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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.
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Today. I’m joined by Elaine Spalding, president of the Rowan Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina, with over 30 years of Chamber Leadership Experience. Actually, we just learned 40 years of Chamber Leadership Experience across multiple states. Elaine has helped the Rowan chamber or national recognition recognition, and was named the 2020, Chamber Executive of the Year by Carolina Chamber Executives Association. She’s a CCE and an IOM graduate. She’s deeply involved in economic development, education and community leadership. But Elaine, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.
Elaine Spalding 1:57
Thank you, Brandon, I love chatting with you before just learning about our both our backgrounds, experience in both Texas and California, and it’s been my honor to work for Chambers of Commerce now for I just totaled it up 40 years in Oregon, Texas, Kentucky and Of course, now North Carolina, and this is our favorite spot. We love it here. My husband and I get out and go hiking and kayaking, and we love the outdoors. We have two dogs, and they run us ragged, and just enjoying the beautiful state of North Carolina.
Brandon Burton 2:37
It is a beautiful part of the country. So I’m curious, what kind of dogs do you have?
Elaine Spalding 2:42
Oh, they’re both mutts we always adopt from rescue shelters. And one is a hunting dog black and white mix, and one is a really odd looking
Speaker 1 2:55
Beagle mix. Those are the best, the odd looking ones, right? Love them.
Elaine Spalding 3:00
Everybody stops and goes, what is that dog? Burton? Just love
Brandon Burton 3:05
them. Couldn’t recreate it if you tried? Yeah, one of a kind. Yeah, I love it. Well, tell us a little bit about the Rowan chamber, just to give us an idea of the size staff, scope of work. You guys are involved with budget to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.
Elaine Spalding 3:21
Yes, thank you so much for inviting it’s it’s really, the timing is perfect. Uh, we are celebrating our 100th anniversary for the Rowan chamber here in Salisbury, North Carolina. And so we just had our 99th annual gala meeting, which was tremendously successful. And all year long, we’re recognizing long term businesses in the community. We have over 800 Chamber members here in Rowan County, representing 60,000 employees in our community, very active business community, and we’ll be lifting up those long term businesses all year long with special promotions, with recognition on our website and all of our chamber newsletters and our social media. And in January of 2026, Brandon, you’ll have to come and join us. We’ll be having our 100th annual gala meeting.
Brandon Burton 4:15
Wow, that that’ll be something to plan for. I’m sure they could. You don’t get 100 I mean, that’s a, that’s quite the milestone. I mean, that’ll be something to celebrate,
Elaine Spalding 4:26
for sure. It’s a, it’s a wonderful community. We happen to have Food Lion, for folks that are from the southeastern part of the United States, we’ll know Food Lion. Grocery stores. Food Lion is headquartered here. They’re our largest employer. And then, if anybody knows the wonderful soda Cheerwine, we have a big cheer one festival here in Salisbury, North Carolina, and they’re over 100 years old as a company as well. So we’ll be lifting up a lot of those firms like that.
Brandon Burton 4:56
That’s awesome. It’s neat to be able to. To bring those into as part of the celebration and celebrate their success as well, right? That’s awesome. Well, I’m excited for our topic today. As we were planning this this recording today, we landed on the idea of talking about the World Cafe model for board retreats. And I have to admit, this is something new for me. So be learning as we go through this episode, but I look forward to diving in much deeper on this as soon as I get back from this quick break.
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Brandon Burton
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Alright, Elaine, we’re back. So tell us, what is the World Cafe model for board retreats?
Elaine Spalding 8:49
Thank you for asking Brandon. It was a new concept for us as well. We have a wonderful new board member who works at Catawba College. Her name is Dr Christine Lynn. And I said, you know, I’ve been doing the same sort of format for our board retreats. I’d love to do something different. And she said, Oh, I can help you facilitate the World Cafe model. And it was beautiful, quick, easy way to get input from all of our board members and not have the boring sort of breakout sessions and report back sessions, so you basically just have all the board members going around to, kind of like, you know, sort of the speed dating assignments, where there’s different tables with the different focus areas of the chamber, business advocacy, workforce development, our minority business programs, young professionals, all the different things. There’s butcher block paper out there’s somebody that does a quick thumbnail sketch of where we are and what the challenges are in that area that get all these ideas from the board members. There’s seven minutes at each station, and you go around to every table. So everyone gives input. They they summarize it quickly at the end, and then your board votes on what the top priorities for the next year will be. I love the World Cafe model. So
Brandon Burton 10:13
how long does this day it sounds like you can, you know, bust it out in about two or three hours. Is that accurate?
