic development machine here in Watauga County had a destination for funds, our smart start agency held what was called the

Early Childhood Education and Development Fund. And that was an area for us to take public sector dollars and private sector dollars and merge them into an account where we could pay for various workforce supports within the industry. Once we got our foundation started, the county commissioners actually suggested that we take that fund out of the Smart Start Agency and put it into the Economic Development Support Agency because it was just a little bit cleaner and would eliminate any…

impropriety or thought of that with mission drift of the smart start agency. So it was done to really kind of protect them in a way, but also give us the opportunity to then, because it’s in under economic development, allow other people to see that that wouldn’t maybe necessarily see that fund if it were embedded inside of a smart start agency. So with that, we did end up getting some extra traffic there, but you’re talking about $60,000 a year, you know, with some private donations here and there.

You know, so we were, we were in the, the chump change category, really kind of limping along so much so that we had a part-time staff member that we onboarded in August of 2024, and said, all right, part-time staff member, we’re going to limp along here. We’re going to bring you on for 10 hours a week. We’re going to turn that into 20 hours a week by the time the year starts. And then hopefully by next summer, we’ve got you as a full-time member that’s out there working, trying to grow this foundation. Well, you know, the storm hits and he was full-time by the end of the year.

David Jackson (25:41.422)
Uh, and, continues to be just a tremendous asset for us in all of the grant management and the, the, the amount of paperwork that we had to turn around at the end of 2024, all the 10 99s we had to let fly because of the grants. was a great problem to have, but that was a financial burden on us too. You know, so we, really had to think about on the backside of all of this good, you know, it was, it’s also crippling our staff that was worn slap out at the same time, you know, so.

We’ve gotten smarter with that now. And I feel like if we’re ever pressed into that emergency position again, we’ve got an understanding of what emergency dynamics when it’s related to fundraising look like and how we need to be prepared as an organization. And that, unfortunately, I don’t know that you can really prepare for until you do it.

Brandon Burton (26:31.975)
Great, great perspective. So I always like asking the question, especially for those listening who are trying to take their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item would you share with them, whether it’s related to this topic with disaster relief and foundations or something totally different, what would you suggest for them in trying to accomplish that goal of taking their chamber to next level?

David Jackson (26:57.589)
Yeah, you know, when you sent me questions ahead of time, this is the one I stood on the most. I think that it’s kind of twofold. know, certainly when, when I’ve been at this chamber for almost 10 years now, and, know, this is a small tight knit community here in the mountains of Northwest North Carolina, right? So relationships are everything. And it’s proving that you can do what you say you’re going to do.

that allows you to get in the next room and to be a part of the next project. you know, coming to this role from a very different role in the same community, I had to earn that level of respect personally that I wasn’t just the radio broadcaster from App anymore. I had some understanding of what this job was about. And then we built a team that could meet the moment in a variety of different ways, all again centered hardcore on relationship equity.

You know, we’ve got a professional staff here, many of them that were App State grads that have those deep community ties. So when something like Helene happens, you’ve got faces that you know, you’ve got people that you trust and you’ve got a track record behind you that will allow you to be at the epicenter of things. know, that Saturday after the storm hit Friday, we were called to a meeting at the courthouse, sheriff, police chief, you know, all the emergency response folks, and we raised our hand.

And we said, tell us how we can help, you know, put us to work. And our track record in previous smaller situations, led the director to say, all right, you guys are in charge of supply chain distribution, which that’s a whole other episode to talk about why you might not necessarily want to get into that business. But, but we had a member with a warehouse and that, it was a pickleball court, actually an indoor pickleball facility that turned into the supply depot. But that was a relationship with that member that, that.

Brandon Burton (28:49.255)
Perfect.

David Jackson (28:54.985)
allowed us to perform in the moment for in a relationship setting that the county needed a resource. And to be able to provide that means that you need those relationships to really be forged on the sunny days. know, every opportunity that you’ve got to make an impact and again, sign up for something that you can know that you can accomplish and do it well for your community that’s gonna make them lean on you. Now the downside to that is when you’ve got that track record, they’re gonna lean on you.

But I think we all want to be in that moment, right? Because we’re all about community support. We’re all about getting our community over whatever that hurdle is. So we had a front row seat to disaster response. It wasn’t something that I ever thought that we would be in position for at that level, but man, I’m glad we went through it because we were able to help our community directly. We showcased some members and their ability to help their community. And I think got some people thinking differently about business here.

certainly got people thinking differently about Appalachian state. They were tremendously helpful with space, time, effort, energy, volunteers, internet, showers, all that kind of stuff. The town gown relationship has been rocky here in the past. It is as good as it’s ever been. And we have been in a position to tell that story from the inside. And I think that’s helped everybody. So just some thoughts, relationships matter much more so than the bumper sticker than we all have on our cars.

Brandon Burton (30:19.993)
Yeah, I love that idea of forging those relationships before, you know, during the sunny days so you can call on them when you need them. So that’s awesome. As we look to the future of Chambers of Commerce, how do you see the future of Chambers and their purpose going forward?

David Jackson (30:26.657)
Yeah, that’s right.

David Jackson (30:37.523)
Yeah, that’s another great question that, that I feel like it’s things like this that, that are going to be as important as, as you know, membership, and, the, the non dues revenue cycles that we all get chased into, because I think members see that reaction. Excuse me. I think that a lot of times our, our work trying to sell our value is really about what we do. It’s not about what we say we do. And when people see an organization like a chamber.

or an economic development organization leading to try to solve the problem rather than trying to sell themselves on being an answer to the problem. The membership takes care of itself. I don’t necessarily see membership eroding necessarily. I think the motivations for membership change. I think people will want to invest at a time where ROI is certainly at a critical point for anybody that’s in a membership related field.

I think that the work you do is going to drive the investment that people see in you. If they see you as a solutions-based problem solver, that’s going to take care of itself. But then what do you do with your organization to make sure that it is always geared toward community support and making the community better tomorrow than it was today? And for some communities, that is to be the party starter, the parade organizer, the fun.

energetic beacon of light inside, know, difficult conversations sometimes. For others, it’s about leading forward with economic development thoughts and all of those types of things. For us right now, that’s going to be about rebuild. You know, this is going to be a multi-year conversation here, thinking about how you take hundreds of millions of dollars that are going to come in and infrastructure support and make sure that your community is better forward. So we’re hosting those meetings. We want to try to be

a part of that, not drive it. We don’t want to own it, but we want to facilitate. And then, you know, we can storytell a little bit. So I think it all boils back down to being nimble, relationships, and understanding that people will trust what you do when they see you do it. And that will take care of the investment that we all need them to make in us. And we hope that they make positively and see the results based on what we can all do for our communities.

