Loudoun Chamber 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist with Tony Howard

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

Episode 135 — Loudoun Chamber 2021 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Tony Howard
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Tony Howard
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.83 Intro Voice
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. And now you're h
00:20.078 Brandon Burton
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I appreciate you joining us today as we continue our 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist series. Chamber Chat Podcast is our title sponsor is 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 life 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 H O L M A N B R O S dot com. As we continue our ACCE Chamber of the Year finalist series, our guest today is Tony Howard from the Loudoun Chamber in Virginia. Tony is the the president and CEO of the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce, Northern Virginia's largest chamber. He's a 20-year chamber executive, and he began his tenure as a chief executive of Loudoun's premier business engagement and advocacy organization on August 1st, 2006. Previous to that, he worked for seven years at the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, where he last served as chief operating officer and as vice president of membership and communications. Tony is an IOM graduate and has earned his CCE designation. He also is named the 2015 Virginia Chamber of Commerce Executive of the Year by the Virginia Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives. He also served as president of the Virginia Association Chamber of Commerce Executive Board from 2012 to 2013. And in 2017, the Community Foundation for Loudoun named him champion of Loudoun's nonprofit sector. Tony currently serves on several nonprofit and advisory boards. Earlier in his career, Tony served as a chief spokesperson for Congressman Michael P. Forbes of New York.
02:41.976 Brandon Burton
Where he handled all media relations, working with major news outlets in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Long Island. A graduate of the State University of New York, Tony is he's an award-winning journalist, having worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers in New York's Hudson Valley and Long Island. Tony's journalism career earned him numerous awards for in-depth reporting, featuring writing and sports coverage from the New York Press Association. A resident of Leesburg. Tony and his wife Allison have one son, Jake. Well, Tony, I'm pleased to have you with me 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 out there listening and share something else interesting about yourself. Your bio was pretty interesting.
03:29.12 Tony Howard
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. Well, yeah. hello, all the chamber champions out there listening in on the Chamber Champion broadcast. And Brandon, thank you very much for inviting me to be here today. Now I wouldn't be very good at my job as chamber president if I didn't make one note. It's pronounced Louden. Loudin. Louden. So if you know me, and it's very easy to remember how to pronounce because I actually am quite loud. So it's it's quite fitting that I would find myself at a place. In fact, I took the job 15 years ago, one of my friends said, How appropriate the loud one's gonna be working at Loudoun. And I said, Yeah, very appropriate. So something more interesting. Boy, I wish I had something more interesting. If I had it, I would have put it in the bio, but I will tell you I had an opportunity to speak to some really enterprising young men and women high school students who were participating in the Loudoun Youth has a leadership program, week-long program over the summer and had for the past 10 years. And I I I gave the advice is, you know what, follow your passion, but always be ready for whatever life brings you. And because I had never ever had a clue growing up. Does anybody ever grow up saying, I want to be a chamber president? Yeah, baseball player, astronaut, ballerina? Sure. Okay. Chamber president, what is that? But that journalism deg degree and career led me to a job on Capitol Hill, which led me to a chamber of commerce. And twenty two years later, I don't know how, looking back. I find myself having the best job I could possibly ever have and enjoying every minute of it. So not sure if it that's very, very interesting except to say it has been a long and windy road. I promise you that.
05:01.728 Brandon Burton
Yeah. Yeah it's usually not a straight shot for anybody to to work at a chamber. Usually there's some twists and turns and and i i I'm always interested to hear how people end up working in the chamber. So
05:14.594 Tony Howard
Yeah, as am I. As am I. Yeah. Yeah.
05:17.176 Brandon Burton
Well, tell us a little bit about the Loudoun Chamber. I you know, here I am, I asked you how to pronounce it before we got started, and then I get reading your bio and I go back to my natural tendencies. So the Loudoun Chamber, let us know about the size, location, staff, budget, you know, all those things to give us perspective.
