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2026 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Eugene Area Chamber with Brittany Quick-Warner

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Brandon Burton (00:00.966)
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and you’re joining us for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist series. And today we’re joined by Britney Quick Warner, president and CEO of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce. Brittany leads bold regional efforts around housing, workforce development, downtown revitalization, and civic leadership.

She recently spearheaded Elevate 2028, raising $5 million to support an ambitious regional economic development initiative, and co-founded Act Now Lane, a cross-sector coalition focused on making homelessness rare, brief, and non-reoccurring in Lane County. Known for her tenacity, big ideas, and ability to bring people together across sectors, Brittany’s a strong advocate for smart, business-friendly policy and a more prosperous future for Eugene.

Brittany Quick-Warner (00:51.063)
Okay.

Brandon Burton (00:58.122)
Brittany, welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is a treat to have you back and congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a a Chamber of the Year finalist again. say hello to the audience and if you would, you know, share share something interesting about yourself so we can get to know you better.

Brittany Quick-Warner (01:09.452)
Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Hello everyone. Thank yeah, thank you so much. I am quite honored to be chatting with you again, Brandon. this was fun. We were a finalist a few years ago and we’re excited to be invited to apply again and see some of the initiatives that we launched a few years ago actually have, you know, some data and results and outcomes behind them that we’re pretty proud of. So

We’re we’re honored to be here.

Brandon Burton (01:40.187)
It is neat when you can see these ideas grow some legs and really start making a even bigger impact in your community. so I look back and it was, I think, 2022, episode 184 that we had you on last as a a chamber of the year finalist as well. So if anybody wants to go back and check that one out. but I do like getting an interesting fact about all the guests that come on the show. If there’s something that you’d like to share with us so we can get to know you better.

Brittany Quick-Warner (01:44.33)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Brittany Quick-Warner (01:54.264)
Ha ha ha.

Brittany Quick-Warner (02:00.238)
There you go.

Brittany Quick-Warner (02:10.122)
my gosh. I well I am currently pregnant with my second kiddo. whether that’s interesting or not, it’s kind of dominating my life at the moment. So I feel rather uninteresting, I guess is the I guess is the the summation there. yeah, I yeah, totally, yeah. No, I I’m originally from the Kansas City area. I moved to Eugene about 14 years ago and

Brandon Burton (02:16.039)
Okay.

Brandon Burton (02:27.676)
Just building a human, not interesting at all, right?

Brittany Quick-Warner (02:37.538)
Haven’t looked back. I love this area, this region. And yeah, just I I like the opportunity for a challenge. We have a challenging business climate in this state and so much potential. So keeps me waking up every day.

Brandon Burton (02:53.83)
Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine. well tell us a little bit about the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce just to set the stage for our discussion, help us get have an idea of the size of your chamber, the type of work you guys are involved with, budget, staff, just to help give that perspective.

Brittany Quick-Warner (03:10.062)
Yeah, absolutely. So our chamber is celebrating our 125th anniversary next year. so I’ve been a part of this community for a really long time. we have two entities that have kind of consolidated financials. our Chamber of Commerce, and then a few years ago we launched a 501c3 kind of quasi foundation and economic development organization.

Brandon Burton (03:17.928)
Thanks.

Brittany Quick-Warner (03:36.66)
so the combined kind of budget for our two organizations is around four and a half million. we are, I guess, just shy of four, if you’re looking at net revenues there. So we have about 16 full-time positions within our organization that focuses on advocacy. so we have a pretty robust advocacy operation, member services, of course, like a lot of chambers and supporting.

small businesses and business expansion in the community and then economic development. So that five one C three that we establish onward Eugene is really the economic development arm of our organization.

Brandon Burton (04:16.606)
Yeah, that definitely helps to give perspective. And I like that. So as we get into the topics and the programs that you submitted on your Chamber of the Year application, those listening can you know think about the size of their organization and how they can scale it one way or the other to make it fit. But being that this is a Chamber of the Year finalist episode.

Brittany Quick-Warner (04:29.707)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Brandon Burton (04:38.32)
I’d like to spend most of our time talking about the programs that were submitted on your application so we can learn more about their origins and how you guys have grown and evolved and continue to make an impact in the community. So we’ll dive into that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Brittany Quick-Warner (04:38.421)
Mm-hmm.

Brittany Quick-Warner (04:54.381)
Excellent.

Brandon Burton (04:55.738)
All right, Brittany, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re gonna dive into the programs that you submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. And I know the first one has to do with a homelessness initiative. if you’d like to tell us what that program’s all about and where it got its origins and and the vision that you guys had for it and how things are unfolding.

Brittany Quick-Warner (05:17.889)
Yeah, absolutely. So the the synopsis that we supported or that we submitted is called Acton Al Lane. This is a a joint coalition that we founded a little over a year ago. that was actually kind of the the second step in a a longer term initiative that we actually launched back in 2021 at our chamber looking at the homeless crisis in our community. So Eugene is the largest city

in Lane County, the county that that we reside in. And as a county, which is our our full MSA, we have right around five thousand individuals who are unhoused at any given time in the community. And that number makes us one of the highest, if not the highest, per capita for the size of community that we actually have. And so we

largest per capita in the country. so it’s it’s it’s a conversation that dominates or a topic that dominates most conversations that I have in the community. It it somehow always kind of comes back to our homeless crisis. And in 2020, we know a lot of communities face this, but because of the global pandemic and the shift in the way that communities were able to actually shelter people, the unhoused homeless crisis

so folks who were not able to find shelter just became a lot more visible and prevalent. And we had homeless encampments popping up across our community in our commercial and industrial areas that were really starting to just create tension between consumers and businesses and employees and those encampments. And so we were hearing about it a lot from the chamber and a lot of businesses asking, what’s the chamber doing about this? Like what’s our role in the conversation?

Brandon Burton (07:15.112)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (07:15.647)
And to be honest, most of those conversations or most of the my response to most of those questions is like we don’t really have a formal role in this. We aren’t necessarily being engaged. There’s not really a seat at the table for businesses in this community when it comes to this conversation. And so I went to our board in early 21 and I said, you know, we’re a membership-based organization. And the number one thing that I talk to our members about is homelessness. And we don’t have any say or we don’t have any kind of

engagement in that issue. And so our board talked a lot about it and we kind of weighed different options. And I like to to share sort of how we get to where we’re at is, you know, we kind of looked at one option was just getting really mad and loud and marching down to City Hall and kind of pounding our fists on the table and saying, you all need to fix this. but if I was being honest, I don’t I didn’t think that was going to be very effective. I think without some real engagement and understanding of the problem and actual solutions to propose

Brandon Burton (08:04.007)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (08:13.975)
I don’t think we were gonna actually make an impact in that way. And so, our our organization has some core values that we live by. One of them is bold leadership. And our board really said, look, it it’s one of our values that we lean into these hard conversations, that we engage in authentic ways and we try to find solutions. And so that was the lot harder version. They said, Let’s go deep and let’s actually figure out what’s the root cause of this. Why is our community sort of

Brandon Burton (08:17.98)
I’d agree.

Brittany Quick-Warner (08:43.363)
facing this intractable problem here and what’s already happened that hasn’t worked, what’s working, how do we how do we scale some of the solutions that are effective in our community? And so the much harder version of the two options that we put in front of the board, but definitely the right one. And so that kind of launched almost a six-month process where I actually myself went out and talked to over 200 community members.

nonprofit executive directors working in this space, public officials, police and and public safety officials, talk to unhoused individuals themselves, trying to understand. And I asked all of them, I said, Look, you’ve been engaging in this system, what’s working, what’s not working? If you had a magic wand, what would you do? And to be honest, we heard from a lot of the nonprofits in our community, especially the service providers who frankly are funded.

through our county and through our cities, that they had a lot of things that they would change about the system, but they didn’t feel like they could be the ones to actually voice that because of the funding model and because of the way that they were engaging as a service provider. And so they were actually pretty welcoming of the chamber coming into this, sort of as a third party, right? We were never gonna be a homeless service provider in our community. But we could ask some hard questions about why, why are we in this? Yeah.

Brandon Burton (10:02.258)
Yeah.

It’s like you’re doing the research to to be a supportive agency to help.

Brittany Quick-Warner (10:09.213)
Exactly. I I told folks I felt like an investigative journalist for that six months and ultimately it ended up with a whole lot of information and had a a member who said you need to write a report about this, which was not our intent when we started out, but we just need the rest of the community to understand this a little bit better. And so we at that point issued a state of the homelessness crisis report where we basically just summarized what we heard.

Brandon Burton (10:15.023)
Right.

Brittany Quick-Warner (10:35.735)
From all of these service providers and community experts, and then paired that with best practice research. and then we essentially put out a few recommendations. And one of them was that we really needed a cross sector coalition where more voices could be at the table in a problem solving mode. and especially the business community. Like we wanted to be a part of determining what’s working, helping to find innovative solutions, et cetera.

And so we first started by launching a business leaders task force where we brought business leaders in to help educate them on the issue. I’m a firm believer that there’s nothing more annoying than walking into a room of folks who have been doing this work for a really long time and you don’t know enough about the problem and you rattle off a bunch of ideas that they’re like, Yeah, of course we’ve already tried that. Right. So I wanted our business community, I wanted them to be educated enough to actually.

Brandon Burton (11:27.666)
Right. Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (11:31.969)
to actually hang in these conversations and to truly find innovative ideas that haven’t already been tried. and so we had that business leaders task force for a couple of years, which is really about educating kind of a broad business leader base. and we had over a hundred business leaders who over the course of a year, two years engaged every single month just trying to dive in deeper into this topic. Ultimately that paired with the service providers that we that we

we’re working with, we launched this cross sector coalition. So Act Now Lane is that coalition. it’s backboned by the chamber. So we have we’ve done the fundraising to staff a full time person who is essentially running that coalition. but the folks on that committee are business leaders, service providers, city and county government, our universities at the table. we have some philanthropy

representation. So it’s a good kind of group of folks who are willing to rumble with some of the hard questions that frankly in a community that is dealing with a crisis this big, if you can’t rumble with some of the political realities and some of the difficult decisions you have to make, we’re never actually going to move forward in this. So that coalition work is the synopsis that we that we provided and and kind of dove in deep to those the progress that we’ve been able to make together.

Brandon Burton (13:00.03)
Yeah. So I’m I’m curious because you have a a great perspective. You know, when you when you mentioned you don’t want to be, you know, the new person that comes in the room is like, have you tried this? And like, yeah, we’ve tried it twelve different ways, right? but being able to build this coalition and have people from so many different backgrounds, what type of solutions are you seeing come to the table? What what kind of innovation is there that that you guys are coming up with with this coalition?

Brittany Quick-Warner (13:08.413)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (13:26.977)
Yeah, so we’ve kind of the first thing I guess what we started with was understanding kind of the how how to organize and and communicate the challenge that the community was facing or the community was feeling. So we you know, we heard a lot of things. I heard like obviously the growing unhoused population, the public safety challenges that this crisis is

in some cases creating for individuals who are housed, but frankly, unhoused individuals are the victims of more crime in our community than anyone. And they deserve to have that that protection as well. But the thing that actually I think concerned me the most was this sense of hopelessness that people felt that we could even do anything about this. And that’s kind of where we started. I wanted to I wanted to address the fact that the broader community felt incredibly hopeless.

Brandon Burton (14:02.782)
Sure.

Brittany Quick-Warner (14:23.807)
About the future of this crisis for a lot of reasons. One of which is that they were just, they, they didn’t understand what we were even doing, right? What were we doing that worked? How were we making sure that we’re we’re engaging in the right activities? And so one of the causes of that was just the mass confusion of all the people who were involved in it, right? We have hundreds of nonprofits in this space, the city, the county, et cetera. And so we did the work of taking

Across the city of Eugene, the city of Springfield, which is kind of our our sister community, and in Lane County government, we had over a dozen plans that addressed or touched on how we were addressing the homelessness crisis. So if you have 12 or 14 plans to the community, you have no plan, right? It’s just chaos. They can’t exactly they can’t comprehend that. So

Brandon Burton (15:14.012)
Right. What’s the direction, right?

Brittany Quick-Warner (15:18.753)
We didn’t want to start from scratch and create a new plan, but what we did is we took all of those plans and we synthesized them down into one roadmap so the community could see as easily as possible what it where is the alignment in the work that we’re doing across jurisdictions. That roadmap really broke it into three different areas. The first is housing and prevention. We did a lot of research and a lot of understanding that the core of any homeless crisis in a community,

really goes back to the lack of housing. So it’s about the cost and the vacancy rate of housing in your community. There’s a lot of data that has validated that. And so we know that in order to solve our homeless crisis, we have to solve our housing crisis and our housing shortage. So that’s a big piece of it. The second category of activities is really around public safety and services. How are we making sure that on the streets, people have access to services and that we have created a clean and safe environment for the community.

And then the last is around communications and kind of system improvement. So within each of those buckets, we have some very specific activities that we’ve engaged in. On the housing side, it’s really about policy. So we’ve had we’ve created shared policy agendas across multiple organizations to advocate at the state and local levels for ways to break down housing barriers.

development barriers for housing. And so there’s a lot of work in that space. Our community has really kind of been seen as an innovator in some of the alternative sheltering, which in some cases is categorized as transitional housing. And so we have a lot of folks from across the country who come and visit some of our shelter providers who have created these really unique alternative housing solutions. So

Brandon Burton (16:57.011)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (17:10.699)
That’s a space that we’re proud of the work that’s being done. And it’s a way to help make limited dollars go further to actually find some stability for people. in the services space, we actually launched a workforce program that’s been really rewarding. So we, the chamber, partnered with a handful of our shelter organizations to identify individuals who are willing and ready to try to find employment and to get their feet back under them.

through employment. And we worked with organizations across the community to create workforce training programs that were specifically designed to work for someone who is living in a shelter, who has inconsistent or no transportation, who really doesn’t have the capability to be in a full-time program. They need the flexibility to have their wages kind of stay within a certain band. So there’s just a lot of of

A lot of considerations for someone who’s in a shelter to actually get back into the workforce. It’s more complicated than it seems. And so we worked, we have now four different programs across the community that have anywhere from six to twelve week training programs where the shelter residents are going in, getting trained on specific skill sets. So we have a warehouse training program, we have an industrial sewing training program, we have a bicycle repair training program.

Brandon Burton (18:37.009)
Okay.

Brittany Quick-Warner (18:37.933)
So these are really unique opportunities where someone who is unhoused can now learn a new skill set. And then we’ve paired with employers to once they’re through those training programs to be able to kind of slowly evolve back into employment within the community. And so that workforce program is a part of this Acton Lane coalition. And we have, you know, over 70 people who’ve graduated in the last couple of years. And yeah, some who have found housing because of that.

Brandon Burton (19:02.142)
That’s awesome.