Brandon Burton (32:58.565)
Yeah, I love that.

Make the impact, don’t just talk about the impact that you are talking about making. Actually put the rubber to the road and make something happen. So I love that. Well, David, this has been a great conversation. Hopefully it’s one that kind of gets the wheels turning for those that are listening, thinking about what can they do to be better prepared for when disaster comes to their community or hopefully it doesn’t, but you wanna be prepared for it. I wanted to give you an opportunity to share

David Jackson (33:04.045)
Right.

That’s right.

Brandon Burton (33:30.665)
share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and learn more about the structure of foundation, how you guys have deployed things, or anything else you’ve touched on. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?

David Jackson (33:38.529)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. And thank you as well. I’ve listened to so many of these. heard one of our colleagues, Tanya Stevenson on a few weeks ago and that was awesome. Tanya is great. She’s two counties away from me. But yeah, boonchamber.com is our website. We’ve got a podcast as well called Mind Your Business. I encourage you to check that out, learn a little bit about our little pocket of North Carolina.

Brandon Burton (33:49.006)
yeah.

David Jackson (34:04.417)
But in all seriousness, because so many people paid it forward to us, if there is any community in any shape, in any part of this country that is going through something similar to what we experienced, please call us. If for no other reason than to talk to some people that understand and can give you that 10 minutes of levity where you can just let it all out and you may not need anything, you just may need to talk to somebody that’s been through it. So we can help there. We certainly have…

some fresh perspective on what today’s FEMA SBA mechanism looks like and can share some thoughts there. But really we just want to help because so many people helped us, lean on us anytime. BooneChamber.com, come and find us.

Brandon Burton (34:46.437)
That’s perfect. We’ll have it linked in our show notes as well to make it easy. David, this has been great. I hope you feel like you’ve been able to touch on the main points you wanted to cover in this conversation today. But thank you for joining us here on Chamber Chat Podcast for sharing your experience and things that you’ve learned through this process. I think it’s incredibly valuable. Thank you.

David Jackson (35:08.333)
Well, thank you very much for having me.

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Advocacy that Bolsters the Community with Michael Guymon

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

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

Our title sponsor for this episode is Bringing Local Back. Remember when your community could turn to a local TV station or newspaper for the latest updates and affordable ads? Those days may be fading, but the need for local connection remains. That’s why we created Bringing Local Back, a game changing platform that restores the local visibility and advertising power to your community. It’s more than just tech. It’s about driving engagement and creating new revenue for your chamber. Ready to see the future visit bringinglocalback.com to schedule your demo today. This is the future of local commerce.

Our guest for this episode is Michael Guymon and native tucsonan The new word for me. Michael’s 25 year professional career has primarily centered on political strategy, business development and advocacy and organizational management. As president and CEO for the Tucson Metro Chamber, Michael is responsible for developing and implementing the goals and vision for the chamber to fulfill the Chamber’s mission and champion and to champion an environment where your business thrives and our community prospers. Michael’s previous positions include vice president of regional partnerships for sun corridor Inc, the executive director of Metropolitan Pima Alliance, chief to staff to Tucson city council member Fred Ron Stan, Assistant Vice President for governmental affairs for the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and political consultant to the bridges, a 360 acre mixed use, mixed use infill development that includes tech parks Arizona, Geico regional headquarters, housing and 111 acre commercial development. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Arizona. On a personal note, his passion is baseball, and he was named the official score for the Tucson Padres triple A baseball club from 2011 to 2013 the team moved to El Paso in in 2014 But Michael, I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Michael Guymon 2:48
Yeah, absolutely. Brandon, thank you so much for that, that great introduction, and I’m happy to be here to talk to all of our team chamber champions that are out there. I guess one other little fun fact is, as much as my passion is baseball, I actually play ice hockey. So a lot of people ask me, Wow, a native tucsonan That plays ice hockey. How the heck did that happen? And when I was in college, my buddies and I were just kind of bored playing too much hockey on Sega, so we decided to buy some stick, a puck, and some roller blades, taught ourselves how to play, and that ultimately morphed into playing ice hockey. So So yeah, I am also an ice hockey player, and I still play in the adult league here in Tucson and and it’s a lot of fun. It keeps me, keeps me busy and and it helps me get, you know, some of that pent up nerve that some chamber CEOs can can experience out on the ice.

Brandon Burton 3:46
That’s right, that’s a I would not have guessed that, you know, baseball and hockey. I would not have guessed, you know, but yeah, that that’s awesome. Glad it keeps you active, keeps you involved,

Michael Guymon 3:56
absolutely.

Brandon Burton 3:58
Well, tell us a little bit about the Tucson Metro Chamber, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today, give us an idea of the size of the chamber staff, budget, scope of work and all that, just to kind of give us your perspective.

Michael Guymon 4:10
Yeah, you bet. Thank you, Brandon. So our chamber has been around since 1896 and we have been the voice of business in a variety of forms for those 100 and now 28 years. So we are a staff of 11, budget of about 1.8 million, and we have 1400 members, and those members are everything from restaurants to Raytheon. Raytheon is our largest private employer here in the Tucson region. Aerospace and Defense is our biggest, not only employer, but also just from a economic impact part of the economy, our biggest player, between Raytheon, with its 14,000 employees and 200 companies that make up our airspace and defense. Sector here in in the Tucson region. So so that’s that’s a big component, but so are a lot of our small businesses here. And of course, the chamber is the main organization that helps to advocate and be the voice for those small businesses. So So it ranges, really good range, but that that’s kind of what makes up our chamber?

