Category: Mergers

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

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

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 is Community Matters, Inc. With nearly 20 years in the chamber industry and over 100 media awards presented to their chamber partners, community matters provides the R&R that every chamber needs, revenue and recognition.

When it comes to publishing a Chamber Map directory or Community Guide, Community Matters has a trusted experience to help your chamber accomplish your goals. With different advertising sales models and publication styles, Community Matters will help you create a non-dues revenue machine!

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

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

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

Our guest for this episode is Arthur Havlicek. Arthur is the President and CEO of the Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber of Commerce and native of the region himself. Arthur grew up in Bridgman and graduated from Lake Michigan Catholic High School in St. Joseph. He earned his degree in political science and public administration from Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, during which time he also began managing and winning political campaigns. After college, Arthur served as staff in the Michigan House of Representatives where he was involved with numerous significant legislative achievements. With nearly a decade in public service experience by the age of 27. Arthur decided to return home. He assumed his current position as president and CEO of the chamber in January of 2020, and has quickly become a recognized leader in both his industry and his community. Arthur currently serves as board member at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Michigan Association of chamber professionals, other local organizations and as executive director of a local community and economic development organization called the Bridgman area Chamber and growth Alliance. He’s also a 2023, graduate of the prestigious business leads fellowship program through the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation. And Arthur, I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I’d love to just 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

Arthur Havlicek 3:31
better. Well, sure. Thanks, Brandon. Thank you, first of all, for having me. I’ve I’ve listened to many of your podcasts with chamber professionals over the last four or five years as I’ve tried to look for advice and counsel on how to take our chamber to the next level. So hopefully I can pass along. Some tidbits to the next generation of folks hear something interesting about me is always a tough question to answer, I think but a development in the last four months was the birth of my daughter Nora. So it’s my wife and I’s first child born on September 12, and you know what a what a paradigm shift in anyone’s life. Having that first first kid and the love that you experience and the smiles that you get that just melt you and you know, being her dad as has quickly become my absolute favorite thing about life. And watching my wife grow into a beautiful mother and it’s been in the last four months have been incredibly rewarding. So I’d say that is that’s what’s top of mind right now,

Brandon Burton 4:47
as it should be. That is awesome. Congratulations to you and your wife. That’s cute. That is something exciting and goes quick. My oldest just turned 18 So it goes In a blink of an eye, and before you know it just cherish her.

Arthur Havlicek 5:06
I can’t even imagine her with teeth. And so thinking about her at 18 is

Brandon Burton 5:11
let alone an attitude, right? Yeah, wait for it. Tell us a little bit about the Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber. Just give us some context, the size of the chamber scope of work, you’re involved with staff budget, that sort of thing to kind of set the table for our discussion.

Arthur Havlicek 5:30
Sure. So we are a lean and mean organization. We are a Tri County Regional Chamber of Commerce in southwest Michigan serving Burien, Cass and Van Buren counties. We are a 501 C six, which many chambers most chambers are, I believe, and we have about 700 members spread geographically throughout the region. And in multiple states, which is easier for us to say considering we are right on the border of Indiana and often have to compete with Indiana for for business development. We have three full time people on staff, we are on the precipice of hiring a fourth person with some restructuring that we’ve been able to do. And our budget is really only around I’d say 400,000. So you know, that is something that we have taken a look at. And it’s a byproduct, I think of what I would consider the old chamber membership model. And we are trying to shift to a new organizational structure that allows us to fundraise for more impact, hire more staff, have more capacity, do more programming and better serve our businesses so we can talk about what that looks like. I believe that is that direction is the future of chambers. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 6:53
sounds like you’re on the precipice of some really exciting things and some big changes there at the chamber. So the topic that we settled on today I know there’s been a lot of interest in chamber world around this so I’m excited to get your perspective on it but around mergers and acquisitions and and bringing in affiliations you know, with with other chambers possibly so we’ll we’ll dive in much deeper on this conversation and your experience on it as soon as they get back from this quick break.

Are you looking for a year round affordable and timely shop local campaign for your chamber or CVB Look no further build a custom each shop play mobile app with App My Community by visiting appmycommunity.com/chamberchat. App My Community mobile apps are not just simple membership directory listings. They provide many more capabilities to engage with your community. Provide your residents with a robust events calendar partner with a local fare festival or Farmers Market provide a schedule map and other resources to promote the event. Run a Small Business Saturday campaign any time of the year using built in scavenger hunts allow your membership to communicate directly to their customers via push notifications. Your app my community mobile app will be a unique member benefit allow you to generate non dues revenue with sponsorship opportunities and best of all provide a valuable resource to your community please visit appmycommunity.com/chamberchat now to receive 10% off your first year of an App My Community mobile app.