Brittany Quick-Warner (19:06.497)
financial stability. So that program is just one that we’re really proud of and frankly is pretty easily replicable. I think it’s something that other communities could look at and it’s a way the chamber can really engage in a program that feels authentically connected to the business community.

Brandon Burton (19:19.806)
Yeah. And I can see that being a huge barrier, especially when somebody is looking for employment and they go through the whole background check process. And if if you can provide training and then have businesses on board to help, you know, on ramp them into employment, it’s such a a better way to help bridge that gap and get them back into employment. So I love that. Yeah, you guys are making great strides there.

Brittany Quick-Warner (19:27.371)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (19:38.155)
Yeah. Yeah, and just more sustainable. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (19:46.419)
So I don’t want to spend all of the time on that on that synopsis, but I think we could. Let’s let’s shift gears over to your second synopsis. It was submitted on your application around the voice of business. If you can tell us what that’s all about.

Brittany Quick-Warner (19:49.161)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (20:01.355)
Yeah, this one, this one I feel like some communities I think can relate to the challenge that we’re trying to solve for and others, I think luckily on their end maybe don’t have this challenge. But Eugene and Lane County has just a pretty poor business climate. we are constantly struggling and and kind of pushing back against our government and political partners.

About what it takes to actually have a strong local economy. the as a state, Oregon ranks 49th in business friendliness on on these kind of annual CNBC rankings that are created. And so we have a lot of work to do as a state. And our community is kind of a a a testing ground for a lot of those, frankly, non-business friendly policies. So with that in mind, you know, our chamber has really

Brandon Burton (20:40.966)
Well.

Brittany Quick-Warner (20:57.717)
struggled and grappled with over the years, how do we change the course of this conversation? And frankly, we talked to a lot of business leaders over the last couple of years and said, look, if we’re not gonna do what it takes to get more businesses involved to really raise, to raise this issue and raise this red flag, who’s going to do it for us, right? It’s not, it’s not going to be some elected official that we’re gonna find that saves us that steps in and and

Brandon Burton (21:19.069)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (21:25.783)
convinces everyone else that this is the right thing to do. So with that in mind, we launched this five-year strategic initiative, Elevate 28, and engaged about 80 investors who frankly had been pretty apathetic about our community. They had stopped kind of investing here locally. Their businesses were contemplating leaving town, but they’d been longtime, you know, business community members. And we said, we need you to invest in this initiative. And the the number one goal

Is for us to really try to attack this business climate issue. And so within that, we launched this Voice of Business program. It really kind of has four different pillars, if you will. the first really is around helping to educate business leaders about the political process. if you will, I think there’s just like a lot of

It’s just mystifying to some people about like how would I get engaged and who is my local city councilor and what are the issues that city council or a county commissioner actually decides on and how could I influence them? So a big education component. and then we knew that we needed to try to convince people to run for office who have a business literacy. right now we have very few, if any, elected officials that represent us that have a business background. And so

We know that that’s a challenge and that we need to find better representation. And so we kind of went yeah. Yeah. So we dove in deep on that. We launched a political action committee so that we could financially support candidates who were ready to run. we have a pretty robust candidate endorsement process that we go through. and we essentially put together a a toolkit, if you will.

Brandon Burton (22:51.518)
It’s almost like who you’re gonna sacrifice, right?

Brittany Quick-Warner (23:15.883)
For individuals who are interested in running for office for them to understand what that even looks like. Because most of the time as I talk to someone about running, I can get this close to convincing them if we’re just talking about what it means to serve and what they would be doing. But the second we have to talk about how you actually get there and you have to run a campaign, they’re like, peace out. That sounds terrible. Right. So, and we hadn’t had any resources to help kind of shepherd them along. And so

This initiative really was us leaning in to build out the resources and the scaffolding to actually help someone stand up successfully a campaign. And so that was a big pillar of the work. Another part was just helping our business people build relationships with our current elected officials. So we know that we’re not gonna nor do we intend to completely flip a city council, right? That’s not at all our goal. We know that some of the folks who are sitting there.

They just need to understand business better, right? And we have a responsibility to help them do that. And so we’ve created really structured ways for business people to have regular ongoing relationships with our city counselors. so we have a liaison, a business liaison program where we’ve matched business leaders up with city counselors. They have standing monthly meetings, we’re having small coffee chats and just trying to build relationships, right?

I would like any of my counselors to have a Rolodex of business people that they could call at any moment when they have a policy that they’re contemplating about. And so that was a big a big component of it. and then the last was getting people actually out to city council or county commission to testify because we just didn’t have a voice in that public sphere. Our city, our our chamber staff were always there. but we were such a small voice amongst

Brandon Burton (24:43.442)
Yes.

Brittany Quick-Warner (25:07.127)
Frankly, a pretty activist-driven community. And so we knew we needed to have a stronger, kind of steady and consistent presence at those city council and county commission meetings. So bringing in business leaders, training them on what that looks like, and then kind of orchestrating a really steady engagement within those kind of public settings as well. So all of this together is our Voice of Business program. And just like year over year kind of tracking.

The engagement, we were able to increase business leader engagement by 220% from one year to the next, as far as the individuals who are willing to kind of step up and meet and put themselves out there for these different pieces. So it’s it’s kind of taking that bread and butter work that chambers have done and really putting it on steroids and figuring out how are we more intentional about actually

Brandon Burton (25:58.206)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (26:02.145)
facilitating and orchestrating that relationship building as opposed to just hoping that it happens organically.

Brandon Burton (26:08.68)
Yeah, you you guys definitely have your work cut out for you as far as the business environment goes.

But I love the these steps that you’re taking and and even going as far as to create a pack and to be able to endorse candidates and help people and get educated on how to run. And building those relationships with the elected officials is so huge because and I’ve said it before, a lot of these elected officials are smart individuals, but they’re smart in their area of competence, right? They don’t necessarily know the ins and outs with the business climate. And to be able to build those relationships and help educate them, most

Brittany Quick-Warner (26:13.653)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (26:20.833)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (26:35.467)
Yeah, exactly.

Brandon Burton (26:43.368)
Most of them can be a quick learn, you know, once they once they can understand what’s going on.

Brittany Quick-Warner (26:45.291)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And one of the programs that we launch within that space as well is called the Get to Know Industry Program. this is what happens when you have like programs that have like a random brainstorm session and they move into like operation. You’re like, wait, we didn’t rename that. Yeah, so get to know industry, it is what it is. but so this is where we’re taking our really our key traded sector industries. So the ones that we know.

Brandon Burton (27:03.806)
We just spun that up. Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (27:15.189)
Are generating the most economic output for our community and pulling together industry leaders in that space and putting together a really intentional program where those industry leaders can help our elected and community officials get to know that industry in a way where they can then represent them better at the council table. Right. And so, in my perfect world, any of our city counselors or elected officials or public officials.

Should be able to rattle off the top of their head the key industries in our region and what their economic impact is and the number of jobs that they represent, et cetera. That is so far from reality in our community. And so we’ve now had this with four different industries. we have kind of a rotation of about eight that we’ll do throughout the throughout the year.

Brandon Burton (27:47.998)
Yeah, absolutely.

Brittany Quick-Warner (28:04.789)
And we usually partner with an elected official to kind of co-host it. So they actually have a buy-in to the program and that helps bring some of their peers to the table. But we get the elected officials out into the businesses. They sit usually for a panel discussion and then kind of a broad discussion, then to do a tour of the industry, et cetera. Again, it’s a relatively simple format and program, but it’s been transformational because most of these elected officials have never set foot into a manufacturing plant.

in our community. They just haven’t had access to it. And so just that program alone has already started to build those stronger relationships. So elected officials, it’s, you know, it’s demystifying business for them, just like we have to demystify public engagement for the business community. So it’s been a a really fruitful program that we hope to see grow from that as well.

Brandon Burton (28:56.744)
Yeah. Maybe another spin-off or pillar is math classes for some of these elected officials to go into how a business runs and how taxes implement, you know, how they affect how businesses run and wages and you know, salaries and benefits and all the things that often get mandated. So yeah, whole nother thing.

Brittany Quick-Warner (29:04.621)
Ich

That’s exactly

Yeah, that’s exactly right. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (29:18.29)
Well, Brittany, it sounds like you guys are making a great impact there in Eugene and and doing the the very best you can. I’d love to ask the question, especially as a chamber of the year finalist, for those listening who are trying to take their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item would you leave for them as they strive towards that goal?

Brittany Quick-Warner (29:38.081)
Yeah, great question. I think I maybe had the same answer when you asked me this three years ago. So so what I will say is when I got into this position and the the CEO position back in 2017, our chamber had six staff people. We had just under a million dollar budget. and we had a pretty small body of work that we were engaged in. And

Brandon Burton (29:41.776)
Okay.

Brittany Quick-Warner (30:06.143)
I knew we had more potential. I knew our community needed more out of us. but frankly, as an organization, we weren’t really set up to be able to scale and expand the work that we’re doing. I was introduced to the entrepreneurial operating system, the EOS system, by Jane. She was in Michigan West at that time. Jane Clark’s fantastic, we adore her.

Brandon Burton (30:24.184)
US, yeah.

Brandon Burton (30:29.0)
Jane Clark, yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (30:33.325)
actually it was about a year into my CEO position, I was sitting in ACCE conference and that’s that summer, and I was sitting in the CEO session. And at that point, I I came into the CEO position in a kind of traumatic experience. Our our CEO long time passed away. I was 30 years old. I was not at all ready or felt myself to be ready to do this. I literally never even supervised someone before.

Brandon Burton (30:49.053)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (30:54.776)
What am I doing here? Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (31:01.877)
And so I was desperate for some organizational development kind of resources. And I read every leadership book that’s been written ever that year. Like I was just like, I have to find something that works for me. She introduced me to EOS and it it’s like I went to church. Like I literally feel like I had a come to Jesus moment. I’m like in tears in this meeting. Like, Jane, you just saved me. she literally gave me her book. I read the whole thing on the airplane ride home from that conference.

Brandon Burton (31:09.74)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (31:18.908)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (31:28.509)
Wow.

Brittany Quick-Warner (31:29.973)
And from then on, we’ve utilized this EOS system. And I will say, like we self-implemented in the beginning. We’ve had some resources and help along the way. because we didn’t have a lot of resources to kind of hire somebody to come in and do that. And, you know, I would I would argue we’ve probably done about an 85% job, a B plus job at getting all of the components implemented. But the thing that we were able to do really early on.

Was to really clearly articulate what’s our 10-year vision? What do we want to be in 10 years? And in that process, we said we want to have a $4 million budget. This process really talks about how revenue as a nonprofit, we shouldn’t be scared of thinking about what revenue is it gonna take for us to actually do what we want to do in the community. we knew we wanted membership growth, we knew we wanted to be a chamber of the year finalist. That was one of our goals. and then finally.

Brandon Burton (32:17.672)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (32:24.262)
Awesome.

Brittany Quick-Warner (32:25.345)
Fast forward, we’re a couple years shy and we’ve already surpassed those goals. we wanted to have 10 staff, we have 16. so it was just like this really transformational program for our for our chamber that helped us organize internally, really get clear on what our goals were, identify the things that we needed to do to support the community better, and then make sure that we hold ourselves accountable to doing that. And so

I know what it feels like to be a chamber that’s like, I know we could do more. I have, you know, I don’t have enough people. I don’t have enough money. the other thing about really clearly articulating what are the resources I need to do what I need and having a stretch goal, having it bit be that big, hairy, audacious goal is that it helps you get more creative, right? If you’re just kind of thinking about incremental improvements, you kind of get to fall back on the easy things. If you’re thinking about a big jump, like how do we get from one million to four million dollars in revenue?

It forces you to get more creative, to think outside the box, to really hone in on the things that help your chamber like truly have a value proposition for your community. And so, yeah, I mean, we would have never imagined starting this 501c3 and establishing an economic development arm. Like there were so many pieces that because we were not afraid to think big and to kind of get really creative, it has helped us.

Brandon Burton (33:27.358)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (33:54.219)
get to a place where we can sustain this level of work and support our community in this way.

Brandon Burton (33:59.229)
Yeah. Well and I’ve heard it said before the revenue is a direct result of the impact that you make. So if you weren’t making the impact, the revenue wouldn’t be there. So I’d I love that tip. That’s that’s right. That’s right. well I I love asking everyone I have on the show about the future of chambers. So how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Brittany Quick-Warner (34:05.579)
Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. And vice versa. You have to have that revenue to make that impact. So it really does go hand in hand. Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (34:25.661)
It’s such a good question. I think and again, it’s it’s interesting being from a community where I feel like we’re always trying to convince people why business is a good thing. for me, it’s it’s still it’s still that role. Like we really there there needs to be someone in the community who is a champion for for you know free market business expansion and growth that like truly

Brandon Burton (34:36.412)
Right.

Brittany Quick-Warner (34:55.045)
results in prosperity for everyone in your community. And if your chamber is not thinking about it in that way, I think we will become irrelevant. You know, I think that some of the transactional work that which our chamber still has a lot of those programs and things as well, a lot of those transactional programs, they just slowly become obsolete, either because someone else in the community has picked it up or it’s replaced, right? Like by social media. We don’t, you know,

Brandon Burton (35:23.165)
Right.

Brittany Quick-Warner (35:23.829)
It’s just the world changes. And so the places where chambers can find themselves driving a bigger conversation, those are so much harder to replace. and the access that we provide and the amount of information that we have access to that we can then give to our members, that cannot be undervalued. I think being the place where people trust we’re paying attention.

We’re not afraid to have hard conversations. we are willing to step in and wade into issues that maybe haven’t been traditional chamber issues like homelessness. I think that’s where we become more relevant. We’re become more authentic partners with more different types of organizations in the community.

Brandon Burton (36:01.618)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (36:09.628)
Yeah, I love that answer. well Brittany, as we wrap things up, I wanna give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect or learn more about these programs, these initiatives that you’ve talked about today, where would you point them and what would be the best way to connect?

Brittany Quick-Warner (36:18.081)
Yeah.

Brittany Quick-Warner (36:27.863)
Yeah, absolutely. So our website, Eugenechamber.com. always a work in progress, but a lot of good information that you can find there, including my contact information. but I my one of my favorite things about the chamber industry is just the sharing culture that we have. And so we do not gatekeep any of this work. And I have been the beneficiary of so many other chamber executives who have been willing to sit down with me and share with me.

What’s working in their communities and how they’ve solved some of these problems. So reach out, brittanyw@eugenechamber.com. I am always happy to have that conversation.

Brandon Burton (37:01.522)
That’s perfect. We’ll get that in our show notes. But this has been a great conversation. Can definitely see the the impact and and you’ve got a spirit and excitement about you as you talk about these programs. So that that means that you know there’s life behind them and I I love that so much. But thank you for for setting aside time and and being with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast and really shining a light on the impact that you and your team were making there in Eugene. We really appreciate it.

