Category: Partnerships

Improving Corporate Sponsorships with Bruce Rosenthal

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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Our guests for this episode is Bruce Rosenthal. Bruce is a corporate partnerships strategist, consultant, and educator. He specializes in associations and not for profit organizations, Bruce is dedicated to boosting revenue enhancing member value and promoting organizational sustainability. The Bruce, I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast that bio as concise as it is, I’m hoping pique the interest of everybody listening, that how we can bring more revenue into our chambers, but wanted to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions that are listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to

Bruce Rosenthal 1:53
know you a little better. All right, thank you, Brandon, and excited about being here. So So an interesting fact that I’ve worked throughout my career for nonprofit organizations. Though, when I was when I was growing up, my dad and his brother had an insurance agency. And when I was in college, I was here in the Washington DC area. And they were in the Chicago area and, and my uncle was a senior partner in the firm invited me over and said, Bruce, we have an idea, all the kids are going to go into the insurance business. And I was here as a sophomore in college and all the political buzz and everything in DC and I still to this day, hope I wasn’t too rude to him by saying I’m here on spring break. But I’m going back to DC and I don’t think I’m going into the insurance business. So sorry to all of you who are thriving based on doing great things for businesses in your communities. I didn’t go into business, I went into the not for profit. But for the conversation today how we can take what I’ve learned over the years to help your your chambers grow. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 2:53
it’s always fun when somebody has a great idea for you. And here’s your path for you. Right. Right. Right. Great. Well, tell us a little bit about your company Rosen Bruce Rosenthal associates with the work that you do kind of we know nonprofits and associations, but kind of in a nutshell, what do you do these give

Bruce Rosenthal 3:15
you the brief history, it does go back about 15 years, but it’s not that long a story. I was working for National Association on not a sponsorship project. But the association completely revamped its sponsorship program because I realized the times were changing and needed to keep up with the trends and the revenue was really important. It was about 15 18% of the revenue the association was bringing in. So they did that complete revamp one of the components of the new sponsorship program was the senior level staff person to run the program. So the CEO asked me to be that person, I said, Be glad to run the sponsorship program. Got all signed up and got my desk set up. That was 2009 2010 just as the economy tanked. So we had some companies that were that were top level sponsors and a new program pricey a sponsorship program around and I knew there were some companies where we’re gonna get it going to get no new business from our members in the next couple of years because of the economy. So in hindsight, the good news is that kind of set me on the path, what are the real value propositions? What are companies really looking for? Why do they sponsor and the good news is we were able to keep all of the companies in the fold as the economy, the economy slumped, and then came back. And what we realized as part of that process is the companies were really interested less than less than that transactional, or as the CEO said to me at that time, when we want to move their program from the transactional to the transformational, and kind of the standard gold, silver, bronze logo, visibility, recognition, shout out from the podium. In fact, there was one company at that time when I was asking him for their their logo for our newsletter, and he said, Bruce, we’ve been a sponsor for 20 years. Everybody knows who we are. We don’t need our logo on your newsletter, and we definitely don’t need their logo next to five other sponsors. is in your newsletter. So, so we created a program that was that we’ll talk about today, there was much more what I call it marketing agency approach to really sitting down with companies. What do you need? How can we be helpful? Our association has audiences, we have communications channels, we have education opportunities, how can we truly partner with your company to be part of that process?

Brandon Burton 5:22
I like that, yeah, this is going to this is going to be one of those episodes where people are going to want to go back and listen to again, or take notes and present their board and say, here’s a new strategy of how we might want to approach sponsorships going forward. Right. So actually,

Bruce Rosenthal 5:39
just to put a cap on that, Brandon. So when I left that association, about seven years ago, I took what I had learned and in those six years building and revamping the program and and now is you net noted in the bio working as an advisor, an educator to Association on how I can take what I learned in that kind of deep dive with one association and now with seven years of experience with a whole range of organizations, different sizes, inside staff, on how there are opportunities for all of them to grow sponsorship revenue. Right.

Brandon Burton 6:10
So our topic for discussion today is you might have guessed it, it’s around improving corporate sponsorships. Bruce and I were talking before we hit record, were just a little bit about the uniqueness of chambers of commerce and, and we’ve all heard the line if you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber but I think one thing that is common amongst all chambers is that chambers rely on sponsorships to help fund their organization and their mission and envision to move things forward in their community. So it’s gonna be a lot of value in this discussion today. And I’m excited to dive into it much deeper as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Bruce, we’re back. So we’re diving into corporate sponsorships today and for chambers in particular to improve these opportunities for sponsorships. So what are some of these lessons, I guess that you’ve learned through your own experience, but also working with organizations on their sponsorship programs? I’m sure there’s been some things that have lights that have gone off in your own mind. Some notes that you’ve taken and experiences that are valuable to share.

Bruce Rosenthal 9:17
You know, the first thing so So back when I was working with that association, the economy tanked. I wasn’t sure if we were gonna keep these companies in the fold. So I brought in a consultant, I said, Could you interview our top 10 year long corporate partners, and all of the things we talked about today can be scaled. So some organizations might have two sponsors, some might have 10 or 15. So everything I say I might throw out some numbers, but that everything can be easily scaled up or down. So I brought in a consultant and she interviewed the top 10 corporate partners, and she came in to do this presentation and I was sitting next to our CEO and and some other senior staff folks. And she said the good news is all of your corporate partners said exactly the same thing. And I’m thinking that is great. You She said, however, what they are looking for is not what you’re offering. So I have interviewed along with my team, hundreds of companies over the last 15 years, and whether they are sponsors of small organizations, large organizations, whether they sell, technology, insurance, marketing, whether it’s a bank, whatever it is, they all pretty much have the same three reasons that they sponsor organizations. And those three reasons are, of course, they want new business. But that’s not the only reason. The second is they want some sort of brand elbow room. So not necessarily exclusivity, they don’t necessarily need to be the only sure insurance company that’s sponsoring or the only marketing agency that’s sponsoring the chamber. But they want some sort of recognition that among all of the the insurance companies of all the insurance companies that might be involved with the chamber, there’s something different or special about that one, that’s a sponsor. And the third one, which is really key is they want to be positioned as a knowledge leader. So they want to be known for their expertise. So going back to the comment I made earlier, there was a company that came two years ago and said, We don’t need a logo placement. Everybody knows who we are. It was a bank. And it was one of six banks, who was a sponsor of the organization. What made that one bank different? And it wasn’t just around the money, it was, how could they help members more how, what are some case studies of how they help members finance a new building, for example. So those three, those three value propositions are closely related. Because if we can actually start with Thought Leadership, and help organization help sponsors be on an education panel, or a podcast or webinar panel, or, or develop an article or white paper for Chamber members, if that company can be positioned as a thought leader, that checks off the box, the brand visibility, because they’re being known for something, and that will eventually lead to business development. And because that will differentiate them as having expertise doesn’t mean everybody’s going to buy from them. But as I’ve talked to companies, and ask them how they measure success, and how this plays out, they’ll say, Oh, so many people went to this webinar, we followed up with that, we were able to schedule 10 meetings, and that led to three contract proposals. And that led to one signed contract, that one contract paid the cost of the sponsorship, that was our win. So companies have three those three reasons. Among those reasons, I did not mention logo visibility, recreation, or a shout out from the podium. So I think the two challenges and what many of us in the association and chamber nonprofit world have done for years as we’ve gone out to companies with a kind of a prospectus of gold, silver bronze sponsorships for our conference. And we’ve said two things, we need money. Well, spoiler alert, that companies in many cases don’t care that we need money, because that’s not one of their main drivers. And we’ll talk about one exception to that later. But for the most part, they don’t need money. And we’re trying to sell them. Visibility recognition is shut off from the podium, and most of them don’t need that. And I would think, especially within the chamber area, whether it’s a small town is bigger city, probably these companies are fairly well known and don’t need another logo placement. So we’ve been trying to sell them something. And this has been for decades, or a bigger exhibit booth. The other challenge with what we’re trying to sell them as we’re usually selling them, or in many cases, we’re selling them a conference sponsorship. And there was a company I was interviewing, interviewing a couple years ago. And they said, Well, you know, the reality is Bruce is a fantastic conference three days, we get a lot of leads, a lot of folks come by our booth, we get a lot of business cards, it’s three days, our company markets 365 days a year, right? So even with a little pre and post conference visibility, how can we work with the association throughout the year doesn’t mean every day. But Can there be something like a podcast in the first quarter and a webinar on the second quarter and an article in the third quarter and the conference in the fourth quarter? Because as we all know, kind of the the the marketing maxim is that people need to see a message seven times before it resonates. So we need to help companies get visibility as thought leaders throughout the year and that’s when the companies began to really see the

Brandon Burton 14:31
value. And I liked the point about being a thought leader and correlating that to the logo on the newsletter. The logo on the newsletter almost cheapens the experience of being a thought leader. Because if you’re coming to the table as being that thought leader, the assumption is everybody knows who your company is, anyway, that’s why they’re asking you for your expertise on whatever the topic may be. And just throwing a logo on a newsletter without any context around it doesn’t really it I don’t know, I think I think it cheapens the experience a little bit.

Bruce Rosenthal 15:03
Right. But I and and I think right, and the key there is use it in context. So yes, sure. After you’ve done the webinar and the podcast and all of that, then to say, oh, and the logo. Oh, yeah, that would be a good add on. So it’s a great add on in context. But yeah, if most of the benefits are logo visibility, recognition, that’s when companies are like, we don’t need that. And the other challenge now it’s it’s a very competitive environment out there. And there was a corporate sponsor that I was talking to, recently for an association client. And and they said, actually, you know, I think in that case was like a $30,000. Sponsorship, they said, we get more business leads from $3,000 of Google ads, that from a $30,000 sponsorship. Yeah. So the game changer in the last few years, especially with the pandemic, people can sit in front of a zoom screen and get a message anytime they can. People see Google ads. So So that’s part of the competition. And I think often we’ve not thought about this as competition, we thought, well, we’re the only chamber in town or we’re the only whatever Association around, companies really want to come to us. And to some extent, that used to be true when I was working at that association, 10 years ago, and a company would come to us and said, well, we want to be positioned as knowing about, you know, how to finance buildings, or how to create websites, or whatever. And I’d say, Well, here’s the list of all the things you need to do. We have a webinar series, we can get you on the calendar in six months. And we have a conference, if you submit this five page proposal, maybe we can get you on the program. And now that post pandemic lockdown, we all know how to sit in front of a zoom screen and sign up for a webinar and check that little box on the webinar sign up that says you can use our name to contact us afterwards. All of a sudden companies are like, well, we’d like to affiliate with your chamber, we’d like to be part of your program. But if you’re going to make it too difficult, we as a company can go out there and put out our webinar in the next six weeks. And then we can you know, have access to the registration list and all that. So when companies are making choices than doing it on their own versus going through the chamber, that’s we need to think about what is the value proposition that we’re offering to those companies? Right?

Brandon Burton 17:24
So on the topic of competition, are there other areas of competition? You mentioned Google and the technology side, Google and Facebook, and where you can purchase ads for a fraction of what it might cost to sponsor a major competition?

Bruce Rosenthal 17:40
Competition? That is a great question, Brandon. And when I started a consulting seven years ago, and I would do competitive in that analysis for Association and organization clients, and you know, I would come up with a list of your five, six other associations that are kind of in the similar space to you. And now I’m coming up a list 40 5060 organizations, and because I’m looking at it from the company standpoint, and what I saw, and some of this comes about when I interviewed corporate partners, and I’ll say, where else are you exhibiting? Where else are you sponsoring? Where else are you advertising? So I’m hearing that not only similar organizations, and then also organizations in other trades and professions? So again, kind of back to the example of the insurance agent who might be interested in sponsoring the chamber. Are there other places in time zero retail association in the town or the state where that company might be interested in sponsoring, so all of a sudden now the retail Association is a competitor to the chamber? Or is there a Healthcare Association where the company could say, well, we wouldn’t have access to all these prospective buyers of our insurance product if we sponsored the Health Care Association or the hospital association. So there are those associations. There are an increasing number of for profit, especially on the state and national level for profit entities that are putting out webinars doing expos doing podcasts. And some companies are going that direction and reaching out to those entities. And I think among the biggest competitors, kind of the example I mentioned earlier, companies just doing their own webinars, yeah, within their own and that, you know, they used to be called kind of, you know, user group meetings and they were very techie and but now companies are realizing something that I learned from a an association Education Director a few years ago, the idea of educating the sell, not selling to educate so if companies either through the chamber or on their own can educate members with the idea that then they will gain some sales leads, that tends to be more successful than going out there and saying, Oh, we’re gonna go out there and get x number of sales leads. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 19:54
and I think this hits on an important point because there’s a The money for these things for sponsorships versus advertising could come from very different budgets. But when you look at a company like I’m thinking an example of a hospital, a hospital may be a major sponsor for a chamber for their annual banquet or just overall with their, you know, the highest tier membership program, but their your, your top sponsor, talk to your sponsor, but they could also use that several $1,000 and do a health fair in the parking lot of their hospital and it’s their own thing, and they draw their own crowd in. So being able to differentiate what’s your value proposition as a chamber? What sets us apart? Why do you want to associate with us as a chamber? What making it clear what the mission is of your chamber, the advocacy efforts that you’re involved with all the different benefits? Beyond, you know, you get your logo here, or we have this networking mixer in this, like, really, you got to set yourself apart? Because those dollars are competitive on where they’re going?

Bruce Rosenthal 21:05
Yep, absolutely. It’s, it’s, and I think that’s a good way to frame it, Brandon, that’s to start off by saying, yeah, there’s nothing wrong with our chamber. But let’s think of our chamber is not, not sole source, not the only game in town, there is competition. And let’s just embrace that, and have conversations with companies. And I found a great starting point and a great differentiator, instead of as we’ve done for many decades, and you know, chambers are special and unique and in a variety of ways. From the company standpoint, it’s just another organization asking for money. So, again, no disrespect to chambers, but from the when I talked to companies, and they say, we get 612 15 Different prospectuses to sponsor conferences, every mods, and they put them all in the same category. And unfortunately, sometimes that category is, is the Delete box or the wastebasket, because it just they all begin to look the same. And so many of them start off with, we need money, our members will be eternally grateful, because in London, right, our registration fees, and again, companies, it’s like, well, how does that help my company? So I think one great strategy, as organizations chambers, think about revamping your sponsorship program, schedule a meeting with a few of the companies that have been sponsors in the past, or who are bigger exhibitors that your conferences and events and have a conversation with them and not to sell anything. And I found by scheduling those calls with companies and starting off by saying, I have no prospectus here. I’m not selling anything today, I want to talk about your company. And all of a sudden, and I do a lot of these on Zoom, but all of a sudden, they become available. Yeah, cell phones go down, the pins go down. It’s like, read Bruce, that’s, let’s talk about that. And just ask questions. You know, what are your company’s business goals? What are your marketing goals, and to try to focus it not on tactics. So if the company were to say, as some will, oh, our tactic, we want an email list of all the Chamber members? Well, that’s a tactic. That’s nice. Let’s put that to the side for a minute. Tell us about your company’s goals. Because what we want to do is position and this can work whether the chamber has one staff person, or dozens of staff, people or anywhere in between, to help the company solve those problems. Because if we can come in as a problem solver, and not just someone else asking for money that we grew that month, that becomes a differentiator. So I’ve had companies, including companies that sponsor nationally and internationally say, we have been sponsoring, you know, we sponsor 50 Different organizations every year, nobody’s ever asked us what our business goals are. And in some cases, these are companies that are $100,000 sponsors, and that’s when you begin to think, are they going to continue being a sponsor, because, again, the competition, the other competition, that kind of ties in with social media is that companies can create their own lists now. So one of my colleagues was talking to a company and, again, we’ll scale this up to the national level, the company had a online community of 10,000 members of that association, that they had just nurtured over the last six, mostly since COVID, over the last couple years, by putting information on LinkedIn downloads of white papers, webinar attendees, and the company said, Well, now that we think about it kind of begs the question, do I need to be a sponsor of the association? Because I already have a list of 10,000 professionals in that space. So I think, again, I think that can be scaled down to the local level and chamber level also, companies can create their own lists, and they can reach me they can reach and teach through social media and zoom without the chamber being involved. Oh, no, I think it’s also important to add to that, that the big one of those those key value propositions that associate the Chamber’s have to offer is the brand affinity. So while those companies can go off out and do their own webinars and offer their white papers to do that, to co brand that to do it in conjunction with the chamber, I think is a huge plus and a great reason that companies would want to affiliate. Right.

Brandon Burton 25:28
And I think that goes right along with asking the right questions. So when you’re talking to these corporate sponsors, or potential past sponsors, or potential sponsors to be able to ask the right questions, see what their motives are See, those top three reasons of why businesses sponsor, where do they fall? And then what aligns best with their needs. Now, I’m curious, as far as a, for lack of a better term, a sponsorship package? Do you go in with a package? Or do you assess the needs and then create a sponsorship opportunity to fit the needs? Or what? What type of approach should chambers considers they have these conversations? And just how do they start the conversation at some of these businesses? Yeah, great, great

Bruce Rosenthal 26:17
question on what to offer. So I don’t do packages we. So I often start and chamber can do this on their own with their their staff, or they’re more thinking about what do we have to offer? What are the different communications channels? Do we have newsletters, conferences, podcasts? who are who are our audience? What who is our audience? And also can that audience be segmented? So if it’s a company that wants to reach folks based on a certain type of business, do they want to be retailers? Do they want to reach construction firms or whatever it is, because what I also find that in many cases, companies, and this is also an interesting model to think about on the national level. And Association says we have 20,000 members, you can reach 20,000, folks, we have 10,000, folks that come to our conference, and then I’ll talk to a company and they’ll say, Well, based on what we’re selling, we really want to reach 300 people, how do we find those 300 Out of the 10,000 at the conference with a 20,000? Membership. So this is a great example, I think it’s for chamber, smaller chambers, when you can segment the membership to reach the folks that each company wants to reach. But I usually start by thinking what are all the things that we could offer. And then to have that exploratory call with a company or two. And again, this is where it can easily be scaled. If you have a small staff reach out to one or two companies among if you have a larger staff, it’s like, well, let’s talk to a couple of companies a week, and to have these exploratory calls. And then kind of to go back to the office and sit down and say okay, so based on what the company said their goals and objectives are, what do we have to offer the word fulfill those goals. And that’s a very different approach than usual. Here’s a standard gold, silver bronze, because again, I’m talking to more and more companies that say as soon as they see gold, silver, bronze, delete, yeah, because it means everybody’s getting the same thing. So this model, which I think a lot of businesses should be able to appreciate, is much is very much what I call a marketing agency model. Because if any of us goes to a marketing agency, either the chamber or one of your members goes to a marketing agency, and says I need help marketing agencies don’t have gold silver bronze packages. And from a couple experiences I had with a marketing agency, the marketing agency asked me questions for an hour similar to these exploratory calls we were talking about a few minutes ago about what is your product? What is your service? Who is your competition? What are you trying to accomplish? Who do you sell to? Do you want to reach a segment of the market? And then at the end of that conversation with a marketing agency, I said, what can you do for us? And they said, we will schedule a meeting for you next week, because we’re going to take all this information, and we’re going to think about it. And we’re going to come back to you with a series of solutions, services, or what we would call in the chamber space benefits. What can you offer and it’s going to be different for every company that does they can complicate it. In a way when I talked to associations that implement that model, they actually find it easier than having 20 companies that all they everybody gets a logo placement and everybody get this there. It becomes very assembly line ish, which is a lot of moving pieces. And kind of back to your comment earlier. Brandon is logo placement even worth it? Maybe not. So sometimes you come up with here are two or three big things we could do with the company during the year as part of the customized year long. So there’s kind of the two key things companies are looking for customized in many cases year long. And if we can come back to them with solutions, that’s when we see sponsorship fees, that in some cases are 510 times more than what they paid in the past because also sometimes in the past I see paid for a lot of pieces. So I think also if one, were going to talk to a company, as a company been an exhibitor and an advertiser and bought an ad and our gala program, what are all the things they spend money on, and realize that well, that’s kind of the minimum of what they would pay. And if they actually came in with a solution to their challenges, we can probably charge a lot more.

Brandon Burton 30:20
So when I think of a chamber making this approach, and this is going to come to the responsibilities, I guess, with the staff members or board members who might be involved, but so over the last, we’ll say, I don’t know, six or eight years, there’s been a big trend for chambers to go to a tiered dues membership model. So you’ve got your basic membership that gives you access to certain things, you get the next tier and you get other benefits, and it keeps going up see gold, silver, bronze, yeah, like you’re talking about. And these chambers typically will have a membership director that’s there. They’re doing a membership sales are attracting new businesses. And I know there’s other chambers that take an approach specifically for sponsorships where they’ll do what they call a one ask. So once a year, they’ll go out to some of the bigger players in the community. And typically, it’s the chamber CEO or Executive Director that will go and meet with these, these larger companies and potential donors and have that one on one conversation and say, here’s everything that we have to offer. In our case, I’m not really sure how to ask this question, because I’m thinking there’s just such a variety of how chambers approached us and come to it. What’s the least messiest way to way to approach membership and sponsorships? In at the same time, or should it be separate? Or is there a way to do it together?

Bruce Rosenthal 31:59
Well, there are probably ways to do it together. And each chamber does their members the best. And if it’s a company that kind of makes it as a joint decision, but a couple thoughts come to mind. One is that I also often find with the big year law, corporate partners, useful to find out when they make that decision each year. Yeah. So whether it’s 10,000, or 110,000, or a half a million, that I’ve had experiences of going to companies and saying, oh, based on our organization’s fiscal year, here’s where we want to talk to you. And the company says, Well, I wish we had talked two months ago, because we set our budget two months ago for the coming year. Let’s talk next year. So if it’s going to be a bigger sponsorship discussion, I think useful to find out months or even what the company’s fiscal year is, when do they actually put pencil to paper and start? We’re working on the budget.

And I think the there was another thought I had as part of that, which I don’t recall right now. So it will come back to me. So

Brandon Burton 32:55
maybe it had to do with the membership side of it with aside from the sponsorship?

