Accreditation Process with Dewan Clayborn

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

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Introduction

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.

Voiceover Talent 0:14
And now your host he believes the best way to get better at something is to put in the reps is my dad, Brandon Burton.

Brandon Burton 0:21
Hello, chamber champions. Welcome to the chamber chat podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal on the podcast to help 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 0:47
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 1:09
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Dewan Clayborn. Dewan is the president of the League City Regional Chamber of Commerce, and he’s been there since July of 2019. Since Dewan’s arrival at the league City Regional Chamber, they’ve seen exponential growth having some of the most success that their chambers ever had in 60 years, bringing in over 600 new members to date more than 500,000 plus views of the chamber website. multitude of ribbon cuttings and so much more. The ones leadership has seen the league City Regional Chamber of Commerce become one of the fastest growing chambers in Texas and become a four star accredited Chamber of Commerce putting them in the top 3% of all chambers of commerce in the United States, all in less than three years. The one was a 40 under 40 recipient for ACCE as well as for Galveston County in 2021. He majored in Business Administration at the University of Central Arkansas, and he started out in management managerial work upon graduation from college. Don is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, but made the decision to move to Texas due to the state providing so many business opportunities. Dewan grew up with the love of basketball in business and still plays basketball that is to this day for a male division League. Nuan has worked in the chamber world since 2015. After being laid off from Target during its breach scandal, he became the director of special events at the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce. He fell in love with the mission and culture of chambers. Dewan believes his spiritual gift is serving and cease working at the Chamber is fulfilling his gift and a wonderful way to serve his community. He serves on multiple multitude of nonprofit boards and as a mentor for the Chauncey Glover project as well as a founding member of branch which is brothers renovating adolescents and creating heroes, a membership program dedicated to help him minority children in single parent homes or in juvenile system. He’s also on the board of directors for the African American Marketing Association. Dewan, I’m excited to have you with me today on chamber tap podcast. I feel like it’s been working in progress to get you on the show. And I’m glad we’re making the happen. But I’d love for you to say hello to all the chamber champions and share something else interesting about yourself so you can get to know you better.

Dewan Clayborn 3:45
Sure, of course, though, I thought you’re going to trim down to by longer and longer. But know how long so the world, Dewan Clayborn, President, CEO of the leek city, Regional Chamber of Commerce, and first of all, Brandon, thanks for having me. I’ve been an avid listener to you and I’ve listened to the podcast. I love it. And I’m just excited to finally be here.

Brandon Burton 4:09
I’m excited to have you on here just to I’ll say that an interesting fact is Dewan turned me on to wearing shorts at conferences inside thing beside each other. I think it was at TCC I think. And you know, here I am wearing slacks and this shirt and everything. And I’m like, man, like they did say casual dress. So So then the next conference, I see him I’m wearing shorts and he’s not the only one left me hanging.

Dewan Clayborn 4:41
Next Conference, I wear my shorts again.

Brandon Burton 4:43
There we go there. Yeah. Well tell us a little bit more about the league City Regional Chamber kind of size staff budget type of work do you guys cover just to give us a little bit more perspective?

Dewan Clayborn 4:55
Great. So first off, Lake City is the largest city in Galveston County. There’s over 120,000 as a population, Lake City is a 15, fastest growing city in the US right now. And so we are really smack dab in the middle of, on your way to Galveston to kheema. All of these tourist destinations you have to drive right through league city league city is 48% undeveloped. So I tell people for architects, they can be an artist and draw out the development that they want. And so because of that, it attracts so many different businesses to league city, I was actually blessed to help negotiate bringing Amazon there, which created over 200, over 500 jobs in our community. And because whenever Amazon comes somewhere, of course, other businesses are watching. And so I work very closely with the city’s economic development director, Scott Livingston, and we’re all about recruiting businesses to leak city. But of course, my main goal as the chamber is to business retention and keeping those doors open. And so a lot going on this league city, we’re a Regional Chamber. So we have businesses in Galveston County, Brasilia County in Harris County. And so we’re here to sell ArcSight all businesses no matter what city because we know business is hard. And so we don’t want them to do it alone. And there’s no other way to do it then with one the best chambers in the nation right now.