Brittany Quick-Warner (37:11.883)
Hehehehe

Brittany Quick-Warner (37:18.093)
Yeah, thank you.

Brittany Quick-Warner (37:27.873)
Yeah, well, thank you for what you’re doing too, Brandon. It’s fun to tell these stories and I learned so much from listening to everybody else’s. So thank you.

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2026 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Toledo Regional Chamber with Wendy Gramza

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Brandon Burton (00:00.93)
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and here on the podcast I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year finalist series. And today we’re joined by Wendy Gramza, president of the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Wendy has served as president since July 2014, after more than a decade as the Chamber’s executive vice president. Throughout her career with the Chamber, she’s also led small business initiatives, including serving as vice president of small business and director of Small Business Development Center. Of the Small Business Development Center. She’s a graduate of the University of Toledo and holds both the IOM designation from the US Chamber of Commerce and the CCE designation from ACCE.

Wendy brings deep chamber leadership experience, strong community involvement, and passion for supporting business growth to today’s conversation. But Wendy, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. First of all, congratulations to you and your team for being selected as Chamber of the Year finalists. It’s a great accomplishment. But I would 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.

Wendy Gramza (01:22.755)
Why interesting about myself. Well, first of all, thank you for having me. And yes, it is truly an honor. and I’m very grateful that we were selected as finalists. it is not just it may sound cliche, but there are so many thousands of great chambers across the country. and any one of them could be a finalist in you know in any year. We just have chambers that have such strong programming. So extremely grateful to be just representing

our industry this year as as one of the finalists for Chamber of the Year. Something interesting about me, I think our your audience, because it’s Chamber people, this will resonate with them. When you go into the Chamber World, you never are quite sure like where that’s going to take you, where you might find yourself. So I didn’t realize when I started my career in the Chamber that at one point I would be a regular at the Pentagon and because of some of the work that we were doing

doing and that would get to be a passenger in an F-16 fighter jet. And I’m gonna leave it at that. I wasn’t a really great wasn’t really a great passenger. You can probably understand what I’m talking about. I won’t go into any great detail. But that is just an opportunity that I never would have had if I weren’t part of the chamber industry and was very unexpected. If you would have told me that years ago that that’s that would happen, I would have said you’re crazy.

Brandon Burton (02:23.79)
Okay.

Brandon Burton (02:29.432)
That is pretty cool.

Brandon Burton (02:39.395)
Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (02:52.676)
So that was that was one of the highlights of of my career thus far.

Brandon Burton (02:53.208)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (02:57.74)
Yeah, and that’s an experience you can’t pass up, no matter what the the short term side effects might be.

Wendy Gramza (03:01.431)
No, I tried. Actually I tried. I turned them down for many years and then finally our our base commander said, I’m taking you up myself. And I said, You’re gonna be sorry and he probably was. But it was it was a lot of fun.

Brandon Burton (03:05.378)
I don’t really.

Brandon Burton (03:18.114)
Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about the Toledo Regional Chamber to give us an idea of the size of the chamber, staff, budget, scope of work you’re involved with, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Wendy Gramza (03:31.3)
Sure, absolutely. So Toledo, if people don’t know, is in northwest Ohio, about 50 miles south of Detroit, but in Ohio, not in Michigan. we have just over 2,000 members. we’ve got an MSA that covers three counties. It’s a just over 600,000 people, so not a not a huge metro by a lot of of a lot of standards. we’ve got 25 staff people in a bunch

Budget around 3.6 million that fluctuates from from year to year given grants and some other things that we might be doing in any particular year, but usually between that three and a half and and four million dollar budget mark.

Brandon Burton (04:15.886)
Sure. Now are you guys involved with economic development or tourism or strictly chamber or what’s the Okay.

Wendy Gramza (04:21.315)
So we are strictly a chamber, officially, but of course we have very, very close relationships with our economic development agency that we actually helped start about 25 years ago. so even when when organizations are separate or not officially connected with the chamber, you can usually trace back to the chamber having some involvement in that organization being stood up or expanded or or something of that nature. we’re very work very closely with our convention and visitors.

Bureau, Downtown Association, and like many chambers do. So we work very closely with all of those organizations, but technically we’re all separate.

Brandon Burton (05:01.132)
Yeah. As you should, you know, work with all those other organizations closely, but it’s good to know your organization specifically just to help give context for our discussion today. So with this being a Chamber of the Year finalist episode, I like spending most of our time and our conversation today around the programs that were submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. So we’ll take a quick break and when we get back, we’ll dive into those programs and learn all about those.

Wendy Gramza (05:05.069)
Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (05:09.6)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (05:29.027)
Sounds good.

Brandon Burton (05:31.146)
All right, Wendy, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re gonna dive into the the programs that you submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. if if you’d like to introduce what the the first program is that you’d like to address, we can cover that and and tell us about the origins and how it’s evolved and and what it’s become, the impact it’s making.

Wendy Gramza (05:52.73)
Sure, absolutely. So it’s always hard to just pick two, right? but that’s what they make us do. So that’s what we do. So one of the ones that we picked was what we call our benefits bridge. and that is really our our way, our our solution, if you will, to a talent problem that became very evident to us as we worked very closely with our businesses who were ha it’s it’s softened a little bit in the last two years, but

Brandon Burton (05:58.435)
That’s right.

Wendy Gramza (06:22.763)
even prior to COVID and then directly after COVID, really having trouble finding finding staff people. And then even when they found staff people, we’d hear a lot about they don’t want to be promoted, they don’t want overtime. and you know a lot of people made some made some wrong you know could came to some wrong conclusions about why that was, right? people just don’t want to work, blah blah blah. We really started to dig in. And what we found was this

Benefits cliff that we were starting to hear about is real. And it’s a system that we created to help people, and it now really is holding people back. And so we felt that if we were we created the system, we should be able to fix the system, right? And we started doing that, you know, in our community, in our state, and then we’re hoping that that that really is something that spreads across the country with the help of one of our U.S. senators, Jon Husted. So again,

People will immediately after they’ll get a raise, they immediately lose all their benefits before they even see that increased paycheck. And it really just becomes a math problem for people, right? So if I work another day and I make another $300, but I lose $3,000 in benefits, guess what? I’m not going to do that, right? I can’t afford to do that. So we put some funding in place by working with our county. And you can imagine when we came to our county.

And said, hey, we want to help people get back into the workforce by extending their benefits. They were like, wait, who are you? You can’t be the Chamber of Commerce saying these things to us, right? We’re like, no, no, no, we are really, because it’s keeping people from the workforce, and that’s affecting our members. So they agreed to put in some money, and then the state found out about it, and they agreed to put in some money without us asking, when does that ever happen? And so we have some money for a pilot program. we had

Brandon Burton (08:08.045)
Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (08:22.359)
We have about 60 people now in the program. That changes on a regular basis, so it could be higher than that. We’re only a year and a half in. A hundred, over a hundred have asked about the program, but only 50 qualified for it. The other 50, we were able to not just say, hey, sorry, you don’t qualify for this program. We were able to connect them to other resources in the community that they did qualify for. And one of the reasons that we think we’ve been successful in getting people to reach out and apply.

Is because we’re working through the businesses. So the businesses they know who those people are who don’t accept promotions, who don’t take overtime. So they were able to reach out to them and say, hey, this program might be for you. I think that’s really the difference maker for us, is that we’re we’re working with businesses to identify who those folks are. And so we’ve got about 60 people that are in the program. And what we do is smooth out or create that bridge. So provide some funding to them.

So they can take that promotion, they can work that overtime, and there’s a pathway to reducing their benefits that comes with some coaching so they can see their way out of it. Like what does that look like at the end of this time period? I’ll be bringing in enough money that I won’t need those benefits. Right? So they understand and they have somebody that coaches them and helps them figure that out, right?

Brandon Burton (09:48.013)
Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. Aside from the the the the money aspect of it, there’s a comfort zone that comes, right? When you’re in a place of employment and you’ve got your benefits, you get used to the pay.

what else can you do to help them create a vision of a greater future? And I think that goes to what you’re talking about now with connecting them with some coaching and whatnot. But talk just a little bit more about that, about helping them create that vision of a a better future for themselves.

Wendy Gramza (10:10.15)
yeah. Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (10:18.745)
Well, and you know, we have great resources in our community. So it was just about pulling in those resources that we’d already been working very closely with with some other programs that we were doing, our industry sector partnership, which that could have been one of our programs, but we had to pick two. but we had already built a relationship with all of those social service agencies, and so it was really easy to pull them in and say, Hey, you help people with financial literacy. We want you to be part of this program and you help people

with homelessness and we want you to you know to be part of this program. So we have a whole cadre of services that we make available to those individuals. And we and again like any good chamber program, right? You can’t create everything on our own. We can’t also all of a sudden become experts at that. We pulled in the experts in our community who already have been doing that around our community. So that’s really again the strength of it is not trying to do everything on your own but trying to pull the

those resources in. So people might say, well you didn’t bring anything new to the table. We did because if people don’t know about resources or if they don’t feel comfortable reaching out, they might as well not exist for that person. So we feel good about putting that in front of them and and making them feel like yes this is for me. I can I can make this call and I I’m going to get this assistance.

Brandon Burton (11:29.496)
Right. Yeah, exactly.

Brandon Burton (11:41.217)
Yeah. So with a program like this, you had mentioned that about half of the applicants didn’t qualify for the program. What kind of qualifications are there? What kind of things do they need to to be able to I I assume it has to do with certain type of employment or maybe certain industries or things like that. What what are the the qualifications for somebody to get into this program?

Wendy Gramza (12:01.783)
Yeah, it mainly had to do with you know what their what their salary was, what their household income was. It it was it’s really fine financially based. ’cause some people might, you know, might have thought and again, they didn’t even have the benefits that we were talking about. So it just, you know, again, people that just kinda weren’t weren’t really a match for the program. So I can’t I I don’t have the specifics that, but yeah, there’s there’s a formula kind of

Brandon Burton (12:25.048)
Yeah.

Sure. Sure.

Wendy Gramza (12:31.707)
based on their income, their household income, some of those sorts of things that they, you know, they may not have qualified for. Because maybe they you know they weren’t gonna lose more in benefits that they were earning. They might have lost some benefits, but right. So it was really around like people who had, you know, childcare, which is a really, really costly if you lose that benefit. So you know for people maybe didn’t have that, the numbers didn’t didn’t didn’t really pencil out that they would they would really

benefit from the program. But like I said, we were able to help them get other resources to help themselves.

Brandon Burton (13:03.416)
That makes sense.

Brandon Burton (13:07.404)
Yeah. So you said there’s about sixty people in the program right now. What is the what is the length of the program look like? So aside from the financial aspect of it, you pr you’re providing the coaching and this mentorship. Is it over a period of several months, a year? What what’s the length of the program look like?

Wendy Gramza (13:11.587)
Mm. At least sixty.

Wendy Gramza (13:26.113)
Yeah, so of course everything like right when you know we want to make sure that the funding’s sustainable so pilot programs are are a little bit difficult. so we’ve been we’ve it’s a two-year program, so we’ve got like two years to get people through that before we can, you know, after that, if the program’s not renewed or it’s not made statewide, then you know, we might not be able to so we want to get those people in early and give them that that two-year cycle. For some, again, based on their situation, it might be a

a shorter time frame where they they won’t need they won’t need that assistance. So the course is steeper for some people than for for others.

Brandon Burton (14:02.026)
Okay. is this being funded through

Yeah. is this being funded through a foundation or through the chamber directly?

Wendy Gramza (14:13.269)
Actually it’s being funded through our county and our state. So the chamber, other than our expertise in marketing the program, that yeah, that funding’s coming from public sources.

Brandon Burton (14:18.295)
Okay.

You’re putting everything together. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (14:26.914)
Perfect. Very good. Anything else that we need to know about the benefits bridge before we move on to the next slide?

Wendy Gramza (14:33.509)
I don’t think so other than again it’s getting statewide and it’s getting some national attention. So our US Senator is looking at providing some federal funding for the program and piloting in a in a couple of states, which we of course would assume that Ohio will be one of them since that’s the the state that he covers and that we’ve we’ve we’ve shown some good good progress with the program. So we’ve got that recipe.

Brandon Burton (14:59.17)
Yeah. Well I see I see this being a program that can change lives when it gets them, you know, over that hurdle of that fear of getting out of the comfort zone and opening up a new world of possibilities for these employees. So yeah, it is.

Wendy Gramza (15:13.877)
Absolutely. And it’s generational too. So I mean that’s that’s what really is important to us.

Brandon Burton (15:21.152)
Yeah. Well let’s let’s shift into your other program, which I know is around talent and workforce as well. You guys are are focused on talent and workforce, which is awesome as any chamber should be. But tell us what the your other program is all about.

Wendy Gramza (15:36.344)
Yeah, so again, just stemming from you know asking any business member from sixteen forward, and I think we were hearing it a lot more than some of our traditional economic development agencies that you know they brought in a big company and they would be able to find the workers that they needed because they might have you know be at a different pay scale. Since we represent a lot of small and medium, specifically manufacturers, we were hearing very early on

From them, hey, we understand how the system works, right? We bring somebody in with no skills, we teach them the skills, we pay them what we can, and then once they gain those skills, they’ll leave us and go to a bigger company, and we’ll go back and grab somebody that doesn’t, you know, have have you know skills and you know and so on and so forth. Right. We start over again, we know we can’t compete with the bigger companies, and we feel you know, that we feel good about that, right? We’ve taken somebody that didn’t have any skills, gave them some skills, and now they’re able to work for, you know, a GM or you know

Brandon Burton (16:23.64)
Start over again. Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (16:36.187)
A larger versol or a larger company. Well, they started seeing early on in you know 25 or 15 and 16, there’s nobody, there’s nobody at the other end of that pipeline for us to train. So that’s why we really started thinking about this tight labor pool, tight labor market, how we could help, you know, pe train people, you know, what what what was holding people back? where were the positions, you know, because we heard anecdotally.

can’t find a welder to save your life. And then we’d hear, you know, you can’t find a nurse to save your life. Okay, well that’s those things are probably all are true.

Brandon Burton (17:13.804)
I hope you can find a nurse to save your life. Right. Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (17:15.857)
Well well yeah, sorry, pun intended, I guess. but so we really started to look at okay, like do we not have enough nurses? Do like what we can’t just take this anecdotally. So we put together a program where we used some other organizations, Kale, which is the Center for Adult and Experimental Learning, and I can’t remember the name of the other organization, forgive me, and said we really need to know what’s going on in our labor market ’cause it’s different.

Here. It’s different everywhere, right? We’re we’re you know, still a lot of blue-collar workers, so you know, a lot of manufacturing, a lot of skilled and unskilled, so a little bit different here. So, what’s really going on? So, we use data, a whole lot of data. We involved a whole lot of partners, a lot of our members to figure out what’s the current state of our labor market. And we actually just redid that post-COVID because the initial study was pre-COVID, and then everything got worse.