Bruce Rosenthal 33:01
Yeah, I think, again, it depends on each organization and how you’re approaching that. But I think it’s again, asking companies the question about what what are their? Well, I think you also mentioned kind of going in with with either packages I go in with with no paper, I can tell them nothing about the benefits, even if they start to say what is the circulation of the magazine? How many people attend the conference? It’s like, well, let’s talk about your business goals. And we will get back to you. Because I think once we start going down that rabbit hole of talking about for tactical things, we lose the discussion. I think the other conversation that can be a little different for her chambers is there is kind of this other pot of money, which which some companies have the chambers have been asked accessing. And that’s one of the corporate social responsibilities. So that’s hospitals, for example, that are supporting the chamber, not because they think they’ll get more patients or doctors to come to the hospital, because they believe it’s the right thing to do for the community. And so I think, you know, when you’re reaching out to companies and asking questions, like What is your decision making budget here? But also asking him Do you have a separate department that’s in charge of corporate social responsibility, because all of us are going on to those marketing folks. And whether it’s with that insurance brokerage agency or, or with the hospital, and we’re all going to the marketing folks ask them for money from from their small pot at the same time. And the opportunity with this what’s often called Corporate Social Responsibility, money that hospitals in some larger businesses have retail stores and others is that it’s everybody’s not asking for that money at the same time. So it’s a little easier to being lost in the shuffle there. And it’s a somewhat different criteria. The marketing folks are back to thinking what is the ROI am I going to get X number of new contracts or X number of new customers? If I support the chamber in this way At, or the hospital is like, well, we’ve seen the Chamber’s impact statement. You guys are doing great stuff. We want to support you. So I think it’s different conversations but similar, because I think there is always an advantage in having these exploratory calls, and showing empathy and interests. And wow, tell me more about those goals, whether they be sales goals or intellectual responsibility. Tell me about your goals, what’s working, what’s not working? What are the barriers? And that’s what I just find that I’ve had companies, I’m shocked, I’d never heard of this in the sales. And because we’re still basically kind of selling sponsorships, where companies will say, at the end of the call, wow, this was a great call, can we schedule another call, we didn’t get to cover it all in a half hour. And then I talked to kind of folks that are have expertise in sales, and they’re like, schedule 15 minute sales calls, you should be able to get it all done in 15 minutes. So I think when we bring companies in, and this is where we kind of shift from, I have a slide in some of my PowerPoints is that the word partner is a noun and a verb. And we often talk about corporate partners, oh, they’re our partner. But do we truly partner with them using partners as a verb, so when we can bring companies in. And we did talk about things since the beginning of this conversation about the revenue, which is definitely important, but there’s also a huge component around member value. So another way to kind of shift the way we’ve done things in the past, is to actually start with not even a conversation with companies. But what is the chamber need? What are our members need, and I have not found any association and the surveys back this up, including associations with 100 200, staff, people, nobody has enough staff time expertise or money to meet all of the members needs all the time. Right? So do Chamber members need to have new information on cybersecurity? Are women in leadership capacities, or D AI are? And then to go to companies and say, Well, you know, our members really need information about cybersecurity, could we partner with your company, to take some of your company’s expertise, not a sales pitch, and we don’t want to hear about your specific products, position, your company has that knowledge leader around cybersecurity, and do a series of webinars, podcasts, white papers, something as the conference during the year, and really position your company for success. So then you’re bringing in not only the revenue for the chamber, you’re bringing in information for members. So then you kind of tie that into membership recruitment, when you’re going out to recruit members, oh, we have this great year long education program around cybersecurity, because we heard this as what businesses in town really need, or whatever the topic is, but actually start with what do members need? Can we find companies with that expertise? And that’s where I find calling companies and not saying, Oh, our convention is coming up, or a conference or Expo is coming up? And in 60 days, do you want to gold, silver bronze sponsorship a calling and saying our members really did it for information on cybersecurity, I looked at your company’s website, I did some research, did some work on my end. So that your company as you know, some white papers and some videos about cybersecurity, can we talk? Those are the calls that get returned? And those are the meetings we can put together.

Brandon Burton 38:11
Right? I like that question. A lot of great points there. One I wanted to circle back with was on the corporate social responsibility. For chambers listening. I know there’s been buzz lately, about chambers having foundations, a lot of chambers have established foundations. And that’s where you can really tap into some of those buckets of social responsibility for these companies where it’s not coming out of marketing funds, it’s a totally different bucket. But having, especially if a foundation is something new and there is buzz in your community about the foundation and the work that it will support, it’ll be easier to open those doors to be able to have those conversations. And in the end, it’s all supporting the mission of the organization. So

Bruce Rosenthal 38:56
Right. That’s, and that’s that’s a good point, just to underscore that, that every relationship that we’re talking about with companies, whether it’s from their marketing, budget, sponsorship, or corporate social responsibility, should always kind of meet the two major criteria in alignment with the Chamber’s mission in meeting the needs of members. Right. And it doesn’t work all the time. If a company says, Wow, what we really want, we need an email list of all your members, and we want our logo front and center on the Chamber’s website for the next year. It’s like, sorry, that that’s not going to work. Yeah. Let’s talk about some other things or less. Or

Brandon Burton 39:31
here’s what it’ll cost to do that right. Well.

Bruce Rosenthal 39:35
Sometimes we get on a slippery slope if we compromise ourselves. So I think it’s also fine in some cases to say this doesn’t look like it’ll work right now. Maybe we can get together in another few months and talk again. Because it we definitely want to make sure and I think also because sometimes boards are a little skeptical. What about sponsors? Are we endorsing products? Are we aligning with the wrong companies? It’s like, No, we have a set of guidelines and you Here’s how we can work with companies. And I think also by having these exploratory calls with companies and then going back to the companies with ideas, yeah, we’re sure that they’re in alignment with our mission and our members needs. Because we’ve developed it. We as chamber leaders have developed that not going to the companies and saying, What do you want? Because then they start telling you what they want. And then we’re like, Oh, what do we do now? Because we can’t do that. So when we can go to companies, and I think we there are even ways I turned it around if a company does come and say, We want to list your members. And I try not to say no, but I’ll say, well, that’s interesting. Tell me about your objectives and goals around that. Not I mentioned, you want to list but why do you want to list and I’ve had a number of instances where where I’ve realized as part of the discussion, they really don’t want to listen to everybody that just kind of what they’re used to asking for. They want to reach a segment, or they want to be positioned for their expertise, some something and I’ll say, well, well, what if we help you do a webinar? And we’ll only introduce Chamber members who are whatever retailers are in the health space? How would that work for your company? And more than nine times out of 10? They’ll say, oh, yeah, that’s a great solution. And they’ll never ask about the mailing list again. Yeah. So if we can find when we can find out what a company’s goals and objectives are. And then find ways to work with in the context of the Chamber’s mission and member needs. So offer solutions. That’s the real though I always look for the win, win win. Members. First, it’s got to meet the needs of members, chambers, Max, if it provides more revenue for the chamber, and then when we can position, the company, the sponsor is the third when then that’s when it’s successful. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 41:40
Now, this has been some gold nuggets all over the place. So as we, as we start to wrap up here, Bruce, I wanted to ask for chambers listening who are interested in taking their organization to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you leave with them and trying to accomplish that goal? I’d

Bruce Rosenthal 42:02
say that for action steps, the first would be have conversations with companies. And based on your size and capacity, it could be reaching out to one or two companies start with the ones who have been supportive, or have had the, you know, bought the most number of ads during the year, whatever it is, however, you know, money’s always a good metric, the companies that have spent the most with the chamber, and it could be in terms of membership, as well as sponsorship and advertisers. And, and schedule a time to talk with them. And you might even start by saying we’re not selling anything today. Oh, and by the way, what’s what’s your budget year, we want to have this conversation when you’re working on your next budget, and have that conversation. And yet I find it as a huge differentiator, because most organizations aren’t doing that. And and then to kind of regroup internally and go back to the company and say, Well, we have some ideas and hard thing is often how do you price it but you know, look at what the company spent in the past. And, and you can probably increase it a significant amount. So I’ve seen organizations kind of on the national level, again, it can be scaled down. But companies, companies that have gone from a $5,000 conference sponsorship to the next year, a $40,000 year long partnership, because it has achieved. And I looked at one of the questions I may not have mentioned in these conversations with companies, ask them how they measure success. And they may be able to tell you, they may not. But again, I think it shows interest in empathy, because I’ve worked with companies like banks, where they say, Wait, if we get one new financial stake, this is finance financing as a result of his partnership with the chamber. that’ll pay the whole annual fee right there. Yeah. And if it’s a smaller marketing agency, they’re gonna say, wow, we’re gonna design a whole bunch of websites for local businesses to be able to pay for this sponsorship. So understanding who they want to reach and how they measure success. And I think most companies would be glad to answer that question. How do you measure success? And success should be in terms of, again, kind of objectives and results in that? You know, success is now we want the email list. So we can mail up, you know, 3000 brochures to your members or 500 brochures, who remembers that’s a tactic but, but what is kind of a business ROI success, and I also find companies are measuring a lot more than they used to. Yeah. And then they’re tracking every lead from the first conversation, the first touch point, the first downloadable white paper through the months until there’s a sale. So companies to a greater extent, I think this was partly just because we’re more data focused and things became more a lot online during the pandemic. Companies are measuring so I showing interest in empathy and saying, how do you measure how can we you know, if we have this Congress, if you become a sponsor, we come back over the months to talk about a renewal. What will be an indication of success for you and how can we help you with that? Right.

Brandon Burton 44:56
I like that. I like that question. With Bruce I A final question I like asking everybody that I have on the show is, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Bruce Rosenthal 45:10
I think for chambers and other nonprofit organizations, there’s a huge interest that companies have and companies are. Yeah, I think the opportunity for chambers that embrace a different sort of strategy for working with companies is has a lot of potential because I’ve talked to a lot of companies, and this is really over the last seven or eight years. So it’s not even specific to the pandemic, is that I’m talking to companies of all sizes, and they are saying, we are not cutting our sponsorship expenditures in the coming year. However, we’re cutting the number of organizations we sponsored by 30%. So again, that’s I don’t think there are too many companies that are going to be successful by cutting marketing budgets. So companies have a huge respect and want to support organizations and be aligned with the brand. So just one quick example, when I worked for an association, we had a year long corporate partner, they were sponsors of a major research study co branded with the Association. And what was interesting, the company did most of the research for that research study. And I looked at the different scenarios, and I thought, you know, they could decide to just publish that on their own. Yeah. Or they could co branded the reason they were like, and this is what will be at the scale it down to a smaller chamber level, but they were $160,000, sponsor of a national association. One of the key reasons they sponsored $460,000 was a co branding of that annual research study, which they did all the research they could have done around. So I think, you know, realizing that by having these engaging collaborative conversations with companies, bringing them in as partners is a huge differentiator, because companies value chambers, value, things like CO branding, being on panels, being invited as a thought leader, because I’ve talked to a lot of companies and associations I’ve worked with, and the company will say, you know, they call us a partner. But we’re a marketing agency. And I saw that the association did a webinar on marketing, and they never asked us to be on the panel. Yeah. Does it feel like a partner? Yeah. If I want to do that, I always said, Do you want our money? Or do you want our brains? Yeah. So kind of back to members need the information and the expertise. So again, if companies are going to be on that panel, they need to be coached, you’re not going to sell, you’re not going to put up your QR code. You can have that in the last slide or at the end or have a brochure if it’s in person to end at the end. But we want your expertise. Can you talk about marketing agency, how to design websites or how Chamber members can use LinkedIn or whatever without mentioning the name of your company that will be the educating to sell not selling to educate? So I think there’s huge potential because companies have sponsorship money to spend, but they’re going to spend it on fewer organizations where they

Brandon Burton 48:05
see value. Yeah, absolutely. But Bruce, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect or learn more about some of this that you shared today or just dive in deeper what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Bruce Rosenthal 48:20
Great well name again is Bruce Rosenthal, and I’m on LinkedIn and post there pretty regularly a couple times a week with sponsorships success ideas, and my website is BruceRosenthal.associates. br uc EROSE, e n t h a l dot Associates, and there’s some white papers there some webinar recordings and then there’s a calendar with listing of upcoming webinars and speaking that I’ll be doing so a lot of resources for chambers.

Brandon Burton 48:51
Yeah, that’s great. We will get that in our show notes for this episode make it easy to find but, Bruce, this has been a blast having you on chamber tap podcast. I appreciate you setting aside some time and sharing some of your expertise and experience that you’ve learned throughout your career. As to corporate sponsorships. This has been a valuable episode and I appreciate your time.

Bruce Rosenthal 49:12
Right always planned to talk about sponsorship success.

Brandon Burton 49:16
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Mergers, Acquisitions, & Affiliations with Arthur Havlicek

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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.

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
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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.

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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
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Workforce Training Center with Jeannie Hebert

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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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Our guest for this episode is Jeannie Hiebert. Jeannie has been President and CEO the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce in Massachusetts for 15 years. Under her leadership that BVCC has grown and developed into a chamber that works hard for business and the economic vitality of the region. often dubbed the queen of collaboration. Jeannie sits on several business and community boards and meets regularly with local state and federal legislators to make sure the valley voice is heard, and funding is appropriated to support their economic development and small businesses. Since her reign, the BVCC has become known as the go to place and resource for business owners and entrepreneurs to find assistance and funding to grow and develop their business. She has been honored with several awards, including the central Massachusetts outstanding woman in business power 50 manufacturing champion and Central Massachusetts economic development leader. Through her guidance, the Chamber secured over $1 million in funding to build the Blackstone Valley hub for workforce development. A Workforce Training Center located in the Chamber’s Linwood mill building, offering classes focused on advanced manufacturing. These certificate courses are offered to students of all ages throughout Central Massachusetts to help close the work skills gap and provide skilled workers to the region’s employers. Jeannie, I’m excited to have you with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Jeannie Hebert 3:43
Here, Brandon, thank you. I’m excited to be here today. Hello to everyone, all of our chamber colleagues there. And I am also an animal rights activist and help with rescuing animals in need. I do have you know dogs of my own. But I did rescue for African elephants. And they lived with me for two years. And we were able to secure some good homes for them. One of them Willie my favorite. He was the largest working African elephant in North America. And we found him a great home at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. So I used to go visit Willie there. So they were wonderful animals. It was a once in a lifetime experience. And I’m happy that we were able to find good homes for them because they had a terrible beginning.

Brandon Burton 4:41
So I have to say this is a first year the first guest on the podcast who’s rescued an elephant let alone for so. That is amazing. And I’m sure the stories about these elephants could go on for days. Lots of a unique experience. As a fan, I’m sure

Jeannie Hebert 5:01
they’re a unique experience they very intelligent, fun animals. One fun fact is I used to, you know, we used to wash them in the morning. And I would spray them with the hose. Use that big, big brush that you use when you wash your car, then grab the leaf blower to dry them before they would roll in the dirt and get dirty again. And invariably when I put the hose down, another one of the elephants would pick it up in their trunk, and they would spray me I thought that was a funny thing.

Brandon Burton 5:35
They got a sense of humor.

Jeannie Hebert 5:38
sensitive when we interacted very well, they were they were like my kids. So I missed them terribly. But they they needed to be in places where people who were better to take care of that could happen. So they had good lives. Awesome.

Brandon Burton 5:54
Awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about the Blackstone Valley Chamber. Just give us an idea of the size of the chamber scope of work, you guys are involved with staff budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the table for our discussion today.

Jeannie Hebert 6:09
Sure. Our chamber we have about 500 members. We were very active, we mean business and we listened well. We we listened to the needs of our members. And we’re very proactive in meeting their needs. That’s how the hub came about. We our service area is 13 towns from Worcester, Massachusetts, which is the second largest city in New England, to the Rhode Island border, just to kind of give you an idea of where we are central mass is kind of cow. It’s the belt to the middle of Massachusetts. And we work with everyone in Massachusetts. We collaborate a lot, you know, Queen of collaboration. But there is a field gap across the state and I think across the nation, really. And we found that a lot of the covenants of vocational schools because of a program we have here called the MKS. That funding is attached to it. So why are the MCAT scores on the more funding the schools are getting? So vocational schools have unfortunately changed their covenant and they are accepting more epidemic with superior students over vocational and superior students and the public schools. You have an influx of students who really want vocational training, they’re looking to go to work, and they’re not able to get it at public school level. So when we found this out and working with many of our manufacturers, the Blackstone Valley is the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, who Samuel Slater, who came here and started textile mills. And the mill is actually where we are, it’s a converted former textile mill of the whitened family. We’re in Waynesville named after that family, when we we would run the job fairs like everybody dies, and, you know, help them and it just wasn’t working. They weren’t getting skilled labor. And I was hearing, you know, I didn’t know this work, I have to turn it down. So when I found out that this was happening at the vocational level, I spoke with our legislators started doing some digging. And we were able to secure some funding from the Department of Education, and took on the legislation set the chamber, we take on the task to build a workforce training manager and said, yes, so long behold, we took over part of the middle, we didn’t build that out. And we have a design lab, we’ll hang on filling computers with CAD, and we have computer lab and we have a great fabrication laboratory. And it has 3d printers, augmented welding. We have mills and lane that start out with manual and it also has the coding, but the students learn how to use them manually. And they learn how to code. And we’ve recently just taken over the other end of the mill and put in a full electronics learn. And we’re building our robotics lab right now. So we’re meeting as the needs of our members change and evolve. We are meeting their needs well over now. million dollars in investment now.

Brandon Burton 10:02
And it’s typically for the hub,

Jeannie Hebert 10:04
specifically for the hub, but it helps us to grow our chamber. Because we’re training the workforce for many years, our members, and even those that are outside of our region support our chamber because of that constant with other chambers.

Brandon Burton 10:26
So I’m curious staff size, when you take on a project like this, just for all the chambers listening like this sounds great, but I’m sure she’s got like a huge staff to take this on. Right. So what is your staff size look like? The chamber

Jeannie Hebert 10:38
staff, there’s three of us. Okay, okay. And for a while. for probably a year when we were dealing with the billing, and so forth, there was no other staff. So I was doing two jobs, and it was exhausting. But it was very rewarding. But once the school was able to open, and we were ready to accept students, I hired an executive director, or the third Executive Director right now. She’s amazing. Um, I now have an operations director. He’s amazing. He’s, I’ve been tapping into retirement pool. He’s a retired engineer that worked in was head of Northeast for Thermo Fisher. So he’s got a wealth of information. And honestly, he can take anything from it to put a lock on a door for losing meeting diverged. In Bob ovens, our Executive Director, Ashley Bregman. She is a graduate of WPM, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. And she was also teaching robotics. She’s has an engineering degree, obviously, academic or teaching. So she’s perfect as an executive director. And we have several teachers, Instructor of some are retired vocational teachers. And some teach at night when we for the night courses, and they teach at the local vocational school. And one is an engineering teacher at one of our high schools. And we’re growing to the point where we’re building campuses in our high schools in the area, we’re up to 22 districts. So obviously, we’re working with high schools, but it’s not that we’re servicing. And we also teach incumbent workers. So some of the manufacturers who hire people with no skills, we listen to them, and we build a custom curriculum for them. And they will send their workers to us. And we do like a six or 12 week course for them. So when they go back, and they still work that you know, it’s worth studying. But when they finish their course and get their certifications, they’re more than an entry level here or mid level. Yeah, it really makes a big difference for them. So in the fall right now, because this year, Nast mass fire, who handles all the career, work with people who were looking for Jones, across the state awarded us the Youth Works grant, which means we’re now working with 16 to 23 year olds who are in a disadvantaged financial state, to their families. And we find them jobs and almost apprentice programs. We do have an apprentice program too. So we hired people to handle that under the umbrella. And we just received the connecting activities grant, which is K through 12. So now we’re working with elementary school students too. So we have at the hub 15 employees now running the hub, thank goodness, I would need to never ever sleep again. And we threes that work at the Chamber, but we interact all the time. So it’s, you know, it’s one big family, and we were growing so fast. At one point, someone would come in and like go Who is that? What is this name? What was this?

Brandon Burton 14:36
Do? Yeah, that’s great. Well, that definitely that helps to set the table for more of our discussion. I’ve got a lot of follow up questions for you about the hub and we’ll dive deeper into this in the whole topic of developing a workforce training center as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Donna Novitsky 16:40
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Brandon Burton 17:34
All right, we’re back. So let’s dive in deeper. I want to know more. So tell us your when did the idea get presented to you for developing the hub? How did things unfold to see the vision come to pass? Well,

Jeannie Hebert 17:52
we’ve been open and seeing students for five years now. But it took a good two years to get it going. Because we weren’t quite sure what we were going to do. We knew there was a huge problem, especially in our area. For our you know, manufacturers just couldn’t find any employees and we’re in, as I said, job fairs were not working at all. It just wasn’t working. And I went to a skills America conference at the vocational school. And the superintendent, there was bragging that 90% of his students were going to college. And then I went what’s going on here? And I spoke with one of the students who was given who had a display on being electrician and I said, Oh, why are you going to be electrician? Because that week I want a grid. I like to have an electrician in my office crying because he’s done pretty good in Okay, location of school that he wanted to pass. And, you know, they were telling us they had a waitlist of six months students. And I talked to that student and I said, Oh, you’re gonna be an electrician. Oh, I’m going to Cornell. I’m going into sports medicine. Oh my god. You took up four years that that gentleman son could have had to become an electrician. So you know, a light bulb went off and said we need we need an we need somewhere where these students that the public school system parents that can go for training because the superintendents were telling me they didn’t know what to do with these students that will be coming discipline problems. They didn’t have the vocational training that the students wanted. The dropout rate was going up. So we aligned ourselves in office and I went to the legislators told them the problem. We have great legislators very approachable in our area. And we put together a plan And they connected me with our patients Department of Education. We applied for a work skills grant. And our first one skills Grant was half a million dollars. And we, you know, put together a plan to do the build out. It takes it does take a village, it really does. I mean, I can say, Oh, I built a school. I didn’t do it alone, and had a lot of help. And it was a process and even the middle owner. You know, our landlord was very understanding, very cooperative. And we all work together, and everyone was looking forward to it. They came together, I had some naysayers. I have one very prominent business person, say to me, you’re a dreamer. It’s never gonna happen. This is not going to work. So when, when I got last year, I got the manufacturing Champion award. I said, you know, I told that story. And I actually have a little locket that, like, my significant other gave me that people say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. And I said that to, to the audience, it was all out there. Most of the manufacturers told them a dream or been looking at, you know, I can see. Yeah, you know, span, so that really fit in perfectly. But, you know, that’s how it started. And we’re growing like crazy. And it’s wonderful to see these students, they come to us dejected, because they couldn’t get into the school they wanted to get into. And when they learn the skill, then amazing picture. They just have that vocation. And the brain is wired, for whatever it might be the body aches or electronics or CNC machining or, you know, developing coding, CAD, and we even have a shop where they we have businesses come to us that want merchandise, personalized, we’ve believed a quarter and upstream we have I hate to say it, but our biggest customers in the cannabis industry distilleries and breweries, they went through classes to action, the cannabis industry, they want human doors with their logo on it. So the kids do that. And then they buy from us and the money goes back into school and help to, you know, pay for another student. So it’s terrific.

Brandon Burton 22:31
Face the mill, you had mentioned it is a previous manufacturing mill, before you guys moved in with the hub, was it actively being used before then had it sat vacant for a while, like what was the the revitalization of the the space? How did that look?

