Integrating TRACTION Into Your Strategic Plan with Charlie Moore

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

Episode 47 — Integrating TRACTION Into Your Strategic Plan with Charlie Moore
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Charlie Moore
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.83 Brandon Burton
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.
00:18.102 Brandon Burton
Two pet snakes.
00:24.428 Brandon Burton
Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is episode 47, and it is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your chamber members and your community. Our guest today is Charlie Moore, who's the president and CEO of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce in Illinois. And he's a focus leader for the continuing advancement of business in his community. He's an Illinois native, and he's devoted his career to promoting local commerce, advocating for small business, creating relevant programs, and establishing relationships for business success. Before joining the McLean County Chamber of Commerce in 2008, he was executive director of the East Peoria Chamber of Commerce and vice president of programs for the Northwest and Schomburg Association. of Commerce and Industry. A graduate of Bradley University, more holds an IOM designation from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Colorado College, and the designations of both ACE from Illinois Association Chamber of Commerce Executives and CCE from the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives Association. He married his high school sweetheart, Colleen, in 1998, and they have two boys, Andrew and Adam. They live in Bloomington and are part of the Tri Valley community. In his spare time, he enjoys working outside, travel, hitting the trail, and coaching football. Today, Charlie will be visiting with us about integrating traction into your strategic plan and for your members. And we'll get right into that as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsor. Every chamber is looking for new ways to increase their nondues revenue. Has your chamber found a good affinity program? I have a great affinity program to offer your chamber that will continue to increase in revenue year after year. I want to introduce you to Swipe It for all of your credit card processing needs. Swipe It has a unique affinity program that 1. lowers your credit card processing fees at the chamber, 2 helps your chamber members be more profitable, and 3 provides recurring non-dues revenue to your chamber. To learn more,
02:52.824 Brandon Burton
please visit chamberchatpodcast dot com slash C C for credit card. Again, Chamberchatpodcast.com slash C C and get swiping with swipe it. All right, Charlie, we are back. Please say hello to the Chamber Chat Podcast audience. And if you would share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little bit better.
03:17.452 Charlie Moore
Hey, well it's a pleasure to be here today. Thanks, Brandon, for the opportunity to be part of your podcast. I've been looking forward to this, to talk a little bit about, you know, my few years in the chamber industry. And and I think that, you know, I've heard some of your your podcasts, and there's certainly people over the gamut who've been with the chamber for six months or forty years and I've been have been in the chamber business for probably about twenty-five. And I you know, when I stop to think about that, I almost hate to say it out loud. it doesn't seem like it's been that long, but but clearly it has. You know, I I had kind of the unique opportunity to start the business when I was going on on my undergraduate. I worked for an organization that that encompassed the Peoria area chamber of commerce. And that was where I got I guess you'd say my myself started integrating into what the Chamber of Commerce could offer and what its purpose and core values were for Peoria at that point in time. And that took me for like I said, about the next twenty-five years as I forged forward. And and so that's something that's a little bit unique about me that I've had, you know, that kind of that I joke when I hire people about, you know, no one goes to college to work at a chamber of commerce. I did, in fact, because I started working there while I was in college and and have never got out since. So no great opportunity and and so you know, I've been doing this for a while, but I think it's it's fun because you know, while I've had the opportunity to to learn. and the opportunity to lead, I've also find myself you know, always under continuous improvement. So I think that that's why you'll find me heavily engaged with ACCE, whether it's their education attainment division or we're I'm fortunate to serve on the Chamber of the Year judging committee for ACCE. We're fortunate to have won the ACCE Chamber of the Year a few years ago as well as the Illinois Chamber of the Year a few years ago. So you know it's a a pleasure to hear what other people are doing and And I'm also involved with the US Chamber's Midwest Institute Board of Regents. that's a new role for me and I look forward to to engaging there. So yeah, I guess something that's unique about me is that I I I literally started working the the chamber profession when I was in college and twenty five years later I'm still at it.
05:24.172 Brandon Burton
That's great. You know, time flies when you're having fun. And you mentioned how nobody goes to school to work in the chamber industry. And it just so happens that my the previous interview I just did was with Roy Williams, the Oklahoma City Chamber. And he was making the same comment, but he actually went to school to work the chamber and economic development industry. And for so many people it happens by accident, but kind of coincidence it that two of these interviews in a row were very much on purpose that's what you're doing. So that's awesome.