Brandon Burton (17:48.738)
Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (18:15.637)
And then got better. so we just just recently sort of updated those numbers. But that that study turned into a strategy, and I think that was the real difference. It wasn’t just like, hey guys, here’s the information. It was no like, okay, let’s first of all let’s gut check this. Went back to our members and said, Here’s what the data says, is this is this what you’re seeing? And we could have good discussions about why or why not. that’s when we really leaned into some

non-traditional sources of finding employees leaned in heavy to veterans, leaned in heavy to returning citizens. We have a whole program about that that we could have we could have talked about. But all of those things were born out of this talent alignment strategy. And it wasn’t a strategy just for the chamber. We created a macro coalition where we pulled in all of our partners and said, okay, here’s the data. Let’s sit down together and figure this out.

You know, the nursing was a good situation where we looked at or a good example of a situation where we looked at how many nurses we were graduating in our programs, and it was more than what our need was. So supply was outpacing demand, yet we knew that’s not what was happening. So what is happening? Well, the nurses are getting trained, but they’re leaving. They’re going to be a traveling nurse or they’re they’re going somewhere else. So then you can dig in, and that’s when then we pull in our industry.

Industry sector partnership that we have in healthcare and say, all right, guys, we may or may not have a salary issue here, right? Because we’re graduating more than we need. And so that’s just kind of a glimpse into these really deep specific conversations that we would have with our industries about, you know, help us help you, right? Like we really need to dig in and find out the why. And if we fix that why, we fix it for everybody. Everybody’s okay with competing, but nobody wins when there’s nobody to compete.

Brandon Burton (19:51.459)
Right.

Brandon Burton (20:08.43)
Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (20:15.163)
compete for. And that’s really been our our strategy and our our mantra about let’s create a talent pipeline and then people can compete. But everybody loses if there’s nobody in the pipeline.

Brandon Burton (20:28.056)
Yeah. So I like how you you take the data and then it’s like, okay, what do we do with this now, right? You create the strategy and it’s leading to these discussions, like you mentioned the example with nursing where, you know, maybe there’s a a salary discrepancy here.

What what comes out of those discussions on the back end? So as you have the data, you’re implementing a plan, you’re having the the tough conversations with the different industry sectors. I imagine that even though there’s data and evidence that there’s probably still gonna be some pushback, there’s gonna be some

Wendy Gramza (21:02.403)
Yeah, and the sal the salary one what like is well that’s a great one to point out because it was very easy to see what the problem might be. A little harder to get everybody on board to necessarily like fix that, right? What’s what’s the fix? but at least now they know what the issue might be. They know that we you know, we’re not gonna go out and train more nurses like we might have done had we not looked at the data and really been honest with no, we don’t need to train more nurses. We need to keep them.

Brandon Burton (21:16.513)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (21:32.216)
Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (21:32.42)
And so then, you know, a lot around you know talent attraction and retention, a lot about talking to people about our quality of life and cost of living, because you know, a dollar earned here is different than a dollar earned, you know, in Chicago. So how do we really start to tell that story? So that was something that the community could do. you know, and when it comes to the manufacturers, we realized too that a lot of people were thinking that manufacturers

Manufacturing is it’s dirty and it’s dangerous and it’s not. So that turned into a campaign of promoting manufacturing as a career in the school systems, both to the students, the guidance counselors, the teachers, and the parents. And so we’ve we’ve, you know, a whole bunch of programs and things have been created to get people more interested in going into manufacturing. We created some of them, some of them were created by our partners.

Brandon Burton (22:27.757)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (22:31.65)
Yeah. I would love to know the level of psychology. I’m sure there’s a study that’s been done somewhere to look at, you know, graduating high school students or graduating college students that feel like they need to leave the community that they grew up in to find a career because the grass is always greener somewhere else when there’s a lot of opportunity where you’re from.

Wendy Gramza (22:48.141)
And

Right, and you’re always dealing with that, right? Like every community deals with that. It’s just like a trade imbalance, right? You know you’re gonna lose people ’cause they wanna go and see other places, so you also have to have an importing strategy as well. And so that’s led to a lot of work that the chamber’s been doing in in attracting and retaining talent. And that’s that’s a whole nother conversation that we could have.

Brandon Burton (22:53.634)
Young one.

Brandon Burton (23:12.8)
Right, absolutely.

Wendy Gramza (23:13.635)
But that’s how it just it’s all it all fits together. And I’ll tell you, we’re looking right now at the labor market is softening. How much and for how long? And what does that mean for our programming? Is it still relevant? Do we need to change things up? Do we need to add, you know, different things? we were just just talking to somebody, and this was actually in a in another state, they applied for a job and were told there were 12,000 other applicants. So just that quickly, I I think we’ve seen we’ve seen that labor market softening.

In certain areas. We’re still not seeing that a whole lot here when it comes to manufacturing. There’s there’s still a shortage, but it has softened. you can find a welder, right? It might take you a couple of months, but they’re out there. So we just need to make sure that we’re reacting to the needs of our business community. You know, is this a blip? Will it go back? You know, we’re just we’re really trying to get our arms around what the future looks like. So we make sure that we’re we’re poised to meet to meet the next.

Brandon Burton (23:44.909)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (23:56.834)
Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (24:13.475)
challenge that businesses are having. It’s not always going to be labor.

Brandon Burton (24:15.764)
Right. Well, and and to your point with the market softening, the labor market softening, I wonder how much of that is the the influx of AI and you get a lot of slop online and when that many people can you just throw out resumes or apply or have bots do it for them or whatever, you get a lot of slop out there. So filtering through all that and figuring out the best way to process process everything to find those good candidates is gonna be a whole nother skill set.

Wendy Gramza (24:36.195)
Right.

Wendy Gramza (24:40.921)
Right, right.

The other thing we found out too that that was kind of interesting in the healthcare field, that the as as things softened a little bit, they would still keep the job openings posted. And you know, we’d call and be like, Okay, you and well no, we’re those jobs really aren’t available. Well then why are they so we’re like this is the data that we rely on to tell us what the labor market’s doing and you’re skewing it by posting positions you’re not really hiring for. So that’s been some interesting conversations with some of our our memories

Brandon Burton (25:00.973)
Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (25:12.507)
numbers as well.

Brandon Burton (25:13.75)
Yeah. And you know, my wife just went through this about eight months ago and that very thing. She’d apply for a position and no, sorry, it’s already been taken. Well, why is it still up here, you know?

Wendy Gramza (25:24.321)
Why is it still posted? Yep, exactly. Yep. Yep.

Brandon Burton (25:25.4)
But yeah, so that’s frustrating. But I’ll I’ll tell you what was super helpful was those who did job postings and said we’re taking applications up until this date and then we’re gonna assess and make our decision by this date, you know, of who we’re gonna interview and move forward with. And that helped give a lot of clarity to job applicants to be able to figure out where they want to apply and where they wanna put their attention.

Brandon Burton (25:53.465)
So as we as we start to wrap things up, Wendy, I wanted to ask you on behalf of those listening who are interested in taking their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item would you leave for them as they strive towards that goal?

Wendy Gramza (26:10.925)
think one thing that our industry has done so well and I have to give a shout out to ACCE because any chamber that’s not a member of ACCE make the investment do it. you know it is if you’re a smaller chamber you don’t pay as much as the larger chambers do. So and they work really hard to make sure that things are relevant to chambers in all sizes. So that would be the first thing that you need to do ’cause you get so much out of that. And then really if you are a member and you’re not paying close attention to that horizons.

Initiative that was so compelling when it came out the first time, and now they’ve done they’ve done a second generation of it, if you will. That should really spark your thinking. You’re gonna go, yes, I agree, I’m seeing this. and it gives you some some practical things to think about. It’s not going to give you the answer because the answer is different if you’re in Miami versus Toledo or Tulsa or wherever. but you know, lean into lean into the association, lean into other

chambers who are willing to help and lean into that horizons because it’s really going to help you frame really you know what it is that chambers should be doing and you know get get a lot of sleep and drink a lot of liquids because what we’re doing is not it’s not easy it’s not tangible you know I still have I was actually just talking to a friend of mine and she’s like I don’t mean to appear stupid but I don’t really really understand what you do and a lot of people don’t right and

Brandon Burton (27:25.73)
Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (27:40.652)
And we know all the reasons why that is, because we don’t sell pencils, right? Or pen’s the pen, I guess. You know, here, buy this, here’s how much it costs, here’s what it’ll do. That’s not what we’re selling. we’re selling solutions, right? And we’re selling success, and that’s harder for people to grasp. So it’s not it’s not in it’s not an easy endeavor, but it’s one that’s needed in every community. So keep the faith.

Brandon Burton (27:40.962)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (28:04.664)
Yeah. Absolutely. well I like asking everyone I have on the show about the future of Chambers. I know you just mentioned the Horizons Initiative as well, but as we look to the future of Chambers, how do you see the future of Chambers and their purpose going forward?

Wendy Gramza (28:20.288)
you know, it’s

It’s always changing. and boy if I had the answer to that, you know, I wouldn’t have to work anymore.

But it is a little bit of reading the tea leaves. And so you have to look at those things that are signals of what’s happening. and you and even if you can’t recognize it before it happens, you’ve got to be ready to like pivot. And I think that’s what chambers are really good at and I think that’s what’s going to keep us relevant. you know, we’re we’re a machine with a with a with a recipe, with hopefully no in our case, we’ve got some money in the bank, so we’re not

You know, when something happens in our community, we’re not like, gosh, we’re you know, we can we’re sustainable, we’re gonna be here in five or ten years. And I think the most important thing is really getting your community to recognize that and to lean into that and to be ready to partner with unusual partners. Like, you know, we’ve partnered with you know the health department even before COVID. We were partnering with the health department when we had some water issues in our community, you know, partnering with you know, our

county commissioners that a lot of times you know we didn’t see eye to eye with just thinking about those sort of unholy alliances that are really going to be important if chambers are going to stay relevant. And they can work. You can agree to, you know, we still disagree with our county commissioners, you know, when they want to spend money or they want to increase taxes, but we agree with them on the benefits cliff and that we’re working together to fix it. So we agree on that and we disagree on the things we disagree on.

Brandon Burton (29:46.114)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (30:00.687)
Wendy Gramza (30:03.125)
So I think we can’t to be successful, you can’t lose sight and just completely say, now I’m I’m working with this group, so I’m gonna say yes to everything they do. No, you’ve still got to be able to pull back and go, no, you know what, that might be in the best interest of business, but this is not. and I think it’s really important if we’re going to be be relevant that we, you know, just to summarize, we are willing to have entertain partnerships with groups that normally historically we would not, but that we still understand.

Brandon Burton (30:17.752)
Yeah.

Wendy Gramza (30:33.115)
that sometimes we’ve got to stay true to representing businesses because it’s really easy to let a lot of these social issues pull us off task.

Brandon Burton (30:41.838)
Yeah. I think that’s such a great point that you’d made. So first of all being a problem solver, but also not letting those those I’ll say minor disagreements create a barrier to being able to find agreement and synergies in the future. So that’s a a great example.

well Wendy, I’m gonna give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing things there in Toledo or about these programs you discussed today. Where would you point them and what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?

Wendy Gramza (31:12.781)
Well, and you know, like I said, ACCE is a great way to connect the conferences and I swear they’re not paying me for this. or you, right? the conference is coming up, that’s in New Orleans. Who doesn’t want to be in New Orleans in July, right? It’s gonna be, you know, balmy. my husband’s going and still claims he’s gonna golf while I’m in the session, so I think he’s crazy, but how that works out. But again, I’ll be at the conference in a couple of weeks. and then you can certainly reach me by email.

Brandon Burton (31:27.512)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (31:34.054)
Good for him. More power to him.

Wendy Gramza (31:42.725)
It’s wendy.gramza@toledochamber.com or reach out to me on LinkedIn.

Brandon Burton (31:52.216)
Very good. We’ll get that in our show notes for this episode and make it easy to connect. But I’ve thank you for spending time with us today and highlighting these programs that are making a great impact there in the Toledo region. And I wish you and your team best of luck as Chamber of the Year.

Wendy Gramza (31:57.475)
Great.

Wendy Gramza (32:09.764)
Great, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

2026 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Greater Des Moines Partnership with Tiffany Tauscheck

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Brandon Burton (00:01.015)
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and here on the podcast, I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year finalist series. And today we have with us Tiffany Tauscheck. She’s the president and CEO of the Greater Des Moines Partnership.

leading the transformative economic community development efforts across the 13 county region. Since joining the partnership in 2015, she has held key leadership roles and she’s driven major strategic initiatives. She serves on numerous national and regional boards and has and has been recognized as a national and international leader, receiving multiple awards. Tiffany has achieved her CCE, IOM, and her CDME designations.

Tiffany Tauscheck (00:46.348)
If I can go and just wait for items on the

Brandon Burton (00:56.387)
She is a Drake University alum and passionate advocate for regional collaboration, placemaking, and building a stronger future for Greater Des Moines. But Tiffany, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. First of all, big congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a Chamber of the Year finalist. That’s awesome. But I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions who are out there listening. And if you would, share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Tiffany Tauscheck (01:26.964)
You got it. Well, thank you, Brandon, so much for the invite to join you for the Chamber Chat podcast. really excited, of course, as always, to connect with all of our chamber peers across the country and really looking forward to connecting with them at our ACCE annual convention that’s coming up. So I’ve worked at the Greater Des Moines Partnership for 11 years, three years as president and CEO, but prior to this, I was in community development in a different way. So I actually worked at the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

for about eight years prior. So what used to be a focus on tourists is now a focus on talent and economic development. So we always say today’s tourists are tomorrow’s talent. And I’m just proud to work alongside a great team to drive that work.

Brandon Burton (01:55.993)
Okay.

Brandon Burton (02:10.243)
That’s right. It’s very connected, right? Yes, absolutely. Well, tell us a little bit more about the Greater Dem Partnership to give us an idea of the size of the organization, staff, budget, scope of work you all are involved with, and and anything else that will help set the stage for our discussion today.

Tiffany Tauscheck (02:12.448)
It very much is, yes.

Tiffany Tauscheck (02:30.389)
You got it. So the Greater Des Moines Partnership is the regional economic development and talent development organization, and we leverage public policy as a supporting strategy for our work. We now represent 13 counties throughout central Iowa, and we have a really unique model. So we’re funded primarily by our 400 plus investors. So these are organizations that are investing in our work to strategically act activate upon the needs.

that they see needed and possible throughout the region. We are the largest regional business, economic development, and talent development organization in the state of Iowa. Part of what makes us so unique is that in addition to our investors, we also represent 25 affiliate chambers of commerce. So we have a really unique model. It’s a dual membership model. So 25 local chambers of commerce are affiliated with us, and therefore their members are our regional chamber members.

