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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.
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Becki Womble 1:03
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Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Renee Earl’s Renee has proudly served as a president and CEO of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce in Texas. Since 2016. Native of Odessa, Renee believes that she has the best job in town. She works alongside a team of staff and volunteers to promote her hometown community through special events, membership, Economic Development and Tourism. Renee is a graduate of Texas Tech University where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. So I do have Renee on Zoom and I see the guns up so you guys can’t see that. Sal? Yeah, you got to do it. Right. But she started her career as a reporter and morning anchor at the Odessa Midland ABC affiliate. Then she spent 14 years in the health care arena serving as a community community as the communications Marketing Executive Director for Medical Center Health System. After volunteering for the Odessa chamber for decades and serving as our board chair Renee was thrilled to take on the role full time. She also has what she calls her midnight job. In 1999. She and her husband became the fifth owners of the Odesain. Magazine, a bimonthly community publication, which has been in print since 1964. Renee has served on numerous boards locally including the Odessa college and Ector county ISD Education foundations, and nonprofit management center of the Permian Basin United Way of the Junior League of Odessa. Renee serves as elder at connection Christian church. She’s a board member for the Texas Chamber of Commerce executives, having just completed the year as vice president of professional development and chair of the annual State Conference, which was held in Odessa this last summer. For 2024, she will serve as the TCC II VP of Governmental Relations. Together with her husband rich, they have three grown children, two grandchildren, and her motto for a successful life is whatever thy hand finds to do do it with all thy might. Rene, I’m 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 to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.
Renee Earls 4:21
Wonderful. Well, thank you for having me. And thank you for allowing me to talk about what the Odessa chamber does. You know, we’re out here in West Texas. But as you mentioned, we hosted the State Chamber conference this last summer and we just have great feedback. You know, I’m blessed to be from this community born and raised, left long enough to go to college and came back and I honestly would not live anywhere else. And I’m a huge champion of my community and I just encourage those who haven’t been to West Texas in a while to come visit us come see us. We have a lot of opportunities here. So
Brandon Burton 4:55
absolutely. And I was at the TCCE conference and it was was a it was a success if you guys did a fantastic job, the venue and hosting and just everything about it was just fantastic. So great job. No, I
Renee Earls 5:09
think one of the the the most important thing that we have in our community, world oil and gas community. So obviously the resources below the ground are what is literally fueling the world. But it’s our people here who are just fantastic very much roll up your sleeves, get the job done, leave a lot of grids, and you won’t find better people than here in Odessa and West Texas. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 5:33
no, that’s that’s, that’s fantastic. So that’s a little bit about Odessa, tell us a little bit about the Odessa Chamber, just to give us an idea of the size of your staff Scope of Work budget, just that sort of thing to kind of set the table for our discussion today.
Renee Earls 5:48
So our chamber is one of the few chambers left in the in the industry that actually is the three legged stool. So we have the operation side, we have you know, the membership, the events. One of the programs that we’re going to talk about today from the membership side of the of the office, the operations, We’re also fortunate to have a contract with our city to run the economic development aspect of the community through our Odessa Development Corporation. So we have a economic development staff. And then we also have the tourism arm that we received funding from the city through Hotel Motel. So as a total, we have a staff of 18 here in our chamber. And those are pretty well divided between those three departments. We also have a community foundation, where we just focus on you know, just as it says community projects, things that come up in the community. And we have about 775 Members, we’re having our first membership drive in January for the first time in almost 20 years. And we are turning 90 in 2024. So we are looking to hit that 900 mark. And it would be nice if we went over the 1000 mark. So that’s kind of a little bit about our chamber, our operations department itself is a little over 1,000,003 in budget. So overall, we’re about a $3.4 million chamber budget wise with the three departments.
Brandon Burton 7:19
Yeah, that’s very good. That definitely helps give that perspective and 90 years coming up. That’ll be exciting, especially to cross that 900 threshold. It’ll be huge. Yeah, and I know it’s there. I know you guys are going to do it. So yeah, that’s awesome. Well, for our topic today, we kind of settled on the idea of talking about the new teacher program that you guys do there Theodosia chamber. I’m excited to dive into this learn more about the kind of the unique aspect and approach you guys take to it. And we’ll dive into this much deeper since get back from this quick break.
