The Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist with Jim Page

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability and to correct obvious transcription errors while preserving the meaning of the original conversation.

Episode 133 — The Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama 2021 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Jim Page
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Jim Page
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.842 Brandon Burton
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.
00:13.998 Intro Voice
And now your host, he is grateful for the opportunity to the Nebraska Commerce

00:16.414 Intro Voice / Brandon Burton
To speak to the Chamber of Commerce Executives about podcasting. He's my dad, Brandon Burton. Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I'm happy to have you join us today for another episode in our 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist series. Chamber Chat Podcast is sponsored by Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Is your chamber struggling to drive the revenue it needs to support your initiatives? It's a common problem, and one that our new title sponsor, Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions, knows a lot about. Doug and Bill Holman aren't just sales consultants, they're real live chamber guys with twenty plus years of chamber leadership experience. They know how to diagnose and solve member recruiting issues faster and better than anyone else, and they're ready to put that knowledge to work for you in your chamber. Call the Holman Brothers today at six one nine eight five two one three nine one. Or check them out at holmanbros.com. That's HolmanBros.com. Our guest for this episode is Jim Page. Jim is representing the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama as their president and CEO in this Chamber of the Year finalist series. Jim has been the he is the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, which is a hundred and twenty-one year old Tuscaloosa-based business advocacy organization. Prior to his tenure in Tuscaloosa, Jim served nine years as vice president of public policy and business development for the Decatur-Morgan County, Alabama Chamber of Commerce. As past chairman of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama. Jim serves on the board of directors for the Business Council of Alabama and for ACCE, where he chairs a University Committees Council. A vocal advocate for early childhood education, Jim was appointed by Governor Robert Bentley and reappointed by Governor Kay Ivey to serve as on the board of directors for the Alabama Partnership for Children. Jim is a graduate of Leadership Morgan County, Leadership Tuscaloosa, Leadership Alabama, and the U.S. Chambers Institute for Organization.
02:37.472 Brandon Burton
Organizational management. He also earned the professional designations of Alabama Accredited Chamber Executive and Certified Chamber Executive. Jim now serves on the CCE Commission through ACCE and recently joined a national cohort of chamber executives to study post-COVID-19 pandemic resilience strategies as a member of the ACCE Fellowship for Economic Recovery. In 2009, Jim was recognized nationally by ACCE as one of 40 under 40 rising stars in the chamber world. He received the 2015 Jamie Wallace Award in recognition of exceptional leadership, service, and dedication to the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama and was named the 2016 recipient of the prestigious Thompson Seymour Leadership Award by the Business Council of Alabama. In 2018, Jim was honored by his peers as the Alabama Chamber Professional of the Year. Jim earned his bachelor's degree in political science and marketing from the University of North Alabama, where he was elected president of the Student Government Association. He serves on the board of directors of the University of North Alabama Foundation and is a member of the Executive Committee. February twenty twenty, Jim was appointed by Governor K. Ivey to serve as a member of the University of North Alabama Board of Trustees. Jim and his wife Sarah are proud parents of two daughters, Eleanor and Emery, and are active members of First United Methodist Church, Tuscaloosa. Jim, I'm excited to have you with me today on Chamber Chat Podcast. I'd love for you to take a minute just 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 bit better.
04:28.78 Jim Page
Well, I'd I'd be happy to. First of all, thank you for the invitation. thank you for this podcast and what you do for our our industry. is it does not go unnoticed and in fact it's very much appreciated. So thank you for that. I I I don't know if I can say a whole lot of interesting things about me, other than I'm a husband and and father of two young daughters. So that keeps life kinda interesting right now. But I've been fortunate enough to be in the chamber industry for going on twenty years and real real blessed. This is a this is a very unique profession, as you well know, and so it's been exciting to be a part of of a lot of lot of great things. But when I'm not not doing my domestic duties, like a lot of people I love love sports, especially college athletics, college football. I I live about five minutes from the University of Alabama. So that's that always keeps things entertaining from an athletic perspective.
05:27.158 Brandon Burton
You're a big Clemson fan then, right? No, I'm just kidding. Yeah.
05:29.908 Jim Page
Yeah, yeah, yeah. but anyway, so I've I've been here for the better part of ten years during the the peak of the Nick Saban era. So that's all that's been something to watch and be a part of. But anyway, just just here and again I appreciate the invitation.