Meaning that collectively we have seventy two hundred regional chamber members throughout the the regional footprint that we have here in Greater Des Moines, making us the second largest regional chamber of commerce in the entire country.

Brandon Burton (03:42.554)
Huge. I mean, literally, that’s huge. That’s awesome. Very good. Well, on these Chamber of the Year episodes, I like to spend the majority of our time talking about the programs that are submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. So we’ll dive into that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

All right, Tiffany, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, today we’re going to dive into the programs that you submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. And

Tiffany Tauscheck (03:45.197)
Yes. Thank you.

Brandon Burton (04:12.417)
I know you just alluded to one of them being your dual membership model affiliate program, but tell us more about that, how that model works. I’m sure there’s many chambers out there listening to this right now that are saying, what? Rewind, how does this work? Tell us more. How does this how does this dual membership model work for you guys?

Tiffany Tauscheck (04:32.671)
You got it. Well, fun fact, we actually do receive calls or emails almost on a weekly basis from chambers across the country that are curious about the model and how it came to be, how it’s so successful, and how we keep everybody in the boat, so to speak. So this really, really began in 2009. So credit goes to many of the leaders who were with the partnership even even prior to me joining the partnership, who established this dual membership model. So in 2009,

Brandon Burton (04:47.224)
Yes.

Tiffany Tauscheck (05:00.665)
They established this new model, which had 16 affiliate chambers of commerce. So today we’ve really grown and focused over the last three years on that regional collaboration and continued support. So we’ve been able to up that number to now 25 affiliate chambers. So there are 25 chambers that are part of us and affiliated with us, representing more than 7,200 regional chamber members throughout the Greater Des Moines Partnership region that we represent.

So one of the reasons that this was originally established, and of course we continue to fine-tune and and it’s a very dynamic situation always, right, in Chamber World. So we’re always evolving and shifting and changing to to meet the needs of of the leaders and the community overall. One of the things originally was that need for collaboration in 2009. Well, now fast forward to today, 2026, there continues to be an even heightened need for regional collaboration.

We also know and hear from our affiliate chambers of commerce that they have a lot of interest in learning from us, the Greater Des Moines Partnership, related to governance models, best in class processes and shared services. So that’s something that we provide as well is those shared services and support so that every chamber that is affiliated with us is able to be as strong as they can be. And part of the benefit of this is that not only are they

As their own unique chamber stronger, they’re able to service their members stronger, which is great because as we all know, the stronger all of our businesses are throughout our footprint, the stronger our entire region is. So we’re taking this as yes, a collaborative approach, but also a very unique and targeted approach to help support those local chambers and being the best that they can be for their members.

Brandon Burton (06:56.969)
out to me as the shared services. So I’m curious to see with twenty five other affiliate chambers that are part of the organization, what services are shared and is it different for each organization? It what’s that dynamic look like?

Tiffany Tauscheck (07:12.813)
So there are currently two chambers that because we just rolled out this new shared services model. We currently have two of the 25 that are leveraging our team to support them with their financial work. So we have a team of experts in finance and accounting. And so they are they are essentially working with and supporting those chambers so that they don’t have to hire their own staff related to finance and accounting work.

Additionally, we for all 25 chambers of of commerce, we have meetings where we go through basically best of class procedure, best in class procedures. So this could include governance, it could include onboarding your board of directors, it could include onboarding a new executive director or even hiring a new executive director or any other HR function. So as you think of it, we really are that that arm to best support them so that they can do their work.

Knowing that our chamber leaders are pulled in many, many directions and they’re in high demand. we know that chambers are unifiers and they are doing really great work in each of their communities. So our job is to support them so that they can do their best work in each of their individual communities. But we also know because we represent rural, urban, and suburban chambers, that some of the issues are different in each of the areas, but many of the issues are and opportunities are actually the same.

And so there may be a chamber in one area that pursued a solution or an opportunity that another chamber could learn from. So our job, we’re connecting them and helping them learn from each other, one another, and building that peer support through this dual membership model. One other thing that I want to call out, which we’re really proud of, is earlier this year we announced for the very first time there is a new, new, new dual membership model.

That we’ve established with ACCE. So this means that all of our regional and chamber affiliates, all 25, automatically now get to be members of ACCE, which we all know in Chamber World how important ACCE is to the work that we all do to help be catalytic leaders in each of our areas of of the region.

Tiffany Tauscheck (09:35.435)
So this is another way that we’re connecting them to resources to ensure that each of our chambers are best in class.

Brandon Burton (09:46.8)
Yeah. so there are negotiations that need to go on as you bring on an affiliate or or things like that with with partnering with ACCE. that that’s one thought. And my other thought is are you dealing primarily with staff at these other chambers or do you have to interact with their boards too? What does that look like?

Tiffany Tauscheck (10:08.577)
These are great questions, Brandon. So essentially we work our way through the process and because we have added some other chambers recently, we’re very familiar with the process of onboarding a new chamber and making sure that we’re working not only with their staff, but also with their board leadership. And that’s something that we have found a lot of success with is ensuring that we’re not only supporting the the board and the staff, we’re supporting them as a whole and making sure there’s that strong understanding.

of clarity of roles between the two. So that’s something that we work through with each of those chambers as they’re onboarding, but also as there’s transitions at the board leadership level. So it’s not unusual for our team to go and present to their board, whether it’s at a board retreat, or we have team members who are dedicated through our regional community regional community integration strategy to go to their board members, go to their board meetings every time that they meet if

Brandon Burton (10:41.23)
Yes.

Tiffany Tauscheck (11:08.043)
the chamber is up for it and be there as a as a listening ear and also to provide support and of course to share back what we’re hearing from other affiliates throughout the region and what the partnership is working on as well. So that continued connectivity is really, really important. But you, you are right. It is very, very important to have clarity of roles and a strong understanding going into this this relationship, what the benefits are and how we can best support one another and to have those continual

touch bases which we of course have built in with each chamber to their liking.

Brandon Burton (11:42.608)
Right. I can see huge value, especially with the board retreats, as you mentioned, to be able to have the the expert, as they say, right, is the person from out of town to be able to come in and be able to share those best in class practices and and teach them how to how to be an effective board. I think there’s so much value there. So I I love the idea that that regional collaboration and it looks like you just continue to find new ways to grow upon it and add more and more value. I love that.

Is there anything else that we need to know about that model before we move on to the next program?

Tiffany Tauscheck (12:17.409)
The other thing I’ll just note is that because of this model, we’re able to leverage our government policy council or GPC as we call them to not only have investor input on our state and federal policy agenda, but also our affiliate chambers and their voices are introduced and part of that entire process, knowing that we are a nonpartisan organization. We are consensus-based and consensus driven.

So having GPC and having not only our investors but our affiliates at the table and having these conversations about state and federal legislation is very, very important to the advocacy work that we’re doing for our overall region.

Brandon Burton (13:00.205)
Yes. And to be able to go and say here we are representing s you know over seventy two hundred businesses, right? It it’s huge. It’s a that’s awesome.

Tiffany Tauscheck (13:05.717)
That’s right. It is. We do a fly-in every year to DC. it’s called DMDC. this this last year we flew in 175 leaders to meet with our members of Congress and talk about our legislative priorities. So we talk a lot about the importance of one voice, one mission, one region.

Brandon Burton (13:16.62)
Awesome.

Brandon Burton (13:26.381)
Yes, I love that. Well let’s switch topics to the other program that was submitted on your application. If you’d like to introduce that one, I believe it has to do with the career readiness.

Tiffany Tauscheck (13:39.424)
You got it. Yes. So this is called the Legacy Project Career Ready Collective. And this is the third year of this of this initiative. And it really started, and I have to give kudos to Joe Christine Miles with the Principal Foundation. She’s the executive director and she shared with me a few years ago this idea that she had to help support high school students through the Principal Charity Classic. And in those conversations and hearing her vision for what could be

I, of course, got really excited about this opportunity and brought it back to our partnership team and specifically the talent team here at the partnership. And they said, absolutely we can do this. So our team has collaboratively built this curriculum and built this entire program from scratch based off of a vision of a very, very exceptional leader that we have here in our region. And through that, the Career Ready Collective, or CRC, we call it for short, has just continued to grow. So

on year three now, we have about 400 high school students that are participating in this program that’s all about career readiness and helping career with career pathways, helping these students see a path for them here in our region or anywhere in the state or where they’re where they’re participating in the programming. And part of why I say that is because for the first time ever.

we now have the Career Ready Collective expanding not only throughout the state of Iowa, but we’ve added a site. And this year it’s also in St. Paul, Minnesota. So really excited to have this growth. We now have six sites for the Career Ready Collective. So we have Cedar Rapids, as well as Pella, Newton, Perry, St. Paul, and of course, Des Moines. So really excited to see that continued growth and to support.

students on their career pathway.

Brandon Burton (15:36.142)
Yes, that is amazing. So I hear other chambers that do some sort of a career readiness program and usually they’re dealing with one or two school districts maybe as they’re doing this. I’m curious it regionally, how many school districts and interstate now, how many school districts do have to work with to roll out this program and introduce it to these high school students?

Tiffany Tauscheck (16:00.13)
Benny. what I do know is that last year we had sixteen schools just in the Des Moines proper area that were participating in the program. So there is a there’s a lot of coordination. We’re able to do this in part because we’re working very closely with either the local chamber in each of those areas, like St. Paul, Minnesota has been a wonderful partner being brand new this year. But also we’re working with the community leaders and

number of volunteers and business leaders from each of those communities because what we want to do is ensure that not only the student learns from one another and learns from their peers and learns from the curriculum that our team has built, but we also want to make sure that they’re connected to business leaders and help see how they could pursue opportunities, whether that’s through work andor volunteering in their own community. So one other piece that we did is we built out this curriculum in close partnership and collaboration.

with the Ray Center. So the Ray Center is based at Drake University and it is focused on character counts and civility. And that’s those are two areas that we want to make sure that we’re helping those students understand expectations of employers of civility and showing up for one another with character and and in a way that is both adding trust and value to the organization.

Brandon Burton (17:25.967)
Can you kind of visually or I guess verbally walk us through what a site looks like? What does that entail when a student shows up there? what’s the interactions look like at one of these sites?

Tiffany Tauscheck (17:47.02)
You got it. So we have several sites that are in person and several that actually satellite in so that they can see what’s happening, not only happening there it live in person at their site, but also see what’s happening at the Des Moines location, which is housed, of course, a principal financial group given principal charity classic support of this programming alongside Salmon’s Financial. So the students will arrive, they’re served lunch.

which is a really big deal for these students in the summer to have that opportunity to connect and have a great meal with these new friends and peers that they’re getting to know. But we also ensure that there’s programming for every one of these sessions. So we line up speakers to give presentations, whether that’s on financial literacy, whether that’s on networking and how to show up in a room, how to

work the room, how to give your elevator pitch and your 30-second overview of of you as a student and what you would like to do with your future. All of these sorts of skills, we are teaching them through the curriculum with help and support from speakers that that we’ve hired and brought in and of course vetted through through all those processes. So the students are learning from experts. They’re then testing their knowledge and skills with workshops on site.

So they’re getting to put into action what they’ve experienced and learned from those leaders. And then after the sessions, we also have surveys. So we’re able to hear from the students on what did they learn? What are some of the takeaways? What could we do better or differently too? Because we all know continuous improvement is really important for all of our programming as well. So we’ve been, we’ve been really pleased to see that there have been a number of students that have said,

That this program literally changed their lives. And they I’ve had two different students that have said that unsolicited over the c last two years. And that is because number one, the first student said that they did not see for themselves opportunities as the way that they were presented to them throughout the sessions. They didn’t know those opportunities existed, and they didn’t know that they were going to be able to personally bring that kind of value to an employer.

Tiffany Tauscheck (20:03.775)
until they heard it and experienced it firsthand. And the second student that said that this program changed their life said that they didn’t know that there were opportunities such as scholarships available for them to pursue. So that’s something that we’ve also provided those connections. And we know that many of these students after they go home, after the session and they’re talking to their friends or talking to to others and potentially family members about their experiences, we know that we also need to keep those connections with them long term.

Brandon Burton (20:26.091)
Okay.

Tiffany Tauscheck (20:33.963)
So one area that we’ve added on this year is we now have student ambassadors. So these are students that have already been through the program prior that are now coming back to support this year’s cohorts. And they’re showing up, they’re connecting with these students and helping them again see their paths through this program, but also longer term in the future. So that piece of mentorship is also really, really important. We’ve seen an increase of 45%.

Brandon Burton (21:00.353)
So

Tiffany Tauscheck (21:02.981)
in students s being involved in this program over twenty twenty five, which is really, really exciting.

Brandon Burton (21:05.059)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (21:09.815)
Often. I love you know, exposing these students to opportunities throughout, you know, locally, keep the talent there locally. I’m always curious, especially when working with high school students, about how do you get the word out? Are you working with the counselors, the guidance counselors of the schools? I mean, how do you reach that demographic in a meaningful way to be able to drive interest and and to have them actually show up and participate?

Tiffany Tauscheck (21:38.446)
That’s a great question. We’re working with the schools. So the school districts, the schools, the school counselors, teachers, word of mouth. We’re also working with employers. And we’re also working with a number of nonprofits who have internship opportunities, that they’re also making sure that their interns are aware of these opportunities. So want to call out too that we now have for 2025, we reached 34 high schools.

And we have eight nonprofit education partners. So those are folks that did help us with the recruiting, but also helped us with delivering the curriculum. so it does take an all hands on deck. It’s something, frankly, Brandon, I’m talking about in every single board meeting. I’m talking about as I’m out presenting around the community, and I know our team at the partnership is doing the same because we see the potential in these students and we want to help them see the potential in themselves.

Brandon Burton (22:33.391)
Yeah. Well it’s just so valuable to workforce in general throughout the region to to keep that talent local and help them discover the opportunities that are there right before I love that. Sounds like you guys are making a huge impact with the the CRC program.

Tiffany Tauscheck (22:51.511)
Thank you. Yes. And I didn’t even mention, but the students actually get a stipend for their time. And so that’s another area that’s really helped build this momentum is that they’re paid for their time. And that means a great deal to them and shows again that that ownership piece. And it also helps with their their families buy-in and support of of the program as well. So that’s been another element that we’ve that we’ve created as part of the the creation and implementation of the Career Ready Collective.

Brandon Burton (23:21.711)
I’m ready to ship my kids there from Texas to participate. So that’s awesome. Well, I like asking on behalf of those listening who are interested in taking their organization up to the next level to see what kind of tip or action item you might provide for them, especially given the status this year as a Chamber of the Year finalist. What what would you offer to them as they strive towards that goal?

Tiffany Tauscheck (23:24.311)
Huh we’ll take them.