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Brandon Burton 11:08
All right, Renee, we’re back. As we dive into the discussion today about your new teacher program. I guess first of all, do you guys have you? Is it branded with a certain name? And just answer that one first, I guess we
Renee Earls 11:24
host right before school kicks off and into July 1 part of August. We call it our new teacher reception. It’s been a breakfast. It’s been a tailgate party. It’s been a reception. So it’s basically just a big party for our new teachers with our school district. I
Brandon Burton 11:44
love it. So I guess let’s just start at the beginning the origins How did this program come about? What was the need? Was it presented you guys you guys come together just tell us how this became how it started and how it’s evolved? Sure.
Renee Earls 12:02
So we were actually approached by one of the superintendents at the time, just a little over a decade ago, maybe 12 years ago, the chamber was approached about hosting something new for teachers coming into the market. The Odessa market is somewhat unique in that at one time, you know, we have between three and 400 vacancies for teachers. You know, we’re talking in like June, before school. That is a huge number. And so we obviously wanted to do something that made them really, you know, learn about the community. And most of those were coming from out of the area. You know, we were they were the district was recruiting Ector County ISD was recruiting from not only all over the country, but they also bring in teachers from different parts of the world. And we wanted them to learn about Odessa, we wanted to connect them with our businesses. We wanted to just thank them for taking on a profession that is, you know, probably one of the most valued most important professions, you know, teaching our students, our future, our workforce. So the superintendent came to us and said, Let’s do something. So we came up with at the time, a new teacher breakfast. So we brought him in to our big can What if the time what we would call our you know, our Coliseum a big event center. And it was like a pep rally. You know, we had the students out there, the cheerleaders and the band and the mascots and they would come in and you know, they ran under the tunnel and it just really set the tone for the school year. They would come in there are you know, 50 to 60 booths from our Chamber members because when they come into town, they need a bank, they need an insurance salesman, they need to find a place to go get their hair cut, they need a place to dry cleaners, they need to get their nails done, they want to go shopping, I mean all the things that a person when they moved to a community they need so it was a win win. The teachers felt wonderful. They left there with literally bags full of goodies. We were giving out door prizes, T these, you know cash rewards gift cards, the vendors that we had, were just giving away incredible gifts and breakfast and we had speakers we had, of course our superintendent, we had our mayor, we had our county judge, we had our state representative, all the leaders in the community welcoming these teachers, again, some coming from far away some coming from, you know the area or maybe they lived here and we’re going back into the field. I remember one gentleman told me this was about five years into it. He said he had literally driven his car from out of state moving to Odessa and that was he had literally driven into the parking lot that morning and this was his first impression. Wow. Um, so um, and through the years, you know, after COVID hit, we couldn’t have an indoor breakfast. But you know, we’re still having school we still have new teachers coming in. So we went to the famous Ratliff Stadium, which is known for Friday Night Lights, where the Friday Night Lights community, we go to Ratliff stadium and we had a tailgate. So they literally would drive through the parking lot to the vendors and, you know, had their windows down, and they were throwing stuff in their bags that we would give them. And again, it was just a lot of fun. You know, we gave them food, we gave them coffee, and they never got another car. And the cool thing about that is many of them had their kids and their families in the cars with them. So even though COVID had hit, we did that for a couple of years. And it worked out great. So once COVID was over, and we could go back inside, we did the tailgate in the morning, it rained, we did the tailgate in the afternoon, it was really hot. So we said, you know, we’re gonna go back indoors. So we went back to the Marriott where, you know, we have a beautiful new hotel, we wanted to show that off, what a beautiful reception with lots of food. And again, going through the booths, this last year, we had it at one of our other hotels here, the fundo, a little larger. And it was just it’s a fun time we give out incredible prizes. And the district really, you know, they really encourage those new teachers to come in, they’ve had two days of training, and they end up their their training time at our events. And our members love it because it gives them an opportunity to see you know, 400 people in a two hour time span and get their product and their information in front of them. And it just really kicks off the school year with a fantastic culture and attitude.