05:49.13 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. It is my pleasure. share with us a little bit about your chamber so we can gain some perspective as to where you're coming from as we get into our discussion today, maybe size, budget, staff, that sort of thing, just so we know a little bit more.
06:06.306 Jim Page
So it's the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama. We're headquartered here in Tuscaloosa, which is in kind of the the west central part of Alabama. We're a just a little less than an hour due west from Birmingham. most people can can picture kind of where Birmingham is on a map. the lion's share of our membership and in the business community is really in the Tuscaloosa County. metro area, but we do cover a nine county region here. It's a fairly rural part of Alabama. And so the lion's share of what we do outside of Tuscaloosa County is in the workforce development space. And I know we'll get into that a little more as we as we move along with the podcast. But we were founded in 1900, so been around for Pretty good time. taken on a couple of different names over the years, like some chambers have. but in nineteen eighty-four, when the Tuscaloosa and the Northport Chambers of Commerce merged, they they merged under the new name of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama. And again, it was to have a broader, more inclusive coverage area in our part of the state. today we have About thirteen hundred members, which makes us the fourth largest chamber in Alabama. we've got a a staff of fifteen and do obviously the traditional chamber activities, but I'm always reminded of the old the old chamber adage that if you've seen one chamber, you've seen one chamber. So obviously we do a lot of the the typical a chamber initiatives, but we are involved in economic development, certainly heavily involved in workforce development. That's one of our calling cards. you know, we use leadership development programs, heavily involved in public policy. That's really my background and where I spend a lot of my time in attention and then of course all things quality of life and community development. So it's we've got a lot of moving parts as most as most chambers do. And as I like to tell people, we're
08:29.528 Jim Page
We're the chamber we're the community Swiss Army Knife. We can we can be nimble and and get involved in a lot of different things. So that's our that's our organization and I'm proud of the work we do on a with a pretty lean staff and a lean budget of just a little over two million dollars. We've this is the first year that our annual operating budget has gone over the two million mark. I'm proud of that. When I started here in January of 2012, our
08:32.605 Brandon Burton
Yeah.
08:58.058 Jim Page
operating budget was about eight hundred thousand a year. So wow. Really proud of the revenue growth we've had over the years. And even and and being able to say that after the crazy year that twenty twenty was, I'm even I'm even prouder to be able to say that.
09:16.414 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. When you were saying it's first time went over two million, like that is quite the year to do that. That's impressive. So great job. Shows your relevancy. so I'm excited to get into our discussion today as we have have you on as a chamber of the year finalist. I always look forward to the opportunity to chat with the chamber of the year finalists because you guys are always kind of on the the cutting edge or the the leadership, if you will, that example. in the chamber world of things that you're doing. And and I know we'll we'll touch on some of those programs that were submitted on your application for chamber of the year, specifically revolving around your guys's COVID response as well as some some workforce development and and things of that nature. So we'll get into that discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break. Are you looking for a year-round affordable and timely shop local campaign for your chamber or CVB? Look no further. Build a custom Eat Shop Play Mobile app with App My Community by visiting AppmyCommunity.com slash chamberchat. App My Community mobile apps are not just simple membership directory listings, they provide many more capabilities to engage with your community. Provide your residents with a robust events calendar, partner with a local fair, festival, or farmers market to provide a schedule, map, and other resources. To promote the event. Run a small business Saturday campaign any time of the year using built-in scavenger hunts. Allow your membership to communicate directly to their customers via push notifications. Your App My Community mobile app will be a unique member benefit, allow you to generate non-dues revenue with sponsorship opportunities, and best of all, provide a valuable resource to your community. Please visit AppmyCommunity.com/slash chamber chat now. receive 10% off your first year of an app my community mobile app. All right, Jim, we are back. I'd like to to get into these programs that you submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. first of all, maybe let's let's go down the course of your the COVID response that you guys had. So maybe a little background for you last year as I did the Chamber of the Year finalist interviews.
11:42.526 Brandon Burton
I asked all of the finalists a a question related to how they're what what's their plan to help lead the business community through the the COVID recovery. And got some some varying answers, some some similarities, but now we're we're a year past that. We're coming through, hopefully, most people through the other side. And so being able to see, you know, these things that were implemented in response to the COVID pandemic. I'm excited to to hear what you guys did specifically there in West Alabama.