05:53.934 Charlie Moore
And it's it's you didn't you wouldn't do it if you didn't have a passion for it. And I think that's you know, I joke with a number of people that I've been to more before and after hours and anyone should have to count my tenure in in the chamber industry. but it is, it's it's the work that we are afforded the opportunity to do, the people we get to work with, the results that we get to change and drive. it's it's truly, you know, it's it's a it's a a blessing and an opportunity. some days I would tell you it's a curse. to be able to have a position like this and work for a chamber and and you know I think we'll talk later about you know how do we continue to evolve and stay relevant with our programs of work from what we know to be true from twenty five years till where we're gonna be in another twenty five years.
06:37.518 Brandon Burton
That's right. Very good. Well, can you give us a little bit of background about the McLean County chambers? Just kind of the size and location, kind of give us a a better idea so we can all relate to to your chamber a little bit better.
06:49.004 Charlie Moore
You bet. So the title of our organization is McLean County, but it's Bloomington and Normal, Illinois. And so we're a countywide organization with seventeen subcommunities that we're a part of as well. But Bloomington Normal are the primary main population base of where we serve our membership. So we're over a hundred years old, and I like to joke with people and say that, you know, everyone's heard about the Great Chicago Fire. Well, we started because of the great Bloomington Fire in nineteen one, and that's when our organization started, and it's had a myriad of names. And purposes throughout its history. but today we have, you know, north of a thousand members, got a about a 1.2 million dollar budget. we are fortunate to have nine members on our team here. So we're not a large chamber, but we're not a small chamber. and then you know, we've got a lot of different things going on that are gonna be similar to most of your your audience as far as how our board makeup is, our divisions, our subsidiaries. we have been blessed for about twenty-two years here to have an insurance division of our chamber. that was a great benefit for members until the Affordable Care Act, which basically neutered a lot of what our work was in in that particular program. But we also, you know, have a strong and thriving political action committee, as well as a newly formed subsidiary called Compact, which is our true focused efforts on workforce development and talent pipeline. So, you know, we've been been a longstanding organization. We continue to grow. we are in definitely in central Illinois where we have three interstates that intersect here. We have rail service, we have air service. we're, you know, forty miles from Piore with barge service. so agriculture really is our number one industry. And so getting product out of McLean County is fairly easy with all the different modes of transportation I just talked about. So we're fairly well set and we've been you know fortunate to be in I'd say somewhat of a recession proof type of industry, not only with agriculture, but we're also the home of State Farms headquarters here in Bloomington, Illinois. also with healthcare and education. So while a number of communities, you know, over the last decade, you know, seven, eight years ago specifically, started to see a downturn in their economies. we were insulated. You know, that's not to say that we haven't had our our share of issues over the last several years, but we didn't see some of the pain that a lot of communities did over the last decade. And I will tell you that there's some great things going on right now that I think lead us for an opportunity for a culture change in blooming to normal.
09:12.43 Charlie Moore
not just organizationally but community wide that will shift maybe some of our industry dynamic as well. So again, right kind of in the crux of the central Illinois, I heard Norma Lansing say she was central Illinois. I'm gonna challenge you that Norma. No. You know, w but and so we are surrounded by a lot of great communities as well. But that's just a brief overview about where we are here.
09:33.774 Brandon Burton
All right. Very good. sounds like you've got a lot of good good things going on there and a long rich history. So that's awesome. So our topic for kind of our conversation today, as I I mentioned in the introduction, is going to be around integrating traction into your strategic plan and for your members. So Charlie, why don't you kind of take the ball and run with that? Explain to us what traction is and and what direction you want to go with that.
