Continuing Professional Development with Cindy DeWease

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

Brandon Burton 00:01.006
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and it’s been my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. Today’s guest is a true icon in the Chamber world with over four decades of service and leadership in her community. Cindy DeWease has been with the Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce for an incredible 42 years.

serving as its president and CEO for the past 18. During her tenure, she has transformed the chamber through bold strategic planning, launching impactful initiatives like a Young Professionals Division, and leading a leadership development program, and a powerful buy-in to the Bay Area Think Local campaign. Cindy’s leadership also extends to founding a 501c3 Foundation, launching a women’s engagement program,

and guiding the chamber through major renovations, all while sharpening its mission by streamlining programs and events. Her civic leadership is just as impressive. She’s served on numerous regional boards, including the City of Nassau Bay’s Economic Development Corporation, the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, and the Bay Area Houston Transportation Partnership. She’s also active in the Rotary Club of Space City.

and the Bay Area Houston Ballet and Theater Advisory Board. At the state level, is a recognized leader in the Chamber of Professional Development. She chaired the Texas Chamber of Commerce executives during the pivotal year of 2020, served on their board for a decade, and is now chair of the 2026 Center for Chamber of Commerce Excellence in partnership with Texas A &M University, a program

training the next generation of chamber and nonprofit professionals. Among her many accolades, was named the 2024 Marvin Hurley Award winner, TCCE’s highest honor, and is a two-time recipient of the Arthur A. Roberts Award for Distinguished Service. Cindy is a trailblazer, mentor, and changemaker, and we’re honored to welcome her here on the show. Cindy, if you would, I’d love to…

Cindy DeWease 01:58.078
you

Brandon Burton 02:25.528
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 little better.

Cindy DeWease 02:35.57
Well, hello there. How are you? Thank you for that wonderful introduction that I helped you write. Well, I appreciate that too. And thank you for taking the time to interview me.

Brandon Burton 02:41.282
Yeah. I appreciate it.

Cindy DeWease 02:53.534
I’ve lived in the Clear Lake area, which is between Galveston and Houston, home of the Johnson Space Center, which is the home of our nation’s astronauts. So where our astronauts are trained, which is exciting for our community. And that’s why our community’s here, actually, because the Johnson Space Center was coming. And I live in a house that was built in 1963. And probably the first owner of that house bought the house because they were going to work at NASA.

So we appreciate our history and our community so much. And I have been at this chamber since

since the early 80s and never expected to be in this position. I just didn’t want to drive downtown Houston. So you never know what’s going to come your way. And so I appreciate you mentioning all the accolades that you you all feel kind of like we have that imposter syndrome. How did I get here? You know, we look at the folks that have come before us and that list of people that have received some of those awards and you

Brandon Burton 03:41.455
Really?

Brandon Burton 03:56.487
See you.

Cindy DeWease 04:04.724
think, that’s so great, but I’ll never, you know, I’ll never do that. But somehow, I guess you outlive everyone and here you are.

Brandon Burton 04:08.526
Yeah. One way or another, you get to that opportunity, Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 04:19.996
Well, yeah. Yeah, right. huh. You just are the last one standing or, I know, well, she’s been here long enough.

Brandon Burton 04:27.478
Right.

Cindy DeWease 04:30.33
only worked for one chamber so I’ve had a lot of experience getting to know my colleagues around the state and and have such a great connection. I don’t know if if anyone any other industry has a connection like chamber folks do and so

Brandon Burton 04:47.712
Right.

Cindy DeWease 04:48.274
You know, I went to a funeral last weekend of the wife of one of our chamber execs that’s retired and just saw some old friends there that, you we were just so happy to see each other. Sad occasion that that’s the way we do that. But just such a great, just a great, great community. You know, building that network is so much more important than than you ever dream. You know, we know we can’t.

Brandon Burton 05:02.99
Right.

Brandon Burton 05:10.135
It is.

Brandon Burton 05:15.63
Yeah, the network, the camaraderie, the knowledge sharing that happens is so valuable and so unique to the chamber industry. It’s a wonderful thing.