Jeannie Hebert 22:51
That was very interesting, because that bill was that mill was slated to be demolished. So ironically, we were located in the same town but a few streets over in another building. And we worked with the our landlord, now the mill owner to connect him with an amazing grant writer. And they were able to get a grant and start renovating. It was a cartel. Everybody else fell away except for these two people bill and Patti gianopolous, who believed in the project. And they partnered with another organization for over 55 subsidized housing. So above us three floors above us is over 55 subsidized housing. And I have an interesting story. They are how we interact with them. But it’s it came together over a period of I think two and a half years that they were able to renovate the mill. It’s beautiful. It has great architectural elements for big, huge wooden beams that have all been sanded so that they’re natural. Now, you know, they they were painted that hospital clean beautiful granite and brick in the windows of huge and it’s just really, really lovely. So they’re above us were below and we said why don’t we move in the mill and we moved into the new in 2016. And then 2018 We started the school. So a lot of history and had the elements or pictures of what it was. And there’s several mills in the town that were in northbridge and throughout the valley, and a lot of them were owned by the whitened family. And so our area of North there just called whiteness fell. So it’s really beautiful. It has a tower or any house out which is It’s a cute little shop now. So it’s, it’s, it’s bustling. We have. We’re there. We at the school, we have a physical therapy, we have a gym, we have a barbershop that’s run by naturalized citizens, former immigrants, and we’ve just helped them with their expanding. We have Girls on the Run. We have we were named the National Park by President Obama. So we have our rangers are there that national heritage corridor and the National Park is located there. So the national park rangers have a brewery in one of the other buildings because there’s a number of buildings usually. So it’s a pretty busy place. Oh, and beautiful woman owned business. That is a crepe or a company is another modern day Helsinki. And it’s a great little restaurant that’s been restored and invest. You know, it looks industrial. But it’s so it’s a unique place. And it’s a wonderful gathering place for the community interaction. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 26:16
that sounds awesome. So as you’re talking about how it came to be, it sounds like in the collaboration, I see where you get the title mokwena collaboration, but to be able to have, you know, somebody who’s familiar with grant writing, to be able to help see a vision and help bring things together to to see these things come, you know, kind of unfold and come together. Two of the things I wanted to ask you about, you’ve mentioned them, but I wanted to dig in just a little bit more. So there’s these certificate programs that the students come through, I imagine that there are varying lengths depending on what their focus of work is. So if you could touch on that, and then also touch on how you work with the schools, you had mentioned the K through 12. Now with these districts, what does that look like with those relationships and, and interacting with them?

Jeannie Hebert 27:06
Sure, well, the certificate programs are varied, some are custom that we utilize for incumbent workers. And some are standardized. Like we have, as I said, the Miller augmented augmented welding, that’s six to 12 week course, depending upon the type of welding, but it’s industry accepted, we would not have purchased them if our manufacturers didn’t try them out and say, oh, yeah, this is just like real world. And they do after they get their certificate, we bring them to one of our couple of our partners yr fab and package steel systems, who make metal buildings, all for all over the world. And invariably, they will say to the students are so come see me, you know that so they have great skills. So that’s one certificate we have. We have an OSHA, obviously, we do OSHA 10, everybody gets an OSHA 10. Everyone, we have a reentry program as well with the sheriff’s department. So we start teaching OSHA in the jail before they’re released. And when they’re released, they come to the school, and they get hands on training, that everybody gets OSHA training, we have what’s called Mecalac, which is a Massachusetts certificate, and it’s through mas MEP, which is manufacturing extension partnership. So this brings you through all of the steps of what manufacturing needs, like would have shot now. It would teach measurements, believe it or not, we’re finding graduates of high school have no idea how to use tape or read a tape measure or ruler. And they cannot even tell turn on the clock unless it’s digital. If you say to them, it’s quarter. They’ll go and they don’t know what that is. We had one guidance counselor say they had a disqualifying when they were monitoring the number six certificate examinations, because he pulled out his phone and I said, take out your phone. He said I wanted to see what time it was. They said there’s a clock on the wall. He said I can’t read it. No one ever taught me how to read. Like when we went to school first grade, they had the clock remember you

Brandon Burton 29:37
missing the mark somewhere, right? Yeah, I remember. I remember doing worksheets like that. Yeah. Don’t

Jeannie Hebert 29:42
do that. More than he is on job no more curse if they can’t. I was talking to a business that we were helping out. yesterday. She it’s called hair jewelry. She’s an archaeologist and she had an intern from one of the quality If he didn’t know how they couldn’t read the report from the patient because they didn’t know how to read cursive, so we’re really missing the mark in our schools. So these are the things that we try to address. But back to the certifications, we have those certifications with custom certifications. And then at some of the campuses that thought like Brookdale campus, which is one of our close up spirit campus, which is another one of our towns, their certifications. outsprinting is focusing on carpentry. Newbury is also property Hopedale, a cyber security. So we get certifications for those types of industries where the students are learning we even started, we help them get and I always say this wrong. And in a Tom baton, table, virtual. It’s almost like mines, US operations,

Brandon Burton 30:59
operators. That’s how I was gonna guess when you said that? Yeah, it’s a real body,

Jeannie Hebert 31:03
but they have a human meaning male, human woman, dog, cat, rather, Frog, which I love, because now they might have dissected me animals. But it’s very realistic. Students were showing me their skills. And I said, I was getting woozy and you’re doing a great job, right? I gotta go to the next. It’s like, Oh, yeah. That table alone costs $100,000. So we were able to help the school right grant, so that they have that. So Arginine is we helped a lot of the schools get DNS. So maybe you go to help deal, but you want to take manufactory. So you have to close the hub, or maybe your middle bring you to market sure you want to do you know, introduction to some kind of medical research. And that’s it helped. So we do is we’ll move the kids around. So they will take these courses together. The one principal said to me, it was hilarious. He goes, Yeah, these kids are all working together in class. And then on the weekend, they beat the heck out of each other on the football field. Because that’s great. So we put classes together, not necessarily by school, but on a subject. So the students get to even try it out, we’ll do a trial. You know, they’ll come and say, Oh, I think I want to do this. And they might try it and so on. That’s not Well, maybe you want to try that? Oh, yeah, that’s a better fit for me. So we do that, too. So that’s so it’s some of the certifications that we offer, I’m sure there’s a lot more that escapes me right now. But the K through 12 that we had the smaller kids, I think a good example would be rewarded grant kind of nothing for the energies that it was for younger kids to learn about engineering. So we had camp over the summer. And kids would come in the morning, and they’ll have a little bite to eat. And then they would learn about engineering and mechatronics and robotics and make make something. Mr. Evans, our engineer ran this program. So they’d make something and they put it all together, they do it on the computer, and they’d make it. And he would say to them, did you have fun? You know, you did you know what that was? Well, they have engineering. And the robotics is we have these really cute little robot, these, this is very key in first, and second graders, paying them. And they were like, they know, control robots, but they had to program them to make them work. And they were able to do that. And we have these little robots that look a little Michael Jackson, they had a damn thing. They were dancing with each other. And they were doing tasks and picking things out, handing them to each other. But it’s a natural for these kids. They blow me away. And it’s amazing. And then some of the middle school kids, we had codons, which are cooperatives are going to occur in an industry. They do the stuff where people say, Oh, robots are gonna take my job. Well, did you really want to keep ticking boxes and putting them here? You know, you don’t want to do that. You want to be the one telling the robots to do that. Use your brain. So what these students were doing, I went in after they kind of let a they taught them how to work, how to program them. They could like Legos out so they could build make the robots build. And then I they had free time. So I went in and they began to have the robots and they can like be stitched in Your hands. And I go, What are you doing the courts very proud of their sword fighting.

So I mean, this is a concept thing, maybe learn through having fun, but it’s part of what they would do in a job situation, they would have to program the robots to do a task. And some of them have 345 robots interacting with each other and completing a task. And that’s pretty complicated. For like, an eighth grader, too. So I just like I said, they blow me away. One of the older kids, it was a birthday, what’s what was like three of them, they came in, and they gave me these beautiful stainless steel shakers that had an unusual shape, then you throw them on the machine. And they gave her to me, it’s a birthday gift. And they said, Missmiss look, we even put pain on the top. So you can tell which is which. program that and have the drill press drill, drill it, and then had Christmas was just from a piece of aluminum or stainless steel that they had. And they design them themselves and made those, then it was just amazing that they did pocket some of the kids from shoestring High School, which is my hometown, they were making Christmas ornaments out of brought up some of the metal and like drill guns, and they were beautiful. And then they made dreidels to the trails are gorgeous, they were intricate, they were terrific. So it was, you know, it’s a fun, fun thing to learn. But while they’re learning there, we say to them, you’re an engineer, you just love

Brandon Burton 36:55
that. I love it, they have these opportunities, and they get that confidence and explore these these future career opportunities. This is such a invaluable resource for your community. So applaud and Pat, pat on the back to you guys and your team for for executing this and integrating it into the schools as well.

Jeannie Hebert 37:14
Thank you. We have a great team. We really do. I’m really fortunate really blessed. Yeah, yeah.

Brandon Burton 37:19
So as we start to wrap up, I wanted to ask if, if you might have any tips or action items for chamber folks that are listening, who want to take their chamber up to the next level? What might you offer for them? Well,

Jeannie Hebert 37:34
I think you know, you need to listen to your members, which you know, most of my chamber colleagues do. Every region is different. What works for me might not work for you. But if you listen to what your members need, or what your municipalities are your region, we work very closely with all of our municipalities and our legislators in and listen and get advice on how to meet those needs. And then you know, collaborate with the great resources that you have in your region, we have wonderful educational institution, terrific educators, innovative people on and, you know, we’ve worked together and they’re not afraid to roll up their sleeves and work. So I think, you know, sometimes you look at a project and you think that’s really daunting. But when you you know, I hate this analogy, but how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

Brandon Burton 38:37
Especially after your introduction today, no, no elephants on the table.

Jeannie Hebert 38:43
And your chamber will grow. We are gaining members inside and outside our region. Because of the services that we provide, and I’m not stealing numbers from anyone, what we do is, if I see that I’m getting a number of members, someone, you know, reaching out to me, I reach out to that chamber and say, You know what, I’ve got like five industry people that have come to me, why don’t we do a collaboration and we have an affiliation with like seven other chambers, and will offer a discount, but you have to be a member of the region’s chamber first. And then I’ll give you this note to join us. And we’ll provide everything but we do provide a lot of services without membership to and I know that I get criticized from some chambers for that, but it comes back, you know, comes around and it’s a pleasure for me to work with a number of people to help them and you know, it’s great to work together but no, just listen to your members or You read and see what the needs are and think about and seek out people with resources that I can drop in on how to develop focus to meet those who

Brandon Burton 40:11
have that so important. As we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Jeannie Hebert 40:22
I think we’re going to have to really prove that we are a worthy organization. And you know, we’re going to, to be a good resource for your members. It’s not, as we all know, already, I’m preaching to the choir here. It’s not like the inundating myself, the fog of news best attitude where Jimmy Anderson would say, I’m going to the chamber dinner, you know, like everyone already knew how to join the Chamber of Commerce. There’s too many people into the new organizations billing for the that dues that dues revenue, and I don’t think that dues revenue is going to be our is already isn’t our main revenue stream, we have to find other revenue streams. And it’s going to be to run instances

Brandon Burton 41:21
of it. Good advice. Jeanne, I want to do give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and maybe learn a little bit more about the hub and how you guys went about this, this great big project, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Jeannie Hebert 41:44
Well, through email, which is jhebert@blackstonevalley.org. So that’s email. And if you want to learn about, you can go to our website, which is BlackstoneValley.org. And you can also check out The Hub at be thehub.org. And if you go to our website, there’s a tab and it’ll bring you right over to the hub. And I’m happy to share any information to help with anything, any resources and, you know, whatever we can do to help you with programs. And if you want to take on a project like this to go get them and we’ll help you every any way I can.

Brandon Burton 42:42
I love it. Thank you so much. So this has been great having you on the podcast today. I love getting these insights from chambers that have taken on a unique projects and have a neat approach to it. revitalizing a building that was set to be torn down and really changed the outlook of the community. I love it. But thank you for being with us today and sharing these experiences and insight and, and I’m hoping it gave you know a few people out there that drive to take on some of those big hairy audacious goals. Thank you for being with us today.

Jeannie Hebert 43:15
Thank you very much. Thanks Brandon for the opportunity we really appreciate you’ve ever thought my way I’d love to give me a tour.

Brandon Burton 43:22
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Next Level of Chamber with Donny Jones

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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.

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

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Our guest for this episode is Donny Jones. Donny is the Executive Vice President for The Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama and the chief Workforce Development Officer for West Alabama Works. He’s responsible for the daily operations of the chamber including financial management and information technology and manages a contractual relationships with vendors and professional service providers. Donny is instrumental in ensuring that the regional workforce systems leverage federal state resources to develop and grow the necessary K through 12 and adult training pipelines to support the current and future workforce. He is a former appointed Member of the governor’s workforce Council, and is currently an appointed Member of the Alabama Workforce Board where he serves on the executive committee and Policy Committee and appointed Member of the governor’s Career Technical Education Task Force to enhance the CTE curriculum and appointed Officer the Alabama committee of credentialing and career pathways and appointed member of the committee for Grade Level Reading. The Governor’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities awarded Donny the Public Service Award for West Alabama and 2019 and 2022. He received his accreditation as a CCE a distinction that less than 4% of leaders in the chamber profession hold. He serves on the board of directors for the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, Tuscaloosa Educational Foundation, ACC foundation board, as well as other committees and ACCE boards. He also worships and teaches at five points Baptist Church reserves as Deacon he’s most known as a husband of Clara is a 29 year educator and father to Carson and Carter, the dining Welcome to chamber tap Podcast. I’m excited to have you with us today on the show and love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions and share something interesting about yourself.

Donny Jones 3:53
Absolutely. Well, as you can see, I don’t do much but chamber work and work in the community. So but I am a one of the things that I tell people is very interested in the in the chamber world, I don’t play golf. And so I’m one of the only chamber execs you’ll ever made that has never played golf. But I do have four animals that are in the record books that I’ve killed with my bow across the country. So with that being said, most of my board members never mess with me. So anyway, a lot of really cool things are happening in our area. Of course, if you guys have seen the NFL another cool tidbit about our chamber is you probably saw the number one pick with the NFL last night. Jalen is actually right down the street from us or has been his career at the University of Alabama where our chamber is actually just right on the edge of the campus. So a couple of interesting things about us and myself.

Brandon Burton 4:56
That’s right and as we record this, that’s end of April 2020 Three. And then to add on to that this morning, my son is getting ready for school and he tells me yeah, this is the first time that an Alabama players been taken number one overall in the draft. And he’s a big history buff of any sort. So you know, little tidbits like that just really geek him out. So plastic? Well, why don’t you tell us a little bit more about the Alabama Regional Chamber and just kind of how you guys are structured scope of work, you guys are involved with size of the chamber staff budget, that sort of thing to kind of set the stage?

Donny Jones 5:33
Absolutely, we’re, uh, we’re sometimes a little cold, a little different as a chamber, we’re actually the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce, we serve as nine counties on the western part of the state of Alabama around seven counties. So square foot mileage is about 7500 square miles, our chamber has around 1300 members, and those are all business members, we don’t do individual memberships, representing about 65,000 employees. One of the things that is a little different is we’re the Regional Chamber of Commerce. So today, you’re talking to the executive vice president. Also, we’re the regional workforce Council, Alabama has seven regional councils across the state of Alabama, which is really a sounding board for workforce for industry. We are housed within the chamber, there were the fiscal and managing agents for that. And we’re also the regional workforce board, if you’re familiar with WIOA, and the federal dollars, so and I’m the Executive Director for both of those organizations. So we really have two large boards that work together, our Workforce Board, which is called the West Alabama Works Board, and then our chamber of commerce board. And so simultaneously, we’re always working together and actually who we are, as an organization is one of the largest collaboratives, when it comes to meeting the needs of businesses through that our budget on the chamber side is roughly about two and a half million dollars. And then on the workforce side, which is in combination, it would be close to $4 million organization. So we’re at right now 24 employees, 15 of those employees actually are full time workforce specialists. So as you can see, workforce is the largest portion of our organization. And really, we focus on that as one of our primary objectives to deliver services to our business community, because as you know, workforce is the largest issue that a lot of our businesses are facing. So that’s a little bit about our chamber. And in our services, yeah,

Brandon Burton 7:48
that workforce is always important, but right now is definitely you know, cuts the workout for you with the workforce shortages and just, you know, shifting in the economy in that in that front. But as we focus in on our topic for our discussion today, we settled on the idea of talking about next level of chambers and and this topic intrigues me because chambers are constantly looking to see what’s the next thing that we need to do to be relevant, right? How do we as we look to the future, how are we being relevant? How are we making an impact in our communities, and I feel like we’re going to be touching a lot on that and our conversation today so we will dive in deep on this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Hey, this is Donna. Yiftee community cards are free for you, free for your members and they bring lots of new sales and foot traffic into your local shops and restaurants. But don’t take it from me. Here’s Siobhan from Truckee, California to tell you about her program.

Siobhan Kenney 10:25

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Donna Novitsky 10:56

Thanks Siobhan. If you’d like to join Truckee in supporting the shop local movement, check us out yiftee.com or send an email to sales@yiftee.com.

Brandon Burton 11:09
All right, Donny, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about next level of chamber. So tell me what does that mean for you guys there, West Alabama. And as you guys have looked at this scenario, as just, you know, staying relevant and and keeping the chamber in the forefront of the community there. What’s the approach that you guys are taking?

Donny Jones 11:30
Well, let me maybe the best way to tell you this is is the tail of an opportunity that I had this past week to have dinner with one of New York, New York Times bestselling author, Andy Andrews. I don’t know if you know that in traveller. Yeah, absolutely. And the butterfly effect and all that. So, so we were having dinner, he was speaking to a group and, and he said this, he said, you know, the difference, you know, and a lot of people are reading the book, Good to Great. And he said nothing against that book. But everybody is using that now as the Bible of you know, How to Win Friends and Influence People, as 20 years ago. And he said, you know, the problem is, is many of us are trying to go from good to great doing the things that we do, and have always done but doing better and doing better than our competitor. He said, What happens if an organization actually actually looked at doing things completely, in a different way, and looking at it a completely different way of doing business? And he said, That’s really where he’s coming from, as he was saying that I was like, wow, that is exactly what our chamber of commerce, and our focus has been, for so many years, you know, it was, you know, go to chamber Institute and learn more about what other chambers are doing and best practices. But if you really look at that 90% of the time is the best practices of the same things that you’re doing, just trying to find a better way of doing it. And so what we looked at is we said, you know, what, what is our number one key issue for our members out of our 1300? Members? What is the number one issue? And as I’m speaking to different groups across the country? That’s one of the things I asked that question. And I’ll be in a group and I’ll say, How many of you guys as chamber professionals, and your chamber? How many of you do a capital campaign? In a majority of, you know, middle, middle sized or larger chambers do some type of capital campaign, they’ll raise their hand? And then I’ll say, How many of you, in this room did a survey of your business community as you were doing a capital campaign? Well, everybody raises their hand, right? And then I asked the question, how many of you was workforce? One of the key components and an underlying issue that none of them could solve? And had an answer for? A No, everybody kind of look around, look at each other. And then, you know, you’d see hands go up really slow, but most of the hands came up. And then I asked the simple question. How many of you, if that is the number one issue in your community, or one of the top three, have the majority of your staff focused on meeting that need? Not one chamber, except our president that’s in the room, usually, when I’m speaking raises their hand. Because when we look at we’re talking all the time to our small businesses and our industries that we we help and we say, listen to what your customer says, and then meet that need. But yeah, as chambers, we try to get our members to do what we think they need to do as engaging into our organization instead of going out and doing what they need and actually being the voice of business. Now, I’ll be honest with you, Brandon, one of the things as I’m talking about that, it raises the hair on a lot of chamber execs Next, because they’re like, well, by God, what so that’s what we’ve always done. And that’s how we’re gonna do it. I’m like, That’s great. That’s why dinosaurs died. That’s right. So if you look at membership organizations, not just chambers, but when you look at, you know, trade organizations and everything, everyone is struggling with membership, and the digression, I guess, of membership. And then also, you know, we also have best practices don’t know if anybody’s been to their state organizations, or ACCE or US Chamber. And you know, they’ll have a session that says, best 30 ideas, and 30 seconds, or whatever it is. And so they’ll go in there. And there’ll be 100,000 ideas of how to do the same thing the same way, but just put a different makeup on a pig and make it look different. But it’s the same deliverable. And, you know, there are some ideas, and I don’t mean to cut that short, because you can get great ideas, I love those sessions. But at the end of the day, when you look at your structure of the chamber, you know, are you still doing the same things? And so as you see these national trends of of less sponsorship dollars, of being more innovated, how do you, you know, I had somebody one time, say, you know, what, if, if I could sponsor my toilet paper, I put a business’s logo on there, we’re just trying to find more ways that our golf tournaments at our chamber and sessions at this than the other to do those kinds of things. And what it’s doing is, you can only do so much with a product. And then what happens is you degrade it so much that people aren’t really wanting to buy, right. And so what we’re looking at, and what we have done is said, You know what, we’re gonna focus on the number one issue. And in our region, it was workforce development. And so we still do the bread and butter place, don’t get me wrong, we still block and tackle, we still do the networking events, we still do the chamber and sessions, we still do the directories, we do all those things. But our focus really is on helping our businesses grow. And one of their biggest issues in a community where our unemployment rate right now is 1.8%. You know, and our companies are growing, and they’re bleeding at the same time. And so we’re really focused on that. So 15 of our staff members, or really 17 of our staff members are focused every day waking up, meeting that one need. And education and workforce development is where we really focus on, right.

Brandon Burton 17:32
So as you’re explaining all this, to me, it makes perfect sense. And as I think of chambers across the country, I think sometimes they get a little constrained when they think everything we have to do has to be mission focused. And then they go back and look at their mission statement. And well, our mission statement doesn’t say anything about workforce necessarily, you know, so maybe they’ve pigeon holed themselves too much by defining their mission statement. Rather than being that voice of business, and constantly just looking to see what the, what the next thing is they need to do to help businesses be successful and to build a stronger community. So I guess it may be a word of warning, I guess, as you as you drafted your next mission statement to, to look at that what what’s going to leave you that flexibility to be able to pivot and to be able to listen to the needs of your members. And what’s their number one, number two, number three needs that they’re facing? And how can you as a voice of business, step in to help them solve those issues.

Donny Jones 18:32
That’s exactly right. And, you know, we just, we just finished our five year capital campaign, which is, we don’t do a yearly business plan. We have a five year strategy that we implement every day, and we wake up and that’s, that’s our focus. But this year, we did something different this this next five years. And so when you look at and I’m going to be around a while I’m gonna beat the dead horse right here. But I want to say this. When you look at most business plans, for chambers, you have your vision, you have your objectives, you have, you know, your strategies, and they do their SWOT analysis and everything. And, you know, what we’re doing is we’re changing our entire organization to be here’s our vision. And here’s the deliverables period. Because I’d say at most businesses don’t really care about your strategy. They want to know that you’re gonna get things done. And so people are so tired of plans that sit on the shelf and nobody visits them. And we’ve got a plan and we send it out to all of our members and nobody reads it. They put it in file 13 Because they know it’s the same Oh, say Mo. So what we did was we said we’re going to take and we’re going to create a vision of where we want to go for example, in this category is lead business driven workforce and talent development. The vision is specific. It’s two sentences, and then boom, the deliverables. How many people were going to put to work? How many how many outreach events, we’re going to do all those kinds of things. And when you look at a conversation that I don’t know about other chambers, but we have is that our patriarchs are dying out in our communities. And the new leaders that are coming on board are not Civic, rent minded. You know, it’s not, I’m going to invest, because it’s the right thing to do. They are business minded, and they want to know that they’re getting a return on their investment. And so many times chambers make the excuse, well, we’re not really a chamber that makes your cash register ring, we grow the pie for everybody. And, you know, you say things like, rising tide floats, all boats, and we have all this thing, and this new generation of business leaders are looking at you and saying, You’re full of crap. It’s just all smoke and mirrors, and you would sell blind man glasses. And so they, they think that way. And so what we’re doing as a chamber is we’re saying, look, here’s the deal, we’re hearing what you’re saying, and we’re going to focus on delivering those policies, we’re still going to be an advocacy organization in the voice of business. But here’s what we hear you saying, and and that’s what we’re going to work on. And quality of life is one of those things. So what does that mean? I mean, quality of life for every community is different. Does that mean? Well, that’s like saying, random world peace, we’re gonna solve world peace. And so chambers are out there. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re telling everybody, we’re solving world peace, and everybody’s going, whatever. And so what we’re doing there is saying, this is our vision for what quality of life looks like, for our community. And these are the specific things that we’re going to do for you, as a partner in our community. And so that’s where we’re going is really changing this and changing the topics, instead of trying to sell everybody something that they really don’t want. Because people I think respect chambers, I think people you know, intuitively know that they’re important. But when it comes to, am I gonna pay my employees $2 More than hours so that I can actually keep my employees and keep my lights on? Or am I going to pay a membership fee, because it’s the right thing to do. chambers are beginning to lose that battle. So we have to really become a chamber that is consultant driven information and knowledge based, and actually somebody that’s helping companies grow and meet their needs. And so our niche was workforce developmental now.