05:34.38 Tony Howard
Yeah, and by the way, Brandon, all is forgiven. as someone who makes a living speaking into a microphone, at least part of my living speaking to a microphone on a regular basis, sooner or later your effort's gonna go right in and you're gonna have to apologize for something you said. So I I'm in no position to judge. So you you want to know a little bit about, forgive me, about the chamber or about our community? Yeah. About the chamber. Okay. So what can I tell you? We're about a thousand members. I honestly just see a little bit of attrition from COVID, but we're bouncing back very nicely.
05:53.558 Brandon Burton
A about the chamber, yeah.
06:04.294 Tony Howard
about a year ago, I guess it'd be a little more than year ago, back in April, we had the the worst new member recruitment month of my career. No surprises there. Things were looking pretty down, April of 2020. But earlier this year I had the fifth best month of my career here on Loudoun County. So that and other signs I'm taking as signs of hopefulness that you know folks are getting back at after a worldwide pandemic, something I hope we never see again in our lifetime that many of us have never seen before. unless we were alive back during the great Spanish influenza of World War One era. So things are looking pretty good. We're about a thousand members. pretty well rounded program. quite a large board, probably by most chamber standards. We have about 50 members of our board, an executive committee of 16, who really handles a lot of the functions, traditional functions of a board directors. So clearly the board is the main governance entity for the organization. we have programs, you know, some of our more popular programs or in the public policy realm. We were very active public policy programs. So it's not just the events that we put on, though they are quite popular, but we also have a full-time government affairs director on staff, BP, to be quite precise about his title, and spent quite a bit of time working with our elected leaders, both locally and in Richmond, on creating the best pro business environment we possibly can. And Virginia was named, and we're quite proud of it. The first time in CNBC's history of ranking the best place, the best states to do business, first time Virginia was named back to back. And so we like to believe that the the efforts of of our chamber and our fellow chambers, very strong network of chambers in Virginia, some of the my some of my best friends in the world, not just in the chamber industry, are laboring every day, making their communities a better place and making this Commonwealth a better place. they more than I deserve the credit for that, because we Do you believe through different administrations, whether they're held by one party or the other, they're not unified in thought, but there's some unanimity in thought on and how important it is for us to have a strong progressist environment, not the least of which is because it provides the resources necessary to do the other things we need to do to support our citizens, you know, whether it's education, roads, social human services, parks, law enforcement, you name it, the whole nine yards. Every community has these, every state has these.
08:23.712 Tony Howard
It's important to have that pro-business environment from that perspective, but also because the jobs that it creates. And so we spend a lot of time focused on that. besides that, the other things we're quite proud about is you know, our work with nonprofits. You know, I don't know in my travels that a lot of chambers spend as much time and attention. Some do and some don't. but we really, really make it a pr a top priority to focus on our nonprofits. I I believe, my board believes, that the nonprofit sector is an important economic sector because they are. They're spending money. They are making payroll. They are paying taxes. Chambers are nonprofits too as well, different type than say our typical C501c3 charities. But as I tell folks, I pay every tax there is out there besides the corporate income tax. You know, I'm not even sales tax exempt. So we pay sales tax too as well. And so we are economic forces in our own right, but they also serve a secondary mission, which is creating and supporting world-class quality of life. And supporting those in our community that need support the most. And I honestly believe because CEOs and other executives have told me that they they many factors go into deciding where they're going to bring a business and expand. But there is definitely a factor reserved for how well does that community care for those who need support the most? You know, from the homeless to the hungry to victims of domestic violence to a variety of things that need to be addressed in those communities. No community is perfect, right? We're quite we're quite proud of what we have here in Loudoun County, but no community is perfect and those need to be addressed. So we spent a lot of time on it because it is a business issue. It's also a human issue. When someone came to me, I think it was my first year on the job and said, you know, we should we should start this nonprofit committee of some sort. And I looked around the room at a board meeting and I realized by then that every single member of that board was serving on or volunteering with a local nonprofit of some sort. And so I said to myself, if it's important to them, they're giving of their time away from family and from their work to spend some of it with the chamber, but also some of that time and energy and money with these nonprofits, then it should be important to me. And I'm glad we did it because it's it's been a fantastic. They're also some of my favorite people too, by the way. you know, we do get some complaints from time to time in the chamber business, don't we? I'm trying to be diplomatic here. But that's a group that you very rarely hear from. They just they just they just have big hearts, right?