Tiffany Tauscheck (23:48.216)
Well, probably no surprise as I am a huge advocate for regional collaboration, and that’s something that the partnership has grown over time and needs to continue to steward forward. I believe in I believe in that collaboration across chambers and making sure that you’re picking up the phone, you’re building those relationships, certainly at ACCE, but also any other opportunity that you have to connect with a chamber leader. I guarantee you that we’re still gonna learn from one another whether

You’re on a different coast, a different area of the nation, have a different size of chamber, different budget, different staff. We can always learn from one another. And what I have found is that the chamber leaders are they are wonderful leaders. They want to do the right thing. They want to help one another and they want to make their community even better. So pick up the phone and continue to build relationships.

Brandon Burton (24:37.229)
Yes. And I think there’s a a great value in building your own network or your tribe as some call it. because I think even going about building that regional collaboration, it inevitably somebody new is going to come into the mix, a new chamber executive, new present CEO, and they may not

be from the chamber world. They may not understand how just how collaborative and how open the chamber world is to sharing ideas and really working together. So being able to have that network to be able to help swallow up these newcomers to help them understand this is how it works is so valuable.

Tiffany Tauscheck (25:15.369)
It it really is. And that’s something, you know, even at the partnership that we’re we’re doing in our day to day work inside the market is connecting legacy leaders with up and coming leaders with students. It it really does matter and we believe that we’re going to be stronger together.

Brandon Burton (25:31.991)
Yes, absolutely. I like asking everyone I have on the show about the future of Chambers. So Tiffany, how do you see the future of Chambers and their purpose going forward?

Tiffany Tauscheck (25:43.864)
Well, I would love it if other chambers adopt also this dual membership model that we’ve created in their own region. And I understand it it can be it can be a lot to navigate through that. And we are here to help them. but I believe that dual membership model really is the future of our chambers across the country. And also adding in that dual membership model up to ACCE, we’re already seeing great value in it, and I believe others would as well.

So kudos to ACCE for their innovation and being willing to adopt this really, really new idea. I really do believe it is the future. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (26:22.263)
Yeah, that’s awesome. I should have asked earlier, but do you have to use a certain like a special kind of CRM or certain settings within the CRM to be able to work a dual membership model?

Tiffany Tauscheck (26:32.837)
that’s a good question. We so we use Chambermaster and with that we have it set up so that every chamber that is utilizing Chambermaster has their own account, but we do have a unique way through Chambermaster with their help and technical support where we have it set up so that there is that feeding back and forth and that all of those chamber members are showing up on our website in addition to each individual chamber’s website.

Brandon Burton (26:36.367)
Okay.

Brandon Burton (26:49.133)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (26:58.147)
Wow, I’m sure that was a feat to overcome. So good job.

Tiffany Tauscheck (27:01.611)
We have a lot of great team members and as you know, so much of it it it it’s able to happen because you’re surrounded by a great team, right? And I’ve been very fortunate to work alongside really wonderful people and to have followed in the footsteps of those who created a really strong foundation for us.

Brandon Burton (27:10.351)
It’s right.

Brandon Burton (27:19.091)
Absolutely. Well Tiffany, I want to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and learn more about this membership model or anything else you guys are doing there at the Greater Des Moines Partnership. Where would you point them and what would be the best way for them to connect with you?

Tiffany Tauscheck (27:36.203)
You got it. Well, on LinkedIn or social media, my handle is love DSM. No surprise there. so just L-O-V-E-D S is my social handle. LinkedIn. I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn and other social, but those that’s my primary. And then also emails, still great. ttauscheck@DSMpartnership.com. So just my first initial last name at DSMPartnership.com.

Brandon Burton (27:43.32)
Mm-hmm.

Brandon Burton (28:04.141)
That’s perfect. We’ll get it in our show notes for this episode. But this has been great having you on the show and being able to have you highlight these impactful programs that you guys have implemented and and really seeing where you’re moving the needle there regionally, not just locally, but throughout the region. You guys are are doing a great job and wish you and your team best of luck as Chamber of the Year.

Tiffany Tauscheck (28:27.362)
Thanks, Brandon. Appreciate you taking the time to lift up these stories and wins. Thank you.

2026 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Greater Mason City Chamber with Colleen Frein

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Brandon Burton (00:01.006)
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and here on the show I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist series. And today we’re joined by Colleen Frein, president and CEO of the Greater Mason City Chamber of Commerce.

Colleen joined the chamber in 2015 and was promoted to president and CEO in 2023. She brings a strong background in leadership, communications, and community engagement, including a decade as an award-winning multimedia journalist in Iowa. Colleen holds an MBA from the University of Iowa and has earned both the CCE designation and the IOM designation from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She is also active in statewide chamber leadership and community development work.

With a particular passion for expanding access to child care for families. Her career reflects a deep commitment to advocacy, collaboration, and building stronger communities. Colleen, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. First of all, huge congratulations to you and your team for being selected as Chamber of the Year finalist. But 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 bit.

Colleen Frein (01:17.784)
Thank you.

Colleen Frein (01:27.254)
Sure. So I’m so thankful to have the opportunity to share more about our chamber and just to chat with you. I love talking chamber. I mean, don’t we all? It’s the best about. you know, I was you asked me to think about something interesting about me. and so I’m gonna go with I have been an a non professional, so absolutely amateur.

Brandon Burton (01:35.214)
Right.

Colleen Frein (01:50.991)
power lifter for several years now. I started back in 2018, I think. and unfortunately I kind of say that with sadness because I hurt my shoulder six months ago and had to have surgery on it. So I’m not powerlifting much right now. But but yeah it’s kind of a fun way for me to work out the aggression after a long day of chambering. and also a fun way to keep in shape and running after my son.

Brandon Burton (02:07.65)
no.

Brandon Burton (02:14.209)
Yes. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (02:19.641)
That’s right. So do you compete? Like do you go to the competitions?

Colleen Frein (02:22.048)
I used to, yeah. Yep. So I would compete. Again, very amateur. Really the competition was just to give myself a goal to work up to. And just to be clear when we say power lifting, I’m not talking about the spray tan, that kind. It’s just lifting a bunch of weight and putting it back down.

Brandon Burton (02:26.563)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (02:35.437)
Right. Not bodybuilding, it’s powerlifting. Yeah.

That’s right. So my daughter, she just graduated high school, but she was a power lifter all through high school. And it’s a awesome sport and I love seeing girls and women, you know, participating in it because there I think there used to be a stigma around weightlifting and it’s something that is good for everybody. So until you hurt your shoulder or

Colleen Frein (02:46.914)
That’s fantastic.

Colleen Frein (02:55.884)
Yes. Yes. There’s that like women shouldn’t get bulky and it’s you won’t. And I mean if you do, good for you. That is a source of pride. I never got to that point. But no, it’s definitely a fun and it’s a lifelong sport that you can do forever unless you have to have shoulder surgery and then it’s a minipopause. So

Brandon Burton (03:05.539)
Yes, that’s right. You’ve overcome the challenge. That’s right. That’s cool.

Brandon Burton (03:23.085)
That’s right. That’s right.

Colleen Frein (03:23.638)
I’m powerlifting one pound right now, which is really sad.

Brandon Burton (03:27.183)
Now because I know the sport, do you lift equipped or unequipped?

Colleen Frein (03:32.947)
unequipped. Yes. Yes. I’m just plain Jane.

Brandon Burton (03:34.465)
And equipped. All right. Very good. That’s yeah, that’s real strength. So awesome. Well, tell us about the Greater Mason City Chamber. Give us an idea of the size of the chamber, staff, scope of work you guys are involved with, budget, just to set the stage for our discussion.

Colleen Frein (03:41.42)
Yeah. Yeah.

Colleen Frein (03:54.317)
Love to. So the Greater Mason City Chamber of Commerce is celebrating a hundred and ten years this year of existence. we are one of the older chambers. and we are proud to say that we still have several

Members who have been with us the entire 110 years, which I think is pretty remarkable that there are businesses that have been in business that long, not just our chamber. we have about six hundred and fifty chamber members. and probably much like many other chambers, we’re really proud to share that about 70% of our membership.

Brandon Burton (04:17.392)
Amazing.

Colleen Frein (04:28.878)
has ten or fewer employees. So while we know that the big guys are the ones who write the big checks, the big work that we do is on behalf of our smallest members. And that has really been a focus for us in recent years is making sure that we are supporting the ones that are one to ten employees and are really just trying to get through their business day every day and make payroll at the end the week.

Brandon Burton (04:51.236)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that definitely you know helps to kind of get that perspective to understand who the the businesses are that you’re serving and the programs and the the work that you guys are about. on these Chamber of the Year episodes, I like to focus primarily on the programs that get submitted on the Chamber of the Year applications. And being that you guys are a finalist this year, you guys are kind of

Top of your game. So we’d love to learn from those who are doing great work. So we’ll take a quick break and when we get back, we’ll dive into the program and and learn more about what you guys are doing and make an impact in your community.

All right, Colleen, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re gonna dive into the the program that you get submitted on your chamber of the year application. I believe it has to do with child care. So if you want to give us the introduction, what is it about? Where

How did it originate? How has it evolved? And the impact it’s making in your community. We’ll we’ll go from there.

Colleen Frein (05:53.795)
Sure. And I have to say, Brandon, it does occur to me that this is really good practice for our interviews coming up. for chemically. So I appreciate that. so Childcare Works is the synopsis that we submitted for our chamber of the year application. Childcare works is a program that launched four years ago actually.

Brandon Burton (06:00.289)
Absolutely.

Colleen Frein (06:16.576)
It was really an effort to try to solve the really difficult challenge of child care shortages in our region. if you can remember back to twenty twenty to twenty twenty one was really when we started thinking about this. this was coming out of the pandemic. So during the pandemic there was a lot of extra funding put into child care, kind of as an emergency stop gap, right? specifically in twenty twenty to make sure that our

our firefighters, police, hospital, the ones who were working on the trenches had childcare and could go to work and support through that through that crisis. but then coming out of it, what we found was childcare centers didn’t have the staff any longer that they used to have, because they had lost staff due to a myriad of reasons. One, they didn’t have as many kids under their care and people left the workforce during COVID. So

childcare centers had lost their staffing and in the meantime people were going back to work and needing that care more and more and it kind of became and then they lost all of that extra funding that had come is that emergency funding that came during COVID. that ex kind of expired, went away generally around twenty twenty one, at least in our state. And so they were really in a difficult position and and what that looked like in our county is that

Well, our childcare workers were making very low wages. We did a survey at the beginning of this program and found they were making about nine dollars an hour starting wages, which is not enough if you are taking care of a family and you know, have kids at home or even if you’re just single and trying to make rent every week or every month. it’s not enough. So they weren’t making much money. Hard to recruit people into an industry when wages are that low.

and our centers were in a really difficult situation where they couldn’t take on more kids because they didn’t have the staffing. and the staffing they did have were working overtime, over time. Most of them were working fifty, sixty hours a week just to fill and to make sure they could care for the kids that were there. at the biggest kind of crisis point in our area, we got to a point at the end of twenty twenty two.

Colleen Frein (08:30.028)
where our largest center was closing classrooms every week. So, you know, the the first week of the month they would close the infants, second week they close one year olds, third week they close two year olds, etc. and for parents who have multiple children, which many of us do, that means you’re trying to find childcare for your children for multiple weeks every single month. That’s not something that allows for you to work in a in a consistent manner.

and then that what that meant was some of our workforce outside of childcare, a lot of times it was in financial institutions, they were losing workers because they needed to be home caring for their kids. So we were really in a difficult situation. and it’s something that we had all been talking about for years, and I think many communities still, I mean I think most communities are probably still talking about the childcare crisis, but solutions were harder to come by.

everyone has ideas, but at the end of the day, how do you get more workers into a center? We have to raise their wages, is what it came down to. this didn’t come just chamber, I should say. So stepping back, this wasn’t just the chamber that created this solution. this was a partnership between the chamber, our county public

said public works, public health office. So County Public Health was the other kind of main leader on this. And then our school system, our a couple of our larger child care centers, childcare resource and referral, which is a statewide organization that supports child care child care providers, and the community college and our YMCA. And I’m probably and our EDC was the other partner that we had in this. So we had a lot of great people that came to the table.

and said we have to figure out a solution. We were really fortunate to receive a grant from the Du Beaumont Foundation to kickstart this progress. So if there’s kind of a lesson number one that we received or we learned from this, it’s look for that grant funding, right? And be creative about it. So the grant that we applied for was a public health grant that was specifically to solve a public health crisis in your community. which

Brandon Burton (10:35.141)
Yeah.

Colleen Frein (10:44.822)
Many people might not think of childcare necessarily as a health crisis, but but we were able to frame it in a way that we we all know it it really is. It it causes parents to not have the money that they need to buy food if they aren’t making the wages they need, if they don’t have care for their kids and they have to stay home, it brings them, you know, all the things we know about child care. so we were able to frame it in a way that they said this is unique and different and they funded us $100,000.

Brandon Burton (10:48.612)
Yeah, right.

Colleen Frein (11:13.562)
to kickstart us, which was incredible. and the cool thing about this grant, I will praise them up and down, is it really had no parameters. The grant funding was provided and the outcome was try to solve the problem and we’ll give you the resources to help you along the way. Right. There was no like you have to do this by the end or like show us what your outcome is. It was just show us that you’re making progress.

Brandon Burton (11:13.794)
Brandon Burton (11:32.312)
That’s awesome. Yeah.

Yeah.

Colleen Frein (11:41.895)
so it was incredible. and actually kudos to ACCE. we had a partner from ACCE that was there throughout the process as well to help people who didn’t have chambers already working with them on these public-private partnerships to think about how to get the business voice at the table because that’s so important. So that’s how our program was really kickstarted was through this great work of people who cared, getting this grant that really kickstarted our effort and then

Digging down and having those resources to try to think about solving the problem. Again, we found wages were the problem. Wages were the challenge that we were facing. So the solution that we came up with was a wage supplement bonus of $2 an hour for every childcare worker that earned $20 or less in our county. And that’s most of them. Most childcare workers are not making more than $20 an hour.

and we intended to kick start fundraising at the end of twenty twenty two and launch in twenty twenty three. but got really fortunate again we just kind of there’s a piece in there that is you have to be ready when the luck happens, right? so as luck would have it, in September of twenty twenty two the state of Iowa had extra extra covet funding, extra ARPA funds, and they decided to spend it on child care. And they said anyone with a basically shovel ready idea.

let us know and we’ll fund it. at the time it was gonna be a a one to one match and we said that. but the thing is we had to fundraise as much as we could by the end of September. Whatever we had fundraised by the end of September they would match one to one. so we had about two and a half weeks, which is wild. And we hadn’t even like formalized our plan, right? so we were ready ish when the when the magic or when the luck happened. but we just went for it. We said, you know, we’re never gonna be

Brandon Burton (13:26.638)
A race. Yeah.