12:18.766 Jim Page
Sure. you know, of being in this business years and being involved in a lot of really big initiatives and, you know, quote, game changing opportunities for for the two communities that I have served in in the chamber profession, I can easily say that I I've never been as proud to be a part of anything as I have been our COVID response here at this chamber. as terrible as twenty twenty was, It was a great year for our organization because we really showed, I think, what how a nimble, forward thinking, innovative chamber can look like. And and even for our most loyal of members, I think we really reminded them of the value of the organization and just the number of people we helped. the number of businesses that I think we helped save is something that I will forever be extremely proud of and and I I may not have another another anything in my career that I'm as proud of as I as I was this. But I you know a lot of what we did that was COVID response related, I know a lot of other chambers did similar things, et cetera. And I'm I'm really proud of my friends and colleagues across the country in the profession, because I think we all stepped up to the plate and we all represented the chamber industry as well as we ever have before and we showed our relevance, maybe better in in a more profound way than we ever have before. What I'm really proud of our organization it is the speed in which we did things. we've got a timeline in our that we submitted for our Chamber of the Year application. where we outlined all of the major milestones throughout our COVID response. And it started in mid-March. I mean, just as of course we had all been following COVID internationally, but it really hit the states and it really hit our local community in a personal way in mid-March. And we immediately jumped into action. And we did a variety of things, again, that a lot of other chambers did, but I I do feel like
14:45.122 Jim Page
We were pretty proactive and pretty s pretty fast in our response. we knew that there were going be some some of the most vulnerable small businesses, particularly in the retail and in the service industry, that once they were forced to close because of government action, that every day that went by was one day closer to them probably closing their doors for good. This was before economic indust economic injury disaster loans were really available from SBA. This was weeks before the Paycheck Protection Program was even passed by Congress. We knew that there there was gonna be for some gap funding. And so we launched a small business relief fund before the end of March in which we raised private capital from banks and some other businesses in our community and actually had money in the hands of small businesses before the end of March. and I was really, really proud of that. we then, not long after that, the city of Tuscaloosa, which is our largest metro in our in our chamber coverage area, they were thinking about doing a similar program, but the mayor came to me and said, there's no sense in us reinventing the wheel. What you're doing is working. we just want to entrust you with the money. And so they invested a million dollars into our small business relief fund, which allowed us to help even more businesses. and so literally before the Paycheck Protection Program was able to save a lot of small businesses, we already had money and and it was grants too. It was not loans. These were grant dollars that were not to be paid back. and it wasn't gonna be the end all be all for a business. But it did bridge that gap until they could find bigger pots of money. So I'm extremely proud of that small business relief fund. we invested one and a quarter million dollars into local businesses. We helped over 300 of the most vulnerable small businesses. and again, it was just it was the life best, the life raft, so to speak, that they needed to be saved. we also, as most chambers did, we became a trusted
17:05.215 Jim Page
a source of information for our community. And we held our first community wide intelligence briefing, for lack of a better term, in mid-March with our elected officials, our hospital administrators, and we had larger metro chambers, including our state chamber, the business council of Alabama, that were asking if they could participate in our programs because nobody was really doing that yet. And we started off doing it the old-fashioned way. We had some conference calls with them. We had our Department of Labor, which is headed by a former chamber chair of ours. So we kind of had the inside track on that. but talking about how how people could it could apply for unemployment benefits, et cetera. We were doing those by mid-March. and but when it was all said and done, we did over 70 programs between conference calls and then like everybody else, we joined the Zoom world. but we had thousands of participants and it was not just chamber members, it was people outside the chamber and really throughout the state, and even for some of them, we had participation from around the country on some of those things that applied generally, like PPP, et cetera. So I was really proud of of those programs. Of course, all of that was available on our website, on our website to this day. Just because there's a lot of good historic information that people can still tap into. we were approached by the state of Alabama to host a statewide PPE database for communities and for chambers to be able to know what vendors in the state of Alabama. This was during the the the height of the pandemic when PPE was hard to come by. and so there were a lot we tried to keep those dollars in state the best we could. And so we hosted that on behalf of the state of Alabama. We realized that once people started opening, businesses started opening back up, but schools were still on lockdown, that child care was a major issue for employers. And so we created a regional child care database that that helped parents and helped employers find high quality child child care, an issue a lot of them had not had to worry about before.