10:40.814 Brandon Burton
Yeah.
10:48.52 Tony Howard
And they want to share those hearts with others. And so I just enjoyed being around them. So and then of course, you know, you wouldn't be a chamber of commerce if you didn't have a successful one without really effective business development activities. I know we we use the word networking quite a bit. I really believe that to be meaningful and to be successful, you have to get beyond just trading business cards. Networking is meeting somebody at a networking event. That's great. What next? And so we have a lead sh for example, and we do that very well by the way. but we have a lead share program. Like many chambers do, but I doubt any of them have as many groups. We have 14 groups, varying in size from 15 to 40 members. We average around 225 members. And keep in mind these are industry exclusive. We could have more, but we can only have one banker in each group. You can only have one insurance, so on down the line. And for a chamber that's, you know, north of a thousand members to see two hundred and twenty-five of them participating in that really essential business development activity. So I mean being each other's sales force. is important. It's absolutely vital. It's more than important. And that too not only feeds the success of those individual members, but also the community at large. And so we're quite proud about that. And so that that's essentially what we're up to. and I'll keep talking if you let me.
12:04.514 Brandon Burton
Good. No. So that that please stop. No. that I think that helps give some perspective to you know kind of what what type of work you guys are doing there at your chamber and and kind of sets the table a little bit for our discussion today as we get into the the program synopsis on your chamber of the year application, which I know covered as as they all did this year, you know, an aspect of your your COVID-19 response in your community as well as Your affordable housing program, which we'll we'll get dive into more detail on both of those programs 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/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 nondues revenue with sponsorship opportunities, and best of all, provide a valuable resource to your community. Please visit AppMyCommunity.com/chamberchat now to receive 10% off your first year of an App My Community mobile app. All right, Tony, we're back. as I mentioned before the break, your your two programs on your chamber of the year application. let's talk first about your guys' COVID response in your community. I know that was a big thing last year as I did these interviews with the all the chamber of the year finalists is at that time we were talking about what's your plan, you know, moving forward to help lead your business community through the recovery, but now
14:22.862 Brandon Burton
Plans have been implemented. And I find it very fascinating to hear how different communities have approached this. So tell us how you guys approached it there in Loudoun.
14:33.23 Tony Howard
Sure, I'd be happy to. and you know, I just had the interview for the the ACC Chamber of the Year Award yesterday, and they asked us about our strategy. And I said, you know, I just have to be honest with you. In the early in the early days, back in March of last year, we didn't have a strategy. You know, we kind of saw it coming, but we didn't have months to prepare. We had days. And so when it did hit, I always found it ironic that the very last normal day many of us experienced was Friday, March 13th. So Friday the 13th, and then things got went downhill. we our instincts told us that the first thing we needed to do was to spend those first few weeks reaching out to our members. It was a Herculean effort, but by Herka by Kirk, we contacted all at the time, about 1100 members, by phone or by email. We got a hold of everyone. And just basically two things. How are you doing and what can we do to help? Secondly, we had to get really fast, really s really smart really fast on virtual online meeting platforms. We went with Zoom, like many people did. There are other options out there too as well that worked. They work differently, but they they basically operate a very similar fashion. So we went with Zoom. We converted all of our committee meetings. Now keep in mind we have around 12 standing committees, plus other governance committees, but 12 standing committees. And we converted all of our as much as possible our our events, so committee events to online. And actually we 90% of all the committee meetings that were scheduled for 2020 Did occur. There were a few that in the early days, in the, I guess we'll call it the fog of war period, from the middle of March to just about beginning of April, a few committees were not able to meet and they were scrambled, people they just they were trying to scramble scramble and figure out their own lives, their own business, their own family lives. the kids had been sent home to learn virtually. It was just, you know, it was crazy as we all recall. But ultimately, we 90% of those meetings did take place, and 90% of all pre-scheduled events did take place in some way, shape, or form. It did not look like anything we had initially anticipated. but we spent the first part of that the period just reaching out to folks and converting everything we did to the online platform. That was that was a 24-7 endeavor. And so a lot of hard work and long nights. there more than once says I was working off a card table in my basement. I was coming to bed at 10 o'clock. And she's like my wife would be like, Were you?