Brandon Burton 22:32
Yeah. And I think depending on the community, depending on the chamber, the niche may look different. Absolutely. Workforce definitely is a niche where you can have some, you know, absolute deliverables, and you can have data to back up the work that you’ve done to say, here’s the results of the efforts that we put forth on your behalf. And when you look at the your chamber in general, you guys really are larger on the workforce side, budget wise, staff wise, I mean, the attention is going to workforce, because that’s where you hit while I assume that’s where you have those key indicators, you can go back to to measure success, and where you can go back to investors and say, this is where you’re getting your return. So I’m curious as you as you put that focus on workforce. I know we can talk for hours on this, because it’s something passionate that you’re passionate about. But what are what are those areas and workforce? In your bio had mentioned the K through 12? Programs? You know, I’m sure retention, is there education with employee or with employers? What are those those key areas that you’re focusing on with regard to workforce? Sure,

Donny Jones 23:41
absolutely. I’ll give you a prime example. On the K 12 system. We do large regional events, for example, worlds of work that we do, it’s what we call Disney World, steroids for workforce development. So we bring, we shut one of our community colleges down for three days, we bring every ninth grader in the entire region, over 5,009th graders up and they experience all the different job opportunities that we have. And it’s all hands on. And it is a big event. People come from all over the country to actually look at the event and say, how do you all model this? And so we’re in our schools, we’re touching our kids, we’re really all the way down into pre K. We have an educated workforce Academy, where we train all of our superintendents and principals and key leaders in our 12 school systems. We’ve graduated over 470. And they spent an entire year with us learning workforce development in changing the landscape of how educators think about this big topic. Then we’re also involved in our adopted school program, getting industries involved, and ensuring up our education system which is not the best in the country. And so we’ve got a lot of work to do and it’s going to take the into Park community, particularly the business and industry, community to really help shore up our education system. And then another example is bringing those resources. For example, we have this past year, we put over a million dollars in the hands of our industries through our workforce board, and through one grant alone, and we trained over 1100 workers and upskill those workers just in our small region, through our community college system, and being able to fund those kinds of things. We place over 3000 individuals in jobs over the last year, just in one sector. That’s the automotive industry. And then a lot of things into Brandon, here’s another way, and I’m going to chase a rabbit real quick. But how many chambers talk about diversity, equity inclusion, right? Let me give you what real diversity, equity inclusion looks like the 3000 employees that we placed in the automotive industry, because we had Mercedes Benz here, 78% of them were African American, of the 78% 51% were male and 49% were female. So when you begin to talk about what we’re doing for communities, and how we’re trying to be an inclusive community, instead of just having events, which we had our development, diversity, equity inclusion event for the chamber last week, so we still do that. But now we’re having discussions about how we’re really impacting those communities that feel like they haven’t been included. And we’re saying, Look, we’re focusing on your entire community, we’re not talking about these topics, we’re doing something about these topics, we’re making a difference when you look at the difference we’re making on the disposable income and the average, you know, family income for our minority communities, that is growing because of our workforce side. So you know, at the end of the day, I think our society is changing. From a perspective of less, don’t just talk about things, let’s get something done. And it’s time to move the needle. And that’s what our organization is really focused on in our communication is focus on that side of it, you know, not just, hey, look what we’re doing. We’ve done 10 events, this this month, what we’re really focusing on is we’re changing lives every single day. You know, last week alone, we put 100, high school students ninth 10th 11th graders into summer jobs, they’ll actually start in in three weeks, with 20 different employers. And we’re, you know, we’re modeling that out when we’re talking about it. And people are saying, We’ve got people every day that’s calling us and saying, how do we get involved in the work of the chamber because of what you’re doing. So those are the kinds of topics that we’re really focused on.

Brandon Burton 27:56
I love that you can just off top your head, you have these numbers, right? He can tell, you can say, we’ve helped 3000 people and jobs in the automotive sector and then go on to the diversity equity inclusion side, you can say, you know, your percentages of, you know, different races and genders. And those are numbers you can point to and say, here’s how we’re moving the needle. versus you know, we had a networking event, and we had 50 people show up. What came of that I’m sure something good happened. But how do you measure that? Exactly.

Donny Jones 28:26
And that’s, that’s what people want to hear. And what we’ve seen as, like I said, we just finished our capital campaign, the majority of people who increased in some doubled their investment over the next five years in our organization, the majority of those said, we’re investing because of what you’re doing and workforce development because that is key. We’re a huge manufacturing area, even though we have the University of Alabama and a huge healthcare sector. Industry is our big, I guess you’d say employment sector. And so individuals know, you know, that if we don’t solve that problem, because Alabama doesn’t have the largest population. I mean, as I was telling you, 1.8% unemployment is almost like zero. Unemployment, right? So how do we get more people in the participation rate? So we’re doing outreach events every single week. In two weeks, we’ve got what we call our signing day. So all the students that we’ve heard in all these events, you know, our apprenticeship programs and everything is going to look catalogue. Now, it’s not going to have 100,000 People like it did last night on the NFL signing, but we’re going to have a huge signing day and make a big deal that work is valuable. And you know what that resonates with our our, our members or our membership and the businesses and they’re saying you know what the chamber is bringing value back to our community and that is essential, soft skills. It is work is valuable, and we need everybody to be a part of growing In our community. And so it really is, if any of you think about what we’re doing is we’re really doing exactly what everybody else is saying they’re doing, right. But it’s turning that value into, you know, something tangible. And it’s not, Hey, did we do 10 referrals from our website to your community or your business? That’s not what we do. We’re, you know, and so we’re all the time as chamber, folks, we’re like, we gotta tell people about the value of our organization, and we say all these things, but nobody really knows how to do it, besides, create a new flyer with great pictures and people at a networking event and somebody with a governor and a mayor and all this. And so the, it’s the same old, same old. And so that’s why I said, we’re really taking it to the next level. So I’ll give you a kind of a, an analogy of we do things in a real systematic way. So our first five year campaign was called working as one, because we wanted our community to learn that we’re never going to take it to the next level unless we begin to work as one. So guess what the title of our next capital campaign was working.

Brandon Burton 31:17
One’s got to be in there. So working

Donny Jones 31:18
this one. Now, this campaign was actually called all in, because once you get everybody at the table, once everybody is working this one, now everybody has got to be only in to move us to the next level. And so that is really what we’re seeing in our community as people are coming to our chamber and really saying, how do we engage? How do we involve Coulson, you are an organization that’s making a difference. And, you know, I had somebody come to me, actually yesterday and say, I was at church the other day, and I had this family member come, or this church member come to me and say that my kid went to our well 2.0, which it was for graduating seniors, which was four weeks ago, or three weeks ago. And we put 200 kids, and they had 600 job offers, or 200 kids at major industries. And so when you look at that, you know, they were talking about this change this kids laugh. And so now they’re like, how do I get involved? So we’re creating whole new opportunities, where people do engage at a whole different level, because now they’re passionate about what we’re doing. Not just that we’re the chamber. That’s

Brandon Burton 32:31
right. So that leads up very well into my next question, as we start to wrap things up here. I like asking as we frag is for chambers that are listening, who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what tip or action item would you suggest for them to, to consider implementing at their organization?

Donny Jones 32:50
Well, I’m the worst person to say this. But one thing I’ve think that I would suggest, is like the old saying that my mother used to say this all the time to me, which as you can tell, I talk a lot and are very passionate. And sometimes I don’t stop and listen enough, because I think I have all the answers. You know, God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason, son. And chambers forget that sometimes. And so what I would say is if you’re going to check your chamber to the next level, is listen with an open and honest mind and hear what they’re really saying. And see what what the real eco ecosystem around your community is. For us, the struggle was workforce. For some communities, it could be loss of population growth, for some, it could be a need for a new strategy and economic development. Whatever that is. I would say that you listen to that, and then look at how you can become the very best at that. So you become the source of that for your community. But then you look at how do I deliver that if it’s economic development? What am I going to do? What am I going to create? How am I going to sell it? And how am I going to let people know that we’re the ones who do it? We hear all the time chambers say this. And Brandon, I don’t know if you’ve had speakers on here that say we don’t toot our own horn enough. Well, the reason you don’t toot your horn enough is because you really probably aren’t doing anything that’s a really of subsequent, you know, need. We every week. We are on the news every week. And we have four stations and usually it’s at least two of those stations. And that’s one of our goals. But if you look at 90% of those newsfeeds, it’s because of what we’re doing in the lives of people because their interest stories, right? So, you know, focusing on making a key difference and what is ain’t going to do and looking at things totally different. Like I said, you’ve still got to do the bread and butter plays. But if you want to grow your organization, I can say this from, you know, what we’ve seen where we went from, you know, seven staff members to 24. And it was all focused on those deliverables. So every new position that we have hired at the Chamber has been to give outcomes and deliverables not to do programmatic work. And so really look at how do you change in that direction? Yeah,

Brandon Burton 35:30
I love a said that to not only listen more, we hear that sort of tip a lot. But the caveat there of listening with an open and honest mind, because it’s so easy as you hear the needs of of your members or the struggles that they have to become a little defensive, maybe we do that for you, and you try to explain and rather than just listening and realizing maybe we’re not doing it well enough, maybe they don’t know about these things, because we’re not executing in the way that we need to. And

Donny Jones 36:01
I have to confess I was that guy. That’s why I said a lot of times, there’s people that are probably hearing us discuss this today that are actually getting frustrated at hearing me say, because they are so sad. And this is how we’ve always done chamber work. And this is what we’ve been told. And it’s not that you’re wrong. It’s just, you can be good to great all day long. And I would encourage you if that’s what you want to be be that. But what we’re talking about today is going from good to the best. Yeah. And that’s a way of thinking about it.

Brandon Burton 36:36
Yeah, that’s great. So as we look to the future of chambers, we’ve been at it feel like we’ve been talking about this all all interview here, but how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Donny Jones 36:50
Wow, that’s a loaded question. For me, particularly when what we’re talking about is a seat chambers that are going to be successful. Um, you know, I think there’s a place for for every chamber, but I think you’re going to see more chambers becoming more like merchants associations, or actually becoming more like a Deloitte deliverable organization, where their staffs are more like consultants that are actually doing incredible things and working with industry to raise the bar. In those sectors, I think you’ll see a lot of chambers becoming more sector driven, where they’re, you know, what they’re doing for manufacturing might look different than what they’re doing for technology, what looks different than what they’re doing, or healthcare. And they’ll probably have specialists that that focus on those key areas. The other thing is, is, once again, I think you’ll see more of a contractual organization that’s doing real contractual top work. For example, like we’re doing in workforce development, where you know, millions of dollars of our organizations actually to deliver services for the state of Alabama, or for a particular entity or a county or a city. You’ll see more of that. And I think you’ll see chambers being more innovative when it comes to those traditional chamber programs, and have they delivered in different ways. But I think you are going to see the larger chambers actually turn into more of more of that focused. This is our sweet spot. And that’s what we’re going to do, because once you try to become all things to all people, amount one HD, is very difficult for for you to actually have a core focus of your organization.

Brandon Burton 38:44
Absolutely. So as we wrap that, wrap it up here, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and learn more. Hey, you guys are doing there at the West Alabama chamber, what’s the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Donny Jones 39:00
Yeah, absolutely. If you want to reach out to us, our number here is 205-758-7588 websites that I’ll give you is WestAlabamaChamber.com and WestAlabamaWorks.com. We have hosted, I think 20 or so in the last 18 months, communities that have come in and flown in and done benchmarking trails, particularly on our workforce side. So we’re always open to that because we always learn as much from other Chambers as they learned from us. So it’s a great time to exchange. So if you know chambers are interested in that. We have a staff member that actually focuses on working all the details out and helping chambers, create their benchmarking trips on workforce development and flying in and actually doing that. So appreciate all the time, Brandon, thank you for having us here too. But yes, love to talk to anybody that might have questions. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 39:56
that’s been fantastic having you on the show today. And I think the perspective you bring and the insights the the work you guys are doing is really going from good to best and that best looks different every community. So I hope everyone listening is taking notes on those, those action items they can do to really survey and listen and have that honest heart in mind as they listen to their members to see how you can become the best. So thank you, Donny, for being with us today. I really appreciate it

Thank you enjoyed it.

Brandon Burton
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Clean Energy & Chambers with Ryan Evans

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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.

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

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Our guest for this episode is Ryan Evans. Ryan joined the Chamber for Innovation and Clean Energy in March 2019 and serves as the executive director. Prior to being named Executive Director Ryan was a member of CICS National Advisory Board for six years. Previously, Ryan served as president of the Utah Solar Energy Association for three years, which is a trade association he co founded was an executive for 13 years with the Salt Lake Chamber, which is one of the largest chambers of commerce in the country, and served as the Executive Administrator for the Utah State Chamber of Commerce. Ryan is a recognized leader and regional speaker both locally and nationally on renewable energy policy and economic impacts of air quality community engagement and relationship building. Ryan is an IOM graduate, and now serves on the US Chambers National Board of Trustees. Ryan attended the University of Vermont and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Utah. Ryan, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Ryan Evans 3:12
Thank you, Brandon, appreciate the opportunity to be on the chamber chat podcast. Listen to you a bunch of times. And this is great to actually be able to speak with you and speak with the Chamber Champions listening in today. Something fun for me, I guess, in terms of interest for me, I’ve been in the chamber and association industry for just over 20 years now. It’s kind of crazy how that journey started. I was an entrepreneur. Prior to being in the chamber industry, I own my own restaurant, I was a trained chef at one point when that when I left that partnership as a lot of restaurants don’t, you know, have the tendency to fail. I was one of those. One of those cases, started looking for a job that would maybe help given or maybe work given my managerial background, but not something that actually I didn’t want to start from scratch again. So I started looking for sales positions, knowing that at least that way, if I worked hard, I could make money. And sure enough, the Salt Lake chamber was hiring at the time. And little did I know that that would lead to a 20 year career after starting they’re making $13,000 An hour plus or $13,000.

Brandon Burton 4:18
Are they still hiring? Let me sign up

Ryan Evans 4:22
1000 a year plus commissions and I made it work pretty good. But yeah, 30,000 hour would be one heck of an opportunity. That’s right. So I know that that all steamrolled into, you know getting into clean energy and eventually this role here where I get to meld both the clean energy world and the Chamber history that I have, and it’s a great relationship. So it’s been great. Absolutely. It’s

Brandon Burton 4:44
like your background has been perfect for this union to bring into the chambers for innovation to clean energy very much. So speaking to that, tell us a little bit about the chambers of the chambers for innovation, clean energy, just kind of The size, the scope of work staff, just give us some perspective of where you’re coming from, with the organization to kind of set the stage for our discussion today. Absolutely, thank

Ryan Evans 5:10
you. So chambers renovation and clean energy as we affectionately like to call it, CIC II, as you alluded to Brandon, we are a national network of about 1300 chambers and economic development associations across the country, doesn’t mean we work with every single one of those every single year. But those are the groups that we stay in touch with quite a bit that we work with. Our whole role is to help advance the clean energy economy, at chambers innovation in clean energy, we’re not an environmental group, we’re not anti anything, we are strictly clean energy experts, and help to look to educate chambers on how they can capitalize on this growing segment of our economy, how they can be better involved in promoting good clean energy policy, how they can what what they need to know, to better understand the technology that exists and how to get past a lot of the misinformation that’s out there, whether Pro or negative regarding clean energy, we do a lot of best practice sharing of what chambers are doing across the country. And then we’ll get in and we’ll even advise chambers on particular public policy issues at the state or local level that they may be experiencing. firsthand. So again, we you know, our whole role is to work with chambers. And we do that for free. We have funding in place that allows us to work with any chamber anywhere. Typically, I mentioned 1300. But typically we work with we try to work in about seven or eight priority states at one time. And he states where we spend a little extra time, given that they’ve got more opportunity for clean energy or more challenges being presented for clean energy. And so we sort of rotate that out on on any given year. But as of right now, the states where we spend most of our time are Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, South Carolina, Virginia, and in some work in the Northeast as

Brandon Burton 7:04
well. All right, well, that definitely helps give some perspective as to the kind of work you’re involved with and the the approach you take with some of the these chambers and 1300 chambers that you work with. As we focus our discussion today. I’m kind of halfway joking. But when I say we’re going to talk about clean energy and chambers, even if they don’t think that it matters or something that they care about at the moment, we’ll talk about why it does matter. And how your local chamber can get involved, why you should be involved, what opportunities are out there. And we’ll dive into this discussion much deeper as soon as you get back from this quick break.

Visit ChamberNation.com to learn more.

Donna Novitsky 9:33
Hi, everyone, Donna from Yiftee here with another fun fact about small businesses. Did you know that there are 77 million people working in small businesses in the US? That’s almost half of the entire civilian workforce. But I know that you already know the value of local businesses. That is why we created community cards. They bring revenue to your members’ businesses that today is leaving your community and going to national brands and e-commerce companies. In addition to consumers we see schools, hospitals, city governments and companies buying community cards in bulk instead of buying big box store and online gift cards. Community cards keep local dollars local. For more info come to a demo or email us at sales@yiftee.com. We look forward to meeting you back to you Brandon.

Brandon Burton 10:27
All right, Ryan, we’re back. So as I alluded to, before the break, today, we’re diving into how chambers can get involved with with clean energy, why they should care, maybe that’s a good starting point, as far as why chamber should care about focusing on clean energy. And then you mentioned a couple items, you know, before the break is to, you know, the economic impact and things like that. But talk to us a little bit about why chambers should have clean energy on their radar and be intentional about trying to promote clean energy in their communities.

Ryan Evans 11:02
Sure, thank you. You know, honestly, this conversation would have been pretty different five years ago. But now, I think there’s no doubt that anybody, you know, nobody has a doubt that we are in the midst of an energy transformation in the United States of America and across the across the globe, really, we are, over the last several years, clean energy speed between solar and wind have been responsible for more than 90% of new electric generation built across the country. So in other words, we still have a lot of our electricity coming from natural gas, which is the number one on the fossil fuel side. And again, we’re not anti anything, we’re all of the above, we just truly know that the Clean Energy Economics will win out in the end, as natural gas started to actually overtake coal. Many years ago, when coal was the workhorse for electricity, then it became natural gas. And it still is natural gas. But now it’s really starting to shift towards more renewable energy sources. So that’s sort of number one is that we’re looking at the future of America being very much powered, whether it’s 100%, like some people think, or at least very high into the 80s, a 90%, by some sort of cleaner energy than we have now. So that’s a significant number one. Number two, your members care about their utility bills. That’s one of the highest costs of doing business in any state. So what is your electricity and heating bills look like? And where is that source of that pain point coming from? In most states, that’s still natural gas. And for a long time, natural gas was a great lower cost option for communities. Now, however, we’ve seen, especially in the last two years, the fluctuation within the volatility of natural gas pricing. So a lot of corporations are really being attracted to the fact that solar and wind are now the cheapest form of electricity you can get. And when you enter into a contract for these corporations that again, are members of chambers all over the country, they’re locking into those price points that they sign these contracts for, for anywhere from 20 to 35 years. So there’s absolute predictability in their electrical costs going forward, at least for that segment that they’re getting from clean energy. The other factor that I’ll mention is it just brings it back to home wherever you are, there are clean energy jobs being created on a regular basis. There are more people in employed in the solar industry alone than all of fossil fuel industries combined. That’s just solar. That’s not wind, that’s not electric vehicles. That’s not batteries and energy storage, and energy efficiency. So clean energy is a job creator, like no other. And then it brings home capital investment, it brings home economic opportunities and tax revenues for communities. So there are lots of reasons why chambers should engage or at least be interested, and at the very least be willing to provide good information to their communities, because there’s just there’s a lot to it. And a lot of voices get heard. And I think it’s given the amount of opportunity and challenges there are, it’s just important to at least be a good provider of information for your members and your community as a whole.

Brandon Burton 14:32
Right. So it’s been a couple of years ago now but our electric provider, I’m in Texas in our electric provider, we’re part of a co op and each year they do a brisket dinner, you know so we can go and as a member of the Co Op, they provide the brisket dinner, they do a little dog and pony show about the work they’re doing and at this particular dinner I was at they put up on the slideshow, this solar farm that they had and like, Wait, that’s like, right around the corner from my house. And I had no idea that the solar farm was there. And sure enough, I’m pulling up the Google satellite images, and it’s, you know, probably a mile from my house, and had no idea. But if it was a natural gas plant or something else, like, other things would definitely stand out, and you would notice, but um, just the clean energy can make such an impact in a community without being, you know, super noticeable. But so I think that our Electric Co Op did a good job of explaining that. But as far as the chamber goes, he said, you know, most importantly, even if it’s just sharing, you know, accurate good information with their community with their members. Obviously, we can point them to you to your organization to get some that that good information to share. But as the chamber looks to get involved and say, Yeah, this is important that we create jobs in clean energy, because that’s where the future is going. Or it’s important for us to help lower those utility rates for our member businesses, and for just our community in general to be able to thrive more and have more discretionary income, all these different points that you touched on the job creation. If a chamber wanted to get involved, where do they start with being able to try to move the ball try to move the needle, so to speak in their community?

Ryan Evans 16:27
There’s, there’s quite a few places you can start. And actually, I want to jump back really quick if it’s okay, Brandon, and just common, Texas, just because you brought up Texas and you brought up two things that I’m pretty passionate about. One is realistically, most solar installations you don’t notice. So you’re absolutely right, there’s a lot of misinformation that they’re obstructive that they’re an eyesore. But yet, most times people have no idea that they’re within a mile or two of their home, because they have that low profile, and you can put up trees around them, you can put up shrubs and bushes around them. So I appreciate and love the fact that you didn’t even notice not necessarily. But then also just on Texas really quick. It’s Texas is one of my favorite stories to tell because even though they have been traditionally one of the the number one oil and gas state in the country, and they are known as an oil and gas state and Houston particular huge oil and gas market, right. Yet, Texas is the number two state in the nation for most solar installations in terms of size of those installations combined. And number one, as far as wind, this is a state that truly embraces the all of the above energy form, you know, mentality in an incredible way. And, you know, chambers, like the Greater Houston partnership, for example, are all in on this all of the above factor and even looking at new technologies like carbon capture, and all these other great things that we see out there. So I just want to throw my you know, throw a shout out for taxes just in terms of, you know, that typical state that has learned that they don’t have to just be dependent on that fossil fuel economy that there is this huge other opportunity out there for the state and for electrical ratepayers and whatnot.