Are you looking for a way to grow and manage your chamber of commerce more effectively? Look no further than Chamber Nation! Our innovative software provides everything you need to streamline operations, engage members, and increase revenue. With features like event management, membership directories, advanced membership tools, mobile apps, community kiosks, and financial reporting, Chamber Nation makes it easy to run your chamber like a well-oiled machine. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to take your chamber to the next level. Visit www.RichardsCalendar.com to learn more about Chamber Nation today!

All right, Arthur, we’re back. I would love to know just from the time you joined or came on board at the Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber. January 2020. There’s some things happening around that time right now, yeah. You can say that the applecart was being kind of tipped over business wise, you know, for for local businesses, small businesses, big businesses just in general, but Chambers as well. So through the pandemic, we saw, you know, some reorganizations with within the chamber world. And I’d love to maybe just get the background and history there locally. like for you guys, what did that experience look like and how things evolved since you came on board in January 2020?

Arthur Havlicek 10:06
Sure, so I get asked this all the time, basically having enough time to find the bathrooms before our entire world changed. And, you know, everyone’s first reaction is, is what terrible timing. I mean, that couldn’t be worse timing. And I genuinely believe the opposite. Actually, I was able to step in, in my role, find the bathrooms made a lot of the key community leaders that I would have to interface with and work intimately with over the, you know, the coming months, and years. And what I always say is, I didn’t have time to get into the chamber box. So we had no problem thinking outside of it, frankly, we were able to act very quickly, very boldly, which were two, I guess, crisis management principles that we actually intentionally adopted during that time. And we tried to innovate and do new things. And while you know, a lot of a lot of organizations, a lot of businesses were rightfully saying, I just don’t know what to do next, we were viewed very much as a leader, and a Pace Setter, and, and we’re able to rally the community around various causes and, and really just energize them. And then my background, in in Lansing, allowed me to read the tea leaves a little better than most, I think, and be able to predict what restrictions were coming next, or make phone calls and clarify what those restrictions included in Michigan, as you may know, is one of the more stringent or someone even say draconian in their handling of the pandemic. So we had businesses shut down for well over a year, entire industries. And again, being on the border, we felt that more deeply, because all of our consumers just drove 20 minutes to Indiana where everything was open. So we were I think it was our level of activity and how vocal we were saying, being pro business and pro public health are not mutually exclusive. There’s a way that we can do this and keep customers safe employees safe, keep our community safe, and keep commerce moving. And I think that the community responded to that. I think they respected that. And frankly, I think that that’s our role as Chambers of Commerce. That’s part of what we were formed to do. And we shouldn’t shy away from those conversations.

Brandon Burton 12:51
Right. So when you were given a little bit of background about your chamber, you had mentioned you guys are a Tri County Chamber. How long have you guys been at Tri County Chamber? And how did that come to be? Great