10:02.296 Charlie Moore
Sure. So I I think this is something that every chamber should find relevant, quite frankly, whether you're a one person shop or you're a hundred person shop. And I know that over the last year or so there's been a lot more discussion in the chamber industry about traction. but come to find out, you know, it's it's you know almost a decade old as far as the program itself. And businesses who have been using it and those that I have done some research in our community and using it are finding dramatic results for the benefit of a company. And so what brought us to traction was the fact that You know, our organization has been successful in a very long for a very long time. We've grown, we've done good things, but understanding that as we need to evolve what our program of work looks like and what we're responsible for and what we take ownership of, you know, you you start to play into space of a lot of other entities. And so what is it that is our role and responsibility in comparison to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Economic Development Council, the Regional Planning Commission? How do you partner with the airport or with the air transit authority? And so, you know, several years ago, a number of us had a chance to partner and create a regional economic development strategy that we refer to as the B in Advantage. And so we had a lot of great work going in that direction, but just in the last year and a half or two, found ourselves as an organization, you know, I would say we were subscribing to the if not us then who motto. And I don't know, you know, looking back that that was the best thing for us because we became an inch deep and mile wide in some particular areas. And so we needed to refocus. While we had a strategic plan, we needed to tighten our belt. We need to have additional accountability. We needed to have the right people engaged. And I learned about traction through ACCE when I read one of their quarterly newsletters and was looking at an article written by Jane Clark from the West Coast Chamber in Michigan. And Jane has been doing work with traction for about the last four years and doing a little more research. There are several chambers that have started in the last year and a half or two. one here in Illinois, the Quad City Chamber, but then a number of others across the nation. And so learning more about this, really trying to understand what it is. And so traction kind of pulls away from our traditional strategic planning approach. So any chamber exec that's listening to this podcast, you know that you you pull your board together for a retreat, you provide membership feedback that they review.
12:21.794 Charlie Moore
You come up with your strategic plan, program of work, you look at your tactics and your metrics and your KPIs. and at the end of the day, if you just do a one day planning retreat, your next three years program of work is based off the mood your board members were in that day. And so we need to be much more structured and much more strategic about what kind of work we're doing because my team, my staff, you know, are involved with the work that we do every day along with talking with our members every day. And so what looking at traction did for us was how do we build our lane? You know, you hear sometimes the whole the phrase stay in your own lane. We want to build our lane. We don't want to stay in it. We want to build it. And then we'll invite people to join us. but we want to have a very clear path of the direction that we're going. And so what traction does, it has a model called the entrepreneurial operating system, the EOS. And so EOS helps us look at a number of things. It starts off by really raising up how important your core values are. And I mean, you can read good to great and you know every other great organizational development book that's out there. but you know, we've had core values forever here, but we've never really used them to scrub our program of work andor our people. And so looking at our core values and how does that really dictate who we want to sit at the table from a staff perspective, from a board perspective, how does that jive with what our overarching mission, vision, and and strategies look like? And so we start there. And then you go a little bit further and you start looking at, all right, so what's the accountability model? Because again, as chambers, when I talked about being an inch deep and mile wide, some things you didn't necessarily hold the accountability to where you'd like it to be because well, we'll put our focus over here for this week or this month or this year, rather than staying true to what you're trying to accomplish and looking at your one, three, five, and ten year goals. And so really looking at how do we have that accountability model for our staff? not only by creating, you know, a metrics through a scorecard, but also making sure that they get it, that they want it, and that they have a capacity to do it. And so then you take it a little bit further and you look at your volunteer leadership and do they understand your core values? Do they understand, you know, what we're looking at for a one, three, five, and ten year, the 10 year being a BHEG, your big hairy, audacious goal. And then do they get it, do they want it? And do they have a capacity to do it? And so you build this vision traction organizer, which we are still in the process of doing.
14:44.224 Charlie Moore
I'm only about four months into this process of of legitimately trying to build our plan, of which you know, in February, so several months from now, we'll actually roll this plan out to our board. So we'll present the strategic plan and process to our board for them to chew on once we've presented it. And they can provide input and feedback, and of course we can make adjustments. But the plan isn't being written by them. The plan is being written by staff who have the information, who do this every day, who understand. Who gets it, who wants it who has the capacity to do it, who understands the metrics that we're looking to accomplish, who continually ask, why are we doing this and to what end? So what's the end result look like that matters towards our short-term or long-term strategy and plan? and so at the at the end of it, in February, hopefully we will have a an approved strategy that will be you know looked at every 90 days by staff, every year by staff, we'll report back to the board, we'll have very public benchmarking. where we'll be showing our store our scorecard and how we're making progress, tracking history, which we've not done a great job in the past, really paying attention to what are trends that we should be watching organizationally. and so once we have this plan complete, you know, then there's an ongoing process of how you continue to keep traction going. And so I would submit that this is probably one of the best ways of taking information that you and I would we already know. It's not new, but it's how it's packaged and put together. that really holds your team accountable for the work that they're doing and really make sure that you're focused, that you're on target, and that what you do is intentional and not accidental. And that you're not an inch deep and mile wide, but you're very structured and focused to the work that you're being done. So when you report back to your investors or report back to your members, you can be very clear how you did, what you did, why you did it, and to what end. So I think that's a it's a great it's a great book for every chamber to read. It's a it might not be the best practice for every chamber, but I think There are components of it from implementation that would be good to look at as well. But more importantly, I want to transition for just a minute, not only to the chambers program of work, but for our members, for those that we serve. Right. So our mission statement starts to serve our members, dot dot dot. And so traction provides a floor plan for a business that if they follow it and they follow it true, that everyone I know who've utilized it have watched steep increases not only in their productivity, but in their profitability.