Brandon Burton 18:07
I will say if you ever drive between Abilene and San Angelo, you will see the wind. As far as your eye can see, you will see windmills. So

Ryan Evans 18:16
yeah, there’s a lot of places around the country that are like that, where you just see them. But a lot of cases, there’s really not much else there. So they may as well, Saturday. Right, right. And you know, as far as how you get involved, there’s lots of ways number one, I guarantee that almost every single chamber in the country has some sort of clean energy industry a company within their membership, it may not be a solar installer, it may not be a manufacturer of solar or wind turbine parts. But it might be somebody who supplies workforce to that it might be a company that is a fencing company that puts up temporary fencing around renewable energy installations as they’re going up. So there’s, it’s incredible the supply chain that exists out into the clean energy world. So one, look at your own membership and see who’s there and see what the important issues are to talk to your utility. I always recommend you, you know, work with your utility on clean energy, because ultimately, they’re going to be the one that does a lot of it outside of the private companies that develop. But don’t also take the utilities word for it completely ask questions, look for what might be the best opportunities for your entire region and start a business Coalition for you know, that looks at sustainability and clean energy by starting a committee like that. It’s amazing what you’ll learn from your members in terms of what they’re doing to either procure clean energy on their own or through the utility, what they’re doing internally to improve their emissions outcomes so they’re more sustainable. It’s it’s pretty impressive to see what businesses do and it’s one great thing chambers can do is promote what their businesses are doing. Proactiv basis as well, that’s that’s just a great thing. Another thing that you can do, if you want to get involved is reach out to us, of course, I’m not going to give a sales pitch there. But that’s what we do. If there’s, you know, we’re happy to chat with any chamber anywhere all the time, just to say, hey, here’s the hotspots that we see, maybe this is a chance for you to engage. And lastly, look in your state for some sort of a state level clean energy or solar industry association. So prior to, as you mentioned, in the my introduction, I was the president and founder of the Utah solar industry association, we worked with chambers all across the state, trying to help educate them on solar policy and clean energy policy and how they can help protect the jobs that, you know, we’re being built by this industry within the state. So look to those associations and bring them as partners or ask them to be members, so they can kind of make sure your members are informed on the hot topics of the day regarding the clean energy industries. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 20:58
So I don’t mean to keep going back to stuff to this example, in Texas. So chambers are known for being conveners, right. And as I see a lot of this land, like with these wind farms that we’re talking about, not only are they wind farms, but they have their oil rigs that are going, they have their cattle that are grazing on the fields. And so they’ve got multiple streams of income using this land that’s very agricultural based. And if a chamber can see and recognize these opportunities, be that convener to make some introductions to help introduce some of these clean energy capabilities. On to that, that rancher or that person who has an oil rig set up or whatever it may be, I mean, we’re talking things that are very hyper focused in Texas, for sure. But other parts of the country, the land may be used for something else, but it could also be used, in addition to for wind or solar. So that convener make those introductions. Yeah,

Ryan Evans 21:58
no, that’s a great point number one. Yeah. So always and chamber should know this. And they do know this. And mean, chambers are conveners of the voice of business, the, you know, the, they’re the convener of the business communities, and realistically for their whole community. So there is an opportunity just to talk to people about what is possible. And yeah, in Texas, you will often see wind turbines right next to oil rigs, and maybe cattle grazing as well. In Ohio, you may see a solar installation, where, you know, maybe 5%, of a generational farm is being utilized for solar energy along with 5% of another farm nearby them and 10% of another farm nearby them. But those, that five or 10% of the farm property is actually giving annual revenue anywhere from 100,000 to $300,000. A year to those farm owners. And a lot of cases, it’s helping keep farmland in a family name and helping them not to have to sell it off, or because it’s a lease arrangement, or even turn some other land into a subdivision for homes. I mean, that’s, that’s just and once you put homes in that property’s gone with a solar installation for, you know, for example, in a rural farming community, typically those panels have been in the ground for, you know, 30 to 35 years, but at the same time, like you say, you’re farming on the rest of your property, you can still do some agriculture underneath the solar panels. And a lot of case you can still graze animals like sheep throughout an entire solar area. So yeah, there are lots of other ways that you can promote the land and utilize the land for economic or just community benefit.

Brandon Burton 23:40
Right. And from the farmer perspective, I say, you know, there’s a lot of government subsidies for farmers to either not grow a crop or to grow, you know, more, you know, mono cropping, you know, which has its own issues. So to be able to introduce another stream of income for these farmers could really help them actually farm what they need to and want to farm versus what the government’s paying them to do. And it gives them a lot more freedom. Absolutely. And

Ryan Evans 24:07
if you get farmer start on this, a lot of them are going to tell you, this is a property rights thing. If I want to put solar on my farm, I want to put solar on my farm, and they get pretty passionate about it speak out in lots of different state houses across the country on their property rights. And it’s don’t get in the middle of a farmer and their property rights. I’ll tell you that much right now.

Brandon Burton 24:25
That’s right. So for chambers that are listening, I’d like to hear maybe a an innovative example or two where you’ve seen whether it’s a chamber stepping into introduce clean energy policy or just implementation of some sort. What are some of these innovative things that you’ve seen across the country as as people try to lean more heavily into clean energy? Yeah,

Ryan Evans 24:52
there’s, I don’t know if I can go to innovative on how chambers participate, but I can give some really Good examples of how chambers have engaged. Okay. Oh. And that’s it’s just sometimes tough because chambers are generalists for the most part, right, they need to know a lot about a lot of different industries. And so sometimes it’s really hard to dig really far into one particular topic or subject matter. But you know, in the case of chambers, one thing that we are always encouraged by is when we see coalitions of chambers that stand up for clean energy. So we’ve seen it in Ohio, when Chambers as a collective whole, all stood up and spoke out against negative anti renewable energy legislation a few years ago, in the Northeast, and now in the southeast, we’re seeing a lot of rallying by chambers to support the possibility of offshore wind development, off the coast of the East Coast. And we’re beginning to see a little bit of that in the, in the south er, in the in the south, and in the West, and the Gulf Coast and off in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, and Oregon and Washington. So we see a lot of this convening and working together. We’ve seen everything from electric vehicle ride and drive and demonstrations, to clean energy industry, hosted forums and conferences, all around renewable energy and sustainability. We’ve seen energy tours. So in Utah, where I used to live, the Salt Lake chamber had few years in a row had done energy tours, where they took their members out to various energy installations. And one of them was all about clean energy, taking them to wind taken to a solar farm, etc, etc. In and, you know, clean energy, sort of a broad topic, but, and even just a couple of weeks now, the St. Pete chamber in Florida is doing a sustainability and resilience tour, they’re going to take some of their members down to see how, amongst other things, clean energy benefited certain areas to keep the lights on, as well as other resilience efforts from some of the other communities that they can bring back to St. Pete to learn from so that they are a more resilient, more resilient community for future storms. So lots of different ways that chambers have been engaged, whether it’s op eds, whether it’s events, or just, you know, fighting for good policy at a state house or the federal level.

Brandon Burton 27:29
Very good. Those are all really good examples and ways that chambers can definitely get involved. So this question may be coming from left field for you. And if you don’t want to answer it, we can edit it out. How have you seen any integration with with Bitcoin miners? And no, there’s been a lot of talk about the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining. And then Bitcoin miners trying to make the argument with clean energy and using some of these resources to offset some of those carbon emissions and whatnot. I’ll be

Ryan Evans 28:09
honest, you may want to edit this out, I don’t know Brandon, I can give a little editorial on that. It’s, it’s a tough sell, because it is high high energy usage. So we, however, did see you know, in for a little bit in Miami, we started talking about it because the local government in Miami was really trying hard to attract some Bitcoin industry there. But that energy usage was really tough, because, you know, Florida can only expand so much in terms of their energy development, their energy usage, etc. And, you know, one of the selling factors was they have such a huge nuclear, new as nuclear energy is such a huge part of their overall energy resources. And, you know, the Bitcoin it was trying to sell that, but all of that energy was already being utilized for something else. So all of this would have just been, they would have had to develop new energy. And at that point, you’ve for the most part, it’s going to make sense to build solar. So I think in general, when it comes to Bitcoin, it’s great. There is an opportunity there, but it should not be done trying to sell it as utilizing existing resources. I think in a lot of ways. If you are going to law and try to get some bitcoin manufacturing and mining going on in your communities, you really do need to look at how are we going to provide new generation to, to supply that particular operation? Yeah. All right. Well,

Brandon Burton 29:40
we’ll we’ll see what we do with that. So I’d like to ask everyone I have on the show, if there’s any tips or action items that you’d be willing to share with those listening, if they wanted to maybe get involved more with clean energy in their communities or We’re maybe something totally off topic, but for these chambers who want to take their organization up to the next level, what would you offer for them?

Ryan Evans 30:07
Thank you. Yeah, I’ve got a few things. So number one, if not every chamber is engaged in advocacy. And I understand that, at the very minimum, though Chambers as the voice of business and conveners in their community should look to be a good source of reliable information. And much like a lot of other things in the world, there’s so much misinformation put out in the world about clean energy. There are so many groups that are not local, yet, they’ll bring in people from, you know, from far away to come in and fight renewable energy projects in small communities, and make it seem like this opposition is so loud, we call them NIMBY groups, so not my backyard groups. So if nothing else, I think it’s really important that chambers look to be sources of good third party reliable expert information. So that those that actually live in the community can, you know, can really look at the facts and say, We want to make a good informed decision. So that’s, that’s sort of number one. Another just sort of tip and maybe a tidbit that I want to throw out there. There is, you know, chambers by nature tend to really love bipartisan policy. That’s sort of how we work right, we bring people together so that we can find the common ground, what’s best for the business community, what’s best for an economy, an advocate for that, whether it’s coming from the AR side, or the D side, it doesn’t really matter, we try to find the best possible policy for business businesses in our state. You know, and we certainly saw a really good example of that in the bipartisan infrastructure package that was passed two years ago, phenomenal is twice something 20 years in the making, it’s something we should all be proud of in the chamber industry that we’ve all fought for it. And that’s going to lead to everything from bridges and roads, but also to transmission lines for more utilities, for more electric vehicle charging infrastructure out there in the world as we make this transition. So there’s lots of clean energy angles on that. But the tidbit that I want to share that, yeah, I built it up to get to it. There was, you know, not a lot of chambers love the fact that the inflation Reduction Act was passed on a partisan basis. And I understand that, and I completely agree, this is a tidbit that I think is really important for people to understand. If you take away all of the other aspects of the inflation Reduction Act, and only look at the clean energy provisions within that which, you know, amounted to about a $379 billion package way, way less than what that quote unquote, green New Deal was being presented as many many years ago. But that particular legislation, just the clean energy provisions, almost every single major component of that policy has a history of bipartisan support. And a and a lot of them have a proven return on investment for that type of state tax incentive. As a lot of people say that inflation Reduction Act is really carrot heavy, and very stick light, meaning it’s all about the incentives trying to you know, trying to drive innovation and spur this new aspect to our economy, rather than penalizing and putting out more regulatory efforts that none of us really like to see in the world. So again, just I think it’s really important that something that I’ve been very passionate about is saying, if you just take out those clean energy aspects, you will see that so many of them either had bipartisan support, or suggested by and promoted by Republicans versus the Democrats that voted for the package. So really just go beyond the talking points of partisan and say, Ah, actually, there’s some really great stuff in here that’s proven value, and has proven to be supported by both sides of the aisle and people across the country.

Brandon Burton 33:56
Right. I appreciate you sharing the tips and tidbits with us there. As we look to the future of chambers, and I see a lot of the work you’re doing is future leaning. But as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers in their purpose going forward?

Ryan Evans 34:15
I think chambers have a more important role now than they’ve ever had before. We’ve, you know, been building up the chamber industry for 100 years, you know, over the last 10 years, I think they’ve gotten more and more influential. Really, there’s so much within the industry that’s really looking to lift up chambers, whether it’s a rural chamber, a State Chamber, a Regional Chamber, whatever it may be. But I think now is maybe more important a time than ever, because there is so much that at least that I see legislation that tends to move from state to state and Statehouse to statehouse and so it’s an opportunity not only to really stand up for your business community and those things in your state or your region that you see as important to your quality of life. But it’s, you know, it’s really this chance to look and say, Hey, what’s happening over in this state? And is that going to come to my state? Because chances are these days it is. And I bring up things in my own mind when I say this, but things like dei policies, so you know, something that the Chamber world has been super passionate about, and very much engaged in terms of advocating for more dei within their communities within their businesses and building up certification programs around Dei. Yet, in a lot of states, we’re starting to see anti from various administrations and now maybe state houses of the legislature, we’re starting to see sort of pushback on that dei work. And it’s, you know, this isn’t even in the world of clean energy for me, but it’s really important to chambers, and therefore, it’s sort of just a good example of things to look for, that you can learn from other states, what they’ve already gone through and say, Hey, is there a good chance that’s going to come to my state? And how do I either fight it off or engage it depending upon what the policy might be? How do we best represent the business community, rather than being caught off guard, let’s make sure that we’ve got our best arguments upfront and ready to go to help be, you know, again, that longtime voice of business for our community and represent our members the best we can. I

Brandon Burton 36:27
love that perspective. And that’s really one of the greatest opportunities of living in the United States is you’re able to look at other states and the models that they do and, you know, be in these individual laboratories and saying, This is what worked well there. And this is didn’t you know, and as we apply it in our communities in our state, this is why it could be good, or why it would be a disaster and really be able to make a good argument based on facts and data. So I think that’s a great perspective. Well, Ryan, this has been a for me at least, it’s been a fun conversation. It’s been an eye opening conversation, I’m sure for many, but for any listeners who wanted to reach out and connect with you to learn more about what the Chamber’s been have raised innovation and clean energy can do and, and how you can maybe work with them, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect? hit

Ryan Evans 37:16
our website, which is ChambersforInnovation.com. Feel free to email me directly my email is revans@chambersforinnovation.com. More than happy to chat with anyone, whether it’s just a question, you want to do more, you’ve got something that you’re just not sure about whatever the case, the issue may be, and again, this can be anything from electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging, to offshore wind supply chain to solar and wind, whatever it is, if we don’t know the answer within our team, we certainly can point you in the right direction to some some great experts out there in the world, that can be a really good news resource for you.

Brandon Burton 37:57
That’s awesome. I will get that in our show notes for this episode, as well. So people can pull that up and get in contact with you. But it’s been great to have you on the podcast. Ryan, I appreciate you setting aside some time and and to share some of these insights with the Chamber champions that listen and to really help sharpen their focus on why focus on clean energy in their communities is important. So thank you for being with us today.

Ryan Evans 38:22
Thank you, Brandon. I appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 38:24
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Impact of Community Teamwork with Kyle Spurgeon

Impact of Community Teamwork with Kyle Spurgeon

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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 to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

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

Learn how you can partner with Community Matters, Inc. to produce your next Chamber Directory, Community Guide or Map.

Our guest for this episode is Kyle Spurgeon. Kyle is President and CEO of the Jackson chamber in Jackson, Tennessee. Before joining the chamber, Kyle was vice president Corporate Relations for Jackson Energy Authority. He has also served as marketing director for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. He’s helped facilitate project locations representing more than $2.5 billion in capital investment. He holds a BS and public relations marketing from Murray State University. He is past president of the Tennessee Economic Development Council, past president of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce executives, past board member of the south of the Southern Economic Development Council, and past president of the Tennessee economic partnership is also a board member of several other local community organizations. Kyle is a 2017 graduate of leadership Tennessee. He was recently named the 2019, Tennessee Chamber of Commerce Executive of the Year. Powell is married to Melissa together they have five children and one very happily spoiled dog. Enjoy running and traveling the tile. I’m happy to have you with us today here on Super Chat podcast. I’d love for you to take 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.

Kyle Spurgeon 3:18
I didn’t realize you’re gonna read that entire bio,

Brandon Burton 3:21
we got to get the good stuff, you know.

Kyle Spurgeon 3:25
Melissa and the dog go smiled when you get to the very end. So Leila was wagging her tail? Good. Yes, something interesting. I guess it’s not in that and maybe the reason I enjoy doing these kind of podcast is in high school and college. I was at a radio disc jockey records, and I was a sportscaster and read the news. And so that, you know, as we started getting into the podcast area, that something that just not I’m not gonna say was natural, but it’s something I really enjoyed. So I look back on my days working in radio in Paris, Tennessee, that’s probably where this comes from.

Brandon Burton 3:59
Yeah, that sounds great. It’s your you’ve kind of got that natural comfort with that, I would say so. Well, I hope so. Yeah. So before we just jump into our topic, I’d like you to get some more background on the Jackson chamber. Just give us an idea of size, your chamber staff scope of work, budget, things you’re involved with, just to kind of set the table for our discussion. Yeah, so our

Kyle Spurgeon 4:23
chamber we have are running at 1050 members and budget of 1.6 $1.7 million, a team of seven and that word team is all capitalized because we all work together extremely well. And I look at our chamber and over, particularly the last four decades, we’ve been recognized as a chamber that’s very, very effective at recruiting new jobs in industry, to Jackson in West Tennessee. What has changed really over the last decade is we’ve maintained that standing and that influence in the community and that’s the SAS but were looked upon more, for addition to that term, our leadership programs our assistance to small business, in really since the announcement of Blue Oval city working with our city and county and others, in making sure we lead community development efforts with them, either we lead those were on the team, because that’s becoming an extremely big part of what we do. Our chamber was founded in 1905, we’re accredited by the US Chamber, we’ve got a four star designation now we’re going to be pursuing that five star designation, I think, later this year, or in 24. And as you know, when you’re accredited, by the US Chamber you one of the top 3% of chambers in the country. And that’s something we are extremely proud of. I’ll conclude this by saying just about a decade ago, our chairman at the time, told him he was talking to a group of people about the chamber and he said, one of the things I’m most proud of, is this organization has a seat at every major discussion that goes on in our community. That’s something that we don’t take for granted.

Brandon Burton 6:08
Right. And I think that’s going to lead in well to our topic for our discussion today as we focus on the impact of community teamwork. So having a seat at all those major discussions, being you know, right there, the driver of economic development and community development. I think we’ll have a fantastic discussion around that today. As soon as I get back from this quick break.

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Donna Novitsky 8:37
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Brandon Burton 9:34
All right, Kyle, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break we’re focusing on the impact of community teamwork. So when you were talking about the chamber you brought up blue oval city. I’m familiar with it. I’ve heard you heard some great things about this set this huge economic development win. But if you would just fill the listeners in on what what is blue oval city and they maybe a little bit of background about how that came to be. And I think that’ll lead well into our discussion today.

Kyle Spurgeon 10:06
Sure. So blue oval City is a 17 year overnight success story as it took a while. And I’ll give you some background on that in a second. But it’s a $5.6 billion investment of Ford and SK Innovation to build the world’s most advanced assembly automotive assembly plant in battery plant. 3500 acres between Memphis and Jackson. So we sit right on Interstate 40. We are an hour from a Shelby County and two hours from Davidson County, which is which is Nashville. So Jackson is ideally situated. That project started back in the early 2000s. When Governor Phil Bredesen and the commissioner of economic and community development, Matt kispert, worked with the Tennessee Valley Authority and identified a site that would be great, what they would call a mega site because TVA had started that program. Two years earlier, local folks in Haywood County, the chamber, President CEO at the time, Paul tour was part of that effort. And those were the early people. You know, in our business, a lot of times when you make the announcement, the folks who were there at that time get all the credit. Well, if it wasn’t for the folks early that identified that property and caused it to be purchased project would have never happened. And what is happening now a blue oval cities under construction, Ford plans to be rolling their new electric vehicle off the assembly line and 25, which is crazy to think about it. That’s two years from now. And you’ll start seeing supplier announcements this year, the project announced again 5800 jobs $55.6 billion in capital investment. That’s really just the beginning. We’re starting to see those supplier locations, the tier one and tier two folks looking at Jackson and other parts of West Tennessee plus the projects that will need to be situated on site. But every piece of that project happened because of teamwork. Mark Herbison is President and CEO of HTL advantage. So that’s Haywood, Tipton Lauderdale counties. Haywood County is actually where the Megasite is it spans Haywood County and Fayette County, Mark led that effort. I tell folks, he has created more jobs, personally per capita for a staff than anyone probably in the world and economic development because he he led that project with two people. Our team, it’s a Jackson chamber in the Memphis chamber, were part of the negotiation process and helping to close the deal. But Mark was the guy day to day. And so when you take what Mark did what we were able to do with the Memphis and Jackson chamber and TVA in the state, in no one caring who got credit, you know, we were able to close that deal. And it turned out to be, you know, obviously one of the largest economic development projects in Tennessee’s history and one of the largest in the country.

Brandon Burton 13:14
That is fantastic. So as you’re, as you’re talking about this, the development of the site just yesterday. So I’m in Texas, but yesterday, I actually drove past the news Tesla facility that’s being rolled right now. So in my mind, I kind of I can kind of picture what this is looking like just a massive space, massive building, the technology that goes into it, and as you mentioned that the discussions of this started in the early 2000s. So almost 25 years from when the first cars will roll off the assembly line. But the evolution that’s happened in that amount of time, from having the focus on batteries now versus just what cars were in the 2000s. If you see an early model in 2000, f150 versus what’s going to roll off and 2025 They’ll be vastly different for sure. Being able to keep up with that, that evolution, that involvement. But let’s let’s focus more on this the community teamwork effort. So you’d mentioned that the teamwork part from an economic development standpoint, working with different counties, different cities, be able to pull together as a team. What are what are some other examples how things have have worked together as maybe you guys have been the convener of some of these, you know, throughout the community to drive some of these wins throughout the Jackson area. You

Kyle Spurgeon 14:43
use that great chamber award convener, and you know, we all successful chambers do that extremely well. The reason and focus it on the economic development piece first. The reason this community has been successful for 40 years doing economic development and recruiting Companies like Delta Faucet, Toyota, Stanley, Black and Decker. Kellogg’s is here, all the Pringles in North America are made in Jackson, we’ve always had that stance, no matter who was in an elected position as one of the mayors, or who ran Jackson Energy Authority, which was our utility, who read who ran the hospital here, we never care about who gets credit. And whoever is Mayor allows the chamber to be the quarterback for all economic development activities. And we everything we do is built around that team concept. But we also don’t have to pick up the phone and call a mayor’s office or a chairman’s office to, you know, direct every single move that we make, because we’ve got enough brand equity in the success that we’ve had. And that’s something we we protect, you know, if you’ve ever were to see a member of our team try to step out and make it all about themselves, instead of the community, that team member is going to get called back and pulled back and probably not gonna be on the team anymore. And so again, I think we’ve used that success model. And as we’ve had to expand our reach, I guess, and the different projects we’re working on and in different communities, we just make sure again, that it’s just all about pain.

Brandon Burton 16:21
Yeah, I like that. And I see the importance of that, I wonder if there maybe is some tactics or ways that you go about whether it’s dealing with your team internally there at the chamber or broader throughout the community to help build a sense of team. And and you’ve touched on a little bit there. But what what some of that mindset and maybe tactics around building that team mentality.

