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Published August 1, 2023
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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.

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

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

Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Heather Valudes. Heather became the President and CEO of the Lancaster Chamber in Pennsylvania in June of 2022. Having previously been the Vice President. She joined the chamber in 2011 as the advocacy director with a focus on government affairs and community impact since that time, she has continued to advance that work, while also leading events and programs strategies, and engaging the overall operations and strategic direction of the organization. Prior to joining the chamber, Heather was the Government Affairs Coordinator at the Building Industry Association where she represented them before all government bodies on issues related to the Association’s mission. Heather graduated from West Chester University in 2007 with a degree in political science and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Westchester University. She earned her CCE designation and 2021 She was named a 40, under 40 by the Central Penn Business Journal and by ACCE and as a 2010, graduate of leadership Lancaster that Heather, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber chat podcast, I want to say congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a chamber of the year finalist. And I wanted to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little bit better.

Heather Valudes 3:38
Sure. Well, thanks for having me on Brandon, I appreciate the opportunity to share about our work happening here in Lancaster and have an opportunity to share that with some of our other chamber friends across the country. So I always share this fact about myself because I think people find it interesting particularly because of our location. So I am half Scottish, and then half Amish. My mom was born in Scotland born and raised there and moved here when she was 14. And my dad’s father, so my grandfather was born and raised Amish. And so those are kind of the two roots of my history that bring together this kind of deep rooted history in Lancaster and then also an immigrant story as well. So it’s always a fun little tidbit. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 4:30
that is very interesting. So whenever you’re asked about an interesting fact, keep that in your pocket, you gotta get one. Well, for those who may be longtime listeners to the podcast, they may be a little bit familiar with the Lancaster Chamber and we had your predecessor Tom Baldrige on the show a couple of times. And as the format of the show, I always like to have the guests tell a little bit about their chamber just to kind of give some perspective for listeners. So if you Don’t mind just tell us about the size of the chamber staff budget scope of work, just so we know the type of chamber you are. Before we get into our discussion today.

Heather Valudes 5:09
Yeah, sure. So we are in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So we represent a county wide chamber. We have a population here of about 550,000 people. From our chamber perspective, we have just over 1400 members, so a strong membership component there, those members represent over half of Lancaster County’s total workforce size here. So good representation and depth within our member community and our business community as well. Chamber staff team is 16 people. So you know, a mix of full time and part time there, but 16 In total, and then our budget is about $2.3 million dollars.

Brandon Burton 5:53
All right. So that definitely does help kind of set the stage for our discussion today. And typically, the way that I like to structure these chamber, the year finalist interviews is to focus much of our attention on the two programs, these submitted in your synopsis on your application for chamber the year. So maybe just at a real high level, tell us what the two programs are. And then we’ll circle back and get in a little more detail on on each of those.

Heather Valudes 6:21
Yeah, so are two programs that we submitted this year. The first one was your history is our history, celebrating 150 years of business. For the chamber, we celebrated our 100 and 50th anniversary in 2022. And we really focused the whole year on celebrating the history of business and industry in our community as well. And then our second one was on our discovering paths mentoring program. And we look at that as investing in the next generation. And so it’s a program we’ve had for many years but we’ve been doing some updates and intentional look forward with that program. So we submitted that as our second one. Very good.

Brandon Burton 7:02
Well, I’m excited to dive in deeper and learn more about both of those programs as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Raquel Borges 9:27
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Brandon Burton 10:16
All right, Heather, we are back. So as you mentioned before the break your the two programs submitted is the Your history is art history and discovering paths and mentoring program. Let’s, let’s dive in first on the on the celebration, the 150 100 and 50th year and anniversary celebration and the Your history is our history. We’ll say a campaign that you guys put on. So tell us about that and how you got the business community and community at large involved in telling stories and what all that encompassed.