16:56.258 Tony Howard
You were w watching TV. I said, no, no time for watching TV these days. It's all just trying to figure out how we can you know, just you know, flex and pivot with the scenarios in front of us. And then so anyway, yeah, that's what we did initially.
17:10.806 Brandon Burton
Yeah. So with that initial reach out, I know a lot of chambers did that as far as the trying to contact all the members and see how they're doing, how how the chamber can help. what kind of feedback did you get? What did it was there a lot of similarities that kind of helped you develop your approach on how to develop a plan or what what did you see through that?
17:31.714 Tony Howard
Yeah, so the very first thing was folks were struggling to figure out what the new government mandates meant for them. So what were they and what did they mean for them? some of them may have been more self-explanatory than the others. So we used our expertise and our contacts with local and state officials to ourselves be certain about okay, what did it mean to be able to limit capacity, to mandate masks, to implement other so protocols such as social distancing, things of that nature. Those these were I I know they've become And at the time they were like, what is that? Right. And there were others too as well. The impact on certain sectors, I I've noted long ago that the COVID virus has been very unfair. I know that sounds strange to describe a virus as fair or unfair, but not only did it hit certain populations from a health perspective harder than others, or seniors was great example of that. But it also hit and frontline workers too, by the way. They were also hit very hard because they have to be face to face with their customers. nature of the base, but it also hurt certain industries more than others. And certainly in hospitality, retail, tourism, restaurants, all part of the same overall sector, hit them the worst economically. And so a lot of those folks were looking for support. You know, how can I how do I continue? How do I convert to takeout and delivery, you know, and and you know, you know, if I'm not zoned, if the government regulations don't allow for that, they don't allow for outdoor parking or outdoor, excuse me, outdoor dining. Yeah. Things of that nature. So we've spent a lot of time getting that kind of feedback and then funneling back to the appropriate parties and saying, hey, you know, we need to make a difference on that. And and kudos. we have a strong relationship with our with our government partners. I know that sometimes there's some skepticism about whether, you know, they'll saying I'm here, I'm from the government, I'm here to help, right? I I have to say that I have a deeper appreciation for how our state and local government partners and Federal too as well, but we spend most of our time dealing with state and local.
19:14.414 Brandon Burton
That's right.
19:23.81 Tony Howard
How they responded to it, Democrat, Republican, Independent. They were they were fairly unified and strong and and I'd say generous in many cases too in supporting folks. So we spent a lot of time focused on that early part. And that's the feedback we got from folks. They were very, very they too were working twenty four seven, I'll give them that. And they were very interested in hearing the feedback we were receiving from our members on how they were being impacted the most.
19:46.924 Brandon Burton
Yeah. Well let's maybe shift gears a little bit and hear about your the other program that you guys put on your your application around affordable housing.