Brandon Burton 6:25
I love that and that does give a good taste a good flavor of what you guys are involved with at the moment and and like you said, just that rapid growth in your area, which doesn’t happen by accident, you know, I mean, it helps you have undeveloped land that people can kind of dry out and see the vision that they want. But I mean, you guys are doing some things right there and working with the city and economic development to attract those businesses to the area. So great job. Thank you. So our topic that we decided to settle on for our discussion today is going to be around the the accreditation process. And as I shared in the bio, um, you guys are a four star accredited chamber. So I know there’s other chambers out there that are contemplating or maybe going through the process itself. So it’ll be beneficial to hear, you know, from your point of view going through the process and what it was like and to be able to help some of these other chambers be prepared to go through it as well. And we’ll dive into that discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, John, we’re back. So tell us as far as the accreditation process goes, maybe let’s start at the beginning, what made you guys decide that you wanted to go after an accreditation?

Topic-Accreditation

Dewan Clayborn 10:16
Well, before I jump in, I have to give recognition or recognition is due. And so you mentioned that started at Fort Bend chamber. And I did, and that was under one of the best leaders in the chamber industry carry Schmidt. And so being there, we were actually a five star chamber. And so I learned about accreditation there, because that’s all we would talk about. And I was like, why do we keep talking about this? And then I started doing research on like, Okay, this is what separates our chambers from the risks. Because we have a saying, in a chamber world, when you say one chamber, you only think. And so that’s when I learned about it. And so as I was there, the chamber is actually for bench and was getting ready for the reaccreditation. Because it’s a distinction for five years. And so on that for fear, you want to gear it up and start mobilizing your leadership to get ready to apply again. And so I just had one little small portion, because while I was there, I was director of special events. So I was kind of over to governance piece. And it was just so intriguing the amount of details. And it really helped me learn more about the chamber more about my role in the chamber. And whenever I got to leak city, you know, they always said, I mentioned that one time on the board me like, Hey, guys, have we ever thought about being accredited? And they say, Yeah, we thought about that, we looked at what it required. And then we never open that book up again. I was like, well, that’s not the right attitude. You got to look at obstacles as an opportunity to grow and to develop as a chamber. And so at that point, I decided that we will be accredited, and we will start the process. And so I believe around 2020, at my board retreat, we reopen all that paperwork. And I had a facilitator there, Dr. Glenn Friedman, one of my mentors, he’s, and he’s actually teaching chamber basics for TCC. II, say, my class and my staff there yesterday. And so he walked us through the process. And so there’s actually some prerequisites for the accreditation. And so it’s like, if you don’t have these five things done for each section, you’re not even ready to apply. And so we had none of that done. So that was our starting point. And so from there, we started our year long year and a half long journey to get ready to apply for accreditation during the pandemic.

Brandon Burton 12:47
Right. Yeah. As if there wasn’t already enough challenges. Right. Right. So as you got started, what are some of the first things that you guys, you know, tackled, as far as overview talked about overcoming obstacles? What are some of the things he had to address early on in the process?

Dewan Clayborn 13:06
Well, the first thing was just, you know, learning the good governance, right. So when this have we had a financial audit? If you’re in just realize I didn’t answer your question. So our budget is around $778,000. And we have a staff of five to six employees. And so essentially, if your chambers budget is over 500,000, then best practice from us chambers to get an audit a financial audit every other year. If your net income is not your net, if your gross income is under 500,000, then best practice is to get a financial have a financial audit every three years. And so at this point, we were actually under that 500,000 mark. And so we were able to, you know, the first thing we need to do a financial audit. So, first off, if you’re a new executive, if you’re taking on a new chamber position, that’s honestly one of the first things you want to do. So that any skeletons that are in that closet, I’m out and you’re not held accountable. Unfortunately, the situation I was in, we didn’t have the financial resources to do a financial audit when I first got there. And so I was excited that that was one of the first steps because I had been wanting to have one every since I arrived. And so when it was time to start that process, that was the first thing that I say, Well, hey, well, we have all this money. Let’s go ahead and get the financial audit done. That way you can really have a good understanding of where we are. And that’s one of the major steps you have to do before you apply for accreditation.