Cindy DeWease 05:21.714
Yeah, it really, really, really, really is unique. so if we’re jealous of one another or not championing each other or helping each other, that’s a breakdown. We got to, I truly believe that’s a continued, needs to continue through the generations because that’s where you get your best friends, the people that have your back. And I wouldn’t have done any of those.

Brandon Burton 05:26.53
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 05:34.798
Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 05:50.43
if I didn’t have that, know, statewide. Those people that pushed me and said, you can do this. Really?

Brandon Burton 05:50.446
Right, exactly.

Brandon Burton 05:57.773
Yeah, yep. Well, if you would tell us a little bit about the Clear Lake Area Chamber just to give us an idea of the size, staff, scope of work, budget, just to set the stage for our discussion.

Cindy DeWease 06:05.883
Okay.

Cindy DeWease 06:10.494
Sure, sure. We have a little over 700 members of our chamber, our community, and we are a unique chamber in that we represent nine different cities around a lake named Clear Lake. so there’s a population of about 350,000, probably a little bit more than that now, but that’s, you know, that’s about the population.

and where I then uniquely set between Houston and Galveston, like I said, and home of our nation’s astronauts. We have five full-time employees and we have a great team. And so one part-time employee that is our accountant, comptroller. so she’s retired and she was a comptroller for San Jacinto College, was to community college in our area and just was bored. And so I said, well.

Come on over, we’ll give you a couple of days. So it’s kind of her retirement job. But, and our budget is just under a million. So, you know, that’s, we’re.

Brandon Burton 07:09.102
Let’s do a playlist of numbers.

Brandon Burton 07:19.809
Okay.

Cindy DeWease 07:22.27
getting over that edge there. So I think the most unique thing is when we were named a chamber, it was already a regional chamber in 1962 when we started. Two cities got together and formed a chamber because the Johnson Space Center was coming. And then another city joined and as the community grew, all the other cities joined in and changed our name to the Clear Lake Area Chamber.

Brandon Burton 07:43.854
All right.

Cindy DeWease 07:50.014
which has always been that since I’ve been here. But it was like the late 70s, I think, when it started. that was unique in trying to get people to understand there is a, we were not a one city, one chamber. We were nine cities and two counties.

Brandon Burton 08:06.764
Yeah, that was pretty innovative at that time.

Cindy DeWease 08:11.656
It was very innovative at that time. But they also recognized individual city chambers were not going to flourish, not going to make an impact as the whole area. But also, we’re an area where you drive out of one city into another and you don’t even know. If you miss the little sign that says now entering the city limits of Webster or whatever it is, you’re not going to.

Brandon Burton 08:23.535
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 08:30.008
We don’t notice it, yeah.

Cindy DeWease 08:38.57
No, when you’re driving out of one into another because of the way the city looks or the way the area is set up. So we appreciate that. it is a little more accepted now. And people want to join those chambers that have a bigger influence. And so we don’t actively seek out other if there is a chamber in another area. But we also as chambers of commerce don’t turn down a member.

Brandon Burton 08:45.72
Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 09:08.382
legally we can’t but also if they’re doing business in our community they should join and that’s that we if they call us and say well I’m located in another city well first of all are you a member of that city’s chamber of commerce because you’re located there but if you’re doing business in our community we want you to be a member of our community so that’s just kind of yep yep

Brandon Burton 09:08.536
Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 09:28.57
Yeah, seems like a fair way to play. Yeah. That’s right. Now that we’ve established the rules, right? Right. Well, I’m looking forward to our discussion today. We’ve settled on the topic of discussing

Cindy DeWease 09:33.886
We do our best. We do our best to set an example.

Yep. Now we can continue.

Cindy DeWease 09:49.448
Mm-hmm.

Brandon Burton 09:53.295
Continuing professional development which is so important for for those in the chamber industry and making a career out of this and we’ll dive into this topic and the The insights that Cindy has on this as soon as I get back from this quick break.

All right, Cindy, we’re back as I mentioned before the break today. We’re talking about continuing professional development and I have to say just as as some background one of the reasons I started the this podcast it was

Working with Chambers of Commerce, my background being in chamber publishing is I was all over the state of Texas and spending a lot of time in the car and working with a lot of rural chambers and, and some not so rural chambers. And really what I found is it didn’t matter if you were rural or not, but what came down to is that professional development and whoever’s leading the chamber, being able to have access to that.