19:27.922 Jim Page
we we did commercials and PSAs early in the the COVID process, trying to keep spirits up. I I know that kind of sounds a little hokey and cheesy, but we felt like that was a really important role that nobody else was filling. And so we did some really dynamic commercials, all of which again are are on our website that I'm really proud of, that just helped the community rally around each other. and so you know I could go on and on on the little small specific things, but I'm really proud of our effort. It was very comprehensive, but it was proactive. and I think the greatest compliment that we could ever have is having other chambers emulate what we were doing. And as part of our application for chamber of the year. We've got an excerpt from one of our magazines that we did last year where we've got just I probably a couple of dozen testimonials and quotes from chamber peers around the country who emailed me and emailed our staff asking to R and D rip off and duplicate. our small business relief fund, our reopening guides. We we did a reopening guide of how to reopen safely that was really emulated across the country. We counted chambers and local governments from more than twenty five states copied our reopening guide and we were happy to share that information because that's that's the great thing about the chamber industry is we help each other. but that's probably I guess the good housekeeping seal of approval that I got that what we were doing was was working is that so many of our good friends and peers around the country from the Chamber of Profession were were taking pieces of what we what we did and and making it their own. And I'll forever be proud of that.
21:36.94 Brandon Burton
That is a huge compliment. And and for anybody listening, I mean, oftentimes you don't need to be the creator. You don't need to be the innovator. I mean, it it's nice when you are and you've got that idea and the data driven feedback and everything. But if you've got a need and rather than taking the weeks to develop something, reach out to someone like Jim and see see what's worked for them and if there's something that you can R D and and implement at your chamber. So that's One of the things I try to you know, one of my goals with this podcast is to try to, you know, introduce people to introduce chamber people to ideas that they can implement at their chamber. So that's at the heart what it's all.
22:17.49 Jim Page
And you know, unlike unlike a lot of chamber initiatives where you take time to do market research and collect data and build consensus and all that, with COVID, there was no time to do any of that. we had to be very entrepreneurial in our thinking and we just had to almost ready fire aim was kind of our approach. Because every you know, the clock was ticking and we said, you know, some of the stuff we do may not work, but we've got to work aggressively anyway. But I'm still proud that it did work and that it was good enough where other chambers could could model after
22:57.166 Brandon Burton
I'm just impressed that you can make it through this last year with as little sleep as I'm sure you had and still able to be productive. So
23:04.876 Jim Page
Yeah, no doubt. It was it was an interesting year. learned a lot, proud of it, but I hope we never experience it again.
23:11.95 Brandon Burton
That's right. Hopefully it is once in a lifetime. well let's let's switch gears a little bit and transition over into your your workforce program with the career pathways.
23:14.306 Jim Page
Yeah, no doubt.
23:24.814 Jim Page
Sure. So in 2014, our chamber was asked, pushed, arm twisted, you you you you mean to become the fiscal and managing agent for our regional workforce development council, which is part of the state. And I resisted. In fact, I said no several times because I knew workforce development as important as it is. you're when you're dealing with that issue, it can be political, it can be you know, rot with bureaucracy when you're dealing with government agencies, and I just felt like it was maybe a little more than we could choose. But several of our largest employers and largest investors said no, the chamber is the right entity to lead this. So didn't have much choice at that standpoint. So in twenty fourteen, we took over our regional workforce council, which again is nine counties in West Alabama, and we we created the moniker works. that's that's what we go under, but it is completely housed in the chamber. It's run by chamber staff. and so it's very much married and married to the chamber. So we started in 2014 and really we were building the airplane as we flew it for a long time. Fast forward seven years to to now and I'm very proud to say that we have the premier regional workforce development program in Alabama and we've been recognized numerous ways as such. And then our group has gotten a lot of national recognition. We've participated in a lot of ACCE programs, U.S. Chamber programs, private foundations, ACT, other groups have recognized our team's work. And it's easy for me to brag on the work because I have very little to do with it. I have a We have a great team led by our chief operating officer, Donnie Jones, who is one of the best in the industry when it comes to workforce development. So it's easy for me to brag on them from afar. and what what I'm so proud of them is because they're extremely innovative. they are progressive and and again proactive in what they've done. And so we've got a lot of programs that have have been really unique.