Brandon Burton 16:57
Yeah, I love it. So what a great way to welcome these teachers into a new community for it sounds like a lot of them, it’s a new community for them. Let’s talk a little bit about the logistics of it. Right. So you had mentioned vendors a few times. So I anticipate that they’re, they’re paying to have a booth of some sort, they’re sponsoring the program somehow. So kind of walk us through what does that look like, as far as the logistics of obviously, you’re serving food of some sort, whether it’s a breakfast or dinner, whatever, some something at this reception. So there’s moving parts to it. So kind of walk us through what that looks like,
Renee Earls 17:37
you know, any chamber professional knows that the leading up, there are hours of planning, and then you have this two hour event, it’s kind of like a wedding, you plan and plan and plan the minutes over. And we do have sponsors for this, we have a program, our Platinum sponsors where they at the beginning of the year, they commit to sponsoring every event we have. So we have about 25 of those. So they’re premier sponsors of that event. And then we also have a presenting sponsors. And like $1,000, you know, we probably have 10 or so of those. And then we have breakfast sponsors at about $500. And we might have about 10 of those. And depending on where we have it, obviously we haven’t a hotel, you know, they’re they’re responsible for where we’re purchasing the food from them from the catering. We have one particular credit union, that since we’ve started they every year, they get, you know, a very nice Yeti style mug, they fill it up with either, you know, if it’s breakfast, they’re doing a great coffee setup with every kind of flavor, you can imagine, they probably have 10 or 15 of their staff members, they have aprons, they it’s a huge deal for them, and that everyone wants to get to that booth. In fact, a couple of times they’ve run out because everybody goes people want to go to in the afternoon they’re filling it with you know different flavors of of tea from HTO. So these vendors will either they’re either a sponsor a breakfast sponsor, or they can just purchase a booth space. I think we’ve we’ve gone from you know, about two to $300 for the booth space. And we have the draping, we provide the table a couple of chairs, and they come in and dress that booth that almost like a business expo. Yeah. And basically that’s what it is because they’re going up and down rows to to learn about these different industries. We give them a piece of paper to encourage them to go to everyone and so once it’s complete, and they’ve seen it, you know, they’re putting their name in a big drawing. So, it there’s a lot of logistics to it. But again, our members love it. We start promoting it several months in advance and we fill up and honestly we’re Are, we’re running out of space. So. But it’s a great opportunity, it’s a lot of fun.
Brandon Burton 20:05
I think it is a great opportunity when you have, like you mentioned three to 400 new teachers coming in, to be able to match them up with local businesses in the community. So that I think that’s so key. When you’re new to a community and you’re looking to get established in a new community, you need a place to bank you need an insurance person, you need a physician, you need a dentist, you all these different things to get established in the community. So being able to help match them up with those Chamber members that are vendors or sponsors that the program, I think,
Renee Earls 20:37
benefit of being a chamber member to, you know, we have other groups who will come in and say, well, we want to have a booth, well, you’re not a chamber member. So that encourages them to to become a chamber member, I will say Chevron is has been our host or our our major sponsor from the get go. And every year we give the teachers are really nice, special gift. And for years, we were giving them something that they would put in the trunk of their car, it was like a trunk holder. And you know, it’s like a cloth bag, it had the chevron logo, it had the ECSD logo, it had our logo. We did that for years. And we listened to the teachers this last year, because they said, you know, many of our teachers are going from classroom to classroom and they they drag along that little, you know, things. So we’ve got them a wheeled cart that had the logos on it. And, you know, they love that. And again, I mean, they just filled it up, and we’ve had teachers, you know, post on social media, they’re getting all these awesome items. And many of our vendors will do things that they can utilize in their classroom, you know, supplies, because we all know, teachers are having to go and spend money out of their own pocket for supplies, and so many of our vendors will just fill them up with things that they can use in their classroom. And, you know, these teachers come to us and they’re emotional, and they’re just so thankful. And it’s it’s a great feeling. And we’ve been encouraged other chambers to do this, you know, in the in the chamber industry. We have that very important R&D that we talked about, which is rip off and duplicate. We want everyone to rip off and duplicate this program because it’s great. It’s a it’s an easy way to really promote your members and and make these teachers in such an important profession feel good. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 22:27