Kyle Spurgeon 16:45
Yeah, one of the ways is making sure particularly your elected officials are not surprised, in that they give us a lot of leeway to work on projects, again, because not just the team we’ve got in place now. But we’ve always been successful doing that. So just Just imagine if you had a mayor in office, and all of a sudden you’re about to announce a project and he knew nothing about it, that’d be a surprise. But for us to be able to do that our elected officials and everyone on the team has to understand the confidentially the confidentiality involved in those projects. Excuse me. And so by bringing them in early, and us respecting the fact that they understand that confidentiality allows us to do that. And then when we have a new chairman, coming into the role within our organization, again, bringing them in early, helping them understand how projects occur, because if you’re not an economic developer or been involved in projects, you probably have some misconceived notions about it. And so it’s education and making sure people don’t get surprised. So

Brandon Burton 17:55
I’m curious, as far as not having these elected officials be surprised. Is that something that you had to learn through experience? Or like, ooh, we should have plugged them in a little more along the way? Or is it just something that it kind of made sense to you from the beginning? So you just a good practice to follow all along?

Kyle Spurgeon 18:13
Yeah. When you said, Did I learn that from experience in a roundabout way? Yes. You mentioned I worked at Jackson Energy Authority. And I remember firing someone without our CEO knowing it. And John made it very clear to me that his name was John Williams at the time, that he needed to know that because he went to church with the guy’s mother, that we had just fired. And so you learn real quick, and he came back the next day sick out, you and your team did the right thing. God needed to go. But I can’t be surprised. So I’ve always taken that with me in terms of you know, when you announce a project, or you’re doing some community initiative, and it’s successful, you will get your elected officials and your investors up there announcing that project? Again, you don’t want them hearing about it a day before or a week before without having any Yeah,

Brandon Burton 19:13
or worse as things are even more developed or the read in the paper social media. Yeah, so yeah, I think it’s neat how some of those lessons kind of stick with you and with whether it’s something professionally or personal lesson that carries over, and it’s something that is important to you, that brings a lot of value to others that are listening to and you can provide that experiences. So I appreciate you being willing to share that. I know it’s not always easy to to share from past experiences like that, but

Kyle Spurgeon 19:43
it’s that thing about everyone makes mistakes. And as long as you learn from that mistake, not gonna say it’s not bad, but it’s a heck of a lot better if you learn from it.

Brandon Burton 19:53
That’s right, and learn from the first time hopefully. So I Want to know if there’s maybe tips or action items for those listening who maybe want to build a better community or teamwork effort throughout their their community and take their chamber up to the next level? What might you suggest for them to try to implement and to sharpen that focus,

Kyle Spurgeon 20:20
like an easy thing to do is sit back. First of all, you have to have a strategic plan. And any organization is trying to build a to build their brand and build on success or initiate some success, you have to have a strategic plan. And then once you get that, identify a group of people that you know, like and trust that you can work with, and then slowly help them find their way onto your board or your executive committee. And then look at that group as your core team folks that you can pick up the phone and call and know that they’re all pointing in the right direction. And can you know, they can alert you so that you’re not surprised? on things that might be going on in the community, either business wise, or political wise, but I think it’s that first step, you know, every chamber CEO, if they’re moving, taking a job somewhere else, my belief is, the first thing you need to do is look at that strategic plan. If the community doesn’t have one, make sure that’s one of your first action items. Because if you don’t do that, then everyone’s going off in different directions. You’ve got to have a North Star, something everyone can focus on. And so you can build that team effort that way.

Brandon Burton 21:36
Right? Well, I’m glad you went that direction. With that with those, we’ve seen a lot of change in the chamber industry right now with leadership and everything. So for those who are new to community, I think that’s key advice and make sure that there is a strategic plan. And if not, do focus on getting one ASAP. But you had mentioned finding those people in your community that you can know, like and trust. So when you’re new to a community, any tips on how to find those people, because there’s certain people that want to be found, right? For good, for better or worse, they want to be able to filter out Who are those ones that you should know, like and trust?

Kyle Spurgeon 22:12
Well, I’ve been lucky, I haven’t had to go through a search process in 13 years, but just think about it. So if I’m in Jax, and if I was moving somewhere out west, or wherever it was going to interview with the search committee, you’re not going to take the job unless you have confidence in the organization in that search committee. So that’s probably the best place to start. Those are the people that because they’ve accepted that position on the search committee are obviously vested in the community, and the folks in the community or organization, trust them to make the right decision, identify one or two members of that, or the entire committee, and just tell them that who are the folks that I need to understand can best influence our success moving forward.

Brandon Burton 23:01
I love that piece of advice. So yeah, I have that that deeper conversation with that search committee once you get that job and seek their their counsel. And I’m sure it’ll be valuable. I’d like to ask everyone I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future changers and their purpose going forward?

Kyle Spurgeon 23:24
But maybe your toughest question that you

Brandon Burton 23:27
bring out your crystal ball and see what it looks like I

Kyle Spurgeon 23:31
think we’ve seen it in I can only speak to our organization, something that has changed, you know, early, particularly I say early, three to four decades ago, and we’re all the way up into the 2000s, early 2000s. We could have encouraged someone to join the chamber, just because we were successful, creating new jobs and capital investment, they just want to be a part of that. Now, they’ve got to experience something. And so Chambers of Commerce, the our events, you know, our social media presence, it’s networking, and it’s an experiential type, membership. And people will no longer write you a check just because the chamber is great in your community, your your membership sales team has to build relationships with them. You have to support your existing industries, you have to run leadership programs. So you really have to be in tune with the folks in your communities and the business leaders. So I think moving forward chambers, just like you know, something that you look at, it’s a negative look around the country at the civic organizations and how their membership has declined. Well, it’s those civic clubs that have changed a bit who have been able to stabilize their membership and in any chamber organization. If you look at the average age of the men First, they may be skewing upward. Well, you’ve got to make sure you’re running young leaders programs, under 40 type programs, because those are the folks that are going to sustain your organization moving forward.

Brandon Burton 25:14
I like that I think I just had my own little aha moment because he gave that response. And so when you when you mentioned that, you know, today, people have that need to experience something. And it makes me think of just the connectivity that we have the the instant gratification, the, especially as you look at the younger generations coming up right now, if they can’t get Amazon to deliver whatever it is, you know, next day, or today would be even better, then it’s not good enough, right. So to experience something, you can’t just talk about doing something you can’t just, you know, have a good organization, they need to experience something they need to kind of need that dopamine hit right to be able to want to come back and have more. And if you’re able to provide some small wins along the way where they can see, okay, I’m seeing the value here, okay, I’m seeing where this is helping the community, I see how this impacts my business, leading up to those big wins is big economic development, contracts, things like that. I think it’s important for every chamber to be thinking about those small, small wins along the way to give that feedback loop of the what you’re doing is important, and they feel involved. So

Kyle Spurgeon 26:31
you know, one thing to do is make sure not only celebrate the successes that your chamber has in the community, but just think about ribbon cuttings, those in another, you’re celebrating the success of a small business or big business. So being a part of the success without taking credit for it of other organizations to where you attach your brand, to their brand. Because everyone loves attention. And if you’re a small business, we’re doing a ribbon cutting for you. They love seeing their faces and their names on our social media feeds, on the traditional media, news stories, and so attaching yourself and supporting other folks success without taking credit for it. And that’s a big help.

Brandon Burton 27:16
Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve heard some chambers getting away from ribbon cutting somewhat, but I think there’s still a great value there with giving that that positive feedback loop so well, Kyle, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for those who are listening that want to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing things there in Jackson, or learn more about Blue Oval city and how they can, you know, bring somebody else to their community because they’re not going to get forward right. What would be what would be the best way for them to to reach out and connect with you?

Kyle Spurgeon 27:56
Yeah, my favorite way actually is through LinkedIn. Really, all social media is not great all the time. But our team finds LinkedIn to be a fantastic source to connect and share information. Other than that, my email address love to give that out. It’s kspurgeon@jacksontn.com. And you know what our business you learn from other folks, we’ve, in the last several years, we’ve been to Wichita, Kansas, Greenville, South Carolina and Monroe, Louisiana, Franklin, Tennessee a few years ago, just learning what those communities were doing in their chamber and economic development teams. And yeah, we’re stealing ideas and bringing those back, we just are going to hopefully be able to announce a $34 million training center that our governor has put in his budget. The idea from that training center, pain from a visit to Wichita, Kansas.

Brandon Burton 28:56
That’s awesome. Yeah, those leadership visits as you know, inner city visits are, they’re very valuable. So by learning from each other, you know, those listening, reach out, talk to Kyle, you know, learn learn from him, and, and even take it to the next step and schedule a visit to another city and see how things are being done there. So that’s a whole other topic we can dive into right. Yeah. But Kyle, I appreciate you spending some time with us today, here on chamber chat podcast, I think you’ve provided some great value for those listening to really maybe just take another look at how they are building a sense of teamwork throughout their community to lead to some of these big wins. So I appreciate you sharing your experience and what’s going on there and Jackson, thank you.

Kyle Spurgeon 29:43
Thank you Brandon. Great questions and appreciate having the opportunity to be a part of it.

Brandon Burton 29:48
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Chambers Convene for the Children of Ukraine with Chris Mead

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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.

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.

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

Matt Morrow 0:41
Holman Brothers provide a great training for our sales team in terms of just outstanding sales techniques. But maybe even more importantly than that, they were able to provide us with a system a process that was repeatable and in that we’re able to see very clearly from one month to the next how the how the pipeline is doing, what prospects are in it, what kind of progress we’re making and what we can do to coach people to success.

Brandon Burton 1:03
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Our guest for this episode is Chris Mead. Chris is president of magicians at Main Street, a company that works with chambers of commerce, and with companies that provide services to for chambers for just over 16 years ending in December of 2018. He served as vice president and then Senior Vice President for ACCE his previous experience includes five years ending as vice president as what, at what’s known now as the International Economic Development Council. Chris also wrote the only book length history of chambers of commerce in the United States, magicians of Main Street America and its Chambers of Commerce. The book featured on the front page of Wall Street Journal and elsewhere shows how chambers helped shape the history of the United States from the very beginning. The book is frequently quoted in chamber executive speeches for their board staff and the public. And many of you are very familiar with it. Chris is a consultant on chamber travel and also pro bono, the developer of a program involving young people in Ukraine and the United States. Chris, I’m excited to have you with me today here on chamber chat podcast. So I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions and friends that are out there and listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know me a little bit better.

Chris Mead 2:36
Hello, chamber champions, and fans of Brandon Burton. I think he does a great job. And I guess Alright, this is, I mean, might as well say something embarrassing, just for fun, right? I remember saying this at ACC one time when we were sharing something about ourselves. When I was 16 years old, I decided that I wanted to learn about Transcendental Meditation. And I ended up doing that, and finally deciding to become a teacher of Transcendental Meditation. At the age of 19. I went to Spain heard Maharishi Mahesh Yogi give speeches, he was the same one who taught the Beatles and The Beach Boys and Donovan and all kinds of others. And it was really boring. We’d have 2000 people sitting in our big tent. Nothing seemed to go right. I began to suspect this was a fraud. And when I got home, and I was painting houses in Washington, DC, up on a high ladder 100 degree weather, I suddenly realized I was not in cosmic consciousness. And so I’m afraid that my useful excitement with that thing went away way back then but maybe it was good. I learned a lesson.

Brandon Burton 4:02
That’s funny. Took painting on that hot day to realize I love it. So normally at this point in a in these interviews, I’d like to have my guest on the show talk a little bit about their chamber size staff budget. Yeah, obviously you don’t have a chamber to talk about per se. But uh, I know I went through your bio, but maybe just tell us kind of the high points of how you got to where you are today through your career and work with chambers.

Chris Mead 4:35
Yes, I’ve always been fascinated by groups of people doing things, making their communities better. And but I never knew how much chambers had done. I worked with economic development organization and then with ACCE for years, and I thought maybe I’ll just do something Because I read in a book here in a book there that a chamber had something to do with getting rid of Al Capone. And in another book that it the chamber in St. Louis financed the flight of Charles Lindbergh to Paris. And I thought, let me just find five things, just five things to prove that we’ve done something. Yeah, because the funny thing is like, even in the case of Chicago, outside of the Chicagoland chamber, nobody knew that. The chamber there had something to do with getting rid of Al Capone. And it was a seer. A lot to do with getting rid of alcopop. So I started writing those five stories, Miss America Pageant, out of Atlantic City, and so on. Before I knew it, there was a six story and a seven story and a story. And I, at the end, I kind of realized, and I had to stop at 1945 or still be writing. I realized that they had they’ve shaped America, they’ve they’ve done so much. And even they don’t know it. And I didn’t know it. But they should be proud of what they are doing and what they have done. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 6:13
Now that is that is fascinating. And for anyone who hasn’t read the book yet magicians in the industry, it’d be a great idea to jump into that and read about these stories about how Chambers of Commerce have shaped America. Thank you for for sharing that. And for writing that book, the history of chambers. I appreciate that. So for our topic for our conversation today, it’s very unique from anything else that we’ve talked about before on the podcast. And as I reached out to Chris to have him on the show. He said, You know, I’m working on a really interesting project that’s very timely, that I think your listeners could could benefit from hearing about. So we have done a phone call and he told me about this. But what Chris is involved with right now is he’s helping the Chamber’s to convene on behalf of the children of Ukraine. And he’s got a unique approach that he’s doing this. So we’ll dive into this conversation and learn what Chris is involved with at the moment as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Richard Scully 8:34
We all know there are three words in Chamber of Commerce. So we suggest that you manage the chamber and will manage the commerce between both teams will deliver a lot more value back to members. We invite you to take a look at our Let’s Do Commerce Program by visiting www.letsdocommerce.com. You’ll be able to engage and promote membership like never before. And with our integrated chamber kiosk and community clicker program, the potential is enormous. To schedule a visit with me that works best for you, please visit RichardsCalendar.com. As we like to say here at Chamber Nation, join the chamber and get results.

Donna Novitsky 9:17
Hey there, Donna Novitsky, CEO of Yiftee here, and we are all about the shop local movement. We’re working with more than 500 communities like yours and 15,000 small businesses like your members. We’re big fans of Brandon and his Chamber Chat Podcast, so we’re helping to sponsor the show. But while I’ve got you here, what’s a Yiftee? You ask? It’s a digital gift card branded for your chamber that people spend only at the local shops that you authorize. In 2022 we drove 10’s of millions of dollars to small businesses in the US. The program is free for chambers and free for your local shops. You can sign up for a live zoom demo with me or one of my teammates yiftee.com/demo or email sales@yiftee.com. That’s why Yiftee.com. That’s it for now back to the show.

Brandon Burton 10:15
All right, Chris, we’re back. So I’ve been impressed as, as you and I spoke offline about the work that you’re doing to convene chambers for the children of Ukraine. Tell us what is it that you’re doing on behalf of the children in Ukraine? And why are you doing it?

Chris Mead 10:34
Well, Brandon, it started when the Russians invaded Ukraine, which happens to be exactly one year ago, from the time that we’re recording this broadcast this podcast. And by the way, happy birthday.

Brandon Burton 10:53
Thank you, February 24. For those who send me a birthday card, or just remember when when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Chris Mead 11:05
And it was the brutality, the meanness, the cruelty of it. It just ticked me off. And I guess it may have been around March, I can’t remember exactly when, on the process of doing some other work. I had the chance to meet someone I already met on the phone, but and was a good friend in that way. Renee URLs from the Odessa, Texas Chamber of Commerce. And somehow this idea had come into my head and I said, Renee, what if there were a pen pal program to make the kids in Ukraine feel better? A pen pal program between young people in Odessa, Texas, and Odessa is a Odessa, Ukraine? Well, she it seems like she kind of liked the idea. I mean, it’s it’s natural, because it didn’t, it gives the Odessa Texas chamber some recognition. And it’s good, it plays off the name. So it would seem like a good thing to do. But, you know, she’s busy, I’m busy. So we go off and do our own thing. But I kept thinking, all right. Let me see if I can find some people who can help on the Ukraine side and get things going. And so I did I worked with someone who used to work with me at ACCE she was of Ukrainian background, this that the other found a gentleman and at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro he had helped me out and is still helped me out ended up finding some teachers in Odessa, Ukraine, and they’re all English teachers. That’s all I work with them. And now, because the Ukrainians are dying to learn English, because it’s their ticket out of kind of, you might say Russian domination, you know, they get to look in the instead of looking, I guess that’s east for them, they get to look west, they get to look to the west. So we started so I went back to Rene and I said, Renee, you know what, I think I got I think we can do this. I know how to do this. I’ve got students from Odessa, Texas. I mean, Odessa, Ukraine who ready to work with your students. So then she’s, this is the great thing about chamber executives. She knew the people, you know, the powers that be she didn’t know, you know, a junior teacher at one of the schools. She knew all the leaders of the schools in Odessa, Texas. And so she found them it’s the ector county Independent School District PC ISD. And she got me with a lady who handles social studies for 2500 students. And that that lady, Becky Ramirez, was a Help me on on getting it all started. And we have one classroom that did it for us. The cow Crowder, the teacher, and he got brought in 120 students ended up with about 105 because of email issues and does that and the other but we got pen pals for all of them. And that was the beginning of the week. Back then we call it the Odessa to Odessa pen pal program. Okay, yeah. And of course other other communities learned about it in in Ukraine and we now have work with about 25 schools over there.

Brandon Burton 14:54
Wow. So 25 schools in in Ukraine. Correct. The English teachers Sydor are working to get their students to write these letters. So, tell us what are these pen pal letters? Like between the students? Do you have any insight as to what they’re talking about?

Chris Mead 15:13
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I don’t, I can’t, I don’t, I can’t read them. You know, it’s, I can’t, I can’t hack into them. Some of them may be able to hack into my emails. I’d say, you know, every fourth kid wants to be a programmer when they when they grow up. But anyway, so they they’re

Brandon Burton 15:32
there, there’s some guidelines that they’re given as far as what to like for a student here in the United States to ask or to start a conversation.

Chris Mead 15:42
And this surprised me, although once I thought about it, it didn’t surprise me. A lot of Ukrainian students were at or a number were asking, Hey, can you help get my family over to the United States? And that didn’t go over too well with the American students or with their teachers, because the American students had no idea how to do that. You know, it’s, it’s pretty complicated from, you know, a paperwork standpoint. Not many people know how to do that. So we said, you know, you know, that’s kind of marrying, we’re right now we’re just talking about dating, let’s just, let’s just have a pen pal relationship. And so that was one of the conditions I put in my opening letter to the teachers, please, please don’t ask them that. Or tell your students not to ask him that. Yeah, that was the main thing. I haven’t heard of anything terrible happening. We did finally start mixing boys and girls. Because, as I put it to the teachers, there’s probably not going to be any wild parties breaking out because they’re 6000 miles apart.

Brandon Burton 16:58
They’ve got some space.

Chris Mead 17:01
And but, you know, because I had all, I had a whole bunch of 14 year old girls from Ukraine, and a whole bunch of 13 year old boys from United States, and I couldn’t. You know, and in order to, I couldn’t find matches for him except each other. So I did. And that worked out. Okay, at least so far.

Brandon Burton 17:24
So, yeah, what was your what is your hope or intent with the children of Ukraine in participating with this pen pal program? What would you hope for their outcome or experience to be like through the throughout this program?

Chris Mead 17:40
I can tell from the teachers that it’s very important to a lot of these Ukrainian students. They set for example, a lot of them say, My friend has a as a part pen pal partner, but I don’t yet. And so they, it seems to be something they really want. And a lot of it is kind of the comfort of knowing there’s somebody who cares about them or likes them, and is not in the middle of the battle that they’re experiencing every day of their lives. The bombs falling. That doesn’t happen in every community in Ukraine, but in most of the big cities, yes. A lot of other places. Yeah. So I think it’s a lot of it is comfort, and for the teachers, too. And I have had a note from one of the English teachers who said, Sorry, I haven’t responded to your email. I just got it even though you wrote it three weeks ago. It’s the internet has been totally disrupted around here. And I only have two hours of power last night. Because of they’ve destroyed the generators downtown. I mean, they have to go through things we don’t really understand their, their standard of living wasn’t great before the war. And it’s gotten worse since then, of course. But they’re the kids that, you know, when they write what they want to do, is pretty neat. They will or what they do after school, it’s just as very similar to ours. Except I know their girls, they, they like to dance. And you don’t hear that too much from our girls, or young women. Whatever the you don’t hear him say I like to dance in my free time. But a lot of Ukrainian girls say that

Brandon Burton 19:32
it’s on tick tock or something. Yeah, that’s true. Yeah,

Chris Mead 19:35
maybe that’s what they’re talking about. And drawing they like to draw, but generally like video games, they all play video games, and a lot of them are the same video games that are young people play with. So they’re, you know, they’re a lot more like us, then, unlike us. Very much so.

Brandon Burton 19:56
And what a great experience for the students to see that to see this similarities to see the differences to learn from each other, gain a better perspective of how things are another part of the world where they’re going through a difficult time. I think it’ll provide these students in the United States with some compassion and better understanding as they become leaders, you know, in the future, I think it’ll it’ll be have a big impact on them.

Chris Mead 20:22
I think it makes them feel they’re lucky to for many of them, I’m glad I don’t have to go through that. But I also have some compassion for those who do have to go through it. One, one letter that kind of hit me in the gut was a young man, we were talking about, what do you want to do after high school? And this young man, he was 14 years old said, well, actually, I’d like to leave right now and join the military. But my mother won’t let me. So I wrote him back and said, I’m sorry. But I agree with your mom, I think you should get your education first, you’ll be more effective as a future citizen of Ukraine. And as even as a soldier, you’d be more effective if you’re better educated. And he did not respond to that. But oh, I even said, I think President Zelensky would say the same thing. You know, unfortunately, but I understand he’s mad. And he’s, maybe he’s got a brother already fighting.

Brandon Burton 21:36
Anyway, wants to do something to contribute. Yeah, I can appreciate that. So I understand. So for I guess, first of all, just for clarification, this pen pals, the communications going back and forth over email. So that’s why the it’s important to have power and internet for the email communication. But I understand you guys have have launched a program today is we’re recording this right? You want to tell us some more about that. And what this, I guess, contest of sorts is

Chris Mead 22:11
sure. This was an idea to give the young people of Ukraine a chance to get the word out about how they’re feeling not just to their pen pal, but to a broader audience if they should want to. And so I sent out letters physically this morning to everyone we have on our list, who’s either a pen pal from Ukraine, which is about 260. In other words, half of the total number of people of our 530 Plus and, and also another 100 230 of them who are on the waiting list, which is one of my headaches right now. We got too many Ukrainians, which we are solving, we’ve figured out a way to solve it. Anyhow. So the idea was, what can we do? To get the word out? What because I don’t really know exactly what they’re feeling. You know, the TV reporters are always interviewing adults. So we have invited them to compete. To tell stories, one of them is essays on what the past year has meant to me. That’s the name of the whole competition, what the past year has meant to me. And my original idea, maybe because I’m an English major originally was just to have it be a an essay contest. 500 words just in English. But then another gentleman that I’ve been working with Dr. Turret terrace of us, I’m sorry, vessel terrorists from Greensboro said, Let’s broaden it. And so we’ve ended up with five categories that include essay, poem, photo, illustrations, and video, three minute videos. So somebody wants to dance to do an anti Russian dance, well, that’s fine, you know, or whatever it is, or a tick tock type, wrap, whatever they want to do. And there will be prizes, we have not specified what those will be, but there will be prizes. At first. I nixed the idea before I’d even asked people because I thought, what if someone writes a beautiful essay in great English and wins first prize, and the person who wins second prize, lost a parent, maybe to Russian brutality. Let’s just imagine that. How does that feel? Is this really right for a contest? But it turns out that the teachers over there said It is right do it as a contest, we do contests all the time. That’s how we like to think. And so do it as a contest. And, and then of course, because we’ll have judges, and criteria and everything, it peep, no one’s going to come and shoot me or others who have been involved in putting on the contest, because the judges will be making the decisions based on the criteria. And everyone knows it’s been a bad year. And you know, let the chips fall where they may. But let’s say the top three essays and poems and all these other things are shown to the world. And we hope they’ll be picked up when that happens, that some people even in Russia will see it and think, gosh, is this something I’m proud of? Is this what they did to these kids? Is that while we were hunting for non existent Nazis in in Ukraine, anyway, that’s kind of my hope. But

Brandon Burton 26:06
do you have a plan at this point, once these submissions come in, to help spread the word to the world and, and hopefully to get it back to Russia?