Brandon Burton 14:44
That’s right. No, and I think that’s good advice too, even if you’re not applying for credit. So if you are a new chamber exec coming into a new role at a new chamber, it would behoove you and protect you to have a financial audit done. Out there intimate that’d be skeletons, but it’ll just give you a good pulse of what’s going on in your chamber, what’s the help financially, and be able to help you kind of chart those waters going forward? Yes, please. What are what are some of these other obstacles or things? Yeah, next steps in the process. So so once

Dewan Clayborn 15:18
you actually go through what the minimum standards of accreditation, and you have all of those checked off, then the next piece is really now diving deep into each section. So there’s eight different sections for accreditation, just to name a few. One of them is Board Governance. One of them is program development. Another one is financials. And so start going through each section and literally work your way down and checkbox. And if you’re able to provide that documentation, do it if not, start reaching out to chamber executives that are already accredited and started looking to I call it our od rip off and duplicate, or allow you to file and get get some of their best practices. And so that’s where I then started, you know, for those documents that didn’t have what those policies and procedures, I started looking at some of my neighboring chambers that were accredited and started adopting some of their policies. Now, of course, you want to get your board involved. And so my Board reviewed it, and we made our we made we put our league city twist on it, but work smarter not harder. You know, people have already paved the way the people have already had these documents, sorry about that have have a little

Brandon Burton 16:41
mascot, right.

Dewan Clayborn 16:44
Right. Well, yeah, so somebody is already has that work done, work smarter, not harder, and reach out to them and try to borrow some of those resources? Yeah,

Brandon Burton 16:55
I’d like that just to be able to lean on your other peers in the industry. And there’s no no sense in reinventing the wheel, you know, reach out to your peers. How do you do this? You know, what kind of structure template are you using? Yeah, I see that as being in the podcast space chambers will reach out about starting a podcast and saying, Well, let’s look at some templates that other chambers are doing for their podcast, and see what would fit you and your community the best. And that’s what it’s all about is kind of finding a template and then customizing it towards yourself and what works for your community. So as you went through the process, how was the buy in from your board? From the Staff? What was the overall climate like?

Dewan Clayborn 17:40
Right? So you know, the first thing is, I really had to, like, you know, sell the board on the importance of accreditation, right? Because their first question is, okay, why? What’s the benefit for this for the chamber? And then not even that for the members? So why am I as a top investing five star member? Why do I care about you being accredited. And so as the executive and a leader of the organization, those are the first talking points you want to have, okay, why accreditation is important, because it shows one the businesses that were good financial stewards with the finances, that they invest in our chamber, right best. And that’s through going through the financial audit. Also, in that financial peace, you have to have financial policies, procedures to make sure you have controls over those funds, that businesses are investing in your chamber, you know, because business are given 1000s and 1000s of dollars a year. And so you want to make sure, as a chamber executive, you’re not just saying that you’re a good steward, but you’ve had CPA companies sign off on that you are able to produce financial policies and procedures, if anyone asks, and once you have your financial audit, it shows that you are good stewards with those funds that you’ve been given. And so that was my first message is to allow on our board members to know that, hey, I know a lot of you all are part of a lot of chambers. But if you’re wanting to see which time you should invest in the most, you should look at investing in an accredited chamber, because we have that stamp of approval from the US Chamber of Commerce.