I love the idea of the wheelie tote, right. So it’s got your logos on it, they’re gonna use it every day, it’s being seen every day, all the other teachers are using them, versus something that sits in their trunk, and nobody’s ever gonna see it. I mean, it serves a purpose, and it’s a great gift. But to be able to have that win win, you know, all the way around. I love that. And then just to be able to see the involvement that the Chamber has with the schools. My wife actually works at our kids elementary school and not as a teacher, but front office and through COVID. You know, the kids weren’t allowed to drink out of the drinking fountains, right. So there was a realtor, local business realtor came in, he brought two pallets of water bottles to the school. Now, the kids all had water bottles. I don’t know how many months that lasted. But so just to see that involvement, when whether it’s a business or the chamber, getting involved with the schools, everybody notices, you know, they’re appreciative they see, you know, they’re grateful that somebody cares about them and providing tools and resources that they need. So, so important. And I know you guys are very connected with your local school district there. A while back, we had Chris Mead on the show, and he talked about the pen pal program that that you guys started with Odessa, Ukraine. You want to take a moment, just kind of tell your point of view story on that.
Renee Earls 23:54
Chris Mead, this was a fabulous idea that he had, he reached out to me and and he had some connections there in Odessa, Ukraine. And they are, you know, our sister city, if you will. And he just had this wonderful idea to connect students in Odessa, Ukraine was students in Odessa, Texas. So we got a hold of our school district, they then put us in touch with, I believe some of the social or history teachers. And so those teachers and those students started literally writing back and forth. Some of them had zoom meetings back and forth. And it was just amazing to see these students from two different worlds. Connect and at a time when things were so volatile in Odessa, Ukraine and they just really needed to hear from others that they were supporting them and, you know, the art of writing is really gone as well. You know, the pen pal program. I mean, that’s just not something people don’t write personal notes anymore. And we saw this too. units do that, and the teachers loved it. And again, that all goes back to Chris Mead and the idea that he had, so kudos to him. Yeah.
Brandon Burton 25:07
But what I love about that is a program like that doesn’t happen unless you already have that relationship with the school district. And just the lives that are being touched on both sides, both here and in Odessa, Texas, and there, and in Odessa, Ukraine, lives are being touched, stories are being shared, they’re being enriched by each other. And it’s all facilitated by having those relationships, through things like this through the new teacher welcome program and building that goodwill.
Renee Earls 25:37
You know, that’s what chambers are all about are about relationships. And we’re so fortunate to have very healthy relationships with our educational partners either in the our school district, we just recently passed, our community passed a bond for our school district, and our chamber really got behind that, as far as endorsing it in just that. One, we wanted people to go to the polls and vote because we’ve seen such voter apathy. Not very many people, you know, going to the polls, so we encouraged a very active voting awareness program. But also, these, again, are our future workforce, these students who are in school today will be working for us, they will be our bosses, they will be running these companies in this community, and we have to have a strong education program vient, the ISD. We have private members here that are private schools, we have charter schools, and then of course, our community college, and our university, we are so fortunate to have really good programs and partners with our education.
Brandon Burton 26:49
Industry. Absolutely. So it’s so important. I love it. And appreciate you highlighting, you know, this, this new teacher program or reception new teacher reception, I’d love to give you an opportunity for any chambers listening who wants to take their chamber up to the next level, what tip or action item might you offer to them to to consider maybe implementing at their own chamber?