Heather Valudes 10:53
Yeah, so the way we looked at it, obviously, you know, when your 100 and 50th anniversary is coming. And so we had a planning group who really helped us give thought to what did we want to do within that 100 and 50th year, because as much as it is about the chamber, reaching that milestone, that milestone wasn’t possible without the support of the business community that’s here and the leadership that came from that. And so we came up with a framework that focused on inform, entertain, and inspire. And so those were our three themes throughout the year, with inform, we wanted to share stories and information about the journey of local businesses over the past 250 years, with entertain, we wanted to create moments that really allowed people to celebrate our business community in a monumental way. And then with inspire, we wanted people to take a look at how are we reimagining business, we move forward. And so we had monthly spotlights, we had monthly kind of themes around industry, it was just, you know, a year of really lifting up those stories, with the intention to not create a whole bunch of new events around it, too. So we took what we do, and we incorporated it into everything we do, instead of creating a whole bunch of new stuff with it.

Brandon Burton 12:19
Yeah, that’s important, because I can see where it could easily become out of control where it’s like, you know, you only turn 150 years once, right? So you gotta gotta really take advantage of it. But to be able to bake it into those things you’re already doing and really put those emphasis on those areas. You talked about, inform, entertain, and inspire. How did that look like with the informing? Maybe let’s go through each aspect of that, and what that looks like as it rolled out?

Heather Valudes 12:47
Yeah. So within forming prior to the start of 2022, we created an entire historical timeline. And so on that timeline, which was it lived on our website, we gave the history of the chamber and organizations that kind of, you know, spun out from the chamber. So our leadership program, our EDC, different our tourism bureau, all of those things had once been housed at the chamber. So we told that history. But we also highlighted on that timeline 76 other businesses in our community and when they started, and so we took that from, you know, the year of our inception to 2022, and kind of highlighted these businesses along the way. We also have a quarterly magazine that comes out called thriving. So we use that to tell the stories of local businesses, almost the whole edition was it was a commemorative edition. And so we had people sharing their perspective on business history, and where they see their business going. We did a ton of stuff on social media, we that was probably like one of the main ways that we continually highlighted it was just continually lifting up those stories and sharing perspective from businesses. And then we did do some email content that was specific to the 1/50 and kind of highlighting, you know, what were we trying to celebrate within our community, and it was really about the businesses that have supported us and supported our community over the years. So did some emails around that as well. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 14:23
So I can see like the magazine is something you would have done already, but like you said, making it a commemorative issue and with a slightly different focus to highlight the celebration of 150 years and that direction. And chambers are good at doing social media posts. So it sounds like you just kind of shifted maybe more the attention went with the or the focus on those social media posts. So I can see where the intentionality came to keep doing what you’re doing, but doing it with a hyper focus on that purpose. How did that look as the entertainment part If it goes the entertain.

Heather Valudes 15:01
Yeah. So like I said, we were trying to be really intentional to not create that extra programming. I am going to highlight two that we did. And they were kind of already built in. So the first one, actually, I guess it’ll be I’m gonna highlight three that we did, that we’re already kind of built into our schedules in some ways. So the first one is our annual dinner, we hold an annual dinner every year, we’ve actually been doing that for 150 years. So we were able to celebrate our 150th annual dinner. And we had about 2400 people attend that, I would say normally, that’s between 18 102,000 So slightly elevated with that. And it was I mean, it was just a spectacular event to celebrate history in our community. At the same time, our my predecessor Tom Baldrige was retiring and I had been selected to be the president. So we got to do a transition moment for that, too, which was very fun. And so, you know, overall, we use that 150 to kind of celebrate this looking back moving forward kind of moment in history for the chamber. We then did one event that we wouldn’t normally have planned, and that was a Founders Day event that was on our actual date that our charter was made, which was July 22. So on July 22, we had an event in our building, we had an artist showcase, we asked artists to do art specific to business, we had a band, you know, we had music, all the stuff that you could do, and then some remarks from people kind of giving that historical look back and look forward as well. So our 150 If that was the only event that wasn’t already in our schedule. We also with that released a bourbon. So we made a commemorative bourbon people could purchase. And actually all of that was one donation. And when they donated to it, when they donated, they got a bottle of bourbon. But it also helped to support our Legacy Fund, which helps to provide underrepresented businesses with an opportunity for chamber membership. So a nice tie in there. And then our third one, which is already in our schedule, but we do mixer that was a bit elevated, that was held at our historical society, and we launched an edition of their quarterly magazine as well. So you know, those were the three kind of entertaining events, but we tried to work them in as much to our normal schedule as we could.

Brandon Burton 17:30
Okay, so the bourbon like, that’s one that I didn’t expect, like that’s a, that’s a unique approach, for sure. But I imagine there’s a local partnership that happened there to make that happen.