19:56.238 Tony Howard
Sure, sure. Yeah. So this has its origins, this initiative has its origins in what we call in our community and perhaps others. It was a comprehensive plan review. So it's a land use plan and it's comprehensive because it includes the you know, what type of use of piece of land can can take place, what can take place on that, but also it incorporates transportation planning as well. So it's very broad. and it basically constitutes the strategic plan for how a community will develop and grow, okay? and then from that plan, what's in it what what's included in that plan, the jurisdiction is supposed to then update their zoning ordinances, which we're going through right now. So there's the plan, then there's the the statute. And so they're they're working on the second part right now. We're working with them on it. So the copy of the plan, we had just we had decided more than a few years ago that our number one public policy issue, the number one challenge to economic prosperity in our community is the cost of housing and the affordability for folks at various income levels, but generally we define our target market as sixty percent what they call average median income to one hundred and twenty. So we're essentially we're talking about folks early in their career or in jobs that just don't aren't at the h upper end of the weight scales. Okay. So they do include hospitality, tourism, but also public service, teachers, cops, firefighters. so but it could include all the industries, particularly for young professionals. So there's a lot of folks that are captured in that that 60% to 120% cohort. the issue we had is that we didn't have a sufficient supply of housing for them. And without that sufficient supply, we know what supply and demand does. Little supply, much demand, price has gone up to record levels. and it does you no good unless you sell your house. It does no one any good. And it keeps people from, particularly our college grads, from returning home and making a life here in the community that raised them. And businesses, there's a warp of talent across our country, by the way. A warp of talent. So workforce and education issues are top of mind for all chambers, or at least they should be. But we saw this as a quality of life and a workforce and education workforce mostly issue. And so we worked really hard to get the business community out. I I believe that some of my chamber colleagues may agree that that's not always easy. And I mean get them out. It's not sending an email is fine, but really like showing up at public hearings, showing up at community meetings, speaking to our what we call a board of supervisors, our county board, looking them in the eye and county staff.
22:20.832 Tony Howard
Looking in the eye and saying, you know, the cost of housing is hurting my business because I can't find employees who I can afford to pay who a wage sufficient for them to be able to afford to live in our community. So they're going elsewhere. And so it's an economic issue. And as I would point out to the board, you know, what business would spend 12 years training somebody spending we cost of education is about twelve thousand dollars a year per student. So making that kind of investment, but then adopting policies that makes it really difficult for them to move back and continue and start a career with that company. Of course, that company would go broke in a heartbeat. And it's just bad policy. So why do we have similar policies like that? What's the point? And so we end of the day, we were successful because there's also opposition to that notion, you know, for sometimes for environmental, sometimes for anti-growth, sometimes for just NIMBYism. In general, there's the folks who don't believe there should be additional housing development in the county. and I do want to say we were really focused on housing types and inventory. So we have some great golf course communities. We weren't advocating for more of those. We were really advocating for housing that's affordable to folks making 60% of the average to all the way up to 120% of the average. So we're talking working class folks or early career folks, you know, folks every community needs. You can't do without. You simply can't. And and when they have to drive an hour away to to to go to a job, they become a retention risk. And so we had to, we had to you know, push back about that and just get and and what we start to do is to humanize it. You know, we fight if this is gonna be a battle of of statistics, if this is gonna be a battle of slogans, we are going to lose. because the other side is is vocal, well organized and in some cases well funded. Yeah. And so we humanized it. We actually put our employers and their employees and images that we conveyed to our board. We equipped our folks with we basically put together a toolkit. It's believe it or not, it's not everybody's idea of a fun night out to go down to the county or town council and testify at a public hearing. Okay. So some folks don't actually so we equip them you know, not only with what they should expect, but also with talking points and other information they could they use to make it easier, to make it just a little bit less, well, for some cases nerve-wracking. Yeah. and we were quite successful in that regard. And at the end of the day, they did add more than 11,000 new housing units.
24:43.03 Tony Howard
I would say that to us that's like three quarters of a pie, which you know, in policy and politics and the legislative process, that's sometimes the best you'll ever do. Yeah, you you never get the whole you very rarely get the whole pie. If you did, you they probably didn't need you to lobby on it, right? If you got the whole pie. It was probably gonna happen anyway. So, but you know, we still have much work to do. I mean, you know, the county is starting to get serious. We're proud of and we spoke about this on our application, but it was almost like a
24:52.59 Brandon Burton
That sounds like a win to me. Yeah.
25:11.998 Tony Howard
separate track initiative they conducted and can actually completed a unmet housing needs strategic plan so they actually have a plan for addressing our housing needs in the community so it's a social humor services issue but it's also an economic issue and i think that the chamber's efforts to educate our elected leaders and then county staff on that have paid off you know so we didn't do it in an adversarial way you know we didn't set this up to be a you know us against them type initiative it really was a These are your people. These are the these are the human beings that you call constituents. Okay. And this is hurting them and their families. What can we do about it? And I'm proud of how we conducted our campaign and I'm proud of the result. but we have considerably more work to do. Yeah.