Elaine Spalding 10:21
Yes, it depends on how many core areas you want your board to really focus on. So, you know, you just do rounds, and it’s seven minutes at each table. So, you know, you could, you could make it as long or short as you wanted to. Our program lasted the breakout part of it just lasted for an hour and a half.
Brandon Burton 10:39
Okay, so I know part of the idea with the board retreat is you get these board members together, and you spend time together, and it’s kind of that team building, and you get to feel like you’re you’re moving towards that common purpose and goal. Does this World Cafe model? Does that facilitate some of that same kind of team building feeling and environment that a traditional board retreat might do,
Elaine Spalding 11:03
right? And what I love about it, you know, group dynamics you always have in with our business leaders. You’ve got the Type A personalities, you know, the ones that know everything. And then there are those quiet leaders who really do know everything, but yet they might not contribute at that same high energy level. So it gives the extroverts and the introverts the opportunity to both share and we ended up with some wonderful new ideas and new ways to approach some problems that the chamber had been struggling with for a couple years, and a whole new focus on a very successful community leadership program, and we’ve just started a new youth leadership program. And so I think it’s, it’s that that model that really gets folks to contribute at whatever their comfort level is,
Brandon Burton 11:59
yeah. So how many times have you done the World Cafe model? Well,
Elaine Spalding 12:04
since our board retreat, we also used it for our leadership Rowan program and for our youth leadership program and the same sort of experience, you know, just fantastic ideas coming out from a quick, quick turnaround time. Yeah.
Brandon Burton 12:21
So structurally, do you feel like you need to bring in a facilitator, like you had one in your community there to facilitate the World Cafe model? Or is there a kind of a template? I think it’s nice having a facilitator, because you have somebody who’s kind of non partisan that can kind of help create the vision and whatnot. But how would a chamber who’s interested in in the World Cafe model? How can they?
Elaine Spalding 12:45
Yeah, I’d be happy to share information from Dr Christine Lynn. I’m sure she could help them with the the structure and the template. But I also googled it when she first talked with me about it, and there’s some pretty easy steps that you can get online for the World Cafe model, and it’s a relatively new concept, but I think one that’s really taken off for these kind of strategic planning initiatives.
Brandon Burton 13:10
Yeah, that makes, makes a lot of sense. And if she’s, if she’s done this for you, I’m sure she’s available for others, and
Elaine Spalding 13:16
she is a great volunteer. And fortunately, the college lets her. She works in the strategic planning area, so they love to get her out. It’s good for the college as well. So she’s done some things for some other chambers here in the region already. So yeah, it’s been good.
Brandon Burton 13:32
So I like the idea, like you said, you get those type A personalities and get those quieter personality but it gives everybody that option, to be able to share their voice, feel like they’re being heard, to contribute to what that vision is for the community or for the organization, whether it’s your young professionals or whatever, whatever group it is that you’re working with, right? What are some of the other positive outlooks or positive outcomes you see from utilizing this sort of model, yeah, I
Elaine Spalding 14:01
think that really making sure that we are listening to all the voices within our chamber, we have been very intentional about having a focused peer to peer support groups and, you know, we do the breakfast programs and after hours mixers and all that sort of stuff, but really focusing on our young professionals, our minority business council, our women in business groups and our agribusiness group, and getting folks that are dealing with the same issues and problems in their work a day world and The peer to peer support. Them coming up with programs and ideas for professional development that would be helpful to them and them just supporting each other. You know, we are growing here in North Carolina, lots of new people coming in, which is wonderful, and we want to make them feel welcome. We also particularly. With our young professionals. Want to retain them in our community, and so that program really helps, you know, open the door, welcome them to the community. They get some buddies. They can go meet at the brew pub. And, you know, whatever they may be interested in, if it’s if they’re interested in sports, or if they’re interested in arts and culture they can find a group of buddies to hang out with through the chamber, and I think that’s the best service that we can be as a business advocacy organization is just connecting our businesses together, connecting our newcomers in the community, and helping our employers retain those young professionals that they brought into the community. So that, you know, when somebody from a larger community says, Hey, we can offer you a little more money, they’re saying, No, I really like this community. I like the friends I’ve made, and I want to stay here.