Brandon Burton 5:21
Very good. And I know Raytheon is a great company to have in your backyard there. We’ve got a campus probably about 15 miles from our house here in Texas, and they’re great employer and great community player and just a great one to have have on your team there in Tucson, absolutely well, as we try to hone in on what our focus for our conversation is going to be, today, we decided to focus our the majority of our discussion around advocacy, but more specifically, advocacy that bolsters the competitiveness of your community. And we’ll dive in much deeper on this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Michael, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about how advocacy can bolster your community’s competitiveness as we take that approach, what does that mean to you as far as advocacy and keeping the maybe the relevance in your community and staying on the cutting edge? Just tell us what that means from you and your approach to advocacy in this with this focus. Sure.

Michael Guymon 8:19
So you know, advocacy really is it really is our main value proposition for the chamber. We, as I mentioned before, we are the voice of business, and part of being the voice of business is making sure that we are that bold advocate for a lot of things that relate to the business community and really try to push pro business policies through our city and county, and actually, when I became CEO of the chamber about three years ago, I shifted our focus to purely local, local advocacy, because we did have staff member, various staff members who would go up to Phoenix to lobby positions at the legislature. But I felt it was there. There’s plenty of work to do within the city of Tucson and Pima County that we really needed to focus our efforts locally and address the pro business policies that would help bolster our business community here locally and partner with those organizations like the greater Phoenix chamber and the Arizona chamber that has a stronger presence of the Capitol. And if there are ways that we can, that we can partner with them on state legislation that addresses pro business policy, then we’ll do that. But the chamber is really going to take the lead here locally and and we’ve been very successful at doing that. So, so when it comes to competitiveness now, it really dry there, there are, there are main components to that. Competitiveness. It it comes down to workforce and talent. It comes down to transportation and. Infrastructure comes down to public safety, comes down to housing affordability and quality of life. Those are, those are the five sort of pillars that we look at when we are talking about our competitiveness. As a former employee of our economic development organization, the big thing that I learned there is that talent and workforce and labor drives 99% of the relocation expansion decisions, and it also helps drive whether companies decide to stay within a community so as the retainer of business now at the Chamber I when I was at our economic development organization. I was it was my job to help companies expand to relocate to Tucson now at the Chamber, it’s my job to make sure that they stay here. Talent drives a lot of those decisions, and so working on workforce development and making sure that our educational institutions, our post secondary educational institutions and our K 12 system, quite frankly, are laddering up to the skills and positions that are needed within our companies. Is critically important to make sure that those connections are made. So we do a lot of that work. We have collaboratives in healthcare. We have collaboratives in mining. We have collaboratives in that are focused on construct the construction industry, and then we partner with those organizations that address the issues in and around some of our other targeted sectors and industries. But but addressing workforce development is a big component of making sure that we are competitive, not only for companies that are looking to expand, to relocate, but also those companies that are here and want to expand here in our region

Brandon Burton 11:45
that is so important, and it’s kind of the chicken or the egg, right? Like you want the big business there, you want the companies to relocate, but they need to have the workforce. And at the same time, you’re trying to build the workforce, and kind of think, if you build it, they will come kind of a sense, you know, if there’s your baseball tie in, right? Very good. But I’m curious with the approach, with this, the schools, the, you know, school system, the secondary education, what, what approach is the chamber able to do from that advocacy effort to make sure that these students are being prepared to enter the workforce, and specifically in these key we’ll say categories, these key industries you’re looking to have workforce for. What’s that approach look like?

Michael Guymon 12:34
So Brandon, really, it’s our job as a chamber to make sure that the industries and the companies are engaged. You know, I’m not. I’m not here to tell our community college system or our university who do incredible work in our community and our true are truly our economic drivers of the community. I’m not here to tell them what to do. But what I can do is bring, come more, more and more companies to the table, for them to say, here are the positions that are open. Here are the skills that I need. Here are the skills that I think are lacking in our community, to have those conversations so that our post secondary education institutions understand what the needs are, in hopes that they will help address them. So it’s my job as a chamber to encourage those companies to be a part of those conversations, and we’ve been successful in that we have a lot of companies that are at the table. Could I use more? Absolutely, it’s imperative that I have more and more industries at those tables so that they can express the types of challenges that are they are facing from a workforce standpoint. But outside of that, you know, a lot of the issues that we hear, especially at the retail level, are related to public safety, they’re related to transportation they’re related to housing affordability these days. I mean, boy, you know, this is a topic that is certainly not unique to Tucson, but it is something I am hearing more and more chambers talk about how we need to make sure that we address our housing affordability. And the recent term I’ve heard is income. I don’t think it was income based, but basically, you know, income based housing, so making sure that we’re that we’re addressing the various aspects of housing, because it is diverse, we want to make sure that our housing options are diverse, but but those are, those are issues that our communities are facing, and we as a chamber, making sure that companies are at The table to be a part of those conversations and dialogs. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 14:44
I imagine having the companies at the table specifically with workforce and talent, is trying to keep some of that talent in the community. For whatever reason, it seems like a lot of maybe high school students see that they’re the. Horizons are somewhere else, right where they need to go away, leave the community, to go to school or to find a job and to be able to show them the opportunities that are right there in Tucson, I think is key in what you guys are after with this approach, absolutely,

Michael Guymon 15:13
and it’s, I’m glad you mentioned that, because we’re having conversations right now, particularly with our university, about that, whether it’s, you know, seen as a brain drain or a brain gain, and the ways that we can address that we used to actually host an event called the career crawl, and this was getting local companies and students connected. Because a lot of the jobs fairs that occur on college campuses are companies that are from outside coming into our community and saying, Hey, we got a great job for you the Bay Area, or we got a great job for you in Chicago. And they and those students leave because of that. Well, we wanted to create a local job fair so that students could have a better understanding of what that local job opportunity looks like. And the U of A the University of Arizona actually picked that up. They now have a have an annual and actually sometimes twice a year, Job Fair called Tucson jobs now. So they took our idea and they created their own job fair that focuses on local job opportunities. And what we’re seeing now, we’ve actually seen some of those statistics shift. It used to be that that a quarter of our of our graduates stayed here in Tucson, which is a really low number, because in some communities, it could be upwards to 50 and 60% that is now inching up. We’re now seeing that number is now 35% of our graduates staying here in Tucson. And so from a statistical standpoint, we’re actually seeing a brain gain over the last three to four years as a poor as opposed to a brain drain. Could we do better? Obviously, we could, but we’re at least sitting seeing those those graduates, stay here more than they have in the past, and and we’re hopeful it’s because of things like that, where we’re opening more doors to local opportunities.