17:10.111 Charlie Moore
And so we'll start looking at facilitated and unfacilitated groups with our members to help them understand what this process looks like, not to sell them on it, but to show them that if they truly want to grow their business, this is something that has measurable results for for people who are entrepreneurs and business owners in our backyard already. But how we as an organization are adapting it to make it work for our organization, which is representing their organizations. So I think that if something to take away, if it's not for your organization. It's a process and a strategy that you can implement for your members who want to grow their business. It gives them some ideas of how they can intentionally grow and stay on target and on task and watch the results happen.
17:49.984 Brandon Burton
I like the whole idea about being strategic and intentional and focused and that it's not your your board that's writing your strategic plan, but it's actually a staff member who knows the the ins and outs, the days day to day operations. And I assume when you present that strategic plan to the board, you have data that you're you're presenting with it to back up the the direction that you're wanting to go with that. am I correct in that assumption with how you would present that?
18:18.114 Charlie Moore
Absolutely. So I mean, we we've started already, while we won't present until February, we've already started and developed what our scorecard looks like and what we're measuring. And so as we go forward, you know what we measure may change because what we think is important today as we forge forward and really take a look at what our long-term goals are going to be. There might be some other things that we've we've not thought about that we need to we need so we need to be we need to have the ability to pivot, if you will, and make sure that we can adjust the plan. So this isn't a long-term strategy. the long-term goals might be there, but how we do the work we do could be looked at every 90 days with different goals and outcomes. And so the numbers that we have, the research that we do, the the metrics that we keep and retain will be presented to our board. But that'll also be kind of a starting ground. So as we really take a look at consistency over the you know the next year, two years, three years, we can go back and really identify trend, what's worked, what hasn't worked, what we should do differently, and what we should quite frankly get rid of. 'Cause chambers are quite notorious for adding more and more to their program of work, but not taking anything away. and so therefore that goes back to that capacity to do it, right? What I talked about before. So you've got to know it, you've got to want it, you've got to have the capacity to do it. Well, if we keep adding more and we're not taking any away, then we're in in the long run gonna be that inch deep a mile wide again. So we have to understand to keep our program of work relevant, what do we have to scrub? And so all of those numbers will be looked at from staff weekly. We actually get together on Friday afternoons to review those numbers. And then we'll present to the board quarterly once we have that up and running. But then the numbers will actually be available, but not there yet. We're completely redoing our website. But when the website is up, we'll have that scorecard be very public. So any of our members or anyone could hop online and see, you know, where are they at with X, Y, or Z, whether it growth of membership, revenue, sponsorship, you know, community development initiatives, things that have to do with advancement of of education, our workforce development initiatives, things like that. So it'll all be very open and transparent.
20:13.644 Brandon Burton
Very good. I think it's so important. You you mentioned a couple of times about reevaluating or or looking at those numbers every 90 days. And I think with just how fast paced and and how quickly change can happen today, that it's important to even though you have a five year plan, to look at it every 90 days, because there may be some adjustments that you need to make, you know, well before that five years to meet a a a better, maybe a a more efficient trajectory. Rather than sticking to what you decided five years ago, you know, as you're you know, year four, year five into it. I just think things can change so quickly. It's important to keep a pulse on it and and pivot where you need to. So I think that that's great. so y I mean you've covered a lot of information here.
21:02.414 Charlie Moore
Sorry, I do think a little fast, so
21:05.772 Brandon Burton
No, that that's okay. That's great. I'm thinking for the for the individual, for the chamber professional, the the the chamber that wants to integrate traction into their into their chamber, their strategic plan and with their members, what what would be one action item you would give them to be able to to get started and to to help elevate their chamber to the next level?