And some of these smaller chambers that were underfunded, maybe their board just didn’t approve for them to be a part of the state association or things of that nature, were definitely underserved. And I could tell the difference between these chambers that were plugged in. They had that network. They had that support system versus those who were trying to figure it out on their own as they went. And there’s a huge difference. So the podcast started to try to lend some support.

to those underserved chambers. But since then, it’s evolved and there’s been more conversation about the importance of continuing development, professional development. So I’d love to get your take on it. I know you’ve got a strategic role in this this time as well, but talk to us about the importance of continuing professional development as a chamber professional.

Cindy DeWease 11:46.512
Sure, well, I have to say for 25 years I worked at the chamber as an employee. did the 15 years of building sponsorships and programs for the chamber, non-news revenue programs. And I did that just out of, okay, let’s see what’s gonna work. Let’s throw this out there because I didn’t have the luxury of being participating in our regional or statewide

Brandon Burton 11:57.327
Thank

Brandon Burton 12:04.248
Thank

Cindy DeWease 12:16.574
continuing education programs. I did go to Institute a long time ago when it was six years and you had to take a test and all those things and it was at SMU. So that just tells you how long ago I was there. So you kind of build your tribe at those, with those experiences. So I had a few, I had some training with Institute, and I also had a few friends in the business that I could lean on to say, I’m working on this, can you help me?

Brandon Burton 12:37.07
Thank

Cindy DeWease 12:45.598
being disconnected from it for a long time, you kind of lose that. And after I became the president of the chamber, Tracy Wheeler, I’m sure you’ve heard of Tracy Wheeler from Baytown Chamber, she’s been there over 50 years. She picked up the phone one day and said, listen, it’s time for you to give back. Oh, I’m busy. And she said, we’re all busy. There’s not one person, if they’re busy, if they’re not busy, we don’t want them anyway. And so,

Brandon Burton 12:55.0
Yeah, yeah, I know Tracy. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 13:10.094
Right?

Cindy DeWease 13:13.234
And she said, you need to serve on our board. I thought, well, really? And it really was the best, let me just say, kick in the pants that I received because building that network, and I was going to those GCC meetings, which is Gulf Coast Chamber Executive, was a regional group. And if you have a regional group you can connect with, that is, that,

is so important to your career, your connection, your sounding board. Those people know what you’re going through, or they can sympathize or empathize with what you’re going through, and can truly help you when, if you have an issue in your own community and you take it to someone within your own community, that may red flag you. That may say, why don’t they know how to handle this? And so, but if you can…

Brandon Burton 14:03.704
Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 14:06.302
develop those relationships with folks. And the first thing to do is develop it within a North Texas group, or I think there’s a West Texas group, our Gulf Coast group. And we’re not, and we don’t, can join any of those groups as long as you want to come to the meetings. And there’s educational pieces to it. But I think the biggest part is building your tribe. And how do I be that best person for my community? Well, nobody can do it alone.

you’re a sole person at a chamber, need, everybody needs support every once in a while. And so I think that that was my first step into becoming a part of a group, which was the local group. I went to the Texas Chamber of Commerce executives conferences. My 25th anniversary with the chamber was my first Texas.

Brandon Burton 14:45.634
Thank

Brandon Burton 14:51.726
and we’re going able to do some practical science.

Brandon Burton 14:59.15
Cindy DeWease (15:00.254)Chamber of Commerce executives conference that I went to and Art Roberts, don’t know if you all, did you know Art Roberts? He was the executive director for TCCE at the time and he’d worked at many chambers around the state and I’d met him, you know, probably at one point and, but he said he introduced me as, you know, one of the newcomers or whatever and he goes, but she’s a really slow learner because she’s been around for 20 years.

Brandon Burton 15:07.296
I didn’t know art, so…

Brandon Burton 15:28.642
Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 15:29.84
I thought, thanks, but clearly I never forgot that.

But don’t do that. My suggestion is, as a staff person, I didn’t really have a choice whether I went to those or not. as the president and CEO, I make sure my staff goes and they have a connection with a membership person or they have a connection with the…

communications folks or the special events, non dues revenue folks. And so it’s important to us to have that, those relationships. But so I think.