Brandon Burton 19:16
There you go. I like that pitch. Because a and you guys are kind of in a region where you do have a lot of chambers, you know, immediate neighbors even and a lot of your members are going to be members have maybe three or four different chambers. So when they decide where to put their money, you know, put it where it’s going to have the most influence where it’s going to have the biggest impact, right and building a stronger community. So how about to the general chamber member? I mean, I’m sure you guys made some sort of an announcement once you you got your four star accreditation. How did you make that announcement to members in a way that you know, show ODE what it meant to them, even if they’re maybe an entry level member, right? What does that mean for them?

Dewan Clayborn 20:07
Yeah, so what we did is when we finally found out that we reached this prestige distinction, we hosted a four star accreditation celebration, we actually have someone from the US Chamber of Commerce come out from Washington, one of my good friends, uh, you know, I’m John Gonzales, he came out. And so basically, I invited out all past board members, anybody that was a member, one, one month, one year at the chamber and current members to tell them all, because of you, we’ve reached this distinction. And that’s a way for you to know by you investing in the chamber in a community, that’s a great investment. And we have a stamp of approval from Washington now, because of all of our innovative events, because you’re here serving and you came up with this innovative idea to host chatting with the mayor. So I kind of pinpointed some of the events that the US Chamber actually recognized us for hosting and being creative. And I personally recognize those individuals who have come up with those events, because our members actually are the ones who helped us come up with these dynamic events, the chamber, which is here to execute and run the day to day operations.

Brandon Burton 21:21
I think that’s so good. I love that you guys did a party, but then it to specifically call out those people as businesses, organizations that had a key impact, you guys getting this distinction? And being able to say this is a role that you played? And I think that allows other businesses to say, Hey, I kind of do something similar. I can see why that’s important. And it kind of builds that momentum amongst your membership. Yeah, we’re on the right track. This is a good,

Dewan Clayborn 21:48
it builds engagement, right. And it shows people you know, we have a thing at my chamber. I don’t know if you’re, you’re like little younger, but there was a show called cheers back in the day. Yeah. Yeah. And so we tell people, we want to be like, cheers, we want to go where everybody knows your names are going to go.

But no, but that’s where we want people to feel engaged and involved. And hey, we’re here because of you. Because truly an honesty, honestly, you know, we are a membership based organization. So we keep our doors, our doors, open our lights on because of your investment in membership. And that’s really what makes a chamber 501 C six versus 501. C threes, because we’re membership based driven.

Brandon Burton 22:38
Yeah. So just for the record, the next line is, you know, everybody’s glad you came.

I got to last right. So as we start wrapping up here, I wanted to ask you for if you had any tip or action item for a chamber listening, maybe they want to go through the accreditation process, what would be your, you know, advice that you would offer to them.