Heather Valudes 17:43
There is we have a local distillery, and so we worked with them. To create the bourbon and bottle, the bourbon, we actually got to have our team go in when they were bottling bourbon, the day that that was happening. And then we had a special label created by a local marketing firm, to go on every bottle of bourbon as well. So it was a really, it was really unique and really fun. And we got to use it in so many ways. I mean, we were able to give it out to sponsors and members, and we still have a few bottles. So from time to time, we’re still handing them out to people. But we did about 500 bottles of bourbon. So there was a lot to kind of get out the door. That

Brandon Burton 18:19
is fun and unique. So like that. And now how about that third aspect of Inspire? What are some of the examples there on how you were intentional about that? Yeah, so

Heather Valudes 18:29
our inspire element was really about that look forward. So, you know, we really focused on as we got toward the end of the year, we started talking about the next 150 and kind of what comes next. And so we wanted throughout this business leaders to feel inspired by the stories that they heard by these historical milestones, we had highlighted 114 historical milestones and spotlights throughout the year. And so we really wanted people to feel inspired by this history in our community, but then put a lens to so where are we? Where do we go with this? So we had articles that were focused on that like trends of what’s coming in different industry sectors, as we got into like, October, November, December, it was kind of this look forward. And really just, you know, it’s inspirational to think about how much business brings to a community and how much that contributes to our economy. And so how do we as business leaders, organizations, staff, people really give thought to kind of what’s next? And how does business and business leaders contribute to that? So that’s where we focus that inspire energy.

Brandon Burton 19:37
So did you have a committee that kind of drove this and did the research on the historical facts and the business history and everything to be able to present that or how did how did that organize?

Heather Valudes 19:50
So it came together in a few different ways. We did have a, an advisory group that got together and really planned theme and gave a lot of ideas around how do we deliver on time intent and get that out there. We did hire an intern in late 2021, to do a very deep dive into our newspaper archives in Lancaster County. She had a background in history and was very interested in this project. So she did a deep dive for us of just highlights not only for the chamber, but of major business milestones over the past 150 years. So we had all of that content pulled together. And then our team, led by our director of special events and partnerships, she really gave a lot of thought to okay, what are the themes we’re going to have on each month in terms of industry? And then it was really on all of us to kind of give thought to what do we know about that industry? Who do we know in that industry who might lend a unique or interesting voice, all of that type of thing. So it was guided by that advisory group, and they gave input a few different times throughout the year. And then, you know, some intern support and staff support and all of those different spaces.

Brandon Burton 21:00
Yeah, that’s great. So let’s shift gears a little bit. And we’ll we’ll change focus on on to the other program that was submitted on your application, discovering paths mentoring program. So maybe just a little bit of history with that. And you know, what, what stands out about it? And maybe some of the successes that have come out of that program? Yeah, so

Heather Valudes 21:24
our discovering pads program has actually been around for 15 years. So in some ways, it’s like, well, why was that the one that you put onto an application because you’ve had it for a long time. But what’s really been interesting about discovering pas is that we, it kind of was the same for many years, and then COVID happened, and we had to totally rethink how it was positioned moving forward. We couldn’t execute it in the same way we could pre COVID, certainly in 2020 2021, and even parts of the school year that were in the early part of 2022. And so we had to think about what does that look like, because the program’s intention is to bring together 150 juniors in high school and match them in a one to one pairing with a mentor in the community. Up until the close of this year’s program, the program has been broken by young men, and then young women. And so one of the things that we were hearing from feedback pretty routinely was that it felt limiting and that the boys were getting different experiences than the girls. It felt like we there were more students who were interested than we could actually have into capacity. So we used the 2020 to 2023 school year as a real test of some concept and thinking through how do we move this program forward. And we looked at piloting in an individual school setting. So allowing one school to have an entire grade level do the program. It looks a little different than our traditional mentoring program had where we had that one to one relationship, we went to one mentor to three students. But we really piloted a lot to think about how do we evolve this program into the future. And so discovering pas, though just give students such a great opportunity to learn about the careers that are available in our community, and gives them exposure to that over the course of nine different sessions that they do with their mentor and mentee. So we’re gonna keep the foundation’s but evolvement moving forward.