Arthur Havlicek 13:06
question. So our chamber has gone through multiple evolutions, I guess, this 2024 is actually our 70th anniversary. We started as the Twin Cities area Chamber of Commerce, and that would be in 1954. If the math is correct, and then operated like that became one of the largest chambers in the state, actually, at the time around the 1970s. With something over 1200 Members, I think, very, very impressive. And then is community started to move towards more economic development organizations and economic development focus. We merged with a community development corporation to form another organization and economic development organization. And our chamber sort of went away for a couple of years until the community raised their hand and said, We’d like them back. So then it came back as the cornerstone Chamber of Commerce serving its historical footprint of Northern Burien County. And it wasn’t until we affiliated with a another local chamber in my hometown of Bridgman that that decision was made. You know, looking around the country at some trends for towards regionalism, why don’t we regionalize we’re the largest chamber in the region already. This affiliation with a community, you know, miles away from our historical footprint is is a perfect opportunity. And so we rebranded from the cornerstone Chamber of Commerce to the southwest Michigan Regional Chamber of Commerce, and that would have been, I believe, in late, it was about 2018 2019. So really right before I I got here and just because of the leadership transition. You know, I don’t think that a lot of a lot of that leaving that regional mission had been able to be completed yet just pure sake of timing. And so that was something that I immediately put my foot on the gas, and said, If we’re talking about serving a broader territory, we need to figure out the best way to do that with a small team, we can’t be everywhere. And, and I think that we’ve been able to do that authentically, since my hire, we have absorbed actually two chambers. And that would be the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce in a town called Stevensville. And then, the Baroda area business association in a small town called Baroda. Neither of those were, you know, we didn’t want to see them go, which is a point that I want to make very clear. We went through a whole process, which I can talk about later, where we were like, What can we do to prop you up but with, you know, just less engagement, from a volunteer perspective in which we see in every community across the country, it’s getting harder to sustain these entities, these all volunteer entities. And so they’ll look to organizations like ours that have the resources and the staff and say, Hey, can we just hand you the keys and trust you to do a good job, and you have to build trust to do that, but that’s what we’ve done. So I think our organization has, in its entire history, absorbed three chambers outright, and has affiliated with one being the Bridgman chamber and growth Alliance, which we’re, we’re going through changes. They’re exciting changes. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 16:55
Now, so that’s it is fascinating. And I, I think that’s important, you had said that you didn’t want to see these chambers or business associations Go Go away. Which is, I think, part of the reason why you guys stepped in to help help make that continue, you know, helped create a bridge, I guess, to continue on with the work that they’ve been doing there. But why don’t you touch a little bit more on that, that the approach with how you didn’t want to see them go, but also supporting them during that transition period?

Arthur Havlicek 17:27
Sure. So. So again, I think both in both of those cases, I mean, they had membership anywhere between 50 to 100, maybe a few more members. And so, you know, in that regard, they were, they were doing well, but it changed over on those volunteer boards, and some of the loss of some of that institutional memory and the burden of having these, typically business leaders spend that amount of time trying to breathe life into an all volunteer organization, in both cases, just became too much. So from the very first conversations we had with them, you know, my my stance was shutting down, you know, these entities should be always the last resort, in my opinion. And I think I, because I genuinely believe identity is important in, in our work in our industry, identity is a crucial component to, you know, promoting your area, but also to businesses wanting to invest in a specific organization. Were a good example of this. The Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber sounds like a massive, somewhat nebulous, right organization that I’m sure there are other businesses that are feeding into that I’d rather feed into my hometown chamber. Well, you know, you lose that hometown identity. And you might lose that business from understanding why it’s important to invest in a chamber in the first place. So I tried to flip it the model on its head and say, How can we prop up and help these community chambers so that businesses, you know, want to invest? They have that community pride in it, and then we can be the backend for it. So what we did not try to keep the answer short was, we had multiple, multiple, multiple conversations with their board of directors, in some cases, taking over a year to talk everything through. I had crafted decision documents that basically were, you know, all the decisions that would have to be made if we, you know, if we affiliate if we merge if we dissolve and, and all the things that would have to be thought through. And simply we we just work through it. And then in both of these cases that I’m referencing, You know, they really came to the conclusion, look, we have faith in you. We really just want to know that that our businesses aren’t being, you know, left hanging, it’s our way to close the loop. But, you know, we think you’ll do a good job. And so they made the decision to bold entirely and then come into us. And what we’ve tried to do is absorb not just those members, but those. Those board, that board of directors, we’ve tried to take them and say, Okay, is there a place on our board for you? Is there a place on our ambassador committee for you? And so that way, we still have their participation and engagement, but without the level of, of, I guess, commitment that they had to before that was becoming untenable? Yeah.

Brandon Burton 20:48
So you touched on some big things there. And one of the things that I was going to circle back to this identity in that sense of community. I’ve seen this. So in my, my background working with chambers is it’s been chamber publishing that I do so well, oftentimes, we’re working with chambers who have that very defined identity right there, the ABC, City Chamber, right, whatever their their town is. And once you get into a regional or multi County, it, it can kind of lose that sense of that community feel, especially with, as I say, with publications, right? It’s like, you want to highlight the things that community offers, and what’s your scope if you’re covering such a large area. So I like that you guys are being intentional with especially bringing their board members and ambassadors and trying to create space for them within your organization to keep that tie to those communities. But how do you try to enforce that, that sense of identity, that sense of feel, on the local level, I think that’s a that that’s a hard area to navigate. And hopefully, you guys are doing it in more of a successful way than some other chambers might have approach? Well, so.