25:48.952 Jim Page
To workforce development. And we really have a business and industry driven approach. I know that sounds kind of like a duh statement to a to my chamber friends and peers listening, but in a lot of communities, I know in Alabama and around the country, you've had maybe your community college system, or you've had service providers or others who have really been driving the boat in workforce development. And business and industry sometimes aren't as involved and as engaged as they should be. Ours since day one has been business and industry driven. Our steering committee for West Alabama Works is per is comprised of plant managers, CEOs, top level decision makers from our largest employers in the community. They're the ones who are signing the paychecks. They're the ultimate customer. And so they're so everything we do is driven by that approach. And that is that is fairly unique and different, as as crazy as that sounds. but everything we do i is really about career pathways and building a pipeline of skilled employment from entry level blue-collar jobs to you know, top-notch white collar engineering and and and and different different types of of positions and everything in between. And and we work from literally from pre-K To the end of the life cycle in terms of employment. We've got a broad scope of work. But and so I could spend time going into that. I I won't I will spare everybody the details on that. But what we wrote about for our chamber of the year application was how COVID, like everything else, kind of stopped everybody in their tracks momentarily and said, we can't do in-person career. Career awareness events for students. We can't do in-person hiring events for our industry clusters. We can't do in-person our in-person educator workforce academy, which I'm a huge fan of that we we started here. But we're not going to stop them. And so we pivoted. We went virtual with all of that. We still had our worlds of work. We call it WoW, which is our career awareness.
28:12.728 Jim Page
Career awareness fair for every eighth grader in an eight in a nine county region. it's a career fair on steroids, it's very hands-on, etc. We just did it virtually. we created a gaming platform where students can go on a website and they feel like they're playing a video game, but it's career awareness. And it's exposing children and students to things, it's telling them what they don't know what they don't know. And so it's exposing them to. career opportunities right here in our region. We have an educator workforce academy where we're training or we're educating the educators. So we've got teachers and principals and school counselors and superintendents who maybe went to college they did go to college to be an educator, immediately went into teaching, they've never been exposed to the workforce outside of the education profession. We're Pulling back the curtain and showing them the opportunities that are available so that they can, they're the front lines of dealing with our students. It's been a game-changing program. It's changed the dynamics of teaching in our region, literally. And I know that's a profound statement. but we didn't let COVID stop that. we introduced virtual reality programming for students and for educators. And so That's what we wrote about in our application is that we already had a pretty innovative, dynamic, comprehensive workforce development program that could have easy easily just been put on pause for a year. and we didn't allow that to happen. Our team just kept going and and innovated and and I'm I'm really proud of that.
29:55.65 Brandon Burton
So the question that I had is you had mentioned in a normal year, a normal time, you you would do like an in person kind of career fair to educate these these students on opportunities. So when it when that switches to virtual, how'd you go about getting enrollment for that to get these students on the virtual platform? was it through the schools? Is it something mandatory? Was it it sounded like it was gamified a little bit?
30:22.7 Jim Page
You know, fortunately, we've got an exceptional working relationship with our K-12 schools and we and we deal with several school systems, obviously, that are in our geographic footprint. that relationship probably hasn't always been that way. But I think over the past seven years, as trust has been developed, this isn't the business community coming and wagging their finger at at school. at at school officials saying this is what you need to be doing, we've really, really formed partnerships, genuine partnerships that's that are mutually beneficial. And so I think that trust enabled us in a year like COVID, where educators are bought into what we're trying to do. it allowed us transitioning temporarily to a virtual platform. It allowed that to happen. It's not ideal. Nothing beats in person, nothing beats being able to touch and feel and you know, our WOW event, for example, when I talk about it's a career awareness fair on steroids, I mean, our local hospital, we we we take over our local community college campus for three days. And our local hospital literally sets up a mock ho mock hospital. And students are allowed to birth a baby, baby, draw blood, do arthroscopic surgery. I mean it's It's literally hands on touching, feeling, seeing, doing with nurses and with doctors and with everyday practitioners. And it's so it's somebody, some kid that may have never thought about medicine before or the healthcare field gets inspired by that. So again, nothing beats that in person atmosphere, but we still were able to that doing it virtually was better than not doing it at all. so I guess that was kind of the the highlight of it. But we are very anxious for this October when we return to to an in person event. And we have over six thousand eighth graders that go through this every single year.