As important as knowing what you’re supposed to be doing, because set yourself up for success. You know, go to those sessions that are hard for you to, okay, it’s hard for me to listen to this financial piece of this, or it’s hard for me to listen to the legislative advisory, you know, or legislative agenda pieces of it. Just get a little bit of knowledge. Come back.

Brandon Burton 16:13.08
Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 16:32.734
and then build on it and build on it. And so it took a long time for me to be interested in some of the things that I didn’t feel like I was interested in. But I was like, I’m never gonna need that. Right, right, exactly. And so I never thought I would be in this, I truly never thought I would be in the position to be the CEO. And it…

Brandon Burton 16:41.454
I think it takes time to see where, I think takes time to see the relevance where it all connects, right? Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 16:57.938
you know, 40 years ago, of course. And like I said, I just didn’t want to drive downtown, Houston. so, but that clearly had changed.

Brandon Burton 17:00.61
Right.

Brandon Burton 17:05.368
you

Cindy DeWease 17:10.098
And now I can’t, I’ve had a great career, I’ve had a great life, I’ve made wonderful friends and it’s not something I take lightly. It’s something I can, I still go to those development, professional development seminars. take, have, TCCE has a, what they call Chairman’s Conference and they encourage you to bring your chairman of the board every year to this conference. I learn something new every year.

Brandon Burton 17:33.71
Thank you.

Cindy DeWease 17:38.94
you know, and every year I take my entire executive committee because one day they may be the chairman of the board. So if I’m learning something new every year, they’re definitely learning something new every year and need to bring that back. I not only want my staff trained, I want my board trained. I want them to know why they have me instead of running it just by themselves or, you know, as a volunteer.

Brandon Burton 17:46.669
Right?

Cindy DeWease 18:06.29
driven organization and there’s no doubt why they need to have me. They know I am their employee, the rest of the group are under my direction and just getting them to understand is important as well. So it’s not just for the staff, it’s not just for me, it’s training our board and they appreciate. Our board really appreciates that. Pardon me?

Brandon Burton 18:20.398
It’s like, we have to do something about that. It’s like, we have to do something that. That chairman’s conference is so, yeah, that chairman’s conference is so unique, I think. I am not aware in other states, I’m sure there’s some states that do that, where they offer training for board members and board chairs. But in Texas, it’s a unique opportunity. It’s valuable.

You get to see a lot of, as you called your tribe of people that you connect with, but they’re able to connect and learn from other board members too, and how things are done and just a ton of value there. And it’s not, it’s not just you as the executive saying, this is the way chambers work, you know, to your board, your, your, your board chair, but they get to see, this is how, this is how successful chambers work. So, so valuable.

Cindy DeWease 18:52.22
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cindy DeWease 19:00.434
Yes.

Cindy DeWease 19:08.06
Right. Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 19:14.31
Right. And it’s not me telling them. It’s somebody else telling them. know, so and what we try, what it our fiscal year is October 1 to September 30th. And so which is unusual in the chamber world these days. I like it because I’m not spending December, you know, paddling when everybody else is taking off and

Brandon Burton 19:19.148
Right. Yes.

Brandon Burton 19:24.887
Thanks

Brandon Burton 19:32.01
Right?

Cindy DeWease 19:36.496
So, but when September comes, how did this happen? So, and that conference is normally in October. So, our executive committee, even though we always add one or two people, we kind of bring people up through the ranks, but it’s always one or two people that are new.

So when they join that executive committee and then we go to that conference, it gives them a time to bond. We take them to dinner and they sit together and they, you know, so, and then if there’s a group activity, they do that together. So to me, it’s really an important piece to get them to bond as well as a group. And I take them, you know, they…

And a lot of us are already very friendly and people say don’t be friends with your board members. Well, I fail completely at that.

Brandon Burton 20:24.194
Bill.

Cindy DeWease 20:28.114
people and some people say you know I like people I like the people I like but I try to I try to get in there and you know just really find what attracts us all and you know where where we can have some you know there’s always some kind of you know secret code that happens this time when somebody was telling a story that the night of our dinner and

Brandon Burton 20:46.925
Right.