Arthur Havlicek 22:11
So it is extremely difficult, especially when you’re covering a large territory with very few staff. So but but to be intentional in the communications you’re putting out to be intentional on if you have an event, make sure that you’re inviting, you know, that communities, core people, the identity thing. Chambers of Commerce, in my opinion, are legacy institutions in most of the communities that they exist in. Much like the public school system is in any of those communities. And, you know, the bad C word. And all of this is going to be consolidation. And there’s always fear of that, because I don’t want to lose my mascot. I don’t want to be that mascot, right. So you don’t want your schools to merge, even though that’s probably what’s best for the kids. It’s really no different in the chamber world. So finding a way to keep that identity and you know, celebrate the history and the legacy because you know that that chamber has accomplished a lot over its tenure. It’s it’s no small task. With the Bridgman chamber and growth Alliance, the the one that we affiliated, the organization we affiliated with, back in 2018, that that sparked our name change. I want to walk through that because I think it’s a good case study for you know, maybe what, what not to do, and then maybe what to do, and, and so when it was originally constructed, and I’m oversimplifying, but essentially, the CGA and its board remained in place remained its own organization of 501 C, three, completely independent, and we came in and became the service provider for all of those members. So those members started paying dues directly to us. So I’m abridgement business, I’m cutting a check to the southwest Michigan Regional Chamber of Commerce. There’s a variety of reasons that I think my predecessors structured it that way, you know, probably, you know, for no other reason other than we had the the CRM and chambermaster to, to be able to handle all of that and the staff to do the dues and collections. But from what I’ve observed over the now, you know, four years of sitting in this role is that’s a community that is immensely proud of its name. And I believe, you know, we believe so strongly in that identity piece. Over the last several months, we have actually been working to restore the members to that local chamber and serve more as the back end for it and allow it to operate and thrive hopefully as the Bridgman CGA once again, which is, I would like to think a prayer The radical step once you, once you fight and grab these members, most people will do anything to hold on to them. And I’m saying I think what’s best is to, you know, allow them to invest in their community chamber directly have that money, stay there be governed locally, which is also important. And then we will have agreements with that chamber to be the back end to hire the staff person that I referenced, the fourth person that will be coming on shortly. And and just since we’ve announced these changes, it has opened up multiple possibilities with businesses, with the municipalities themselves, the city and the township down there. So, you know, with all chambers being different, or communities being different, there’s no one right answer, you just have to figure out what works for that community. And sometimes, it takes a year of negotiations, sometimes it takes four years of affiliation, before you figure out exactly how it’s going to work. But if you’re authentic and you build trust, you’ll be given that leeway and hopefully end up in the right place.

Brandon Burton 26:10
So with these more recent, you know, opportunities, we’ll say, or experiences of absorbing these other organizations, it sounds like most of them were volunteered led, is that what I understand? So if you can, do you mind talking a little bit about the negotiations with that? Do they approach you did the chamber your chamber, approach them and say, we can help? Or how did these conversations begin and evolve? Yeah,

Arthur Havlicek 26:42
so in, in every one of these situations, the local chamber, so to speak, approached us. And, you know, and I think that probably happened, because we do our best to be good neighbors in the chamber space, I don’t view I view competition as being outside of the region that we’re in, not within it, right. And if we can work together to compete, we’re all going to win. And plus, I think if you are a business that believes in the value of one chamber, you’re helping all chambers, because then you’re you’re one more business that believes in the work that we do. So. You know, I think that we had some trust built to begin with, and we tried to be very collaborative with these organizations. And they were very collaborative, you know, back. But in every scenario, they approached us saying, Look, we’re at a crossroads, we can either try to hire, which we may not have, you know, the dollars to do. We made dissolve, we could fold into you. And we’re basically just saying, hey, look, we need help. And we take I mean, we took each of those conversations as seriously as we could, because that’s, that’s no small thing to say, Hey, we are we may need to wind down this organization. And the other thing, I guess, for our area, specifically, and probably many areas, across the country is our region is has a declining population and an aging population and so demographically, we’re moving in a direction where there are going to be fewer people with the capacity to serve in these volunteer roles. And so the, I guess, we use the term sprawl when we’re talking about, you know, economic development, the organizational sprawl, so to speak, you know, peaked when our population peaked. And as our population has declined, fewer people have been tasked with propping up, you know, not only infrastructure, but in organizations. And so we’re going to see a natural attrition, I think, and our stance is, well, we want to be able to help those that want to stay in existence and, and even help those that don’t. And so that’s what we’ve been doing. There’s no secret sauce. It’s just like, I keep saying the word authenticity, because it’s the I think the number one thing and it’s the thing that you can’t fake definitional but that’s what ultimately allows you to come in and serve these other areas. And if you have you you lead with that authenticity and you try to keep that identity you’re you’re halfway there.