Brandon Burton 15:54
Yeah, get them so ingrained that they’re afraid to leave right. Probably wouldn’t make the same friends or connections if you go somewhere else, right? Yeah,
Elaine Spalding 16:05
that’s, yeah, that’s part of what we do as chamber people, is to connect, but to be that, that convener, and to really be that champion for the business community that
Brandon Burton 16:15
makes such a positive environment for them to thrive anyways, right? Why would you want to leave, right? That’s great. So as you use this, this World Cafe model, have you seen any, maybe, any gaps within it, that, as you utilize it like well, we needed to tweak it here or there to really make it fit for our community, for our organization, or is it just perfect?
Elaine Spalding 16:42
You know, it’s like with all new things, you do make some adjustments as you go through it. But I I think that for so long, we were focused on having all these PowerPoint presentations and all the new technology. And, I mean, this is really just pretty basic. You put that butcher block paper out. People are writing down ideas, and then you capture it, you know, and have all the documents that you can share electronically. But I think that our volunteers, at least, were really looking for something more tangible, like that, that they could get their hands on and really feel like that they have contributed, and they see their ideas, you know, on that piece of paper.
Brandon Burton 17:23
Yeah, it’s funny how old ideas become new again, right? And we try to outsmart ourselves with all this technology and ways to approach things. And then when we come back to what really works well is the stuff that had been done a while back, right? And we maybe abandoned or forgot about. And so being able to go back to the roots, as they say,
Elaine Spalding 17:43
Yeah, and when I think having the smaller groups where you can really have a discussion, you know, if you get over about, you know, six to seven people, then not everyone feels like they can contribute. So having the smaller groups all sitting there together, you know, rattling off ideas is just a beautiful experience,
Brandon Burton 18:01
yeah, so what? What is the ideal number? He said, Not more than six or seven, but you need more than two. I mean, what?
Elaine Spalding 18:10
Yeah, you know? I mean, just like when you get folks around a dinner table, you know, if you get over about six, you can’t hear everyone’s conversation. So about six to seven is ideal for these kind of World Cafe breakouts groups.
Brandon Burton 18:24
Okay, that’s good to know. Yeah. Any anything else about the the World Cafe model that you want to highlight for us again, with me not familiar with it at all, I gotta rely on somebody who’s experienced this. No.
Elaine Spalding 18:38
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share. I would just tell my fellow chamber buddies that you know, if you’re looking for something to to jazz up your boring board retreats, this might be a good model to look at the World Cafe model.
Brandon Burton 18:53
I mean, nobody listening does boring board retreats. But I mean maybe for somebody who hasn’t listened before, I’m just
Unknown Speaker 19:00
kidding. Their first time,
Brandon Burton 19:04
that’s right, they’ll have to keep this, you know, pin this episode, so when they are sitting at that boring boardroom tree, like, Wait, there’s a better way, right?