Cindy DeWease 20:51.492
her son-in-law is Ronnie and her grandson, something happened at their house, and her grandson said, I’m gonna call Ronnie. And, well, that’s his dad. So now our joke, our private joke is, I’m calling Ronnie.

Brandon Burton 21:00.75
Nope.

Brandon Burton 21:06.638
Yeah. That’s great. Well, and you talked about having your tribe and, and I know a lot of chamber executives have their, their tribe, their peers that they can lean upon when you’re having difficulties or successes even to cheer about, because they understand, you know, it doesn’t just happen overnight. And there’s been a lot of frustration that leads up to those, those successes and to be able to commiserate and celebrate together is so important. And

Cindy DeWease 21:29.736
Brandon Burton (21:35.566)I’ve heard of some chamber executives talking about it even being their kind of their board or their cabinet, their kitchen cabinet is what they call it. While they sit in their kitchen, they’ve got their cabinet of people they can talk to and work through some of these issues. So much value with that.

Cindy DeWease 21:43.846
Yeah, there you go.

Cindy DeWease 21:55.302
Right, but you know some of my best friends are chamber execs and we travel together and you know we just, we’ve just got off an Alaskan cruise with you three other chamber execs and our husbands and you know we just have a great time together and you never know who’s gonna become a great friend. That’s important.

Brandon Burton 21:59.769
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 22:11.438
Thank

Yes.

Yeah, that’s true. So any other programming or anything that you want to highlight as far as professional level?

Cindy DeWease 22:24.508
Well, we just finished a strategic plan. so that was that strategic plan included our women’s engagement committee we call we and said that we’re starting this year and a lot of chambers are doing that. We just decided this year is a perfect time to weave that into a strategic plan. And then we’re

working on that foundation, so finalizing that foundation. So part of our strategic plan, I will likely retire from this job in the midst of that strategic plan. don’t want to say I am definitely retiring on this day because I might not be done. But in that process, part of the strategic plan was succession planning. And how do you succession plan?

Brandon Burton 23:09.11
That’s right.

Cindy DeWease 23:18.846
been here 42 years. I mean, that’s a big change for an organization. I am very, very fortunate to have a vice president that we have worked together for over 30 years. And she is fabulous. And she’s, you know, I run everything by her. You know, everything is, you know, you’re in this with me. I’m not doing this alone. I’m not a Lone Ranger. I work collaboratively.

Brandon Burton 23:30.898
wow.

Cindy DeWease 23:45.23
so much better than sitting here and trying to think of, you know, what’s the next best thing. so we talked about how do we do this, you know, transitionally and very thoughtfully. Now, the board has to hire that person, that next, you know, the next CEO of the organization. But I want them to know this is the person and this is my strong

Brandon Burton 24:08.568
Here’s your recommendation. Comes highly, highly better.

Cindy DeWease 24:11.294
and so far no one’s pushed back. So what we are doing since we’ve got a strategic plan that has some pretty lofty goals, I am moving to a position of CEO to push the strategic plan and drive that for the next few years. She is moving into the president’s role to work as that.

making sure that the operations of the chamber moves on. And then we have another employee that we brought on that wanted a leadership opportunity. And so she will move into the vice president’s role. And so making sure that succession planning is at least there. There’s a footprint and a model that they can look at. In order to do that, though, we had to change our bylaws because the bylaws say the president’s CEO is the same person.

Brandon Burton 24:48.782
Okay.

Brandon Burton 25:01.922
Bye.

Cindy DeWease 25:07.898
So it’s letting everyone know, you know, in a bylaws change, not saying, okay, I’m going to change this person’s title. Do you all agree? That’s my job. That’s not their job. And so how about how we’re doing that is saying, okay, this is the bylaws recommendations we have to change to move forward strategically. And so it’s

Brandon Burton 25:08.526
and we’re glad that we were able do that.

Brandon Burton 25:14.318
Thank you.

Brandon Burton 25:21.216
Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 25:32.225
Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 25:34.582
We’re excited about it. We’re very excited about it here. They are encouraged. You know, there’s a spring in their step and they’re very encouraged about it. And I am too. I love this organization. I love this community. This is my chamber. And we always say it’s their chamber. They’re going to end. And it’s their chamber. But I’ve been the steward of this organization for a lot of years. And so my

Brandon Burton 25:51.378
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 26:00.142
Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 26:02.672
chief responsibility for the next few years is to make sure it stays successful and stays a great organization.