Renee Earls 27:14
You know, one thing I think that is so valuable is just talking to other colleagues in the chamber industry, find out what other chambers are doing, find out what will work in your community and make it your own. Um, you know, we talked about this new teacher program at a Texas chamber conference probably five years ago, just highlighting what we do, in a room of about, you know, 100 people, and it was a, it was almost like speed dating, you find out, you know, a program that’s working in a community, you get some info on it, you go to the next person, well, we all got, you know, five to 10 ideas that day. And I think it’s so important to just find out what other groups are doing, don’t reinvent the wheel, find out something that you can take in your community and make it make it your own. And, you know, again, those relationships are so valuable, and not only the relationships with our own members in our own community, but with colleagues throughout the state in the country, and what’s happening and just like listening to your podcast, people get so many ideas, and can again, take that into their own chamber, and make it work for them.
Brandon Burton 28:23
That’s the idea. That’s the hope everybody listens, gets those ideas, and then, you know, takes what may be valuable to their own community and implemented and do their R&D and be a successful chamber, right? Well, Renee, I like asking everyone I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?
Renee Earls 28:49
You know, chambers have have really changed a lot. membership organizations in general have changed over the many decades. We’re not your grandmother or your grandfather’s chamber anymore. And we can’t think that way. We can’t act that way. I think it’s so important that you know, because we are a membership based organization. If you look at any chambers budget any more. A large portion of your budget is not tied to actual memberships, because we’ve had to think of other ways to be successful and to create dollars for different programs. So I see, you know, the chamber is a major part of any community, or at least it should be, you know, our chamber is fortunate in that we have we’re we’re built on 90 years of just incredible volunteers who have served prior to us and have made our community what it is. And it’s so important for us to I tell people for an organization that’s supposed to be non political, you know, chambers are political. We we work with our all members, we work with all leaders, regardless of, you know, our, our party affiliation. And regardless of how we feel on certain issues, we all have to get along, we all have to work, our goal should always be with our community in mind. And I think for any, any chamber to thrive and continue to grow, is we have to continue to build those relationships, continue to meet in the middle, if you will, and just be the community cheerleader that talks about all the things that are happening in community, good and bad. But be the the person in the middle who can bring the people to the table to have a respectful conversation about how your community can grow, you know, be the be the liaison be the one who pulls everyone, the collaborator who pulls everyone together.
Brandon Burton 30:59
Absolutely. Yeah, chambers are political, but hopefully not divisive, like politics. Typically, you’re bringing into the middle. So I love that point. And in showing that role that chambers have in the future of being that same center and helping to be at the table and bring parties together to be able to come to a common goal and moving your community forward. I love that. Well, Renee, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for anyone listening, who might want to reach out and connect and learn more about the new teacher reception or anything else you guys are doing there in Odessa, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect? Well, we
Renee Earls 31:40
would love to hear from you. Again, I think it’s so valuable for chamber professionals to connect with each other. So you can always reach out to us on our Facebook, Odessa chamber, make sure it’s Texas, there are a couple of chambers throughout the country at Odessa chambers, you can always, you know, email me at renee@odessachamber.com. And reach out to us here at the Chamber 432-332-9111 with lead to visit with you put you in connection with any of our staff on any of our programs that we’re working on. And follow us on social media. Again, I think we have to support each other as chamber professionals and just rely on each other to work us through you know, chamber profession is, as we said, at the beginning of this, you know, I feel like I have the best job in the community because I get to promote the chamber in my own community. But chamber work is hard. Chamber work is stressful. We’re working with a lot of personalities and a lot of people a lot of volunteers but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t be doing anything else. It’s it’s the peak of my career that I’ve I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. And you know, take time for yourself and rely on each other to see what’s working in what’s not.
Brandon Burton 33:02
I love it. So we will get your contact info in our show notes so people can pull that up and connect with you. But Renee, this has been so much fun having you on the podcast and learning more about the new teacher reception and the relationship you guys have with the your local school district there. And I appreciate your example and willingness to be with us today and providing all this value for us. Thank you for being with us today.
Renee Earls 33:25
Well thank you so much for giving the chambers a voice and for all of us to be able to learn from each other and through the programs that you do. And thank you for having me and thank you for allowing me to highlight great things happening here in Odessa, Texas.
Brandon Burton 33:41
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