Chris Mead 26:20
Well, we have, it’s April 17, is the date that we will actually release the results. So we have a little time to figure it out. I’ve, in the past been a Publicity Hound every now and then. So try to do some things. And so and we also have our contacts, and we have actually very good channels in Ukraine to get the word out. And a lot of it can spread to Russia from there. I mean, I’m not saying I’m gonna try to stop the war. But if I can give Putin a headache for one day, you know, that’s, that’s better than nothing. That’s That’s some good work

Brandon Burton 27:00
that helped me feel good. Yeah. Well, I guess the question listeners may have is, are you looking for other chambers to help convene to get together with school districts to try to match up you said, you’ve got a list of Ukrainian students? Or where are you at and within this program is trying to be a matchmaker. And are you looking for more participants?

Chris Mead 27:28
Yes. And in fact, we did. in record time we got through my friend, Doug Peters, in Abilene, Texas. We he he connected with a friend of his who’s on the board, or the superintendent or something or other. An Air Force guy, I guess that’s his day job. And through him, we have a high school in Abilene, Texas, that’s going to start. But again, there’s the convening working, and something similar is I hope happening in Virginia, we’re not sure yet. But definitely, it’s the it’s the quickest way in the door for me, as far as I’m concerned, you know, and, and so if there are chamber executives, who think that this would be something that would be interesting to their students, their young people, kind of broaden their experience and maybe teach a little compassion, a little bit of leadership, and, and a little bit of just understanding of the world. And it often comes through social studies teachers, or, you know, geography or civics, one of those kinds of classes. Whereas over in Ukraine, it’s mostly the English teachers, but here, it’s those kinds if and if if, as most chamber executives are, they’re pretty well connected into their education establishments, just like Renee Earl’s in in Odessa, Texas and, and Doug Peters in Abilene. They’re pretty darn well connected. So if they, if they know somebody in the school system, who they, they might run this idea across, and that person likes the idea. It’s very easy, there’s no charge to it. So I’m not becoming a millionaire off this not yet. Right? Unless maybe Putin would give me a yacht if I’d stopped doing this.

Brandon Burton 29:32
Right. Keep going until you get that status. But Chris, I like asking everyone I have on the show since we’ve got primarily calm chamber champions, right chamber executives, chamber staff that are listening for the chamber who’s looking to try to go up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you have for them to try to achieve that?

Chris Mead 30:02
Well, I guess I, I think back to Rene Earl’s, who started this whole thing really by doing getting it going in Odessa, Texas. And her idea was, she grasped immediately that an Odessa to Odessa connection would do something for her chamber. So she had to think 6000 miles away. But you know, it’s not something you think of every day as you’re trying to do in your business after hours and this out the other, but she saw something there. And so she was willing to take a chance and try it. And so I guess that’s, you know, they all were they used to say, think outside the box, but that expression is, is inside the box at this point. That’s it, but think outside your city limits think outside your

Brandon Burton 31:00
county slot on your borders? Yeah,

Chris Mead 31:03
yeah. What, what is it? Maybe it’s, I don’t know what it is. But there’s, there’s something about your town, and what’s happened there, whether it’s the name, the history, whatever, that is interesting to other people. So find it and do something with it.

Brandon Burton 31:19
Yeah, I like that. It’s a good good piece of advice. And, and really to, you know, put your community on the map a little bit more, you know, see what it is. It’s interesting, think beyond your borders and, and show that that interesting thing to the world. So Chris, the other question I like asking everybody that I have on the show is, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Chris Mead 31:50
It’s something that I was constantly asking myself, when I wrote that book, because I was going from 1768 to 1945. But also thinking about the present day. And you know, with the internet, this the that the electronic networking, so many changes, and yet, I still need to talk to Renee URLs, I still need to talk to Doug in Abilene. I can’t just shoot an email to the town of Abilene and say, help me. You need somebody who knows somebody and is willing to do something for you. And who cares about the community? It seems to me there’s always going to be a need for something like that. Yeah, there’s always going to be need for businesses to get together to come together for the common good. I think that’s always going to be there.

Brandon Burton 32:46
Yeah, I think you’re right, I think they’re having that perspective of going through with the book writing process and seeing it, you know, such a vast period of time. But then looking at today, and realizing that a lot of the same, you know, core things, those personal connections, caring about the community convenient businesses together for a common good, I believe, I believe that that need will always be there as well. You know, some of the things like, I don’t know, rooting out Al Capone, or getting together to pave a road may not be, you know, the purpose for a chamber anymore, or today, but a lot of those core principles are still there. So I think that there’s a lot of value with that. But Chris, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who would like to reach out and connect maybe get involved with the children and became Ukraine pen pal program or follow along with your your success and the development of the competition or, or the program in general, where would you point them? What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?

Chris Mead 33:55
Well, thank you, Brandon. The easiest way is probably my email address, which is long, but he fairly easy to remember, Chris, that CHR is at magicians of main street.com, which is named after the book obviously, again, Chris at magicians of main street.com. And I’ll absolutely keep track of you and if you want to do something soon, then I’ll respond soon. or hours, I’ll respond one way or the other, but I’ll I’ll act on what I get. Yeah, whatever that may be.

Brandon Burton 34:34
That is great. Now I’ll get your email in our show notes for this episode, so people can pull it up there and and shoot over an email to if they want to get involved or follow along with the progress but this is a I find it to be a very intriguing program that you’re putting on or experiment even to create these pen pal relationships to put on this or host this competition. I’m I’m excited to see some of the outcomes to hear these stories that are coming out of these children in Ukraine and, and the impact that this last year has had on them and, and I can imagine that their pen pal friends here in the states will be touched as well to hear those stories. So thank you for for sharing this with us today and for spending time with us today on chamber chat podcast.

Chris Mead 35:23
Well, thank you, Brandon, you’re, you’re a good man to talk with I enjoy it.

Brandon Burton 35:27
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How Local Chambers Can Work with State Chambers with Glenn Hamer

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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.

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Kris Johnson, President and CEO of the Association of Washington Business in Washington State to learn how Holman Brothers has provided value for him.

Kris Johnson 0:41
Well, Doug and Bill at the Holman Brothers have been a key ally in growth for my professional career working at three different chambers, a local chamber, a regional chamber, now a statewide chamber. And they’ve been the ideal solution, whether it’s a comprehensive training program, whether it’s working on individual sales growth, quarterly check-ins with the team, the ability to grow members has meaning more assets for the organization, more assets means we can do more things to serve our members. They’ve really been the perfect solution for us, a trusted resource partner and a growth partner for us all along the way. So hats off to Doug and Bill for their great success. They’ll be a great partner for you as they are for us.

Brandon Burton 1:23
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Our guest for this episode is Glenn Hamer. Glenn is the President and CEO of the Texas Association of Business which serves as the Texas State Chamber of Commerce. Glenn is a torchbearer for business for the business community and he’s a he has a proven track record for success in the public policy arena. He testified before the 87th legislator on his second day of the job and made meaningful contributions to the passage of the top legislative priorities for the business community, including broadband expansion, keep Texas trucking pandemic liability protections and preventing astronomical increases in unemployment insurance. Since the pandemic and Glenn has made it his mission to visit more local chambers than anyone else on the planet. He connects businesses small and large with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to protect Texas’s pro business climate. Glenn is proud to be part of the Texas Camino Real district Export Council, American Society of Mexico and National Immigration forum. He also serves on the board for the US Chamber of Commerce and chairs its committee of 100. Glenn came to TAB or Texas Association of Business after 14 years as CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where he played a central role in major tax education, legal and health court health care victories. He was at the forefront of the business community’s advocacy for the US for the United States Mexico Canada agreement. Glenn is a highly regarded international issues expert and has joined governors mayors and the US Chamber on trade missions to China, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, Israel in the United Kingdom. Recognizing the global race for talent to keep our economy’s strong Glenn is also recognized as a champion on immigration reform. Glenn has also served as chief of staff to Arizona Congressman Matt salmon, Executive Director of Arizona Republican Party legislative assistant to Senator Jon Kyl, and executive director for Solar Energy Industries Association. Glenn is a graduate of Cornell University and Arizona State University’s College of Law. Glenn is married and has three daughters who exhibit strong entrepreneurial spirit. Glen, I’m excited to have you with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast. We have quite the bio. Vin. Well,

Glenn Hamer 4:33
Brandon, I am 125 years old. Right. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate your program.

Brandon Burton 4:40
Absolutely. I’ve been looking forward we’ve been working to get you on the podcast for some time. You’re busy man all over the big state of Texas. Fed. Glad to have you on and want to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting then we can get to know you a little bit better.

Glenn Hamer 4:58
Well, hello Brandon. And the first thing I’ll say that our mission, these people ask, how’s our chamber different than a lot of the other chambers? Well, we’re united in the sense that we’re all part of the chamber community. And in my opinion, the the chambers are one of the most important civic institutions on the planet today. And one of and certainly one of the best respected, you do any sort of poll. And the second that you identify as a chamber, you have credibility with people of all different political persuasions, at the Texas State Chamber, our mission. And our purpose is to champion the best business climate in the world unleashing the power of free enterprise to enhance lives for generations. And, you know, Texas here, here’s for all of our listeners, all the listeners and people watching this podcast across the country. Here’s the truth, as and I say, this is a guy who came from Arizona, Texas is not a state, it’s a country. It’s a big place. And everywhere that I go, there’s great optimism about where this state is going, and the power of of of chambers to enact meaningful change.

Brandon Burton 6:19
Absolutely. And, you know, to be clear, Glenn has a job to do. You know, he promotes Business and Economic Development and so forth throughout Texas. But as a fellow Texan, I deeply appreciate it. So thank you, Glenn. But why don’t you tell us a little bit more about what the Texas Association business does as you work with local chambers? And what is the scope you shared kind of the the mission statement there, but what kind of work are you involved with?

Glenn Hamer 6:45
Well, in terms of you, you hit on a number of the things that we were able to contribute to over the last couple of years in Texas, but we’re an advocacy group and our our charge is to keep Texas, the most competitive state in the country to do business. So we’re located right across from the state capitol. So our day job is really to advocate for for the meat and potato issues that benefit businesses of all kinds from every part of this state. So for example, you mentioned unemployment insurance. Well, we felt the need to get engaged in this because if we weren’t able to get state allocation of funds to replenish our state’s on an uninsurance Trust Fund, it could have meant increases of up to 300% for our businesses across the state of Texas. So working with the governor working with the legislature working with chambers across the state of Texas, where we were able to get something done to avoid what could have been very large tax increases. That’s, that’s one example of how we work we work with our chamber partners to enact meaningful policy changes at primarily at the Texas State Capitol. We also do get involved from time to time on local matters, and increasingly, on federal matters, particularly when it comes to trade and National Immigration Policy.

Brandon Burton 8:20
Very good. That definitely helps to set the table. Right. Well that will focus our discussion today around more so how a local chamber can work with their state chamber on some of these bigger issues. And we’ll dive into that discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Richard Scully 9:48
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Brandon Burton 11:29
All right, Glenn, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’ll be talking about how a local chamber can work more with their their State Chamber and I loved as I went through your bio, you make it a point to visit as many local Chambers as anyone else on the planet. I’m curious if you’ve been keeping count of all your visits, you get around to like you said Texas is a country not a state.

Glenn Hamer 11:54
Yeah, it’s it’s it well, I’m usually meeting outside of Austin with a couple of chambers in Texas every week. And then also because our legislature is in session this year, that legislature in Texas meets every other year, we have many chambers that are coming to the state capitol. So and we always welcome our our local chamber partners in in terms of how chambers can get involved. And whether you’re in Texas, Arizona, Michigan, or you name the state, the best way to do that is generally speaking changed, State Chambers will have advocacy committees and State Chambers will, for example, the state art State Chamber, we have a biweekly call with Chambers from across the state of Texas, where we’re simply able to discuss advocacy, we’ll we’ll talk about the top items that are on our agenda. And we’ll also solicit items that are on the agendas of our local chamber of partners. Those are critical because State Chambers, by and large are going to be focused on advocacy. By and large, they’re going to be in the state capitol. And they are always eager to have the help and assistance and input from local chamber partners across the state. The reason why is it’s generally speaking, it’s the local chambers that have the best relationships with their elected officials from their respective areas.

Brandon Burton 13:29
Right. So an advocacy is so huge as the State Chamber and I think of all these local chambers, some of these, you know, chambers that are being run by one staff or part time staff and some situation situations. Advocacy can seem like something really tough for them to take on and handle. So how would you suggest for maybe a small chamber like that to get involved with their chamber and to get involved with advocacy where they might be a bit intimidated on the thought of it?

Glenn Hamer 13:59
Good? Great question. The first thing I would do would be to connect with the State Chamber and see what are the high level agenda items of that state chamber because our job is to make sure that the policy items that we’re championing have broad benefits. They’re they’re not the types of things that just benefit one industry, or one part of the state, the core items of a State Chamber agenda are going to be benefit beneficial across the board. And then what will generally happen and this is the case with us with the Texas Association of Business is we encourage Chambers from around the state to sign on and to support the agenda that we crafted by the way crafted with the help of a lot of chamber leaders from across the state as well as other business leaders. So the easiest way would be to contact State Chamber and to say What’s your business agenda and then to see from those items, the the top ones that would be of interest to that community. One quick example, we’re advocating on behalf of increased funding tied to increased results. For our great community college system in the state of Texas, we have 50 community colleges in Texas, there was just a very important report that was released, in terms of the need for additional funding tied to performance metrics, that practically is going to mean an ASQ of about $650 million from the legislature, it has the support of the leadership in the legislature, the governor is supportive of increased opportunities for community colleges. And the key now is getting as many chambers as possible from around the state rallying around that, that has broad benefit. And a smaller chamber, even a mom and pop shop, could simply lend their logo, to the advocacy materials that are likely being led by the State Chamber.

Brandon Burton 16:13
I love that that kind of leads into what I was going to say or bring up next, which is if you are one of these smaller chambers and trying to communicate value to your members of the work that you’re doing beyond, you know what they see on a day to day basis on Main Street or wherever you’re located, to be able to communicate that value through those efforts that you’re making with advocacy. It sounds like Texas Association of Business provides some of this material they can send out to local chambers to be able to help communicate some of that value and the work and the momentum, I’ll say that the chambers are trying to get behind and building bigger numbers together to be a larger voice at the Capitol.

Glenn Hamer 16:59
coalition’s are so important, we get asked by lawmakers all the time, you know, how do other business groups how to other chambers, particularly in their communities look at up look at it a policy. And your chances of getting that lawmaker to agree, increased dramatically. If you have the support of the local chambers. And Brandon, this probably this will just give sort of a sense. It’s I know it’s not coming off well, because of our background. But these are our core priorities for this legislative session. And, you know, be happy to share them with you. Because it’s a pretty good model of how most State Chambers operate in terms of putting together core actionable agenda items that generally speaking most chamber small, medium or large, would support.

Brandon Burton 17:50
Yeah, if you could share that with this. Since this is a primarily an audio podcast, I can share that in the show notes so our listeners can can pull that up and see some of those main points that you guys are covering this legislative session. But yeah, having those coalition’s I couldn’t agree more. It’s a it’s key for building building a bigger voice. Yeah.

Glenn Hamer 18:13
And Brennan, I also want to say is that you know, the day job for the for the smaller chambers of keeping the communities connected and keeping their businesses as healthy as possible and giving them increase opportunities to to earn and provide opportunities for the workers and the and the people the community. That’s, that’s noble work. And and, you know, that’s important, we don’t do that activity. That is that is incredibly important. Our job is on the policy side. So wherever we can help for those chambers that are doing such a great job of keeping their communities going. It’s our small part, our small contribution to their great efforts.

Brandon Burton 18:56
So I’m curious for myself on it from a state perspective, are you reaching out to the local chambers to see what issues what advocacy efforts are important to them? Are they coming to you? Or do they come to you? And then you put it out more broadly across the state? How does that communication flow?

Glenn Hamer 19:14
It’s it’s really two ways. And you know, Brian, and I think we met at the Texas Chamber of Commerce executive meeting in Rockwall, a year or so ago. And that was an opportunity where we had a number of advocacy sessions where we had a chance to talk about the items that we thought were going to be important to the next legislature. And our chamber partners also had the opportunity to talk to us about what was important, and I’ll give an example of where this two way conversation is so important. When I go around the state of Texas, I pick up different themes in terms of what different communities share in common. The number one issue number one issue Far and Away. Drumroll please workforce doesn’t matter where I go, its workforce, there’s the need for better skilled workers that meet the needs of the modern economy and more workers. So how does that practically translate to our work? Well, it translates in that we need more career and technical education in our high schools. We need the community college curriculums to be tighter, more tightly aligned with work with the workforce, which which they are being as we speak. And it also means we need more workers. You know, we have two jobs open basically, for every job opened in this country, even with, you know, higher interest rates and the economy slowing in certain areas doesn’t feel like that’s the case in Texas, by the way. But we have more jobs open and people to fill them. So we need more workers. So that’s why we fight for good federal immigration reform, better visa programs, as well as Second Chance hiring, you know, for people that have served their time in the state of Texas, we want to provide a path where they can productively reenter society, and contribute. So we came up with our agenda really based largely on many conversations with our local chamber partners.

Brandon Burton 21:20
Fantastic. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So just having those conversations to be able to see what what is. Those are the key issues in a community and to be able to see, okay, this has a trend throughout the state. And like you said, workforce, anywhere you go, that, obviously is something that needs to have more focused attention. And then there’s all the different layers to the workforce, right. So you can peel the layers and the layers of the onion and get real deep on that

Glenn Hamer 21:48
lot of layers. There’s the higher ed, there’s childcare layers, there’s, there’s, you know, even, you know, we’ve like most chambers, particularly where there’s a strong rural population, things like broadband infrastructure pop up, you know, it depends, you know, on a state like Texas, Brandon, we’re about 900 to 1000 people move here on net each day. That’s a staggering number. You know, that also impacts the agenda items and makes things like expanded infrastructure, more important than it might be in in some other states.

Brandon Burton 22:31
No, it’s true. And we see like you mentioned broadband, we see that like, through COVID, when schools are forced to do you know, remote learning and whatnot, you see the strain on the broadband system and networks. And if we’re really going to be able to grow and continue to have that sustained growth, we need to be able to look at some of these things on the horizon before they become a big issue.

Glenn Hamer 22:53
Well, exactly, and that’s another one where just having these conversations with our chamber partners has made a has made a huge difference. There are certain communities that I go into where broadband is an issue, but it’s not the issue, or maybe not even top three or four b Why? Because it’s penetrated the community. It’s just not an issue. But there’s other times where I go into rural Texas, where this is the issue, and you know, whether it’s education or telehealth, you know, things that a lot of us take for granted. If you don’t have a, if you don’t have that strong internet connection today, it’s difficult to fully participate in, in the modern economy.

Brandon Burton 23:41
Absolutely. And I almost wonder, I mean, it is direct directly related to workforce as well. But you see more the connectivity and then people feel like they don’t need to go into an office. It is the dominoes in the in the layers, the end. So it just it just keeps going.

Glenn Hamer 23:56
I’ll just say for the listeners out there, you should, if you can, health wise, go in. And it has a lot of benefits socially. You also think about downtown’s and you know, a lot of the businesses that have suffered because people haven’t been into into normal work areas. Zoom and other types of things like that are very good tools. But there is absolutely nothing that replaces human interaction. And commercially it’s very important and I’ll tell you employers are telling me left and right we want our workforce back back in person with more flexibility, but by and large back in person.

Brandon Burton 24:44
Yeah. No, I would totally agree with that. There’s benefits and and there’s ways to leverage it but but where I can to be there in person for sure. Well, Glenn, I like asking everyone I have on the show if for A listener who is at a local chamber, they want to take their chamber up to the next level, what tips or action items might you have for to suggest to them to be able to do that?

Glenn Hamer 25:10
Join, the first thing that I would say is that most states have at a Texas Chamber of Commerce executive platform of some point of some sort, that is vitally important. We’re very lucky here that we have such an entity it’s run by Drew Chevrolet, who is a chamber veteran. This is this is important because it goes well, the advocacy is not the main feature of this organization, it’s how to run a chamber, it’s how to put together staff, it’s how to do board meetings, it’s how to have the correct bylaws, the first thing is you have to make sure that you have a structurally sound organization. So I would say whatever state you’re in, is, please join whatever that entity is, of chamber executives, that that’s a must had, particularly if you’re a mom and pop, but chamber.

Brandon Burton 26:04
Absolutely. In fact, when I started this podcast, I came from the chamber publishing industry. And as I’d go around, I would meet small chambers that would really struggle, I’d meet other chambers that were they may be small, too, but they were doing really well. And I started the podcast as a way of sharing some good practices, best practices and ways of doing things. And then I found out that those ones that were really struggling, weren’t members of their state association. And that is such a key tip right there. And there’s other resources, but you can’t overlook the value of the state association. Well,

Glenn Hamer 26:39
and it’s the peer network, that’s very important. So you know, it’s socially brand. And we we got together and, you know, it’s it’s a social situation, you get to meet your peers, and you get to share different ideas. And in the chamber world, we all sort of joke, one version or another. There’s no pride and authorship, we steal each other’s good stuff all the time. And we try to avoid the pitfalls all the time as well. So joining that type of organization and participating, and having colleagues that can help you. We all need help. I mean, I’ll just say, you know, I’ve been doing this for a long time. I rely on a network of chamber leaders across the country, and across the state of Texas to help me and I’ve been doing this for a while. So, you know, build, join the right organizations get engaged, and it will pay massive dividends. And it will be fun.

Brandon Burton 27:37
Yeah, well, that peer network brings different perspectives than what you see yourself. And it lets you be able to see the world through different eyes and come to better solutions. So chamber leaders

Glenn Hamer 27:47
are fun people,

Brandon Burton 27:49
they are there. Yep. Exactly. So Glen, I like asking, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers in their purpose going forward?

Glenn Hamer 28:03
Very bright. We know that, unfortunately, so many major institutions in this country have taken a hit in terms of the public’s credibility. chambers are one of the few institutions where if anything, it, it pulls chamber work polls higher today than it did in past years. And here’s the reason why, if you think about it, just about every person in the country has some sort of association with some sort of chamber and their community. And it’s probably a very positive one. Because chambers really exist to support their business communities, which are supporting their communities, they may be supporting the local hospital, they may be supporting little egg chambers in this country are one of the backbones that make, in my opinion, America, the greatest country in the history of the world. So I want to thank all of the chamber leaders from all around the country who are engaged in this work. It’s honorable, it’s inspirational, and you’re a critical part of what is keeping America together during a very difficult time.