Brandon Burton 23:32
Yeah. So with this being the first year that I guess, evolved platform of integrating the boys and girls together and the different ratio of interns of students, what kind of feedback are you seeing through it? And any, any lessons learned? Any, anything that really stands out to you through that process?

Heather Valudes 23:55
Yeah, I mean, it’s been interesting, I think one of the things that we found is that at the core of the program, what students love is one of the programs focuses on them completing a DISC profile, and a values index. And so the students love that ability to explore themselves, you know, typically, these are tools that we’re using, once you’re further into adulthood and career. And so for the, for the students to have the opportunity to to really dive into a session where an expert on those tools is talking with them about what that tells them about themselves and where their interest areas are. That’s always a highlight for the students and that’s regardless of, you know, program and gender and that type of thing. That’s a really, they really enjoy that program. The other piece that we really focus on is ensuring that every student has access to to Job shadowing. And so that’s another area that’s been consistent across both programs is they they do need to complete to job shadows as a part of the experience. What we found is You know, and I think this is just kind of traditional mindset of it was we used to take the young men to like the College of Technology where they would see carpentry and plumbing and those types of skills. And the young women would go to the college health sciences, for nursing and those types of things. And now we’re saying, No, the young women are going to go to the trade programs, and they’re going to see those careers, and they’re going to see those skills. And we’re really intentional to think about who are the speakers that are there so that we ensure that they’re hearing from women that have done this before them, and that the men are hearing from women that are in these fields about what their experience feels like, and vice versa? So, you know, there’s a lot of intentionality to kind of who who do we pick even to speak at them to talk about those dynamics, and why some of those dynamics have changed, and that there’s a lot of good feedback around the idea that, you know, we’re going to have this as incorporated and that there’s not going to feel like there’s this barrier point of access to a type of career that might have traditionally been in place.

Brandon Burton 26:05
So what is the involvement look like from the students from those those high school students? Are they is there an excitement to get involved with it? Are some coming along reluctantly, because they have to? Or how do you, how do you build that excitement and make it be a good experience for them all.

Heather Valudes 26:23
So our best recruiting tool is always the other students, when we have students who go through the program and go back and tell their friends at school, like, Oh, I got to do this program, or I got to have this really cool experience. That’s, that’s a huge part of the recruitment. What’s interesting is we do try to save the schools that this program is going to be more geared at the student who maybe is not as defined on what their career choices. So oftentimes, you have students in high school who really are like, I know what I want to do, I want to go be an accountant. And so if you’re that defined, this program may not be as interesting or of service to that student, because it’s really about kind of what’s out there in this community. Or, I’m really interested in finance, and I don’t know how I want to put that into place, this program could be good for that, because you’re gonna get to see so many different industries over the course of time, and give thought to Oh, yeah, you’re right, like that manufacturing shop does have somebody who’s doing their accounting in house or whatever it may be. So if somebody’s really defined, it’s probably less valuable for that student. But we create a lot of excitement, particularly for the students who are maybe not as defined. We work with school facilitators to do that. And then we also do info sessions with students.

Brandon Burton 27:43
Okay. Although I would, I would say you gave that example of accounting, if somebody knows they want to be an accountant, that the job shadowing is so important to be able to do that and say, you know, this either bores me out of my mind, or yes, this is exactly what I want to do. So it gives that confirmation and really helps them kind of weed out that process before you have too many sunk costs. Yeah, went through schooling and everything. So I see your way.

Heather Valudes 28:10
Yeah, cuz I mentored a few years ago. And that exact scenario actually happened to my mentee, she was dead set that she wanted to be a police officer. And then went through the program. And you know, I was very supportive of that she noble career, all that type of thing. But when she actually job shadowed, she job shadowed with a probation and parole officer, and then also with a police officer. And by the end of it, she was like, I don’t want to actually be a police officer anymore. I want to go more to that side of probation, parole, social service element side of things. So it was an interesting, like transition, even for her of, you know, everybody has a pretty clearly defined picture of what being a police officer is, yeah, doing it, seeing the job. And then seeing what’s like adjacent to it really changed how she thought about where she wanted to go with it. So it’s always really helpful for the students.