Brandon Burton 26:08.886
Yeah, and that succession planning, we don’t think of it often in terms of professional development, but really it is. It’s preparing for that next leader to come in and fill your shoes at some point and develop them professionally. So definitely fits in there.

Cindy DeWease 26:18.525
Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 26:30.408
And you never know, anything could happen. There could be an illness, there could be an accident, anything could happen at any time. If you leave an organization with hurry scurry, nobody knows what’s going on, then you’re just, yeah, and you’re set back. When I took this job, I’d been here 25 years, I thought I knew the job.

Brandon Burton 26:33.294
Right.

Brandon Burton 26:44.514
which we see a lot.

Cindy DeWease 26:52.702
And I just, you know, I was named the interim until the board, you know, put me in the position. And I did not know this job. I knew the job I had. And I, we sat back probably a year, just me getting caught up. I would read an email and then I would respond to the email. Okay, can you tell me?

Brandon Burton 27:04.643
Right.

Cindy DeWease 27:14.654
what this role is, you know, or whatever. So having that preparation, I would have loved to have had a year or more of that preparation of taking the position. And even if it’s not, it’s no guarantee, right? Boards do what boards are gonna do, but they also see, okay, this is successful organization, why would we upset the Apple cart? Why would we put ourselves as volunteers through that? And that’s what we do. Right.

Brandon Burton 27:16.749
Right.

Brandon Burton 27:24.398
Yeah.

Yeah, that’s right. That’s right.

Brandon Burton 27:37.013
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 27:40.43
They usually see the value of not rocking the boat too much. Yeah. Right. Right.

Cindy DeWease 27:43.44
Right, right. They’re pretty level-headed board, thank goodness. And I’ve been fortunate not to have a board that, you know, that came in and wanted to upset the apple cart, you know, so, which is great.

Brandon Burton 27:55.567
Yeah. Well, Cindy, I wanted to ask on behalf of the chambers that are listening who want to take their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you share with them in trying to accomplish that goal?

Cindy DeWease 28:10.748
Well, one of the things, ironically, we haven’t talked about Center for Chamber of Commerce Excellence, and I’m honored to be the chair of that. That is a three-year program in partnership with Texas Chamber of Commerce Executives and Texas A University. And it is professional development for chambers and nonprofit. we offer something different every single year. don’t know if you’re, I’m sure you’re familiar with Glenn Shepard.

Brandon Burton 28:37.699
Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 28:38.018
that goes around the country just being the best cheerleader for Chambers of Commerce that I know and he’s going to lead us in the first.

kick off breakfast motivation and then we’re going to end with a gentleman that’s called Mr. Thank you and it’s important of how important things are to say thank you and be grateful for things but it’s one two and three years we’ve got a session for the third year class on burnout to breakthrough it’s a professor from Rice University actually that’s doing a study on that and so we’re excited about that but we have it’s it’s just

preparation for a chamber career and it doesn’t have to be a chamber exec, it’s staff folks, it’s you all that and so that the deadline to register for that is on we just extended the date to the 23rd of January for the early bird and then it’s the end of March and so it’s a great opportunity and I would love to hear if anybody’s interested in.

and registering for that, but you can go on the Texas Chamber of Commerce executives website and see Center for Chamber Excellence or CCCE. always, yes, yes, we always have to have the Cs and the Es in there, whatever that looks like. But I…

Brandon Burton 29:43.918
Extra C.

Brandon Burton 29:59.311
That’s right.

Cindy DeWease 30:05.296
I think I truly believe it is, like I said, building relationships and also preparing yourself knowing, you know, listening, making sure that you get that professional development, which I didn’t think was necessary. so I don’t have time for that. I just got to get through the day. yeah, but it’s challenging and it’s worth it. It helps me to.

Brandon Burton 30:23.726
Yeah. That’s right.

Cindy DeWease 30:35.12
It’s what inspires me when I have something new or something different to do. It inspires me.