Brandon Burton 17:14
It’s trending the right way, for sure,

Michael Guymon 17:18
absolutely.

Brandon Burton 17:19
I love the approach of local advocacy and in these areas that you talked about with transportation and quality of life and public safety and housing, and can you talk to us a little bit more about some of the different approaches? Maybe in these other categories, we spent some good time on the workforce and talent development, but talk to us a little bit about the transportation or quality of life and things of that nature? Yeah,

Michael Guymon 17:43
absolutely. So I’ll start with public safety. So couple, two and a half years ago, I created our coalition against retail theft. It was small businesses, even, oddly enough, one of our one of our mortuaries, as well as you know, places like CVS and Walgreens were a part of this coalition because they were experiencing retail theft today, more than they have, like, extremely, more more than they have in the past. And so we created this coalition to address a lot of those challenges that those companies were facing, and we brought in local law enforcement, we brought in our city and county attorneys. We brought in a lot of the individuals to be a part of those conversations, direct conversations, so that we could come up with with solutions. One of the solutions that we did come up with, we were the recipients of a local grant that awarded small businesses micro loans, or actually, sorry, micro grants. It wasn’t a loan a micro grant to put in new lighting, to put in new vegetation, to put do things with on their own property, to discourage retail theft and and vandalism and things that would happen, you know, private property vandalism. So so we were successful in that, and we want to do more of that. And so now our conversations have grown outside of retail theft and are really focused on public safety and things that we could do to to make sure that we are addressing public safety, and a lot of that comes down to making sure that we’re hiring more police officers and other things to to address public safety in our community. As it comes to trans transportation, we have a reauthorization that’s going to be on the ballot next year of our Regional Transportation Authority. This is a 20 year half cent sales tax that was approved back in 2006 it will sunset in 2026 so next year we’re placing on the ballot an extension of a 20 year extension to that half cent sales tax. And that, again, is just Pivotal, especially in a state where we’re seeing. Fewer and fewer state shared revenues coming toward transportation. If we don’t reauthorize that we locally are going to be in a world of hurt, and we know how important transportation is to our economy, to deliver the goods and services that companies and small businesses depend on, it is absolutely critical that we maintain a robust transportation network. And so that’s that’s some that’s a huge, going to be a huge focus of ours going into next year. And

Brandon Burton 20:31
I’ve seen chambers, you know, in other areas, have a lot of success with taking on initiatives like that transportation to get it on the ballot. And this is a renewal. So hopefully it’s a little easier to tell that story. But for the person that says, Well, I don’t take you know public transportation well, but a lot of the people that are you know, serving you your dinner at the restaurant, they do, and if you are not participating in this, you’re going to pay a lot higher or not have a wait staff, or whatever it is. I mean, there’s all different industries that have employees that rely on public transportation, and you see that across the board, for quality of life within a community, if you don’t have a strong, you know, transportation, says public transit system, then you suffer. So hopefully that’ll, you know, get that momentum you need, get it across the finish line and renew that and keep your community thriving. Are there other areas you touched a little bit about housing? What are some of the the approaches that you guys are taking on with housing?

Michael Guymon 21:35
So when it comes to housing, we are working with mainly our our county. So Pima County is the county that serves our region, and our Pima County, believe it or not, is the same size as the state of Connecticut. So counties in Arizona are quite large. We only have 15 we’re the sixth largest state, but we only have 15 counties. So our counties here are pretty big, but so Pima County does a lot of work. In fact, it does a lot of work that counties typically a lot of urban work that counties typically don’t do to counties typically provide rural services, but our county does a lot of urban services. So they’re pretty big player in terms of making sure that we continue to to establish a pro business environment here in the region. But when it comes to housing, they have established a Housing Commission, and we are looking at various proposals and initiatives that would that would help address that some of it, quite frankly, Brandon is going to come down to to public support, but we can also look at ways in which we lessen some of the regulation. So regulation is a big, big issue when it comes to being able to provide the housing supply. And as we all know in the chamber world, supply and demand, economics is a real thing, and understanding that is pivotal for communities as they’re trying to address some of these issues. And so the better we can lessen regulation, or at least address regulation in the right way that provides the ability for developers to build housing stock is going to help address the supply and demand issue, and if they’re able to build more supply that meets the demand, then those housing prices are going to come down. It is just basic economics. So So our focus has been and will continue to be on the regular regulation side of things. And there are some great examples out there. We’ve learned some examples in the Minneapolis area. There are some examples that are going on in California that really address that, that supply issue, and so we want to enact some of those things outside of sort of public support for for housing.

Brandon Burton 23:54
Yeah, no, that’s that’s great, and it really gives some ideas about how housing can be approached. Again, the local approach to advocacy, I think, is so important. And like you said at the beginning, it’s normal for chambers to have staff that are tasked with going to the state capitol or going to Washington, and there’s a place for that, absolutely, but be able to turn the advocacy internally within the community, to build that that place making really within your community, to have it be a place where businesses want to be, where people want to live, where you have that quality of life, is so key. Yeah. So I wanted to ask on behalf of listeners who are wanting to take their chamber up to the next level, kind of tip or action item might you share with them as they try to get after that goal?

Michael Guymon 24:46
Yeah, I would say just make sure that you are providing the right kind of value proposition, whether it’s serving your members on a regular basis or, you know, one of the one of the actions that we took was. So knowing that our advocacy was a primary driver for companies, small, medium and large to join the chamber, we actually embedded our Public Policy Council into our bylaws. So you know the normal committees that you would find in bylaws of it, like the Finance Committee and the Governance Committee, but we actually put our public policy council committee in our bylaws because we knew how important that was to our members, and by putting in the bylaws, that means that a board member of ours has to chair the public policy committee. So it’s that direct link between Board activity and our what we consider our number one value proposition for our members, and to demonstrate how important that is, our community, our connections important. Of course, they’re important. We’re going to continue to provide events. We’re going to continue to provide mixers and breakfasts and ways in which our businesses can connect and connect, whether that means connecting with leaders so that they can share their thoughts or connecting with each other so they can do business with each other. We want to make sure that we’re continuing to do that, but we are also putting together our next three year strategic plan, and as it stands right now, it has yet to be approved by the board, but we’re we are having conversations with all of our committees, our board, our high level investors, and at the end of the three years, we’re looking to have 80% of our funding go toward our advocacy efforts. That that’s a big percentage, that’s that’s certainly more than most chambers would be comfortable with accepting, but again, that is something that our members are telling us is important to them, and they’re willing to shift and maybe even grow dollars on the advocacy side of the of the of the staffing coin, so that we can be that stronger advocate for for the region and and part of that is because of what we are up against in Tucson, maybe different from and unique from other communities. We have a a government that doesn’t see the value in in business, thoughts and opinions, and so we have to push harder than some other chambers have to when it comes to our local governments, to say, This is why the business voice is important. This is why you need to include the business community in a lot of your conversations as you develop your ordinances or your initiatives. And so because of that push, because of that added push, we’re going to have to add resources on that side of the ledger, and our board seems to be comfortable in moving that direction.