Brandon Burton 29:32
Yeah. So in what you’re sharing through this experience, it sounds maybe a little different than what it would be looked like maybe to acquire another business right? I mean, looking at the the p&l and the financial statements and saying how profitable I get the the negotiations are going to be a different thing because it’s not like you’re saying, hey, we want to bring on you know, more work for maybe a little right Turn. But at the same time you want to support that, like you said, there’s no competition within the region, right? As long as you can build up the region, then you all win. So imagine are there other points and then negotiation would look different than like, looking to acquire a business?

Arthur Havlicek 30:17
Well, so I’m actually glad you made that point. And forgive me for not mentioning it sooner, they’re much like any business acquisition, there was an extensive due diligence process on our end to make sure that we wouldn’t be inheriting any, you know, debt or liabilities, obligations. And, and it required a deep dive into Financials, not not necessarily to see how profitable being in the nonprofit space, it wasn’t about how profitable these institutions were, but just making sure that we weren’t absorbing something that was underwater or had, you know, back taxes, you name it. So, you know, I’ll stress that that due diligence does have to occur, and it has to be done, just like you would in the in the private sector. With that, that level of care, that duty of care. But, you know, being in the nonprofit space, where profit is less important, you need enough dollars to be able to serve your your members effectively. It, it was a I would say a softer, right? There’s the hard skills and the soft skills it was it was the softer of the two that we lead with, because it was really about the end product and the work more than, than the dollars and, and that’s also a byproduct of us not being the initiator, that’s them coming to us and us just saying, How can we? How can we figure out how to make this work in a way that’s not going to put my organization at risk, which I was upfront about with all of them. And they all understood and hopefully appreciated some of the professionalism that that demonstrated that we’re we weren’t just Yes, we’ll take your members it was, let’s go through a process. And think about this. You take a peek at our finances, we take a peek at yours, we make sure everything is actually going to work. So that’s really how we went about it. So yeah, thank you for bringing that up. I should have mentioned. Yeah, that are an important part a lot sooner.

Brandon Burton 32:25
Yeah. No, I appreciate you touching on that. And as these negotiations went about, was it with the staff or the volunteer staff or with the boards? How,

Arthur Havlicek 32:37
how did the communications go? It was it was typically the executive committee of the board. And, and whatever chairperson or and or president that they had the there were no staff in any of these scenarios, which I think was one of the catalytic reasons that they approached us in the first place. Because they saw us as having that capacity to serve their members better and true to chamber forum. We’re trying to do what’s right by your members, even if it means, you know, saying goodbye to your own brand. That’s, that’s a level of integrity that I don’t think we see often. So. Yeah, it was it was the executive committees and the chairs, specifically that much of the negotiations occurred with.

Brandon Burton 33:24
Yeah, so if we can, I know, we’re getting a little short on time. But I wanted to touch a little bit more on the affiliation part, the aspect, because I don’t know, I think there may be some chambers out there that might shy away from doing affiliations with other chambers, because they feel like they might lose out on some revenue. So you had mentioned that there’s not competition within the region. I love that that point of view. But how would you suggest a chamber approach affiliations with neighboring chambers or chambers that can be supportive of one community? The other? Yeah,