25:52.97 Brandon Burton
I love the the point you made about investing in these students for 12 years just to have them leave the community afterward. And and as citizens, taxpayers, you're putting a lot of money into that investment of educating these youth. And for what, if they're just going to educate them for another person's community. So that that's an eye-opener. I so I'm curious how I mean, as we're recording this, we're mid-July 2021. I know. lumber prices are still through the roof. I mean, they say they're coming down, they're 55% lower than what they were or whatever at the peak, but that's gotta play into the affordable housing when when the base materials are going through the roof as well. what what kind of impact are you seeing in your community with just the the rise in supply costs?
26:42.348 Tony Howard
It's not just seeing, actually, you know, the brilliant strategist that I am, I had a new fence put in and I got an estimate in late December and it was good for 30 days. And I stalled, it was winter time, wasn't that important. we should get that fence done. Okay, that estimate was only good for 30 days. Let's do another one. It went up twelve percent or four hundred dollars. Just material cost, just a material cost, just a lumber cost, it's not a big fence. It was already too expensive to begin with, by the way. So and again, if I and then if I waited waited another three months, I probably would have saved that four hundred dollars back. So our builders are telling us not only is it the cost, but it's the availability. So it's it even if you wanted to pay any price, which you know most of us can't, you just couldn't get it. You just couldn't get the materials. And you know, there's a woman actually when she chairs our public policy committee, she's a custom home builder. You know, her suppliers were telling her and her husband this last year, like order now for twenty twenty one. Yeah. Get your orders in now. And they were like, okay, you wouldn't tell me that unless it was true. Yeah. And so yeah, I did see in the Wall Street Journal it is down significantly so. I understand that some folks are shorting lumber and they might take a little bit of a bath on that one. But you know, fact of the matter is is that yeah materials and and supply chain issues are still with us. they're with us throughout COVID. It's not just lumber, there are others too as well. Yeah. I understand folks in the electronics business that they're struggling to as well. it's just gonna take some time to sort it all out. I mean, we went through a worldwide pandemic, you know, things got things went a little bit sideways, did they not? And so they'll take time to figure out. But it doesn't help with an issue like affordable housing at all. It's less of an issue with for us in the short term because you know, if you know anything about the land use entitlement process, it's it's a it's a year to sometimes multi-year process. So, you know, bakeries and prices of materials that you know that take place over just a few months have less of an impact. now if you just got fully entitled and you're trying to build, you know, start break ground next week, yeah, then it has a more acute issue. But most of those folks are smart enough to know we need to lock in prices at an affordable level in anticipation of being approved for this project. And so I think most of them would know enough how to you know protect their interests.
28:55.254 Brandon Burton
Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. So I wanted to ask you, and it this may not be anything that was on your chamber application, but being that you guys are a chamber of the year finalists and kind of at the the top of the game in the chamber world, so to say, from your perspective, what is it that makes the the Loudoun chamber stand out? What what is it you guys do that might be different than other chambers that that we could learn something from?