Brandon Burton 27:51
That’s great. Just between the board and your members recognizing the impact and seeing you guys move the needle with your advocacy efforts to want to lean into it even more. I think is huge. So yep, Well, Michael, I like asking everyone I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Michael Guymon 28:14
Well, it’s interesting. You say that because we are in a due diligence process right now to potentially merge with our economic development organization, the very same one that I used to work for, and I was there for seven and a half years. I’ve been to the chamber now here for for six years. And so I’ve seen both sides, and what I truly feel is and I and in my conversations with chambers across the country who have got who have actually successfully merged with their economic development organization to have the expansion slash attraction and retention arms under one roof, I think, is powerful. So I see, and again, based on a lot of the conversations and a lot of the trends that we are seeing in the chamber environment across the country, I see more of that happening. And so I think the trend to answer your question is moving in that direction, to to establish a merged relationship with economic development organizations, I think, is going to be the future of chambers. To be, not only that advocate for a pro business environment, but also, like we’ve talked about, be that advocate for their community’s competitiveness, because it is a much more competitive world out there. Companies are moving and relocating more today than they have in the past. And so for chambers and economic development organizations to be aligned in their messaging, be aligned in their content, I think is going to be not only the trend for chambers moving forward, but also to establish a more powerful organization. That can bring all of those services to bear and be that advocate for pro business policy and for competitiveness in their respective communities. So

Brandon Burton 30:13
out of curiosity, and I know it’ll look a little different in each community, but how does a conversation like that begin when you talk about a possible merger with the chamber and Economic Development Authority, yeah,

Michael Guymon 30:26
based on a lot of the conversations that I’ve had, some of them are like, like us. It’s come down to there are too many business organizations in your region, and sometimes it’s hard for that collective, unified voice to exist, and the more dispersed voices that you have in a region, sometimes can dilute that voice as you’re trying to advocate and lobby for a pro business environment. So sometimes it starts there, other times it starts with and I’ve had these conversations with other communities as well. It started with an exiting of of a senior official, like a CEO of either a chamber or an economic development organization, where, when that person exits the community, kind of takes a step back and says, Okay, well, that person’s exiting maybe now, maybe the timing is right now for us to take a look at whether or not these two organizations should should be under one roof.

Brandon Burton 31:27
Yeah, I think that’s helpful, just to be able to keep minds open and perspectives open, to see when that opportunity, when it makes sense. I would argue in a lot of cases, it does make sense, but to see when that timing matches up and how to start those conversations. Yeah, well, Michael, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information you’d like to put out there for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and learn more about how you guys are doing things there in Tucson. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you? Yeah, happy

Michael Guymon 31:58
to do that. So our website is TucsonChamber.org and my email address, should anyone want to email me, is mguymon@tucsonchamber.org happy to love answering emails. I’m definitely one of those individuals that gets back to folks within 24 hours. So love to communicate, love to learn, love to share ideas. Love to share best practices. And just love to communicate, like I said earlier, with other chamber executives. Because my way is not always the right way, but I can share what works for us, but I can also learn what works for others. So happy to do that absolutely

Brandon Burton 32:48
well. We’ll get that in our show notes to make it easy to find you and for listeners to connect with you, but I do appreciate you spending time with us today on chamber chat podcasts and sharing what is working for you guys there in Tucson, and thank you for being with us and sharing your perspective with us today.

Michael Guymon 33:06
Thank you so much. Brandon. I appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 33:08
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Addressing Childcare Needs with Kami Welch

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

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to 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 0:40
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 0:57
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Our guest for this episode is Kami Welch. Cami is the president of the Arvada Chamber of Commerce at a 12 year chamber veteran. Kami has earned a reputation for developing strategic innovative opportunities for businesses and community growth. Cami is a US Chamber of Commerce talent pipeline fellow and a board member for WAC and the Association of Colorado Chambers of Commerce where she is past Chair camming also sits on the community boards for nonprofit organizations that focus on children education, homelessness, and domestic violence including family tree where she is a chair. Kami loves living in Colorado with her husband of 14 years and two young children where they enjoy hiking, skiing and exploring. Kami, we’re excited to have you with us today on chamber chat podcast. I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Kami Welch 2:02
Awesome. Thanks, Brandon. It’s an honor to be on with you. today. I’m excited to talk about a really important topic with everybody. I always struggle with this question about what’s interesting about me, I actually pulled my team to ask what is something that they thought was interesting about me. And we all agreed the the most interesting piece of my background is actually grew up ice skating, which doesn’t seem relevant to my current career, but it is because that was required early morning for a start time. After school. It was all about the conditioning, training and ballet and the cross training to be a good ice skater I actually had the same coach because I grew up in Oregon as Tonya Harding. So shared ice with her, which is interesting, but it’s hard. That was as a kiddo. I’ve appreciated the grit that that gave me that I’ve been able to carry through being a chamber leader.

Brandon Burton 2:51
Yeah, no, I liked that. I liked that you pulled your office suit, because it’s hard to come up with our own. Yeah, interesting facts about ourselves that that’s something they knew about you and it is unique. I don’t think we’ve had other ice skaters or do that have mentioned that on the podcast. So you’re one of a kind. So tell us about the Arvada Chamber of Commerce. Just to give us some perspective. Before we get into our discussion. Give us an idea of the size staff budget scope of work, that sort of thing, just to help set the table.