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Dewan Clayborn 23:06
My advice is just do it, you know, just start the hardest pieces start it is overwhelming when you see all of those sections. When you need the amount of detail that’s require, it is a lot. But remember, there are chamber executives like myself and others that are more than happy to pay for it to be a listening ear and a resource with you. And just know it’s a journey. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. And I’ll just share a quick story with you about me. And for those of y’all that follow me y’all know that I’m pretty kind of straightforward about you know, me and my faith and reasons why I’m operating in my spiritual gifts right now. But because of that, when you go for it, of course, you get, you know, some traction pulling you back. And so, Brandon, what happened to me is we worked on accreditation all year, and I plan to submit by December 31 2021. And tell me why, when we were ready to submit, everything went wrong. I mean, my server shut down, I lost all my files that we’ve been working on all year. The board’s asked me hey, have we submitted have we submitted it? And I’m like, Man, I don’t have I don’t I don’t have any of my documentation. We were actually like going through a switch you know, Outlook has all these tools now was actually Microsoft suite they have all these different tools and so as we were converting over to more of a cloud based structure, all my files are gone. And so here I am December 30 2021. At the chamber really like trying to stick to I’m gonna submit by this year I’ve said is to go you know, to I got to the point where you know, I have another philosophy that you know, clarity is better to speak And so I had to challenge myself and say the one you don’t have enough clarity here, I literally had to start redoing the entire package. And so I was just going through trying to remember the stuff I had and all went and stuff. And it was, it was so much and overwhelming that, you know, I had to go back to one of my philosophies, and I’m like, I don’t have clarity here. So I shouldn’t have be really trying to push in, submit this thing, because, you know, this has been a goal for my board, and me, and I’ve been sticking to it. And so you know, because of COVID, has taught us to pivot. And so I had to have that tough look in the mirror and conversation with myself and say, you know, hey, if we’re gonna do this, we need to do it right. And you’re not ready to submit it, you’ve like really rushed and got through it. But this is not your best work. And so at that point, I had to own it and tell my boy, you know what, it’s not time to do it, we’re going to submit the first quarter of March, and yeah, march 31 2022. And we’re just gonna do it the right way, I don’t feel comfortable. And you know, because they heard that from me, they respected it. And then you did do that. And so around June, July 2022, is when we got the good news that we reached a four star distinction of being a credit. So that long story is just that, hey, you all are gonna run into challenges. It’s just like anything that you’re doing, or why you’re at the chamber when you’re trying to do right, when you’re trying to fight for business, when you’re trying to get you’re structuring your governance, in order for the chamber, as you’re going through that process, just know you’re gonna have challenges is going to happen. And that way you can be more, more challenged, proof and prepare and be more resilient. And, again, feel free to pick up the phone call and call me or someone else that can help get you through that, because it’s tough going through it by yourself, but just know, hopefully, my testimony will help you out that if you are ready to do it, and something happens and you don’t feel confident you feel in your gut that it’s not the right time, it’s okay. It’s okay. Because you don’t want to submit prematurely. You don’t want to do not even get a credit or get three star whatever. And all the quotations are good. Let me not say it that way. But you don’t want to undersell yourself and have that distinction for the next five years, because you were trying to rush and apply. And so in my worst and just be prepared when you’re trying to do good things, that force is gonna try to work against you. But keep that grit keep moving forward, be resilient, utilize your resources. And at the end of the day, you’ll get through it. And you’ll be excited that you went through that journey.

Brandon Burton 27:41
Yeah. And I think like you’re saying in hindsight, had you went ahead and rushed it just to meet that date that you had set that goal date? Right? And yeah, you’d be eaten that year for the next five years that you didn’t put your best foot forward? And it wasn’t it wasn’t a true representation of what you’re

Dewan Clayborn 27:57
learning beyond this podcast.

Brandon Burton 28:04
That’s right. Yeah. So as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Dewan Clayborn 28:14
Um, I’ve seen the chamber actually starting back being the authoritative entities in the communities through COVID. The chambers have been in part of big conversations with elected officials, legislative entities, economic development entities, workforce development, we’ve been engaged across the spectrum of different industries, because people are starting to see again, why chambers are so valuable, and why we are here to make the world go around. So I think that right now was big for chambers are focused on those partnerships. You know, right now, I’m reading a book called The CEO excellence, and it talks about the six different mindsets of a CEO. And the one of the interesting things that they say on areas, challenge everything, challenge everything you do, ask why, and be okay with changing things up. And I think that because of COVID, and where we are, in a world, this is the time for chambers to bring back more life to your chamber. Be okay with stopping that program that isn’t profitable. Be okay with creating a more of a work life balance and culture for your staff be okay with having a little bit more fun at work and not stop being so serious, you know, we have to be with our teams with our boards more than we’re with our significant others, so why not have fun with it. And so I think chambers are going to be rising to the top. We have a lot of great chambers currently that are doing some phenomenal things in their communities. And during crisis. We’ve seen chambers step up like never before, and I think that’s just going to continue to happen. And we’re now in that circle and sitting at the table helping make this sages in decisions in order to make our communities survive and thrive, absolutely

Brandon Burton 30:05
love that. So you had a he had put out the invitation there for listeners to reach out with you to give you a call or email to see how you’re doing things, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you if they wanted to learn more and just get to know you better?