Brandon Burton 29:17
Amen to that. And that’s, that’s why I’ve grasped on to the chamber industry myself is just I see that value that these chambers all across the country provide and providing better lives for their communities.

Glenn Hamer 29:29
And Brandon, what you do is vitally important because it creates a record where we could all learn from from each other.

Brandon Burton 29:38
I appreciate that. That’s the hope that’s the goal is to get it out there and everybody takes some tidbits from from each episode. Glenn, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about what the Texas Association of Business has to offer or anything in general that you’ve touched on today. What would be the best way for them? I have to reach out and connect

Glenn Hamer 30:02
sure to two ways my cell phone is the best way to reach me. And that’s 737-336-6590. The second best way is my email, ghamer@txbiz.org cell is far better. I sometimes joke if you don’t want me to see something emailed to me, because I get a little bit over loaded there. But I’m pretty responsive when it comes to people texting me,

Brandon Burton 30:31
man I lucked out, then we set this up over email and he happened to see it. This is great. Well, thank you, Glenn. I appreciate you setting aside some time to join us today here on chamber chat podcast and to touch on this topic of how local chambers can get more involved with their state chambers. I think it’s such important work and to really, even at the local level to take on that work of advocacy and and really communicating that value to members and community at large. So thank you so much.

Glenn Hamer 31:01
Thanks for having me on.

Brandon Burton 31:03
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Innovative Partnerships with Kris Adams

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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.

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 0:38
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 0:54
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

Our guest for this episode is Kris Adams. Kris is the is with the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce as the director of Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit, Kris comes to the chamber from a career of service with nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining the chamber team, he served as the director of development for restoration village, a local Women and Children’s Shelter. He holds a master’s degree in Strategic Communication from Arkansas State University, a Master’s of divinity degree from Union Presbyterian seminary, and an undergraduate degree in religion from Liberty University. Kris believes that technology can be a force for good to improve the lives of everyone.

Kris, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Kris Adams 1:59
Hi, everyone, it’s a pleasure to be part of the podcast and know the interesting thing about me that was alluded to and my introduction is I know that a lot of us come to chamber life from from different backgrounds. And mine took a really interesting route through really starting off with schooling and training in religious studies and theological studies, which I know sounds like an odd mix to jump into technology, and chamber work. But really, it’s all about community building, about finding ways to engage with people, break down barriers and get people to collaborate together. And so it was a really good sort of start and set up to get me ready for the work that I’m doing today here in Bentonville,

Brandon Burton 2:44
right. No, I there’s a lot of similarities, I believe with religion and churches and the structure of community is in crosses over into chamber work to build communities and strengthen each other. So absolutely. I see the parallels there. So why don’t you take a moment to share us with us a little bit about the Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce for those who’ve been listening to the podcast for a while may remember, we had Graham cod, who was the former President CEO of Bentonville chamber on an episode 114, where he talked about the value of placemaking in your community. But Kris, tell us is kind of the scope of work for the Bentonville chamber size, budget staff, that sort of thing. Just to give us some perspective. Yeah.

Kris Adams 3:35
The greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce is situated in the northwest corner of Arkansas. Our claim to fame is that we are the home of Walmart, Tyson Foods and JB Hunt. It’s a it’s a wonderful community that really most people don’t even realize exists until they come out and visit and see really what we’re known for. But beyond those big local players, one of the big draws to Northwest Arkansas is of course the university that is in Fayetteville, and we’re getting to be known as the mountain biking capital of the world. So it’s a really picturesque part of the natural state if you’ve never heard of it before. Our chamber has about 1100 members with a retention rate of about 88%. We have a budget of about 1.8 million and a seven person team guiding the ship and moving things forward here in the greater Bentonville area.

Brandon Burton 4:38
And I can attest to it. I’ve been to Bentonville several times and it is a beautiful place. And really you guys have a great corner there in Northwest Arkansas. So we had a kind of a roundabout way how we got to having Kris on the podcast. So I’ll give just a little bit of background last year at the Mako conference One of his colleagues, former colleagues, Andre, I had was part of one of his breakout sessions. And he spoke a lot about technology and how their chambers implementing a lot of these systems and whatnot into their, their office into their, their ecosystem there. And I had reached out to Andre and found out that he was no longer at the chamber. And as we got talking, he’s like, You really need to talk to Kris, like Kris is working with the, with the Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit. And he’s really, you know, a big driver for a lot of these things that we’re doing and that we’re involved with. So Kris is here with us today, we’re going to focus our conversation around technology around you know, some of these things that can be implemented at your chamber, but also, and probably more, more of a focus around partnerships that you can make with those in your region in your city and your community around innovation. So we will dive in deeper on this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Richard Scully 7:16
We all know there are three words in Chamber of Commerce. So we suggest that you manage the chamber and will manage the commerce between both teams will deliver a lot more value back to members. We invite you to take a look at our Let’s Do Commerce Program by visiting www.letsdocommerce.com. You’ll be able to engage and promote membership like never before. And with our integrated chamber kiosk and community clicker program, the potential is enormous. To schedule a visit with me that works best for you, please visit RichardsCalendar.com. As we like to say here at Chamber Nation, join the chamber and get results.

Donna Novitsky 8:00
Hey there, Donna Novitsky, CEO of Yiftee here, and we are all about the shop local movement. We’re working with more than 500 communities like yours and 15,000 small businesses like your members. We’re big fans of Brandon and his Chamber Chat Podcast, so we’re helping to sponsor the show. But while I’ve got you here, what’s a Yiftee? You ask? It’s a digital gift card branded for your chamber that people spend only at the local shops that you authorize. In 2022 we drove 10’s of millions of dollars to small businesses in the US. The program is free for chambers and free for your local shops. You can sign up for a live zoom demo with me or one of my teammates yiftee.com/demo or email sales@yiftee.com. That’s why Yiftee.com. That’s it for now back to the show.

Brandon Burton 8:56
All right, Kris, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we will be talking about innovative partnerships. So I’d like to learn more, and maybe have you you know, tell the audience what the Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit is to kind of give us an idea of of what that’s all about. And maybe that will kind of guide us in the direction as to developing those partnerships.

Kris Adams 9:21
Absolutely. The NWA Tech Summit, as we call it for short. Started 10 years ago, this will be our 10th year going in. And it serves as the premiere Technology Conference in the heartland. And it originally began as a collaborative work of small business owners and leaders in the local community who wanted to get together to talk technology and really discuss how they could stay ahead of the curve with all the different things, excuse me all the different things that were happening in the tech world that was impacting their businesses, and over the years it’s grown exponentially from this grassroots level work to include all of our larger local corporations, Walmart, Tyson, JB Hunt, the University of Arkansas, to include a lot of the tech players who have hubs and offices in this area, and do business with those groups. Everyone from Google to Intel and IBM, Red Hat, and Microsoft. And what’s really a joy is to see how all these different tech companies collaborate and work together through our committee through our planning, and in the conference itself, to put together just some stellar content that is applicable for everyone from high school students that attend all the way up through CEOs of these organizations that join us at the event. The event itself is multi day and runs about we had over 1700 Total registered attendees last year, about 137 presenters and 27 states beyond Arkansas were represented in our attendance. Wow. So that’s the event in a nutshell.

Brandon Burton 11:07
Yeah, that’s quite the scope. So the origins for it What? What was the kickoff to say we need to formalize a summit around technology here in Northwest Arkansas?

Kris Adams 11:20
Well, 10 years ago, we would have been coming on the back end of things like the the.com, boom and of the 90s. And watching Social Media sort of just in its heyday. And I know a lot of organizations were trying to figure out, you know, beyond those things, what was what was coming down the pike, I think one of the early slogans of the tech summit was this tagline of what’s next after next. And not just this idea of being prepared for the future, but being prepared for what’s what’s after the immediate future. And coming in the next three to five to seven years. And in our area, with the organizations and companies involved supply chain has always been a tremendous issue. And really COVID helped bring that again to the forefront of a lot of discussions. And so a lot of our technology, discussions revolve around ideas of supply chain mobility, how to how to stay relevant in those areas where we’re just seeing massive changes and shifts in technology impacting companies, both large and small, in our area and beyond.

Brandon Burton 12:35
So as you as you guys have developed this Tech Summit and in develop some of these partnerships, and are you needing to reach out to some of these businesses to be involved, or imagine you’ve got several of them kind of knocking on your door at this point, saying we want to be involved, how’s that developed?

Kris Adams 12:54
Well, you know, it’s really interesting how some of these relationships develop organically. One of the interesting bits of news that happened this last year was about some of the partnerships being developed between the state of Arkansas and Oklahoma, specifically in the area of new mobility and future mobility. So things like autonomous drones, drone delivery, there’s a good working relationship happening between the two states, as you know, we’re really trying to be a part of that push into what’s coming next for delivering goods, transforming the way we think about how you get places and move things. And, you know, we have good friends connected to the to the summit over in Tulsa through Tulsa innovation labs, and some of those partnerships that and the things that they’re working on over there. They just lend themselves to really great organic connections, where we’re doing a lot of the same work less than two hours away. And we see it as a really an opportunity to be collaborative partners and help further this conversation that can better benefit both of our areas, really the region as a whole, this northwest corner of Arkansas, and the quarter of Oklahoma that includes Tulsa, and then up into Missouri as well. And we even see some attend from Kansas City. So there’s this really unique desire to see this little corner of the world that we’re in this region here in the heartland develop and become our thought leader. Some have already started saying that they want to see this area become the Silicon Valley of mobility, specifically that that’s a goal for Arkansas. And I think that’s an A wonderfully ambitious goal. And so as we’re all trying to chase some of these shared dreams and visions for what technology can do for our local areas, it just makes so much more sense to collaborate together to share our thought leaders and our innovative approaches, so that we can all learn from each other and better that from the the insights that each of us are gaining.

Brandon Burton 15:03
Right? So you mentioned about the Tulsa innovation lab. So that being a partnership and collaborative partnership, how is that? Is it a formal partnership structure? How is how are these relationships built and developed?

Kris Adams 15:20
Yeah, a lot of these organizations come on to our event as sponsors or providers of content. They help us put together dynamic presentations that really speak into, you know, what their organizations are. Experts in Tulsa innovation labs spoke both on these automated delivery systems like drones, but they’re also well known for cybersecurity and the work that they do, trying to research how to keep platforms secure. And so their unique spin on content for us was, how to secure those autonomous drones and what that looks like in the future. And so, really, it’s it’s this unique play of us figuring out who’s the experts in which area, and getting them to be able to share to a crowd of individuals who probably have some really interesting perspectives on how they, they might be able to roll out things like this for their organization, and get them to share their insight and their wealth of knowledge. So that we can all kind of learn together from the best of the best that are already doing the work. So they provide a really unique and interesting viewpoints. When they come to speak, we have another good working relationship with a lot of our public school systems. in Bentonville, there is a program for juniors and seniors called Ignite, where it is technical training everything from kids who are juniors and seniors getting their licensure and certifications to be able to work in the hospitals, to getting their FAA certifications that they can get at 16, to fly drones, to all sorts of other business marketing type innovations. And we actually had students from that group come and present at the Tech Summit to speak about the innovation that they’re learning about. And we had some of our partnering companies then present to this same group of students, how they could move up throughout their careers in the area, through getting internships, finding ways to get into their company, post college, and then the careers that they could eventually have and stay and live and work in this area for some of these larger organizations that call the greater Bentonville area home. So there are some really unique partnerships that we develop that we highlighted the Tech Summit where everyone shares their expertise, and kind of their niche for what they do in tech and how it benefits the community.

Brandon Burton 17:58
Right. So as you’re talking, I’m thinking not necessarily every chamber needs or can even justify doing a Tech Summit, right? Every chamber is different. You’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber, right? But as you look at your community, what is that thing that you can get behind? What is that thing that is unique to your region, to your community that you can maybe build some sort of a summit like this, where you can develop those partnerships, because really, what it comes down to is, as Kris is just talking about these things, and partnering with the school district, you’re you’re working on economic development, you’re working on workforce and talent attraction, and in recruitment, and really just continuing to build your region and and attracting people to it. There in Bentonville just happens to be around technology. But it’s exciting. Everybody likes to learn what the latest and greatest what the next next. That’s right.

Kris Adams 18:57
You know, I think you hit the nail on the head. You know, it’s not that the goal is to replicate a tech summit at every chamber. I think the goal is to really listen to your your Chamber members and your constituency to find out more about them about what they do, and what they’re, what their commonalities are, what binds them together. And where were those shared threads of interest and expertise, because that’s really how the Tech Summit developed was, it was a natural fit for the organizations and members in our area. And so I think that the chambers do well to really listen to their members to get to know them, to find out what their passions and their interests are, what what are they working on that gets them excited and gets them up in the morning and then trying to see where that connects with all those organizations that are part of your membership that you know, maybe your top 10% of engaged members, you know, what is it that that is that commonality between all of them And then trying to build something big and unique based on that, because where there’s a shared love, and a shared passion and a shared interest, that’s when it’s going to be most natural, and people will get behind it so much quicker. I think you hit the nail on the head there.

Brandon Burton 20:14
And maybe continuing on this thread. There in Bentonville. You’d mentioned Walmart, JB Hunt, you know, you got some big companies that logistics and transportation that are their big issues and ways that need to be, you know, innovative going forward. So for the listeners, if you look in your community, think of who are your major employers? Who are those big manufacturing firms in your area? What other businesses support those other big manufacturers or big employers? And how can we align some of these resources to be able to help support them help support the community in general, because I see that kind of a model that you guys have taken here of saying, here’s the big industry in Bentonville. There’s a lot of other industries that support that. Now let’s build something that can support all of them to further develop and create a stronger community. So it correct me if I’m wrong, that sounds like the kind of a template that you guys follow.

Kris Adams 21:17
Oh, that’s, that’s absolutely it. And the beauty of it is to that there are just so many issues that revolve not just around around tech, but just workforce in general. It’s always about talent, attraction, retention, how to benefit not just all that the larger organizations, but the small to mid sized, that are participating in the community as well. And then really assisting those who need help getting access to to be part of this community group, you know, we provide through the Tech Summit, complimentary access to students, educators, entrepreneurs, military and veterans, really just trying to be able to bring the community together around the things that unite us, even those who may not necessarily have thought they could have access to something at this level, and making sure that they feel included and that they can be part of the conversation as well.

Brandon Burton 22:12
Yeah. And I think we’re you guys have really, you know, struck gold, we’ll say or struck oil struggled. For you guys a strike oil is where you found that niche for those those companies in your region. But you, you found that common ground that people can get excited about, you know, people want to sponsor the event, people want to show up, they want to learn they want to know what’s going on. So again, for those listening, what can you build excitement for? But maybe let’s, let’s talk more about the tech summit itself. So you had mentioned it being the largest event of the year for you guys 10 years into it? You obviously have sponsors for it. You mentioned how many people registered and attend and speakers. As far as putting on that event, so it’s multi day? are you renting out facilities? Are you selling tickets to different events within it? Are you just tell us more of the structure of the event itself?

Kris Adams 23:13
Yeah, so the events really revolves around a simple structure for programming. When we do plenary sessions, it’s everybody either all in one room, or all watching one group of people and then a live stream of that to all our other sites. That’s why we did it multisite last year, and focusing just on one thing, one program happening at that moment. And then we do that for a couple sessions, and then move into our breakout sessions where we have multiple tracks going on at the same time. And those tracks then sort of revolve around whatever’s current and trending in tech. This year, we’re looking at some new tracks that we’re going to be bringing out to address sort of the innovation that’s happening now. And it’s in the news every day, we’re focusing on automation and AI, security and privacy, retail innovation, which is the perfect fit, knowing sort of our local community and makeup track on starting up and scaling up for entrepreneurs in the area. And then I track on data science, and analytics is really what we hope to put together. So the event revolves around those big large group sessions, smaller breakout sessions where you can dig in a little deeper on a specific topic. And then one of the things that we know all of our participating organizations love our demo boots, getting to showcase their products, their their toys, the cool things that they’re doing in tech. And so this year, we’re running with the theme of the year of the machines because we want to see everybody bring all their cool tech out last year. We had drone up bring one of their their drones to show off which they They’re a lot bigger than people imagine. They’re pretty hefty. For for flying around. It’s not the Toy Drones that buy off Amazon by any means. We had Tyson Foods bring out one of their robots that actually is automated and moves some of their chicken pieces. And they demoed that and show that off. We had a robotic dog that came out last year, from our friends up near Joplin, Missouri. They came down with some of that really cool tech, people who were really concerned as to what was going on as we had two or three robotic dogs running around the square in downtown Bentonville. Tech Summit, people just haven’t seen that. And so it was, it was fascinating to see. And then, yeah, just lots of lots of cool things like that. Ganic, which if you don’t know them, they do autonomous vehicles, and delivery for Walmart. They’ve had one of their autonomous trucks that drives itself parked outside part of the Tech Summit so that people could take a look at it, and see all the cool little bells and whistles with that. Just fascinating piece of machinery. And just like that’s, I’m a tech fan. I look at something like that. And it scares the living daylights out of me, because I don’t I don’t understand how we even begin to piece something that complex together. Because it all relies even on the smallest of parts comes down to the cameras that read and interpret the road. And then all the sensors. Yeah, yeah. So it’s, it’s so it’s so much more interesting now that we’re post COVID We’re back fully in person. It’s it’s tech that you can touch, see and feel. And that’s really cutting edge and really just fascinating to, to see and hear people share their expertise about, you know, how it works, what it does, and why it’s so vital for what’s coming in the future.

Brandon Burton 26:54
Yeah, yeah, hearing about the the see touch and feel the technology, I can’t help but think of, you know, what used to be the world’s fairs, you know, people would come out to see the, you know, the first ferris wheel or the light bulb or the washing machine, you know, these these things that just blew your mind at the time. And now there’s, you know, technology, it seemed to kind of level out there for a while, and now we’re having more leaps and bounds and technology, and people are excited to see what the future holds. So I’m curious, how do you guys go about advertising the summit? How far reaching Do you try to attract people and vendors and sponsors and so forth,

Kris Adams 27:34
it’s really interesting part of it is that we’ll see a lot of natural growth that happens just as word spreads. As you know who’s coming on and who’s talking at the event. We were blessed this year to have some really high level presenters from Walmart and Tyson and Red Hat that had some great social followings that were kind enough, you know, to help share the event, promote it, we do a lot to promote it within the within the chamber itself to share it among our members. And then we we did some targeted email marketing, television spots, some partnerships with local other organizations, our chamber does not include our sort of tourism department visit Bentonville or our downtown area, which is downtown Bentonville, Inc. But we work collaboratively with them to help get the word out about the event and promote it to people who may be in the area to to those who live and work in Bentonville and make sure that it was on their radar. And so it was really a multi pronged approach as we tried to get the word out and make sure that people knew that the Tech Summit was happening. This year, we’re going to be doing a lot of the same and we really hope to capitalize on some of those people that have brand new tech looking to show it off, we’ll be reaching out to to new companies that that have that shiny, new, amazing toy that we really want to show off. And we hope that if there’s anybody listening, who’s got something like that, that maybe isn’t on our radar that they’d reach out as well. Get in touch with us and let us know what cool tech they’re playing around with. That would be a good fit to show off and demo and talk about at the Tech Summit.

Brandon Burton 29:25
I was waiting for you to come around today. You’re going on these podcasts and promoting it and advertising right. Now, as we start wrapping up here, Kris, I’d like asking everybody that have on the show if you know from the things that you’ve experienced and learned in your time with the chamber, what might be a tip or an action item that you could share with listeners who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level?

Kris Adams 29:52
You know, I am I’m a fan of always being willing to to take other people’s opinions and insights and perspectives into putting together an event like this, I think that, you know, when we silo ourselves to a couple people to a couple of voices, we can end up with with events that are good, but really don’t reflect the broader creativity that exists when we engage in dialogue with others. And so whether it’s me being the crazy one around the office, shouting ideas into the sounding board and trying to get feedback from my wonderful team, that seriously has no end to great insights, that they’ve spoken into this event, to our committee, our chairs, some of the local players, you know, in specific tech areas, you know, just asking them, you know, hey, what do you think about this track? How can we make it better? What can we do to get really on point with our pro, excuse me our programming, because that’s not my area of expertise. I think dialogue like that is crucial, because that dialogue just makes everything so much more robust and stellar, as we get different opinions, different insights, different voices, at the conversation table to make things more diverse, more interesting, and really make it more collaborative people. People want to come to something that they’ve had a part in building. And so that’s, that would be my challenge. And tip is to engage as many as you can bring as many seats and voices to the table as possible, because you’ll be surprised at how how creative and wonderful people are in contributing to an event like this if just given the opportunity to

Brandon Burton 31:44
Yeah, yeah, embrace that. The ability to be a convener, I would say, yeah. And to be able to lean on the counsel of others to be able to develop something great. So the other question, I like asking, and I’m curious to hear what your response would be being that you’re, you’re tied in so much with the technology space. But as we look to the future, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Kris Adams 32:15
No, I think the future of chambers is it really, it’s going to parallel a lot of what we see in technology, chambers are going to need to find ways to position themselves as as useful. And as current with what’s happening in the world around them. We’ve, we’ve seen technology come and go so much quicker than we ever have before. We were joking around when we were talking about the tech summit about how fun would it be? We do giveaways of like tech prizes, you know, like VR headset or something like that. We said, How funny would it be if we gave away as gag gifts, like some of the old outdated tech that either never took off? Or that only those of us of like a certain age would remember like it would be great to give out a Walkman. Because it’s no dated now. And I think that that that’s like the prime example of, you know, what, what chambers have to do, they have to find ways to stay current to stay moving forward. And really to think bold, and, you know, dare to dream some of these really high and lofty dreams for how they can continue to best serve their members in in ways that maybe they hadn’t before. I think that’s going to be the continued push for not just chambers, but for all organizations is how do we stay relevant and move forward with the times while maintaining our identity and for chambers, our identities and our it’s not just in our chamber, but it’s in our members in our local communities. And I think that’s that’s the tension that we’ve got,

Brandon Burton 33:42
for sure. Yeah, the the old piece of tech that came to my mind was remember the old Sony memory sticks like not a card but a memory stick that Sony had. But I think you guys should do that you should start collecting the Walkmans and disc men’s and the CD, all kinds of good speakers, the mini disc players, laser disc players. Yeah, just you guys can have a great pool of prizes. So yeah. They might be valuable at this point to I don’t know,

Kris Adams 34:10
it could be collector’s items. You never know. That’s right.

Brandon Burton 34:13
Well, Kris, if anyone listening wanted to reach out and connect with you learn more about the tech summit or anything you guys have gone on there and Bentonville what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect.

Kris Adams 34:23
Yeah, if you want to learn more about the event, you can visit NWA tech summit.com To learn more about our chamber you can visit greater bentonville.com to connect with me directly. You can find me on LinkedIn or you can shoot me an email at Kay Adams at greater bentonville.com I love to talk tech with you about chamber things in general and religious Get Connected always. Like I mentioned always want to hear another great voice and opinion to chime in to the conversation. Who knows what a great idea you might have to share. Love to hear it.

Brandon Burton 34:55
Awesome. Well, we will get all of your contact info in our show notes for this Episodes and people can look it up and reach out and connect with you. But, Kris, I really appreciate you setting aside some time and joining us today on Chamber Chat Podcast and sharing about the exciting things going on with the NWA Tech Summit. And things you guys have gone on there in the Bentonville chamber. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Brandon.

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