Kami Welch 3:21
Absolutely. So Arvada is located just west of Denver, so everybody knows where Denver is. We’re 10 minutes west of Denver, we actually share a border with Denver metro, our community size is about 120,000 people. We have about 3000 businesses in Arvada, we have about 500 Plus members of the chamber, which has been really exciting to see that our current team is six, but we’re growing to eight this year, we’ve had some awesome opportunities to increase revenue and grow our team alongside that which has been really an incredible opportunity to deliver on more work for our community. Our annual budget has doubled in the past year, which is crazy and exciting. So we historically were about a 500 to 550 $550,000 budget. This year, we’ll be coming in at about 1.2 million. And again, that’s because we’ve been able to identify ways to grow capital to do the work that’s so critical for our businesses.

Brandon Burton 4:17
Okay, so maybe we chose the wrong topic to focus on today. Let me just ask the question, what are you doing to increase revenue to double it like that?

Kami Welch 4:25
Yeah. So the reason that we did that is because our mission as an organization is to solve the most critical business challenges. And what we realized is that with a traditional business model, we didn’t have the capacity as an organization to take those challenges on. So our board looked at various options and decided to go forward with a five year strategic initiative capital campaign. So we actually worked with a company out of Atlanta called Power 10. And we did a feasibility study to really assess the need in our community, and if our businesses were willing to invest in solving their most critical challenges, so we ended up with a five year switch He took initiative that took on talents, housing, childcare, and to the business environment. And so we’re able to raise $2.5 million for the next five years to ensure that we can do the work that is required to actually have outcomes in these areas.

Brandon Burton 5:16
That is fantastic. Yeah. So that answers a question, at least on the surface level of everybody’s like, what are you doing to double your revenue? That’s awesome. So our our topic for conversation today is going to be around addressing childcare needs. As we look at the the economy in general, we see the workforce shortages and really just the economy in general has been rocked, you know, through the COVID pandemic and trying to come out of it. And one of those key questions to be able to help fix and stabilize the economy is addressing the childcare needs. So I’m excited to dive into that discussion with you and what you guys are doing there in about as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Kami, we’re back. So before the break, I had mentioned that the topic for today being around addressing childcare needs. What were some of those maybe key indicators or data that you guys saw that showed that this was a need to for you to chamber? It’s not typical chamber work? So how did how did that come to be that you guys saw? This is an area of focus?

Kami Welch 9:07
That’s a great question. And certainly one with a long history of feedback and engagement of our community and our businesses. But one of the things we do is on a quarterly basis, we run a business pulse survey and we asked similar questions. And then we sometimes throw in something or questions to make sure that we’re really understanding what’s happening with our businesses. And so every single time we’ve done that over the past seven years, talent is the number one issue always. And as we started to unpack our talent system and really understand all the moving parts and pieces, we understand that there’s not skill alignment, that there’s the lack of demand. But we had to dig deeper and ask why about 27 more times to really understand that there’s these other barriers that are happening in our community that are causing that talent shortage. What we uncovered and the reason why in our bold initiative that we mentioned earlier that we took on childcare and housing is because we recognize As as two of our biggest barriers to achieving the talent system that we really need, there is some crazy data that we’ve come across as we’ve dug into childcare. And to be honest, before we started taking this on in a meaningful way, I didn’t even realize what a huge issue this was. And I’ll rattle a little bit of data here, because I think it’s important. And I know you have listeners all over the country that are like, Oh, I wonder what that is for my state. So I’m gonna cite Colorado data. But it’s interesting to think about what other states are dealing with, and if it’s at the same degree, but one of the things that we thought was really interesting is that there was a Pew Research study, and they surveyed all sorts of people that were leaving jobs. And it was the number four reason in that study was childcare. So interesting, right? People are saying, I have to leave my job because I have nowhere for my kids to go. Colorado has the eighth highest cost of childcare in the country. So we know that that is a huge barrier for people that maybe aren’t making, you know, $100,000 a year, they can’t afford to put their kiddos in childcare. We know that in Colorado, 45,000, Colorado, parents are making career sacrifices due to child care. And 20% of our workforce needs childcare. So we’re starting to get a sense of Whoa, that’s a lot of people that are impacted by this issue in our community. What it really got alarming for us is when we started thinking about the supply of childcare facilities in that business model, which when you think through an economic development lens, that’s interesting, right? That’s like, Okay, this business model is struggling. So we know that we have what’s called the childcare desert. So in Colorado, we have one childcare spot for every three kids that need it. That’s wild. And there’s only one county in all of Colorado, where there’s enough spots for the kids that need it. And it’s not in the metro area, it’s probably very rural. Yeah, very, very rural. So really interesting data, my community alone needs well over 2000 additional spots to meet the demand. So taking a step back, and again, looking through that chamber economic development lens is saying, Okay, what’s going on here. So there’s some serious business model challenges, right, the cost of running a childcare facility is high, you think about the liability, the cost of real estate, the staffing that’s needed, there is a really difficult breakdown, these businesses are trying to achieve, they can’t pay their employees what they need to pay them. So they’re losing employees left and right, because they’re paying a minimum wage. But when you look at the business model, that’s all they can afford to pay them because they can’t have parents paying more than what they’re able to pay. So it’s a really interesting issue. And we’re recognizing more and more, that it’s going to take some really innovative solutions to overcome these challenges. But just looking at that data, it became crystal clear to us that there’s a huge issue. And there are ways we can influence making this system better.

Brandon Burton 12:59
Right? What really stands out to me is 45,000 career sacrifices are going on just in Colorado, because parents will look at you know, here’s the income that I would bring in, here’s what we would pay out and child care if you can get a spot, and they just see it as a wash are really just not worth you know, the extra headache of getting up early and doing everything for maybe to net, you know, a couple $1,000 It just doesn’t make sense.

Kami Welch 13:25
Yeah, I’ve countless examples in my personal and professional life of people that are making those choices every day, because of the cost. And as you said that sacrifice is just it’s horrible.

Brandon Burton 13:35
Right? So as you cite these different stats and the research that you’ve you’ve seen and and I like Like he said, looking through it through an economic development lens as this, you know, addressing the business models of childcare. It definitely is, I would say it’s a strong argument for Chamber of Commerce to be involved with this. So how do you see your role there about a chamber? Getting into the work? How does that look? How do you you can’t just go into business and say, Here’s your new business model. So how are you approaching this, this work of addressing childcare?