29:20.942 Tony Howard
Hmm, good question. you don't usually stump me on this. I'm sure we do anything that's different. I think we just try to do it as best we can. you know, I think the emphasis on the nonprofit community, we have and other chambers do, so that's not that different. Our emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion is important to us, but again, that's not that different. Certainly for ACCE members, it's very commonplace to be focused in and working on DEI. I will tell you though, for my colleagues in the Northern Virginia area, I actually organized, excuse me. The meeting itself was already organized, but I arranged to have Sheree Anne Kelly come speak to a group of chamber executives and chairs, board chairs from around Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia. and so we must have had 30 people in the room that evening. And she asked folks to raise their hand if they had a DEI program. And I had the only hand going up. And and we weren't exactly we weren't exactly veterans of it. And and as you know, there's very large immigrant minority populations in and around the the Capitol Beltway. So it's it's not as if it were homog a homogeneous community at all. Yeah. though few communities are these days. And it wasn't as if those folks had no interest in the topic. I promise you that that you know the the the several African American chamber professionals and chair board chairs that have a keen interest in the topic. It just hadn't been something that was on their radar screen yet. Yeah. And so we focus on it. So I think we're we're certainly not cutting edge on that, but I'm proud of the work we're doing there. I think the other key to as well is that I I believe in trusting our members, our volunteers and my staff. Follow their instincts and their passions and their priorities. And my job is to make them successful. So, you know, I used to have this notion that when one day I'd be the boss and I would be telling everyone what to do and they would work for me kind of thing. And I realized that's a very foolish concept. Maybe, maybe it worked at one time, a generation or two or five ago. These days, I think an effective chamber executive or just a successful executive any in any industry or organization is really there to support folks who work for them. And the folks they report to. And so we provide them a great deal of latitude and a great deal of support to be able to follow their ideas. And yes, we do stumble from time to time. But I think that's where the magic happens, to be honest with you. You know, they do that's where the so you get some really people, people of good, good will and good intentions who are smart, they're experienced, they know their company, their industry, their community. Why wouldn't I trust them? Right. Why would I want to do it all myself, frankly? It's already hard enough.
31:47.478 Tony Howard
Exactly. So again, I can't tell you, Brandon, that that's very different than my colleagues, particularly the high performing chamber executives who participate and engage in ACCE. we all come here for the same reason. we think we're pretty good at what we do, but we want to do a better job. And so let's learn from the folks who are already doing a really fantastic job. So I would have no doubt that a lot of the folks that you bring on this podcast would say something similar to that, but
32:10.71 Brandon Burton
Yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to ask you too, what might be one you know tip or strategy that a listener can take you know from your experience that can maybe help elevate their chamber up to the next level?
32:25.324 Tony Howard
Yeah, so I'm a big believer in the power of partnership and collaboration. again, not very different. I'm not breaking new ground here. I bet you mo most of your listeners are, but we s work really, really hard to partner with allied business organizations in and outside of Loudoun County, so throughout the region. And even I wrote a letter today about a project over in Maryland. So we work with Maryland chambers and business organizations. We cross sec cross-sector partnerships. So with the nonprofit community, the healthcare hospital, faith-based communities too as well. And we also believe very, very strongly in working very closely and in tandem with our public sector partners. So it's not just, you know, the Department of Economic Development. That's a natural partnership. We should have that. But with others with the housing office, with the county administrator and our elected officials, we we believe firmly it's a chamber board member from a foundation put it this way, but it's a I think a very apt description of healthy community is like a three-legged stool at the public sector, the for profit sector and the nonprofit sector aren't strong legs, then that that that stool is going to fall over and sell that community. So we not only work to be great partners with those other two legs, if I can continue that metaphor. but I also see it as our job to support and strengthen them too as well. You know, that and I don't know if that's always the case. Too often is sort of in with the our government partners, they tend to be an adversarial relationship between them and the business community. And I think that's unfortunate. And I do believe that too often I've had maybe this is an antiquated notion and nobody listening today holds it any longer, but I have had chamber executives say to me, we don't really want other nonprofits coming to our events because that's competition for resources. I I really think that's a short-sighted myopic point of view. And and by the way, I now have about 15 years of experience to prove that you know that is incorrect. It's a it's the wrong way to see things. And so making them successful makes us successful, makes my members successful. And so that's I think one of the keys to our success is just Partnership and collaboration. Anybody in this community knows they can pick up on and I'll I'll listen to them. I can't always say yes, but very often we do. Very often we do.
34:31.406 Brandon Burton
So I like asking everyone this question that I have on the podcast is as we're all kind of looking to the future, how do you view the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?