Connect with Dewan Clayborn

Dewan Clayborn 30:21
Thank you. Well, I’m pretty easily fine on social media. So that’s definitely well really more so on Facebook and LinkedIn. And so that’s you can find me there to one Dewan Claiborne’s CLAYBORN or you can always email me at the chamber dewan@leaguecitychamber.com. And then of course, you can always reach out and call our office at 281-338-7339. But yeah, I’m pretty easy to find on LinkedIn, on Facebook, give me a shout. Remember that you are not going through this accreditation journey by yourself. Work smarter, not harder, are od rip off and duplicate get resources from chambers who have already gone through this process. And then once you get it with your board, finagle it, finesse it and make it perfect to fit your chamber.

Brandon Burton 31:18
As perfect. I’ll get your contact information in our show notes for this episode, so people can reach out, you know, connect on on social media or shoot us an email or give me a call. But I think you’ve provided a lot of value today for those listening, especially those who maybe been on the fence of whether or not they want to go through the accreditation process. And whether or not it’s worth it. And I think you put forth a great argument for your bigger investors, and even just the average chamber member about what that value is and how to relate that value back to them and the impact that they’re making on your organization to really stand out and be recognized. So yeah,

Dewan Clayborn 31:56
yeah, if I may, one other thing, you know, what it means for that executive is, I would challenge any chamber executive, that if you have not gone through accreditation, and not just saying you have to submit but going through, like each section, you do not know your business the way you think you do. I don’t care if you’ve been at a chamber for 20 plus years, going through accreditation, from an executive standpoint, I’ve learned so much about my business so much about the chamber, that I can even tell you from a financial standpoint, you know that I am 59% membership with income, and the other percent is non dues revenue. That’s actually one reason I then become a five star, because best practice shows that the US Chamber wants you to be 40%, membership income, and then 60%, non dues revenue. So as I’m getting are gearing up for my next five year, to apply, I need to have a shift in income. And it makes sense because what happened during COVID, people didn’t renew. And so if you’re really heavy, only membership, whenever there’s a crisis, thinking about now, how cripple your chamber could be, which then will have a bad reflection in the community, because you are the one that’s the chamber who are making the community survive and thrive. And so that’s probably my last voice to the executive, the reason why it’s so beneficial for you to do it, because you learn so much. And I mean, even this, like I learned about how much I invest in my stamp of professional development, you know, I was investing around 40 hours a year, but the US Chamber says it should be 60 Plus, you know, that’s what five star chambers do. And so for me, it’s like, wow, I need to, you know, invest more my team. And so I wouldn’t have known any of these numbers if I wouldn’t have gone through the processes. So in order to really know your business, in order to really know your chamber and look at the bones of the organization, I highly recommend any executive to go through that process. Because no matter how long you’ve been in chamber industry, you won’t know your business as well as you will, once you go through the accreditation process.

Brandon Burton 34:11
And I appreciate that perspective of that feedback that you get back Yeah, through this process to say, to become a five star I need to do this and this. And like you said, as far as your dues revenue versus non dues revenue, and I think it would be to your benefit to have even more diversity in that non dues revenue.

Dewan Clayborn 34:31
Yeah, it makes sense. You know, and you never as a chamber executive, we don’t think about it from that perspective. You know, we’re, hey, membership, membership membership. But if you’re able to do a shift in your financial strategy, it makes you more resilient as a chamber.

Brandon Burton 34:48
Absolutely. Absolutely. And relevant going forward to because you’re involved in different things so well, I think this has been a great discussion one I really Appreciate you joining us today on chamber chat podcast and again, I’d encourage anybody has any questions to reach out and connect with you and you can tell you know, Don’s got some some excitements and passion behind this. So they chat and learn more from him but uh, Duan thanks for being with us today. I really do appreciate it.

Dewan Clayborn 35:18
Hi, Brandon. Thanks for having me. Looking forward to coming back any topic you want to talk about? I love it. I want to pivot myself as a regional collaborator. And so I want to share resources I want to help other chambers, and I want everybody to be great and survive and thrive throughout these unprecedented times.

Brandon Burton 44:58
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