Brandon Burton 30:42.582
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Cindy, I like asking everyone I have on the show about the future of chambers. So as you look to the future, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Cindy DeWease 30:55.504
You know, I think it’s exciting. think, folks, when you hear about the…

these online chambers or you hear about that sort of thing is scary and it’s okay they’re gonna take over. But everything’s gonna be okay, all you out there that are scared of that kind of thing because those are the sort of things that people go into thinking this is the new fresh thing but then they come back to I need to build relationships. So as long as you’re providing programs.

build relationships because that’s what people want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. If I know owner or manager of a restaurant, I’m more likely to go there than another restaurant. I know the officials at the hospital, I’m going to go to that hospital. And so what better way to build those partnerships is through common goals for community.

That’s how I feel it’s going to be. It’s going to be different. It’s way different than it was 40 years ago, let me tell you. But it’s not worse, it’s better. And maybe 40 years ago someone would have said, I don’t know that there’s going to be a need for a Chamber of Commerce. And I believe we’ve lasted over 500 years. I think there’s always going to be a need for a chamber as long as we have those professionals that drive it and keep it.

Brandon Burton 31:57.262
All right.

Brandon Burton 32:00.707
Thank

Cindy DeWease 32:20.126
keep them valid. You you want to be a valid organization. And we’ve had a couple instances within our community or our, you know, brighter region of chambers that didn’t fulfill some roles. And it looks poorly on all of us. And so we want those area chambers that didn’t succeed to succeed. We want them to have a better staff, a better direction, a better board. And so what better what better way to do that? And because if it

Brandon Burton 32:21.838
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 32:42.47
Bye bye.

Cindy DeWease 32:49.982
When somebody comes in and says, I really kind of want to see your books because I don’t really appreciate what happened at such and such chamber. Well, as long as you’re a member, can. And I can assure you we’re transparent. here’s our, you this is what. And not all the books always be good. You know, we all know that. We’ve had good months, we’ve got bad months. And so we want to see our 990. We want them to see what that were relevant organizations abiding by the law.

Brandon Burton 33:07.086
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 33:20.034
Yeah.

Cindy DeWease 33:21.682
tears down the organization, gives a black eye to all of us. Even if you’re running your organization perfectly, a neighbor doesn’t, it’s gonna give you a black eye, unfortunately. So, mm-hmm.

Brandon Burton 33:27.47
It’s true.

Brandon Burton 33:31.808
It does. Well, Cindy, this has been great having you on the podcast. wanted to give you an opportunity. Yeah. I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you or maybe learn more about the CCC program. Where would you point them? What would be the best way to connect?

Cindy DeWease 33:38.334
Well, I hope so. I kind of ramble sometimes.

Cindy DeWease 33:52.894
to work.

Cindy DeWease 33:57.042
The best way to connect with me is through email and my email is Cindy, C-I-N-D-Y, at clearlakearea.com. There’s no chamber at it, it’s just clearlakearea.com. And I would love to hear from you. I’m a talker. So as soon as you email me, I’m gonna pick up the phone and call you. So leave your phone number or our phone number at the chamber is 281-

Brandon Burton 34:15.79
Very good.

Brandon Burton 34:22.352
There you go.

Cindy DeWease 34:29.617
488-7676 and the 7-6 is when this building was built so Hence the reason I’ve done so many renovations at this building. I had no idea that part of the title was GC general contractor. That is not my best role Those are not my best day. Let me tell you

Brandon Burton 34:34.136
Very cool.

Right?

Brandon Burton 34:43.039
Right?

Yeah, that’s funny. Part of that professional development, you just keep learning new roles, right?

Cindy DeWease 34:52.46
absolutely. Absolutely. I can tell you about roofs. I can tell you about paint. I can tell you about flooring.

Brandon Burton 34:56.748
That’s That’s right. Well, Cindy, thank you for being with us today, for sharing your insights, your experience, your background. This has been valuable. And I can’t wait to push it out to everybody in Chamber World. So thank you.

Cindy DeWease 35:13.49
Thank you so much. enjoyed it. Maybe we’ll talk again. Yeah, we’ll talk when I’m close.

Brandon Burton 35:17.037
That’s right.

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