34:41.313 Tony Howard
Yeah. this is probably my favorite question because I really do believe very, very firmly that chambers of commerce need to be change agents in their communities. ACCE uses the term catalytic leadership. as a as a person, as a marketing and PR guy at heart, I I might advise they change that title because I think it takes a while for people to figure out what do you mean by that? Yeah. I think you I think you need to be an agent for change. You need to be making things happen in your community. You can't just be about Putting on the very best networking and golf tournaments, events and the tournaments that your community has ever seen. I believe they're important because those are business development and marketing opportunities. So I am we do them, we'll continue to do them. But we're focusing more and more on making a difference on right now it's housing. Pride previous to that it was transportation. there'll be other issues down the road. We work on constantly, constantly working down at Richmond on workforce development initiatives too as well. and providing the resources, but also the right types of programs, economic development. But the if your chamber isn't at the front of the PAC, if you're just a member of the PAC or you're not doing it at all, I I really do think that you put yourself at risk for future growth and sustainability or even relevance. And so I would say, you know, figure out a way to get out there on the most important issue and be a leader on that and take the time and energy and devote the resources. They in the short and sometimes even midterm, They don't often, they don't always provide opportunities for monetization. But I think eventually, and I know again, this is stuff I hear from my folks. I'm not just making it up in in between my ears. that you know, the employees in my community are saying, Yeah, we want to bet you guys are you're making good things happen. We want to invest in you. And these are the folks that would rather chew glass than go to a networking event, right? Yeah. It's just not, they're just not there's not gonna, you know, the president of the hospital. The only way I could joke, the only way I could send you more business if I hurt some people and they have to be cheated. And I'm not going to do that. So why do they do that? Because they see us as a change agent. So I would say that's where the future is going to line. It's going to be less on the you know, what is just often described as the transactional side of the business. Rena, this is information that's 10 or 15 years old. But I think when it was initially being preached by ACCE and others, a few of my colleagues, I agreed with it. I I saw the evidence for it.
36:58.446 Tony Howard
I think a number of folks were like, yeah, I don't know how to do it. It's beyond my skill set. I hate public policy and government. And you know, sometimes that gets a bad app. And I I I I don't know how else to put it except that you're gonna have to get over that and you're gonna have to figure it out. And maybe it doesn't imply, it doesn't have to include getting involved in legislation. Maybe that issue in your community is something else. I don't know what it is. Every community is different. And maybe there are other ways that you can be a leader and making change happen. But if you're not making change happen, you will get left behind. I promise you that.
37:28.876 Brandon Burton
Yes. I love the the expanded definition of of being a change agent and what that what that means to you. And I I I I like I mean, I I like the term being catalytic change, you know, that it's it makes you stop and think a little bit and give a little more intention behind that name. But what it comes down to is is being that change agent and finding that thing in your community that is worth getting behind and making, you know, moving the needle for something positive in your community. So I I love that response.
38:00.546 Tony Howard
I appreciate that. I'm probably not as smart as you, Brandon. So there's so many syllables and cat catalytic. I I just go with change. It's one syllable, I can understand it, you know. It's more my more my style.
38:09.582 Brandon Burton
That's right. Well, Tony, I wanted to give you an opportunity to put some contact information out there for anyone listening who would like to reach out and connect and learn from you anything that you shared in this episode. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?
38:24.886 Tony Howard
Sure. There are so many ways, but I always tell folks, thoward@loudounchamber.org. Let me spell loud. It's L-O-U-D-O-U-N. So as I was telling Brandon before the podcast, there were several loudens around the basin. Ours is the only one with two use. So loudounchamber.org. I do return emails. also feel free to to give me a call if you wish. 571-209-9020. I also return phone calls. sadly, I'm finding that to be a quaint, quaint endeavor these days. That's right. I I I still talk on the telephone and return phone calls and return emails as best I can. It may take a little while, but I promise you I will get back to you.
39:07.064 Brandon Burton
That's great. I will I'll get your contact information in our show notes for this episode. So if anybody wants to check that out, it'll be found at ChamberChatPodcast.com/episode135. But Tony, I appreciate you spending time with me today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. It's been a pleasure visiting with you and learning more about the Loudoun Chamber and and the impact that you guys are making in your community. I wish you guys the best of luck as Chamber of the Year.
39:33.166 Tony Howard
Very good. Brandon, thank you for the opportunity. I look forward to seeing you in person at an ACCE convention sometime soon, hopefully twenty twenty ten.
39:42.08 Brandon Burton
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40:17.486 Brandon Burton
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