Colleen Frein (13:38.211)
fully ready, like we just have to start. And so that was really where chambers come in. We have the relationships with those businesses. And I just started door to door basically going to the folks who I knew were already interested in this space and asking them to to help fund this. And it was kind of a whim in a prayer, right? We had no knowledge that this would work. We thought it would. we didn’t know if it would be able to be funded for you know how for how long, but we just said

Put your trust in us. Here’s the research we’ve done. We think that this is the best solution that there that’s out there. And we were able to raise about 250 wait, I’m off on that. because we got six cents. So we raised about three hundred and twenty thousand dollars in those three weeks that we had there. So incredible. Like our businesses stepped up, which was just amazing. and then the state.

unfortunately there weren’t a lot of other communities that were able to come up this quickly with proposals. So the state ended up funding us two to one match. So we received six hundred and forty-four thousand dollars to kickstart this project. and so for three years, that’s what we did. We paid our workers a bonus of two dollars an hour. every paycheck they get that bonus. We are we were careful to make sure that it said in there that this is a bonus so that it’s different from their wages.

Brandon Burton (14:44.272)
Awesome.

Wow.

Colleen Frein (15:04.922)
but what we found is in this now almost three years since we launched, staffing has gone up at our child care centers by about 25%, which is an incredible increase. Our wait lists are down about 70%, give or take on the week. and we haven’t had to close classrooms. one of the other great things that we added into this was in order to qualify for this bonus funding, the centers had to be quality-rated in our state.

And so when we started, we only had three centers that were quality rated, but within a couple of months, the other ones got on board and got themselves quality rated. And now all of the centers in our county are it’s called IQ 4K quality rated. So really kind of an extra boost of not only are we increasing the volume of care, but also the quality of care that we’re measuring in our

Brandon Burton (16:01.572)
Yeah, that’s awesome. I love getting that background and and you’re right, when when a a worker’s not you know, earning enough wages, then you start making compromises and it really does become a public health issue because they’re making you know, maybe they’re skipping medications, maybe they’re buying poor quality food or you know, more highly processed food, or all the different things. You make compromises.

Colleen Frein (16:23.39)
Maybe their housing situation isn’t what it should be. It’s yeah.

Brandon Burton (16:26.776)
Yeah. So kudos to you guys for thinking outside the box and how to apply that as a public health concern. so do you guys have a foundation there at the chamber that these funds are going into? Are they going to the cham yeah?

Colleen Frein (16:38.466)
We do. We do. Yep. So this all was funneled through our chamber foundation. We’ve had a foundation since two thousand one, so about twenty five years now. and this is what it’s used for, right? Is really we try to the things that don’t fit elsewhere, and are these kind of

not or what’s what I’m looking for? not just nonprofit but charity of a charitable funding is that’s where this really fit nicely into and that was a great bonus for the businesses that invested is that this was through a foundation that they could use this as a tax write off. They w they were doing good in our area too. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (17:05.968)
Right.

Brandon Burton (17:17.722)
It’s a tax write off.

Brandon Burton (17:21.912)
Yeah. Which leads into my next question at the fundraising. I that’s super impressive to raise three hundred and twenty thousand in like two and a half or three weeks or so. what was the approach? How’d you guys go after it? And did you have a short list of people to call or what was how’d you guys do that?

Colleen Frein (17:38.531)
Well, I think it all kind of begins with the relationships, right? So because we had been in this child care space for several years prior, and talking with our members about it, I knew

which businesses already felt like this was a priority. We had businesses but but basically we’re we’re feeling that like we want to do something but we can’t do it. We’re not gonna open a child care center. We’re not gonna we’re not gonna be the ones that find the solution but will help fund a solution. so you know the the first thing was setting up those giving levels was kind of scary at first because I wanted to go big and there were some that were in

Brandon Burton (18:04.205)
Right.

Brandon Burton (18:09.88)
That’s right.

Colleen Frein (18:22.03)
Our committee that we’re not used to doing those big asks. but I felt that we had to ask big and what’s the worst thing that could happen? We get shot down, right? so our largest employer in town, Curries, that was really supportive of all of the work we do at the chamber, but especially the work that we had been doing around child care, they were the first ones, and they were actually my first meeting, they were the first ones to step up and

Brandon Burton (18:33.241)
Yeah.

Colleen Frein (18:50.562)
commit to fifty thousand dollars a year for three years. So that was kind of our big fish and once we had them on board and put their name on everything, we were able then to go and kind of

gauge the investments that we were asking based off of what Curries had given and then how others were feeling on it. We had a lot of meetings. I split them up primarily between myself and our partner over at CG Public Health. Kelly took on quite a few of the meetings as well. but really it was just

Going back to those relationships we had, we weren’t going in with a cold ask in that way. You know, we we had been having that conversation for a while. So now it was coming with we have a solution, we have matching funds, and we need you to make a decision like this week. So I actually think that

Brandon Burton (19:39.088)
Right. Right.

Colleen Frein (19:41.583)
worked to our strength because I think that what we have found since is when you have a timeline and you say I need you to make a decision this week they make that decision. When you don’t have a timeline and you say we’d like this money, can you let us know? Sometimes then it has to go through corporate processes and da-da-da-da and it can just get lost in you know time kills deals. So I think that the short timeframe really works in our favor.

Brandon Burton (20:09.232)
Yeah, absolutely. And childcare really is it’s a workforce issue too. So if you go to those those big employers and they can see making that investment is gonna be a direct you know investment in their business as well by being able to have a stronger workforce.

So I’m curious with this with the funds going to the foundation, you have the matching funds that came in. is there an estimate at how long these funds will last with the two dollar an hour bonus? Or is there a way to kind of perpetuate that longer? What what’s the plan look like?

Colleen Frein (20:40.994)
Yeah, so we knew going into this that it was not sustainable for us to be giving two dollars an hour in perpetuity. that was one of my sticking points from the beginning. you know, our role as a chamber is to be looking out for our businesses and I felt very strongly

you know, while I’m passionate about finding solutions for childcare, I don’t think that businesses should be shouldering the brunt of the burden alone. And so from the get-go, we made sure that A, it was a three year commitment, and our goal was in that three years, we would start teetering down how much was provided to the as a bonus and the centers would absorb that additional funding so that organically their wages would go up while our bonus kind of dropped off. and that’s what we’ve been able to

have happen. So we started teetering down last fall to a dollar and we are currently at the fifty cents an hour right now and our centers have been able to absorb that difference in there and make sure those wages were sustained. Because our you know the whole thing going into this was they needed the staff in order to have the kids in order to have the money so that they could pay the staff. So it was this big circle. So basically we kind of inserted the money.

Brandon Burton (21:48.078)
Yes.

Brandon Burton (21:52.45)
Injected there, yeah.

Colleen Frein (21:54.632)
and hoped that the rest of the circle would would work.

because at the end of the day we face, you know, economic changes and right now we’re in a time I don’t think that if I was going out to these businesses and asking for as much as I asked for three years ago that I would have gotten the same responses and I couldn’t you know it’s we’re just in a different economic time, it’s less certain. and so I there was a lot that was timing in in how this worked out. so we’re teetering down and we’re actually in the

process now of moving to a semi-annual bonus format instead. So now that the wages have been brought up to where we think is at least a more sustainable living wage, if not an actual living wage, that part has been solved. We still want to support. So we’ll be doing semi-annual bonuses starting this fall.

Brandon Burton (22:40.976)
Yeah.

Colleen Frein (22:52.12)
to support workers that who’ve been there for six months or more. So really supporting those the retention pieces of it. so we’re hopeful that that

Brandon Burton (22:57.626)
Like that. Yeah. Have that longevity aspect to it. Yeah.

Colleen Frein (23:02.644)
Exactly. Yep, and we have found some long-term supporters of this program, some foundations that want to support the work we’re doing that work in the child care space as well, who are committing to a longer term investment in that way. So we’re excited for that. We know that will be sustainable longer and and we’re excited about how what we’ve done has really already changed that influence. I should also say some of what we’re doing.

Has no funding at all were tied to it. We also created a program through this called Childcare Ready, which is in our high schools, and basically it’s a six-month credential program that is available for high school juniors and seniors, and they spend that six months doing all the training they need to work in a child care center. So they get their background screens, fingerprints, CPR, they do all of the required testing and everything that you would normally do once you get hired.

And sometimes takes several months before you could work one-on-one with kids. So they go through all of that at the high school, and then as part of their training, they do interviews with all of our centers and are able to start working in our centers at that point. So we’re trying to also create a pipeline of people working in the industry in addition to the pay aspect of it too.

Brandon Burton (24:19.023)
Awesome.

Brandon Burton (24:25.998)
I like that it’s not just the one the one focused, right? It’s it’s the one focused to kickstart it, then you’ve got the long-term vision, you’ve got the pipeline feeding into it. So you guys are definitely committed to the work. so I’m I’m trying to think for the chambers listening who it maybe they didn’t, you know, jump on the boat in 2022 when there was, you know, the the funding out there that was floating around so freely, right?

Colleen Frein (24:29.283)
Yeah.

Colleen Frein (24:48.575)
All the money was there.

Brandon Burton (24:51.088)
but for somebody who’s still seeing that childcare is an issue in their communities, there’s nothing to stop them from doing you know fundraising to follow some site some type of a pattern like that. But I imagine there’s still some grants out there in certain states and you know just look around to different organizations, but the there’s there’s answers out there as long as you you roll up your sleeves and get into it, right?

Colleen Frein (25:03.982)
Completely.

Colleen Frein (25:16.342)
Yeah, and I think the big takeaway that that we found with this was we kind of just tried it.

You know, we spend a lot of time thinking about solutions and kind of weighing back and forth and will this work or won’t this work. but we just kind of jumped in and said, We’re gonna try it. And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. but we have to do something. We have to stop the bleeding is kind of what we kept saying. And so I think we spend a lot of times in meetings, right? Where we go back and forth and try to think of solutions and then we push that off to the next meeting. and in this case we just said we just have to go. And I think

that really was a big lesson learned is sometimes you just have to jump.

Brandon Burton (25:59.119)
Yep, that’s right. Absolutely. Well, I like asking on behalf of those listening who are interested in taking their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item would you leave for them as they to strive towards that goal?

Colleen Frein (26:14.114)
Yeah, you know, I think that one tip that I would have in kind of reframing back to our synopsis that we shared in this way, but this goes across all of the work that we do, is really just make sure that you’re having conversations not just with your board, but with your members on a regular basis about what your priorities are and what their priorities are. and that those conversations aren’t just happening, you know, once a year when your annual report goes out or at your annual meeting.

You have constant, constant touch points. I’ve heard recently that you used to have to put something in front of somebody seven times for them to register, now it’s like 21 times, maybe more. So you really have to, you know, get that out there. But that’s how that’s how you’re able to do things at a fast pace when you need to, because it’s not the first time they’re hearing about the issues you’re working on, or it’s not the first time you’re hearing about the issues that they’re facing. this is something that’s been building, and you’ve already built that level of trust that they understand you and you understand.

Understand them. And I know that you know communication is not something that is new to chambers. This isn’t a novel idea, talk to your members. But I think it’s about being really diligent about it and making it a priority and thinking about it. My predecessor, Robin Anderson, who you talked with years ago when we were up for this award before, she used to say 10 before 10, make 10 touches before 10 a.m. with people. And that doesn’t just mean responding to the emails that are piling up in your inbox.

Brandon Burton (27:30.926)
Yes.

Colleen Frein (27:44.088)
the 10 intentional touches with people who you know you need to reach out to or that you want to reach out to. And I think that that’s a really important thing to do is just being intentional about your communication.

Brandon Burton (27:57.371)
I love that advice. That’s so valuable. And if you do that, the the 10 before 10 method, that’s gonna really chart your work for you too, because you’re gonna get that feedback and know what needs to be done and what your community needs. So well Colleen, I like asking everyone I have on the show about the future of chambers and what your outlook is. How do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Colleen Frein (28:02.764)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Colleen Frein (28:22.668)
You know, I you know, of course, going back to ACCE Horizons, our Horizons report, it I think that

In my mind, the most important role of a chamber is as convener. That’s how we were able to succeed in our child care works effort was by convening the right people to the table. But it’s not just about convening for certain projects, it’s convening for joy. It’s convening for purposes of knowledge and education and putting the right people together when you need to have those conversations. And I think chambers are uniquely situated

to know who should be in the room and who should not. That’s a very important thing.

Brandon Burton (29:04.676)
Yeah. That’s just as important. Yeah. Yeah.

Colleen Frein (29:07.598)
And and how to tactfully tell people when they should not and why, and not lose friends in the process and how to tactfully tell people you need to be here, and not to force them into the room, but to open that door and and make them feel valued and understood why they should be in that space. So so I really think convening is it is at the heart of everything we do.

Brandon Burton (29:31.716)
Yeah, I I couldn’t agree more. And very well said. well I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and learn more about how the Greater Mason area chambers or how the sorry, how the Greater Mason City Chamber is approaching things, especially with child care or anything else. where would you point them and what would be the best way for them to connect?

Colleen Frein (29:55.619)
For sure. Well, of course, go to our website, masoncityia.com. We got a whole new refresh this year, so you might just also enjoy checking out our newly done website on

Brandon Burton (30:04.908)
It is a pretty slick website. I was on it this morning. It looks very nice.

Colleen Frein (30:06.944)
you thank you. For those of us who have been through website redesigns recently, it’s a long process, but well worth the effort. you can find my contact information on there, but you can also just email me cfrein@masoncityia.com is my email. our cell phone or not our cell phone our phone is on there as well but emails usually or you can find me on the socials. I’m on LinkedIn.

Brandon Burton (30:12.747)
Yeah.

Colleen Frein (30:36.848)
find me on there. I’m fairly active as much as I can be on there too. And I do really enjoy meeting and chatting with other chamber professionals around the country because I think we all have so much we can learn from each other or just commiserate with each other.

Brandon Burton (30:52.748)
Yeah, that’s right. Sometimes that’s what you need is a good therapy session. So that’s perfect. Well, we’ll get your contact information in our show notes and make it nice and easy to connect. But thank you so much for putting aside some time and joining us here on the show and really highlighting the impact you guys are making there in Mason City. I really appreciate it and and congratulations again to you and your team. And I wish you guys best of luck as Chamber of the Year.

Colleen Frein (30:56.366)
Yeah.

Colleen Frein (31:18.306)
Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity to share.

2026 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Mobile Chamber with Bradley Byrne

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Brandon Burton (00:00.94)
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and here on the podcast, I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us today for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year finalist series. And today we’re joined by Bradley Byrne, president and CEO of the Mobile Chamber.