Arthur Havlicek 34:04
so again, scenarios are going to be very different. I mean, in this in our scenario, we were a much larger entity affiliating with a much smaller entity, that dynamic is going to be different than if two chambers of equal size were trying to figure out how they could merge. And we’ve seen We’ve seen that happen quite a bit and just you know, you take the two community names and put them together. But in in, in our case, that affiliation agreement that we struck, when we signed a legal document, basically stipulating you know, the members would come our way and exchange services would go that way. And it talked about some of the finances and put sunsets and there was there was a phase in for the businesses because our dues structures differed. We were slightly more expensive, but but enough to might be a sticker shock. Docker would have, you know, prevented folks from making that transition. So, you know, I what I want to focus on is, is I guess how we’re going to do it, as opposed to how it was initially done because I think where we’re headed is a much more sustainable model. And, and what we’re doing is we, we worked with the city of Bridgman, in this case and Lake charter Township, which is the township surrounding the city to invest in a in a paid staff person that we ended up actually hiring but those dollars go to the CGA. The CGA, then through a management service agreement compensates us for hiring that individual. We supervise that individual on a day to day basis, but the CGA board actually sets the vision and the duties and responsibilities. And then the CGA board has seats specifically dedicated to each of those municipalities. So there’s all these layers of local control, local governance, and local identity. And like I said, we’re restoring members back to that organization. So that’s our good faith effort saying you’re pitching in, you’re pitching in, we’re taking the business investment pitching in. And then you know, for us, we know that that money is, I guess, coming back to us to be able to pay for that staff. But we’re really a pass through. And really, it’s our benefits, these Bridgman businesses are getting to chamber memberships for the price of one. And they’re able to utilize all of our benefits all of our infrastructure. And and and you know that that reduction in duplication is huge, it allows the dollars to go a lot further. And we’re thrilled to have boots on the ground down there, again, just focus solely on that community, because it’s a community with a tremendous amount of potential. So, you know, it’s, there’s just a ton of, and I guess, you know, just like the private sector, we went about it really, professionally to figure out if the finances would work, what the management service agreements would look like. There’s agreements between each individual municipality and the CGA and then the CGA with our organization, and then between us and the person we hire in so it’s, it’s, it’s complicated, but completely doable. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 37:32
Now, I appreciate you touching on that, because I think and obviously, everyone needs to take their their unique approach to it with every chamber and every community looking a little different. But that helps to give some perspective for chambers and maybe kind of kicking around the idea of affiliations. As we start to wrap up, I wanted to ask for chambers that are listening who are looking to take their organization up to the next level, what kind of tips or action item might you suggest for them to try to implement back at their organization?

Arthur Havlicek 38:05
Well, I’ve got a couple if you don’t mind. I use the word authenticity quite a bit. So I will lead again with that you, if you were being authentic, you’re paving a much easier path for everything that you try to undertake. The second thing I’ll say is that I know that all chambers are, are very different, they serve different purposes, different functions. And it might be my background speaking, but I do think that advocacy was a I mean, it’s it is a primary reason why chambers exist. And you know, I It’s an intimidating arena to get into, but there’s a way to do it again authentically, where, where you’re not going to rock the boat, necessarily, but you’re still taking a stand for your members. And the analogy I use here all the time is just about every community has like a humane society, right? Taking care of, of animals, and no one is going to them and asking them why they’re so pro pet. So why would I entertain anyone coming to me and saying, Gosh, why are you so pro business? Well, that’s what I engineered. That’s my job. And when I put it like that, I usually am able to, you know, calm down, whoever is getting a little fired up about the positions I’m taking and just saying it is my job to stand in the gap for these members. You are entitled to disagree with it. And I’m going to serve you anyway. It’s all about the ecosystem. But the larger point the third thing I want to mention is we need to be unafraid to take risks. We need to be bold. There’s the out with a Out with the old in with the bold saying, I think that we as an industry need to be bold. Old in identifying the gaps in our communities and moving unapologetically to fill them. We have tried to do that in multiple different scenarios. And it’s been successful, it’s been scary, but successful. And so like the businesses we serve, you have to take risks in order to advance. And I think part of that risk is also re envisioning what your structure looks like. So the second part to part three of what I’m saying here is, it goes back to something I said all the way at the beginning of the call, which is we’re looking at our structure, which was primarily dues and event revenue, non dues revenue based, you’re you’re very limited in the amount of dollars that you’re able to raise in that way. And, you know, every time you onboard a new member, that’s a new set of responsibilities. And by the time you get enough to hire someone at a at a living, livable wage, you’re behind the eight ball again. So like, most chambers, now, we are moving in the direction of forming a Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber Foundation, a 501 c three arm that will be a subsidiary of ours, and allow us to again, fundraise for impact, increase our capacity and improve the quality of services that we provide to our businesses. And and that’s going to be a paradigm shift for us. First time in 70 years, although being our 70th anniversary, I’ve been going back and looking at our, our, our old newsletters, and in 1968. Our organization’s leadership identified foundations as the future for chambers all the way back in 1968, which blew my mind. But for one reason or another, they never acted on it. Like I said, we the society went the route of economic development organizations instead. So we’re making good on that. This year will be by the time this airs will have announced our foundation and, and it’s going to be home to our leadership programming, some business development, programming and some community development work that we intend to do. And it’s just it’s an exciting change. And I think it’s going to be transformational, not only for our organization, but for it. And it is a bold change. And again, we won’t, we won’t thrive, I think unless we do that our area won’t Thrive unless we do that. And so while we’ve been operating the old way, for 70 years, we’re going to now operate the bold way, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