Brandon Burton 29:08
So I actually have a 17 year old right now. So he just finished his junior year going into senior year. And it’s that age where they know everything, right? So they may know what they want to do as a career and without that experience to open their eyes and realize, okay, maybe I don’t know everything. And there’s other opportunities out there. I think there’s a ton of value to that program. Well, Heather, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask if they’re for a chamber listening who would like to take their organization up to the next level? What tip or advice might you share with them to help them accomplish that?

Heather Valudes 29:47
Yeah, so you know, I thought a little bit about this one before Brandon, because I think there’s so many kinds of tips for how you achieve that. I would say I have two that come to mind. So the first one is real. really utilizing the feedback that you receive, I mean that that’s been so critical to us as we think about things like our mentoring program, like even our 100 and 50th. You know, it, sometimes the feedback can sting a little bit, and it can feel a little bit like, Oh, that wasn’t our intention there. But really using that as an impetus to start to question like, is this the way we want to do it? Is this the way we want to think about it, you know, I think it’s critical to use the feedback that you receive, that’s constructive. And, and then start to bounce that with groups, like people who are willing to engage in that discussion around really moving something forward. For our discovering pads program, even we had had volunteers that were with it for a long time, and they really struggled with what change was going to look like. And so for some of them, we had to say that it might be time to step away, because we need to really think into a different space. And, you know, we hope you can come with us on that journey. But getting that feedback, and then finding the right people who want to build it with you, I think are, you know, kind of two of those key pieces for me. The other one is, you know, I’m a big supporter and proponent of ACC, I think I get so many good ideas, my team gets so many ideas, I have so many people on our staff that are really engaged with it. And through that the ability to hear about other ideas happening in other communities are just critical. I mean, you know, it is that kind of rip off and duplicate and figure out what works for you and what works for your community. But we are a community that shares a lot of ideas, because there’s often not a ton of overlap in our geographical areas. So I’m always a big proponent of like, talk to the other people with the ideas in the unique.

Brandon Burton 31:42
Yeah, no, that’s, that’s very true. It’s always great to learn from each other. And that’s, that’s why this podcast exists. So we can all learn from each other and make each other better, better. But Heather, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Heather Valudes 32:04
So I think you’ve probably heard me say it a little bit, even in just kind of how our chamber is touching where we’re at. So chambers have such a rich and steep history of what we do and how we’re of service to the community and how our businesses work with us. And, you know, rely on chambers and, and there’s activities that I think chambers will always be engaged in that we’re uniquely positioned to do that advocacy space, thinking about that larger economy, thinking about the role that business plays. And I think chambers have such a unique position. Because we do get to be seen center, we get to, like, we get to hear more, and actually use that in a way that I think is oftentimes constructive for our communities. But as we look forward, I do think there’s kind of, you know, just changing dynamics. And so for the ability for chambers to be agile and receptive to what their community wants them to do and what they’re hearing from their community, that ability to say we’ve had something for a long time, can we look at it differently? Can we think about it differently? What impact does that have for us, I think that’s how we’re going to advance that. That ability to really say, let’s take a look at our own practices, let’s take a look at our own efforts, even if they’ve been around for a long time and start to change them in a constructive way for our community that, you know, invites people into the table and really looks forward. Our theme this year was boldly moving forward. And so you know you come off of your history as our history and then go into this boldly moving forward concept. And as much as chambers, I think can live into that space. That’s a space we get to own for our for our organizations, but for our broader business communities. And I think businesses are looking for that every day.

Brandon Burton 33:56
Right? Goes back to the utilizing the feedback that you receive, right to be agile and make those pivots where you need to. Yep. Well, Heather, I’ve enjoyed having you with us on the podcast. today. I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about how you guys are doing things say are in Lancaster, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?

Heather Valudes 34:23
Yeah, so my direct line at the office is 717-696-6255 And then my email address is hvaludes@lancasterchamber.com.

Brandon Burton 34:44
That’s perfect and we’ll get that in our show notes for this episode so people can look that up and reach out and connect with you. But I appreciate you sharing your in these insights and that these areas of focus on your guys’s work is you are standing out above the crowd is a chamber of the year were finalists and and as we talked before we got on the on the air for the second time in three years, so that’s something to be proud of as well. So congratulations and wish you guys the best of luck is chamber the year.

Heather Valudes 35:14
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed the opportunity Brandon.

Brandon Burton 35:18
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