Kami Welch 14:10
Yeah, it’s a really, really great question. As an organization we’ve prescribed to the three C’s, many people know that it’s come out of the Western Association of chamber executives have been a convener, catalyst and champion. And so we often think through that lens, as we’re deciding how we support an issue. I think the biggest thing that we can do as organizations is really been that convener role. We have really strong partnerships across our region. And we often will say, we will join existing tables and we will lead where needed and so doing kind of that audit landscape of what great work is happening and joining in like, we don’t always have to start from ground zero. But there’s this moment of step back and say, who’s doing this work and doing it? Well. I will give a shout out to Epic Colorado, which is where much of that data I just shared came from there and incred have a partner in this work, but they’re doing amazing things and engage in industry and businesses in the Child Care conversation. So we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. But we need to get the right people in our community in our region around the same table. Because I often note that great work is happening. But so often, I think everybody can attest to this. It happens in silos, right? That people are like I’m doing the things, I’m solving the problems. But when you don’t tell anybody that you’re doing that, it can be really difficult. So I believe the key role of chambers is to bring together people to help them understand what work is happening, and how everybody can work more with more continuity as a group. And so we’ve launched what we call caps councils. And that stands for, I hope, this is okay to say if you can edit this out, kick ass problem solvers. So we have a tendency to want to make sure we’re driving actions. So we don’t have committees and councils and things like that we have action driven naming of what we do. So when people show up, they know they’re there to work. This is about rolling up your sleeves and getting towards solutions. We also like to set targets, right? Like, we know that our goal and taking on childcare is to increase the number of spots we have in our community. So who are the people that need to come around one table to help achieve that, but having a universal target that we’ve set at the Chamber helps to make sure there’s clarity and purpose when you get those people together. So that, to me is the biggest piece of this. The second thing that I think is really critical role of chambers, is to educate. So many people don’t understand all that data I just shared. And they’re making decisions based on their own personal experiences, which is fine, we are all creatures of our own perception is reality, right? But at the end of the day, there’s a lot to this. And so we have a unique role to certainly educate our businesses in our community, but also thinking about what role we play in educating the community at large about these issues that are impacting So playing a role, and really that awareness building, education, hosting forums. So people start to get that these are issues. It’s amazing to me when we’ve done that how quickly these issues start bubbling and becoming topics that everybody’s talking about the amount of organizations now that are telling me like I’m taking on childcare? And how do you know, I’m like, great, you know, like, we had to start those conversations, which has been really interesting

Brandon Burton 17:31
that so I guess the question that comes up for me, because you cited a lot of great data, and you mentioned epic Colorado that you were able to get that data from, for people in other states, where where would you point them to to try to find some of that data to be able to start that conversation about why their chambers should be involved with solving this problem as well?

Kami Welch 17:54
Yeah, that’s a really, really great question. And I know every state is going to be structured differently. One of the great sources of data we’ve had is actually our community college system. And so looking for a place where people that are going into this childcare profession are getting trained, typically, they understand kind of the lay of the land, they have really good data that they’re trying to utilize to get people into the program and help them think about where they open that childcare facility. So that’s a really good place to start. The other place would be school districts typically have a pretty solid sense of that early childhood education, and where it’s happening. And so talking with them about the landscape where there’s gaps, because we often talk about childcare, not just through the lens of quantity, but also quality. Like it’s not just about having somebody keeping eyes on your children during the day, but they need to be kindergarten ready, because all the data shows if you’re not kindergarten ready, then you lag all the way through school. And it’s hard to catch up on that. And so those quality metrics are important to our school district. And so they track a lot of the early childhood stuff as well. And then I will look at the state level and see what government departments exist that oversee child care, and really source out from there.

Brandon Burton 19:09
That’s good. Hopefully, people are jotting down some notes so they can do their research and see what the what the problem looks like. Because I’m going to assume it’s a problem in every state, and just see how big of a problem that is. And if it’s something that rises to the attention level that the domain deserve in some states, more so than others.

Kami Welch 19:28
I will also throw out on that the US Chamber Foundation has done a lot of work in this space and have an awesome toolkit on their website around childcare, that has many opportunities for businesses to get involved and resources that exist in that space. And so that’s a really good place to kind of dig in and start building knowledge around the childcare issue and opportunities.

Brandon Burton 19:49
Yeah. So about how long have you guys been involved with the child care work and had that be, you know, a big attention getter for you guys

Kami Welch 20:00
So about a year now. So not only that, I have to show great outcomes, which I’m excited in three or four years to be able to say we’ve added X amount of spots to childcare in our community, we’re still very much in the information gathering stage of this. But what has been exciting for us is how quickly we’ve been able to get to alignment of what is the goal? And what can we do about it. And so I talked a lot about the convenient and building community support, we also really worked in the policy space. And so recognizing that there’s like this whole advocacy play that comes along with moving child care system. So we have crafted a policy agenda. And that’s a big piece of our focus for this first part of the year is our legislators are down at the Capitol to really push on things like how do we expand cost effective preschool in early childhood? How do we give incentives to businesses that are willing to open childcare? So that we have the demand we need? So we’re really looking through initially that lens that what are those barriers of obstacle? And how do we remove some of them to be able to have better outcomes for our goals?

Brandon Burton 21:02
Yeah, no, it’s a, it’s a sticky problem. I mean, all these different I start thinking of a solution. And then I see reasons why, you know, it may not work, but it conflicts with it. So it’s not a simple solution. I mean, it’s going to require rolling up your sleeves and doing some hard work. So the big question, I know everybody’s thinking is, how are you pulling it off? How are you funding this work? Because yeah, Kenny, this is a great idea. Every chamber should be involved at this. But how do you do it?