Brandon Burton 42:39
Yes, I love that. And I’m going to put a plug in here for anyone who hasn’t read or shoes versus chess by Dave Atkinson. Read it, it has a great section all about foundations and why that’s the future of chambers going forward. But that rolls right into the next question about how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward? I think you just touched on it.

Arthur Havlicek 43:05
I think that chambers have a unique opportunity with the, with the dynamics that all of our communities are facing guarantee just about anyone listening to this call is probably struggling with affordable housing or childcare or they want more trails, and better schools, and all of these things that are more difficult to solve more interconnected than ever. And there is no organization in any community, in my opinion, better situated to solve these problems than a chamber of commerce, because we’re the connective tissue between the public private and nonprofit sector. And it’s not necessarily the chamber that has to do it all we have to bring the folks together, you know, through our ability to convene, to solve and tackle these major problems. And the other thing I’ll say is, you know, our situation where we’re situated, being the largest business advocacy organization in each of our communities, presumably, that that connection to the private sector, I think that we don’t put enough stock or credit into it. Because if you think about it, and this is a major, I guess, soapbox that I like to get on. The private sector, generally either solves the problems in our community through innovation, or they generate the capital for the nonprofit sector or the government to solve those problems. Either way, it starts with the private sector, and us with our relationships, our inherent closeness to those businesses, makes us again, the best organization and each of our communities to take a leadership role and tackle these big issues simply by getting the right people around the table. And, again, that might be an intimidating thing for a lot of chambers, especially, you know, those that are again short staffed, or we have a lot of turnover in our industry. And they might not feel like they have that they’ve earned the street cred in their community, as an individual. If if you’re part of a chamber of commerce, you have that air cover, you have that responsibility. You can make big things happen. And you need to again, move unapologetically in the direction that solves the need for your members and your members. Those businesses who take risks all the time will see you do that will appreciate it and will invest in you to help you be successful. I

Brandon Burton 45:43
love that that really exemplifies the power that Chambers of Commerce hold that everything starts with the private sector. So thank you for for pounding on that a little bit. And getting on your soapbox is well worth it. My pleasure. Well, before I let you go, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect and learn more about how you guys have gone about these mergers and acquisitions and and affiliations, what would be the best way for a listener to reach out and connect? Sure, so

Arthur Havlicek 46:15
you can visit our website at www.SMRChamber.com and in fact, if you’re listening to this podcast, I’d Can I encourage you to visit our website because you will see a toggle in the lower right hand corner for our affiliate the Bridgman CGA, which was a way to even link the websites together in a in a very usable fashion. And again, keeping their identity front and center. So visit our website SMRchamber.com, you’ll find our contact information plastered all over there. You can feel free to email (ahavlicek@smrchamber.com) or call don’t hesitate to reach out we’d love to share what we know or or even brainstorm because there’s no right way to do any of this. It’s it’s kind of feeling your way through it. And we’re happy to be that sounding board at the very least. or explain you know, what we ran into and what issues could be avoided or successes could be achieved. That’s

Brandon Burton 47:16
awesome. I do appreciate that. We’ll we’ll get that in our show notes for this episode too. So listeners can look it up there and connect with you but really appreciate you spending time with us today here on chamber chat podcast sharing your experiences and and perspective in what can be difficult conversations difficult transitions from one organization to another but also keeping a focus on that identity and that sense of community all along the way. So thank you for for being with us and sharing these things with us today.

Arthur Havlicek 47:50
Thank you, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 47:51
If you are a chamber professional, please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple podcast, Google podcasts or Spotify. When you subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast new episodes will show up in your podcast app each week as they are released. If you’re finding value in this podcast, please leave us a rating and a review in iTunes. But most importantly, please share Chamber Chat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.