Elaine Spalding 19:14
We’re always happy to share. And you know, I I learned so much from my chamber peers. I love these kinds of opportunities, because no matter how long you’ve been in the business, or if you’re relatively new to the business, you know, you can always pick up one or two ideas from being involved in, you know, your chamber execs Association, either at the state level, the regional level, or with ACCE,
Brandon Burton 19:39
yeah, and, and I love doing these episodes for that reason, to be able to share ideas and for others to be able to pick up on them. But even as you’re talking about, you know, the young professional groups, I’m thinking nowadays, just about every chamber has a young professionals group, and they’re all talking about, you know, what are the needs? What are the struggles? What. Are we in? And I would guess, from one community to the next, a lot of them are coming up with a lot of the same challenges and solutions. I mean, there’s uniqueness for communities, for sure, but being able to share some of the best practices and things that are discovered, it really helps to shortcut some of that struggle to be able to overcome and find solutions. So, right, yes, lean into those, those you know, professional development groups and connections to build those and and strengthen your communities. Yep. Well, Elaine, I like asking for listeners who want to take their organization up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item might you share with them to accomplish that
Elaine Spalding 20:45
goal? Yes, well, I am a big believer in the three C’s Chambers of Commerce being a convener. We’ve talked about that being a champion and a catalyst, and really kind of grouping your marketing materials around those and I can send you a graphic of this, but we did for, for our, I don’t know if you can see that, but for by the numbers, for 2024 wrapped around all of the things that we have done, you know, the different events, the business advocacy programs, to Our state level and two trips to Washington DC, talked about the real value of the chamber, and I think now more than ever, our business leaders are looking for our local chambers to really be that business advocacy organization and to not be afraid to take on the big issues in your community. We in North Carolina, of course, have dealt recently with Hurricane Helene. Our friends in the mountains region of North Carolina and all of the rest of the chambers around the state have rallied around them and supported those business communities. And I think that’s the real beauty of being in this industry, being in chamber work, you can always reach out to another chamber that may have gone through a similar disaster. And I think of our friends in California with the fires, and this industry is so helpful. So I always encourage especially chamber professionals that are new to this business, to reach out to the folks around you. Reach out to professionals like yourself, Brandon, that that may know a couple of other folks have experienced a similar situation and can walk you through how they handled it. You know, every community is different, and you may need to tweak it a little bit, but boy, if somebody already has a successful model, you can certainly learn by that. And I think those best practices, benchmarking your chamber against others in the industry and tapping into this beautiful resource that we have within the chamber industry is just a wonderful, wonderful thing, and I I hope that everyone takes advantages of situations like chamber chat and any other resources that might be available to the chamber executives.
Brandon Burton 23:15
Yeah, great tips. I love that any anybody can plug chamber chat anytime they want, I will fully endorse that
Elaine Spalding 23:26
I love that I love this business, and I love helping other chamber people. So when you call it, I thought, yeah, sure, you know. I mean, we could, we could talk about anything you want. And I am always happy to sit down and talk with other chamber folks and I, as I said at the beginning, I always learn more from them than I think they can from somebody like me who’s been in the business and work for a couple of different chambers. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 23:50
absolutely. Well, Elaine, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward? Yeah,
Elaine Spalding 24:00
you know, ACC just released the new horizon yesterday, yeah, oh my gosh. And I poured through that last night. And I think all of the new things that chambers are being asked to deal with, some of these, you know, the environmental issues that we’re dealing with, housing issues that a lot of communities are dealing with around the country, child care issues. I mean, we’re still dealing with so many things since the pandemic that we really need to come together and support, not just the businesses, but our entire communities and the really good chambers are getting involved in some of these areas that we traditionally had not been involved with. So I think getting those experts that in your community can help the business community understand and continue to be that business champion, but be the convener in your community. So that your business, your elected officials, your education leaders, can all be at the same table and helping to solve problems in your community.
Brandon Burton 25:11
Absolutely, it’s it’s fascinating. Usually, when I ask that question, a lot of people will refer back to the original horizons report, and now that we’ve got the updated report, I’m curious to see how these and how that question gets answered, yeah, the next year or two, right? That it is fascinating.
Elaine Spalding 25:32
Yeah, I think that that’s that’s the beauty of this industry, again, kind of coming together and thinking about the future and how we can all work together to help our local communities, to help chambers of commerce, you know, all across the country.
Brandon Burton 25:47
Yeah, well, Elaine, this has been a blast to have you on the podcast with us. Today, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and maybe learn more about your approach at the World Cafe model, or just how you guys are doing things there in Rowan, what, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you? Sure?
Elaine Spalding 26:10
You know, as all chamber people do we run from meeting to meeting, best best to send me an email espalding@rowanchamber.com the phone number here at the Chamber is 704-633-4221, but best to send me an email, give me a couple of times that are good for you, and I’ll schedule a conference call time, and we’ll get it done.
Brandon Burton 26:32
That’s perfect. We’ll get that in our show notes for this episode to make it easy for them to find that and and connect with you. But thank you for spending time with us today and sharing your experience with the World Cafe model introducing something new to many of us. I hope this has been a fun conversation. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 26:52
Thank you. Brandon, I really appreciate the invitation.
Brandon Burton 26:56
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