Kami Welch 21:35
Yeah, as I started on the front end of the podcast, obviously, we were lucky enough to pull together the resources to do that five year strategic initiative. I know not everybody is in that position to do that. But what I will take away is kind of key messages and learnings as childcare is something that people decide they want to take on, I’m always happy to talk to them about our journey. But messaging is a really big piece of that, getting clear on the data and what the issue is and the community and putting together on paper, a clear understanding of what you’re going to do to solve it. So that people understand that there’s neat to this, that this is work that needs to happen. Also talking about the economic impact, like we know, in Jefferson County alone, where I’m located, that there’s a $200 million annual economic impact because of childcare. So continuing to tie the messaging back to economic development, makes it a lot easier to go out and seek those funds. But there’s got to be strategy behind this. And so again, we did it through a five year strategic initiative, I highly recommend that I mean, I’m so glad to know that we set funding for the next five years, and I don’t constantly have to be working through that. And that’s could be a whole podcast on its own of how that campaign process, but really putting strategy behind your work for today, tomorrow and long term. So people see that I think you have to ask, you have to find those people that have the heart for community that want to make sure that their business community drives and ask them to invest, help them see that you are the organization that can do this work? Well, it has to happen in order to solve those big critical challenges. The other thing I’ll say is there’s a lot of federal and state money floating around right now. And so if you’re not plugged into grant opportunities, I would highly encourage you to look into how you access those at your state level, Colorado uses a bid that at every state is probably different in the systems that they use. But we’ve been able to apply for a variety of different grants that support this work. Some are still pending, and we’re crossing our fingers that we get. But we did get one to hire a person directly supporting talent, which as I’ve said many times talent in child care hand in hand, right? We cannot solve workforce if we don’t fix our childcare system. That’s it. So looking at grants, thinking strategically about how you ask for those dollars, is really, really critical. And I know there’s no like magic bullet situation, unfortunately. But there are ways to get dollars for sure.

Brandon Burton 24:05
Right. So how much did you say the economic impact 200

Kami Welch 24:10
million for just Jefferson County alone,

Brandon Burton 24:12
man. So I mean, when you figure the people that are making those career sacrifices, the the impact of if you had the additional childcare centers? I mean, that’s a big economic impact there. I mean, it I think there’s a number to it, you can’t even put, you know, at number two some of this, just because there’s a lot of unknowns that potentially could be much more than that 200 million. So when you talk about economic development, that is a huge factor right there. Is there anything that we’re missing from this, this conversation that we haven’t touched on yet?

Kami Welch 24:54
So I’ll add a fun thing to this kind of a lighter opportunity. So one of the things we saw over the pandemic was Women primarily we’re the ones leaving the workforce to move into a caregiver role. And so one of the things that we’ve loved doing as an organization that started a couple of years ago during the pandemic is every March during Women’s History Month, we highlight the badass women of Arvada, and celebrate women who are leading in our community and really crushing it. And it’s a really fun opportunity for us to talk about women in the workplace, and highlight how important and critical that is for our community. So we’ve worked to find certainly those very tactical and strategic things. But it’s also really fun to think about how you highlight and celebrate the people in your community. That’s the work of chambers is right to bring people together and lift and do the things that help people feel connected to their communities. So we’ve found that to be a really fun way to kind of bring our community together and educate around this issue without it feeling too starchy.

Brandon Burton 25:55
Like that, that is fun. And it draws some positive attention to these women who are who are really making a difference, right. I love that. So I like to see, you know, for chamber champions that are listening, if you might have any tips or action items that they might take, if they’re looking to take their chamber up to the next level, what would you suggest?

Kami Welch 26:18
Do you want a broad answer or to connect it to childcare?

Brandon Burton 26:22
Either way, whatever you feel is would be most relevant. Or if you want to do both, as a bonus, I’m open to whatever.

Kami Welch 26:31
Bye, far as the childcare conversation goes, I think the best thing to start and take action, if you haven’t already, is get the data, there is such a story behind that. And it will inspire you, it will inspire your leaders to take action. And so the first step related to child care, is that data piece of advice. As far as kind of industry and what that looks like, I will tell you that one of the best things I’ve done in my career is get involved, be involved at the state level, the local level, the national level, build those relationships so that you have a network of peers, of friends, sometimes we all need a little chamber therapy. I have my people that are in the speed dial that I call, I’m like, Have you ever dealt with this, this is wild, have you not network matters, it makes the career pathway of being in a chamber world so much more meaningful, and I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from my peers through this process. So get involved, join associations, make chamber friends, it matters and your chamber, you personally will be way better for it. So do it.

Brandon Burton 27:37
I love it. So I like asking everyone I have on the show as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Kami Welch 27:49
I love this question. Because I think it’s been such a journey for so many of us and Canada, kind of the historic role of chambers and be known for festivals and ribbon cutting than really that celebratory stuff in communities, which is still important, and it’s fun, and it brings people together. But I believe that chambers are more critical today than they’ve ever, ever, ever been. And the issues that our businesses are facing are getting bigger and more complicated. And I often will say if not us, then who we are uniquely positioned as chambers to solve really critical challenges. We have the resources, the leadership, and we can bring together government, nonprofit education, business, all to one table and solve issues. There aren’t many others who can do that with the same level of credibility. So I believe we have an opportunity right now, to optimize on that coming out of the pandemic, where many of us stepped into a new capacity. people’s trust in our ability is high. And we need to optimize that and take action today to ensure long term success.

Brandon Burton 28:53
I love that response. Love it. Well, Cami this has been a very insightful and productive conversation. I think it’s been provided a lot of value for chambers to kind of look at themselves, look at their community, get that data, see if you know if this rises to needing that that level of importance in your community to address childcare needs. I’m gonna guess it probably is up there and probably the top five needs that you need to address in your community. But if anyone listening wanted to reach out and connect with you maybe learn a little bit more more detail about how you guys are approaching this work. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Kami Welch 29:35
Yeah, absolutely. I would love to talk to anybody. It’s actually one of my favorite things to do is to connect with my peers so please don’t hesitate to reach out. Email is the easiest way to reach me which is kami@arvadachamber.org If you’re just looking for more information and want to r&d, rip off and duplicate our website at arvadachamber.org And feel free to take information from there. I am a huge proponent of supporting each other and so no need to tell me you’re taking it. It’s just if it’s helpful to you, and you can use some of it. Please do I believe a rising tide lifts all boats so happy to help anyone in the industry kind of figure out where they need to go next.

Brandon Burton 30:11
Awesome. Well get your email and the website in our show notes for this episode, so anyone can check that out and maybe just send you a thank you for that r&d. But thank you Kami for spending time with us today for sharing the work that you guys are doing around child care. This is a topic we have not covered on the podcast yet, so it’s an important one. And I have a feeling we’ll be talking about it even more coming into the future. So thank you for that.

Brandon Burton 38:24
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