21:29.432 Charlie Moore
Sure, so there's a couple things. The one is, I mean, there's actually a a group that started within ACCE that is a s I'll call it a support system for those who are curious about or starting or have already implemented traction for their strategy and for their program of work. So that that user group already exists. You can also go to the iStore and download the app, the EOS app, where you can read a lot of what I've just told you. Or listen to some, I'll call it some narrative, almost like an audible, on what the the version of traction is and how it all works and comes together. So you can do it that way. You can also go to the traction website where you can see most of the charts that are up there just to get an idea of what it what it entails. But lastly, one of the things I think that we are relying on as an organization is because we are so busy going different directions every day, every week, that's how you know all of us in the chamber industry operate. We have an integrator, if you will, excuse me, an implementer. An implementer. so who that's a consultant who is walking us through a very specific process. And if you if you go on to the traction website, you can take a look at who the implementers are. We actually only have one in our community. Chicagoland, which is about two hours north of us, has several, but their pipelines are so full it's hard to get implementers from from that market. And so we did we are working with the the local individual who's an implementer. That has a very specific process that they follow to walk you through as you build your leadership team. So that's one of the things I would throw out there that's interesting for us. We are nine members strong on a staff. We have four of us that are going to be part of the leadership team. For years and years and years, it's been myself with all the team underneath of me. Now we're building a leadership team of four, and we'll really only have five that are, you know, staff members doing other work to make sure that you know there's we've got very specific focuses on three areas of operation of the organization. And so while I might be at the top as a visionary and and as the CEO, I know that I've got people looking specifically at membership, the numbers of new members and retention and programs and services. I've got someone specifically looking at finance and operations. I have someone specifically looking at the marketing and communications. And so underneath each one of those is then the rest of you know my team who, you know, does the work under each one of those categories. So there's always at least two or three people on the staff outside of myself.
23:53.71 Charlie Moore
who are focused on everything that makes us whole as an organization. And I think for a smaller organization like I am, that's huge because I've been the one that that gets to wake up at two o'clock in the morning and think about how we close the budget gap or what are new more non-dues revenue or what are ways to tighten our belt and cut some expenses. And this brings your team closer to the table, to a seat at the table, to really lend their voice and their expertise to to drive the work that you do. And sometimes some people really want that and sometimes people don't. And I think we know what I'm finding already is that you know there's part of this, you know, process that understands or determines the right people with the right seat. And, you know, we've already identified we had, you know, one member of our team who already self identified that they were the wrong person for that seat. and so we'll continue to go through that process. And I don't know that we have anyone else that way, but I think it helps us all just maintain that focus. So as a someone who's looking to know more, you can get the book, you can have a consult with the ACCE peer group. Myself or I'm sure some of the others would be happy to talk to you individually. You can download the app. There's a lot of information out there. but it's a lot of information. So you might just if you find an implementer, they provide a free 90 minute overview. and so that might be something else. It's just to look at developing a relationship with an implementer and having them do the 90 minute interview just to determine if this is the right process for your organization.
25:15.086 Brandon Burton
That's right. And we'll we'll get those those tips into the show notes page that you just mentioned about the the book, the app, the attraction website, and the ACC support group so they can kind of navigate these waters. but the the show notes page will be found at chamberchatpodcast.com slash episode forty-seven. But Charlie, as we start wrapping things up here, I wanted to ask the question that I ask everybody I have on the show as we Look to the future of chambers of commerce. How do you see the future and and the purpose of chambers going forward?
25:51.318 Charlie Moore
You know, that's a that's a great question. And I will tell you that if someone says that they have the the the answer, it's like a billion dollar answer. Right. So a as we continue to have to, you know, pivot as we take a look at the services that we provide, if we look at the outcomes that we're responsible for, you know, as we look at the next generation of workforce and talent development and understanding skills gaps and what our employers need. And in in company attraction and employee attraction, and community development and quality of place, I would tell you that, you know, the tier dues has been something that's been talked about for a number of years. And we're looking at that model, but I'm also looking more at how is the work that we do really tied to overall community development. And I think a lot of chambers would probably tell you the same thing. Understanding regional strategy. When you heard me talk earlier about the being advantage and, you know, who's doing what with the EDC with the Convention Visitors Bureau, with transit, with airport, with regional planning, you know, we're blessed to have three college or three universities, two universities and one community college in our backyard. So university and education engagement and implementation is is huge for us. And so as we look at who our community partners are, what is it that we need to do to work together? Because Bloomington Normal has been successful for decades because of the recession proof types of industry that we have. However, you know, as as once of a community change from the up-and-coming workforce and you know the baby boomers who are looking to get out of the workforce, what are the what does the community provide them that they would a stay or re-engage upon retirement? Those are some hard questions that we have to figure out and understand how we work together in order to do that. And so we've been blessed in our community to have some new industry move in over the last I I'd say last year. and so with that, how do we how do we identify what the needs of the change of culture that those those businesses could bring to our community? How does that help our culture within our community pivot just a bit and understand do we move away from from banking and insurance to innovation and technology? We are fortunate to have the startup Rivian in our community. Rivian is an electronic truck and SUV.