32:33.614 Brandon Burton
Wow. That's amazing. I'd I would love to see that. You know, the the mock hospital set up. And I mean it it sounds like a a great
32:42.034 Jim Page
It's it's terrific. And I know before we we end today I can give some contact information or for more information see. And so we I I I encourage people to go to the website and and to see a lot of this 'cause we do have a lot of good footage on it. Yeah.
32:56.522 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. So while I have you on the podcast, and being that you are a Chamber of the Year finalist, that means you guys are doing some special things there. You guys are one of one of the best chambers out there. So I I would like to get from your perspective, and it may not even be something that was on your application necessarily for Chamber of the Year, but what do you feel makes the West Alabama Chamber stand out and maybe something that you guys do that other chambers might not do.
33:29.942 Jim Page
Yeah, yeah, that's a good that's a good question. And I y you know, I d I don't wanna sound braggadocious about anything because again, every every amount of success we've had is because of the team here. We've got an incredible staff that are dedicated, loyal. We have great volunteers, great just a great loyal membership, and so all credit goes to them for everything we've accomplished to this point. I think what sets us apart is that we're always innovating. It's very easy to do things the way we've always done them. but but like our team here knows that that's a taboo statement that you can't why did we do so and so this way? Well that's the way we've always done it. You can't say that in our building. Yeah that is that is not allowed. chambers just like every profession out there has got to be innovative constantly has to be looking forward and around the next corner in order to stay relevant. You know, businesses and organizations and people don't have to be a member of the local chamber. They just don't have to be. But you have to bring you have to bring a level of relevance and processes and programs and a value proposition. That makes it to where they can't afford not to be a member of the chamber. but that's an intentional process and it's always evolving. What made you invaluable last year may or may not make you invaluable this year, and certainly not next year and five years from now. As generational interests change and just technology changes and market forces change. Chambers have to evolve too. And, you know, that's one thing I've really learned through ACCE, through their Horizon initiative and through learning, you know, from my peers in the industry is the most successful chambers are the ones that never rest on their laurels. They may win chamber of the year today, but tomorrow they're continuing to reinvent themselves because that's the only way they're gonna stay relevant going forward. And
35:56.174 Jim Page
And and the fact that our chamber, that's in our culture and that's in our DNA now is to always be innovating. I think that's what I I think that's what makes us successful.
36:04.704 Brandon Burton
Yeah, I think that's a a good good piece of advice. I would that was my next question. I was gonna ask you for a piece of piece of advice or a tip that a chamber champion listening could do to help elevate their organization up to the next level.
36:19.498 Jim Page
that's a great question. And it and it it kind of segues from the always be innovating. and you said this earlier, and I know you teach this on your podcast, is to is to always be open. is as an individual, as a chamber executive who's made this my career path, I'm very intentional about professional development. I'm always trying to learn whether it's through listening to podcasts like this or participating in programming at at the ACCE level or our state association level. I always want to stay on top of what's the latest and greatest as a chamber professional and as a chamber leader, but also for our community. one of the best things I've ever done as a chamber leader for my community is community benchmarking trips. We started those a few years ago and I that's a th those have been Taken place in the chamber profession for decades. we were really kind of late to the party when it comes to doing benchmarking trips. I'll I'll I'll be admit I'll admit that. But ours have been wildly successful. The last one we did to Chattanooga, Tennessee, we took 128 people, which is pretty significant. Elected officials, business leaders, educators, arts community, you name it, very diverse in every sense of the word. But it's the chamber leading that. To give our community leaders perspective. And I think perspective and learning from other communities that may be doing things in an innovative way and in a proactive way is not only going to let our chamber continue to be innovative, it's going to allow our community leaders, our partners, the folks we work with every day from the school system and the United Way and tourism and et cetera, et cetera. It's helping them be more innovative. And I think that's a role that chambers can play. play that they may not realize they can and should play. And so that's in my advice. I know I've belabored that point probably, but my advice is as a chamber leader, always be learning and innovating and encourage your team and empower your team to always be learning and innovating. But be the change agent that makes your community always be learning and innovating. that's easier said than done. I get that. but I do think it's a role the chamber can and should play
38:46.643 Jim Page
they can be a real difference maker for everybody.
38:49.836 Brandon Burton
So you've mentioned a couple of times now the importance of innovating. as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see their purpose and kind of where they fit in going forward in the future?