28:11.32 Charlie Moore
But also heavily focused on autonomous vehicle research. And so it's public knowledge that the last six months they've received about one point five billion of investment from both Ford and from Amazon, and have recently been awarded a hundred thousand vehicle purchase from Amazon for battery operated Amazon delivery vehicles. And so, you know, there's a huge opportunity. We had the Mitsubishi manufacturing in town. And after 30 years, they left North America for manufacturing. And so we had a vacant property. And so there's a long story I won't go into now, but we are blessed to have Rivian here in our backyard now. And the research and technology and innovation that it brings, how do we help address that skill set that they need? But then how do we use that as a culture shift to take a look at other innovation and technology opportunities? We in the last year brought for the first time a Canadian company called Brandt into our community that will be up to about 500 jobs in the next couple of years. with more intended to come. And so again, and those are gonna be not only innovation and technology, but also vocational types of employment, right? So how do we go back to making sure that those who are graduating from high school have that opportunity with vocational training to move right into the workforce at a pay rate that will be family sustainable and you know we'll have them be an integrated part of our community. And then you take all of that and tie it around with how do we look at community development from aesthetics, quality of place, engagement opportunities, entertainment complexes, ways that you can integrate the eighteen to eighty year olds. So that's a lot of things said to your short question, which is that community development and looking at everything that makes up your community is something that I think the chamber's board of directors and you as a leader of your organization need to pay close attention to every day because that's going to be what makes you sustainable.
29:59.18 Brandon Burton
That's right. And I think those partnerships that go along the way. That that's great insight. Yeah. Lots of detail to that answer. So it gives gives some opportunity for people to explore different ways to to stay relevant. So but Charlie, I'd I'd like to thank you for spending time with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. if anybody wanted to get in contact with you about how this implementation of traction is going for you or anything else you have to share with us today, what's the best way for them to To reach out and connect with you.
30:30.04 Charlie Moore
Sure, just Google us. We have a really long web address. McLean M-C-L-E-A-N-C-O chamber for McLean County Chamber.org. So just Google McLean County Chamber or Bloomington, Illinois, and we'll pop up there and you'll find my contact information, you know, on the website. It's just Charlie at McLeanCo Chamber.org. And be happy to talk to you about it. This is the fun stuff, right? So and I look at it, you talk about other ways to be relevant. It's you know. All of us in this business, you know, we've all come up with probably the same ideas at different times throughout our careers. And so rather than creating it new ideas, you know, the best form of RD that we have is to rip off and duplicate what other people are doing really well and put them in your backyard. And so I'm all about how do I build those relations with my peers, you know, who's interested to know what we're doing. We're certainly interested to know what everyone else is doing, to take a look at what could work good for our membership and for our community as we forge forward. And so I would welcome, you know, emails, phone calls, chances to visit. we are blessed to have the folks from the West Coast Chamber from Michigan coming to our office next Monday and Tuesday. So they're gonna come down and share their experiences of traction with my staff, with my board, and then they're also gonna be part of our statewide conference for Illinois, which is gonna be next week. So we're gonna bring them down for a couple days to share all that they've done over the last four or five years with us. So use that opportunity to learn from others, rip off and duplicate and plug it into your own program of work because that's gonna be one of the best tips I would walk away with.
31:57.568 Brandon Burton
Yep. Collaborate on that R and D. That's right. That's awesome. Well, Charlie, thank you so much. I think you provided a lot of value and and things for people to explore. So again, thank you.
32:08.706 Charlie Moore
Thank you, Brandon.
32:11.67 Brandon Burton
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