39:02.85 Jim Page
You know, one thing again, as terrible as twenty twenty was, you know, and as terrible as the pandemic has been, you know, in a variety of ways for our country, I do think it's been a great opportunity for the chamber industry to remind people, to remind longtime members of the value and the relevance of the chamber. It's also exposed
our relevance and our value proposition to new audiences, to people that would never consider being engaged with the chamber before, to elected officials who can often take us for granted. I think so I sell that coming out of COVID, coming out of twenty twenty, I think there's a renewed opportunity for chambers to lead. And
I so I have never felt more confident and more optimistic about our role going forward in our respective communities and just as a whole, as a as an industry. I think chambers are seen as first responders for the business community and for the local economy in terms of crisis.
which COVID affected everybody. Yeah, our community has went through a devastating tornado ten years ago that the chamber played a real significant role in recovery. So we would somewhat kind of had a we were used to that. A lot of communities haven't been through something like that, but COVID put them in that position. And so the community's first responder for the local economy as being change agents.
as being thought leaders about how to do things differently. I think that role that the chamber has always played, but maybe it got a little stale, maybe it got overlooked, maybe it got taken for granted. I think post-COVID the chambers and the role chambers can play for a community is renewed. I think we have we have a larger audience. We have more stakeholders than ever before. and so
41:15.914 Jim Page
what chambers at the local level, how they choose to leverage that influence, is going to be interesting to watch. And I think the most successful chambers going forward will be the ones that seize on this opportunity that the pandemic pre presented to them.
41:33.566 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. I see a lot of chambers that have initiated programs because of COVID that they had to as a response for their community, but they end up being programs that they're gonna adopt going forward in the future because it was relevant and it's something needed. They have that larger audience now, they've connected with them and it they they're obligated to continue serving them.
41:55.552 Jim Page
Absolutely. I you know, I said early in the podcast that I've always viewed kind of jokingly that the chamber is the community Swiss Army knife. It can do a little bit of everything. And in a pinch or in crunch time, if you didn't have anything but a Swiss Army knife, you could probably get out of a situation. And so
42:14.11 Brandon Burton
Ask MacGyver. Yeah.
42:16.534 Jim Page
And so I think communities, I think stakeholder groups, the public around, they're reminded now of the important and diverse and nimble roles that the chamber can play. that's an important opportunity, but it we have it's incumbent upon chamber leaders to seize upon that opportunity because memories are very short.
42:45.089 Brandon Burton
Very true.
42:46.222 Jim Page
If don't seize upon it now, people will get back to normal and they may forget all the good work that chambers have done. And we can't let forget the work we've done.
42:55.006 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. Well, Jim, now's the time that I'll I'll have you put out some contact information for the listeners who might want to connect with you and learn about how you're doing things there in in in West Alabama. what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?
43:09.87 Jim Page
Sure. So our you know, our website is West AlabamaChamber dot com, has all the traditional information about our organization and including a lot of the information I referenced related to COVID response. and then West Alabama Works, which is our West which is our workforce development arm, you can go to West Alabamaworks dot com. There's great videos, there's great information on there that shows kind of the comprehensive approach we have.
in the innovative approach we have to to workforce development. obviously my contact information is on our website, but my email address is easy. It's jim at Westalabamachamber dot com. I would be happy to answer questions or provide information to anyone who is interested in getting more information on what we've done. because again I'm proud of the work we've done here and and the best part about the chamber profession is being able to share that because I promise you
I I R and D from my peers across the country all the time. A lot of times people I'll tell people if you've still from me, you've probably stolen twice.
44:16.364 Brandon Burton
That's right. You can give credit the first couple of times, but then it's yours. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Jim, I appreciate you spending time with me today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. great discussion and and you guys are doing some great things there in West Alabama. And I wish you guys the best of luck as a Chamber of the Year finalist and look forward to to seeing the results and and staying in contact with you.
44:21.848 Jim Page
Yeah, that's that's exactly.
44:41.982 Jim Page
Well, thank you for this opportunity. It's been an honor and privilege to be with you today and it's an honor and a privilege just to be a finalist for Chamber of the Year because I know our peers and folks that we're competing with are top notch and I'm I'm proud of them as well. I'm just I'm proud to be a part of this industry because it's a special one.
45:01.228 Brandon Burton
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45:37.784 Brandon Burton
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