Bradley brings more than 30 years of legal experience and more than two decades of public service to his role leading efforts around business growth, economic development, and workforce strength in the Mobile region. He previously served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he advocated for business, industry, workforce training, and education policy. His career also includes service in the Alabama State Senate.

On the Alabama State Board of Education and as Chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system. With a deep background in labor law, education, workforce development, and public policy, Bradley offers a valuable perspective on the opportunities shaping Mobile’s business community. Bradley, I’m excited to have you with us today as a guest here on Chamber Chat Podcast, especially as a Chamber of the Year finalist. Big congratulations to you and your team. But I

Wanted to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions who are out there listening and if you would share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (01:36.41)
Well thank you for allowing me to come on your program and hello to all my fellow chamber workers out there. thank you for what you do in your communities. So the Mobile Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1836. We are 190 years in working to build and help the business community here in the Mobile area.

We’ve been doing out-of-the-box things almost from the beginning. We actually, back in 1955, bought a barrier island that had no people on it.

Had it ch carved up into lots, put streets on it, sold the lots, sight unseen, because you couldn’t get to barrier island except by boat. Then after we sold them, we paid off the loan that we took out to do that and took the net proceeds and worked with the county to build the bridge to that island. It’s now a thriving barrier island with lots of people on it and a big boon to our area. So that’s just an example of things that we’ve done over the years, sort of thinking outside the box how we can grow the business community. More recently.

We did a review of our community, and particularly things that might be issues for our business community, and asked this question.

Who’s going to solve these problems? Who is it out there that’s going to take care of this? In some cases we had people right at hand to do that. In others we didn’t. And where we didn’t have anybody that could solve them, we decided that we would solve them. Now, we oftentimes don’t know what we’re doing when we start these things. But we found out that as a chamber, we’re good at bringing the right people together at the right time in the right place. You bring the right people together, which chambers are so good at doing, you can get a lot of things done by listening to people, learning.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (03:15.515)
And then finding the right people, the right programs, the right resources to solve that problem. So we’re going to talk about all of those today.

Brandon Burton (03:22.35)
That’s right. I’ve never heard of a chamber who’s helped to populate an island and build a bridge to it. So that’s that’s pretty neat.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (03:32.791)
I told my bo I told my board that if I propose that they’d probably fire me. But a lot of courage to do that and I’m glad they did.

Brandon Burton (03:37.236)
Right? Absolutely. so you gave us a little of the historical background on the mobile chamber. tell us a little bit about more about the chamber, the size, staff, scope of work you guys are involved with, budget, to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (03:56.516)
Thank you. We have about 1,700 members, mostly smaller businesses. We do have some big businesses, but the vast majority of our members are small businesses. we have about 35 people working here with a budget of a little over six million dollars. We are on contract with both the city and the county here in Mobile to be the economic development organization for this area and have been for the last 40 years.

So we’ve been deeply involved in what we’re doing to grow the mobile economy. We’ve announced since the beginning of 2022 over 6,500 new jobs for this area, which is a lot. And so part of what we have to do is to make sure that we have the adequately skilled workforce to man those jobs.

help those businesses that be to come here or expanding here to do what they’ve got to do to get their product to market, make their product, whatever it is that they’re doing. We’ve been pretty successful with that. We started our own workforce alliance, bringing all the players and workforce together. And by meeting once a month, talking with one another, we’re able to do the things as a community together to make sure we’re providing that workforce for all these new employers. So we’ve been deeply involved in that. Our community development department

works on a number of things. Affordable housing, attainable housing for people that are in the workforce, transportation, we’ll get to that in a second, helping new small businesses grow. We just recently got into childcare, which is something we didn’t know anything about, still don’t know a whole lot about, but with the U.S. Chamber’s help we’re learning that.

We have a very s active small business program here. And we have a host of things that we do for our members. A week doesn’t go by that we don’t have at least one, if not more than one, events going on in and around this chamber. So it’s a very active group. We’re counted upon to be somebody that brings the chamber, the business community together. And we’re the voice for the business community. So we’re strong into advocacy. We have our own in-house lobbyist that works in Montgomery. We have another lobbyist that’s on contract.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (06:04.913)
we work a lot with our local government and of course we work with the US chamber on federal issues. So this is a very active chamber, a very strong chamber, and have it has historically been so.

Brandon Burton (06:16.206)
Yeah, sounds like it. so with these Chamber of the Year episodes, what I like to do is focus the majority of our time on the programs that were submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. So we’ll dive deeper into those programs and learn more about those as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Alright, Bradley, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re gonna dive into the programs that you submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. I understand one of them has to do with mobility around town. The is it mogo? Is that what what it’s called? You wanna tell us about that program and with the origins and the impact that it’s making?

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (06:59.075)
So as I said earlier, we have demand for a lot of new people into our workforce. And we found out from a state study that the number one reason why an able-bodied adult in Alabama is not working is that they don’t have a car, they don’t have the way to get to and from work. And so we asked the question, what can we do to solve that problem, to get more of these people who are sitting on the sidelines into the workforce? So we came up with this idea that we call MOGO. It’s a rideshare program.

And what it does is it has a set route, but the route includes all of our workforce training centers and it has most of our major employers. So you can get on one of these smaller vans and they’ll take you from near where you live, may not be exactly where you live, but within easy walking distance where you live, take you to wherever it is that you want to go. So this has been a fantastically successful program. We’ve given over 20,000 rides in a year and a half.

We have twelve hundred people that are regularly using this program.

Brandon Burton (07:56.536)
Wow.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (08:00.277)
So the city of Mobile came to us after they’d heard about it and said, Can we see your numbers? Because they wanted to see particularly what our cost per ride was. When we provided them our numbers, they said, Can we work with you so we can blend this into our mass transit program? So we said, Of course. You know, this we didn’t take this on to do it permanently. We’d love to have a partner like you. So we’ve done that, and at the end of next month, we will have our rideshare program formally enveloped within the

Mass Transit Program of the City Mobile, which both enhances our program, but also enhances their program. So we’re very proud of MOGO. It solved a problem. It figured out how to solve that problem, and we in fact solved that problem. And we’ll continue to do so with the City of Mobile.

Brandon Burton (08:48.344)
So with Mogo, is there a cost involved for writers to write it? Is this funded through programming through the chamber or how how is it set up to make it operate?

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (09:00.537)
raise money from foundations to do the pilot. And so if you get into one of those cars and you’re going to one of the either business training facilities or the actual businesses, you don’t pay anything. But if you go in somewhere else, you pay $1.25, which is still pretty cheap. And so working with the city, we’re going to try to maintain that cost structure.

Brandon Burton (09:18.488)
Yeah.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (09:23.789)
But as I said, the city’s going to be augmenting what we were already offering just by the size of their program. And then we’re showing them not only how to get their cost per ride down, but how to get rides closer to where people live.

Brandon Burton (09:37.241)
Okay. So a as part of the connecting it to the mass transit, is there gonna be a i I’m trying to envision what that looks like. Is there gonna be like connection points where maybe the mogo will take to one of these employers and then from there they can hop on a bus or something like that to get to other parts of the city?

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (09:58.714)
Well some some people will hop on the Mogo ride share and go directly to wherever they’re working. And some people will get on the rideshare and they’ll go to a regular bus and get on that bus and then get to where they’re working.

So the magic here is to have the sort of experience that we in the company we hired, a company called VIA, to put all that together and find the most efficient way to get people from A to B. And we take away that barrier from somebody being in the workforce by saying, Don’t worry about how you’re going to get there. We will get you there. And the employers love it because it solves a problem that they don’t know how to solve on their own.

Brandon Burton (10:35.672)
So initially did the chamber have to go out and buy a fleet of vehicles of these vans, or how did how did you execute to make that work?

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (10:44.003)
We got into an agreement with a company called Via, and Via produ provides both the vehicles and the drivers. And they had this system where you can just have it on your app and you know order up your ride that way or you can call on the phone and order it up.

And they have a system of being able to keep up where we’re picking people up and where we dropping them off. And that helps inform how you change the pattern of the of the drives from one week to the next. So we’ve learned a lot in the last year and a half. And the city has learned a lot by working with us, and I think the city will take it and make it even better in the future.

Brandon Burton (11:19.33)
Yeah. Well that sounds sounds like a neat program and and it filled a void, it sounds like for sure. So I like that. should we shift gears to the the other program on your application? Tell us what that is.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (11:34.724)
program called business navigator. So there are lots of people that start new businesses and as you probably know there is a high rate of failure. And what we wanted to do is to make sure that we removed as a barrier to people being successes in the new businesses things that people aren’t getting because they just don’t know how to get them. So the navigator gets you there. Let me give you some examples.

You’re starting a new business and you don’t know even what some of what sort of form of organization you need. Well, you need a lawyer to sit down with you and tell you, you need a partnership or an LLC or whatever you want to have to do. Well, if you don’t know a lawyer, that’s a like a big barrier. Well, we’ve taken that barrier away. We’ve got lawyers who will work with them. Same for accountants, same for bankers. And sometimes they’ll walk in and we say, What is your business plan? And they don’t have a business plan. And we help them draw up their business plans. Now we can’t guarantee that they’re going to be a success.

But we’ve had 700 of these businesses come through our program. And we have been able to remove the barriers for the vast majority of them. So whatever likelihood they were of being successful before went way up. And we’ll see how some of these ideas play out, but a lot of them have done quite well. And we know that our navigators play a role in making sure that they have what they needed to be successful in their new business.

Brandon Burton (12:51.948)
Yeah. I mean, some people just have poor ideas for business. So you’re right, you can’t you can’t make them all be successful. But being able to eliminate some of those roadblocks, as you kind of play that matchmaker for some of these businesses and connect them to the services that they need, are they is it really just is it making the introduction? Is there is it more

intricate than that, how do you see that relationship through to help them, like you said, help draw up the business plan and then do the best you can to see it through the other end to help them be successful.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (13:33.25)
It depends on the business.

Because they’re none of them are the same, you know. They have some common problems, but none of them are the same. They’ve all sorts of different ideas about services and goods that people want to offer. And so in some cases, we may have to hold their hand a little bit longer, and that’s okay. We don’t that doesn’t bother us at all. But it’s it’s it’s probably the most important thing we do is when we sit down and say, You’ve got to have a business plan in writing. So forcing them to put their business plan in writing forces them to think through the various things that they’ve

Brandon Burton (13:36.674)
Great.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (14:04.453)
got to address in order to simply get up and going. And so we’ve enjoyed being able to provide that service to people. And we’ve enjoyed, you know, putting them in contact with an accountant here or a banker there or an investor. If they’ve got an idea that needs something more than just a bank loan, then we try to put them in touch with investors. So it really does depend on the business, depends on how far along they are, how far along they’re not.

A lot of times they come at the door and they just have an idea. So we try to get them as far down that road as we possibly can.

Brandon Burton (14:32.259)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (14:36.536)
So is the business navigator program, is that something that’s available just to chamber members or what what businesses are able to take advantage of it?

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (14:45.749)
All businesses. the funding for this has been coming from government sources up until now and we found an al alternate way to fund it through soliciting CRA funds from banks. And so what we do is we offer these services to anybody that walks in the door. You don’t have to be a chamber member. And frequently they’re not chamber members because they haven’t gotten their business going.

Brandon Burton (15:08.684)
Right.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (15:09.815)
We try to make sure that we’re there for everybody, that we get the word out that we’re there for everybody. And obviously quite a number of people have come to us with their business ideas and a need for help.

Brandon Burton (15:21.41)
Yeah. So you touched on another challenge I’m sure with these are individuals who don’t have a business yet. How do you reach them? How do you let them know that this program exists?

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (15:34.03)
Well part of what the navigator does is navigate around town and get the word out to people. there are people out there who, by virtue of what they do, they know about people that are thinking about doing this. You wouldn’t think about this, but there are a lot of church pastors out there that know people in their congregations who are thinking about starting a new business.

Brandon Burton (15:52.568)
Great idea.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (15:55.566)
Public officials. I know from my time as a public official, frequently people will come up and think that you as a government official have something magic you can offer them. Well, in this case, what we’ve done with public officials is said, we’re here, here’s our contact information, just send them to us and we’ll take it from there. And the public officials love it because it’s a concrete thing they can do for people they represent. And you know, they like seeing the success of a small business that gets up and running just as much as the rest of us. So we try to

get around town to make sure people know that we’re here. But it’s a constant effort. It’s not something you can do once and you’re done. You got to do it over and over and over again. So the navigators are both providing the service but also doing the hard footwork for advertising the service.

Brandon Burton (16:33.784)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (16:39.35)
Yeah, that outreach. I mean, I think you guys have hit on something there with between elected officials and the church pastors and been able to help with getting the word out. But I imagine it’s a continual effort to try to continue advertising it and and making sure that people know that the program exists and it’s available and what the scope is of it, you know, what it what it can do to actually help them get up and going. Is there anything else with the business navigator program?

That we need to know about or that you wanted to highlight

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (17:12.643)
Well, our most recent addition to that program is the leg legal training and assistance. so we found that there was a gap in our program because a lot of times they needed some sort of legal overview or or overthought.

Brandon Burton (17:28.888)
Yeah.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (17:30.314)
And so we’ve been able to work with law firms in this area, and then they had to go and get the things straight with the state bar and the local bar, which they’ve done. And so we have a really good team of primarily younger lawyers who do a really good job I sat through some of those programs. They do a really good job of explaining things to these people in a way that you don’t have to have a law degree to understand. So they can sort of understand it practically. How does it affect my business that I’m trying to get started?

practically. So I’m really, really proud of that Regal Legal TA program. It’s the most recent addition to Navigator. And it’s proven to be very popular by the way, because you have these very smart young lawyers who really know what they’re talking about. And a lot of the businesses that come to these meetings will come out and tell me later, you know, I wouldn’t even thought about that as something I needed to do. Well that’s that’s why we’re here, is is to make sure the stuff you haven’t thought about, we’re going to bring people to you who will help you think through them.

Brandon Burton (18:23.031)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (18:31.34)
Connect a a aspiring business owner with an attorney and they’re gonna help them see all the blind spots and be able to protect themselves and and be prepared. Right. Yeah.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (18:37.561)
Well I I I used I I used to be one of those, so I understand. I’m I I’m a lawyer, I’m here to help you, but they really are there to help. And and I think I’ve seen them at work with these new small businesses and they do a wonderful job and and it makes me proud to be a lawyer watching these young lawyers providing this sort of a service for free.

Brandon Burton (18:46.509)
Yeah.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (18:57.655)
to people who I’m sure they hope at some point down the road will be a very profitable business and that’ll be their client. But they don’t know that going in. And the odds are that a given business probably won’t be, but some some will. We we think that’s a great success for everybody.

Brandon Burton (19:13.228)
Yeah. No, just from the legal front alone, there’s a huge value there because I mean I’ve been through just the setting up a trust and you know, all the blind spots that I wouldn’t think of that man, I’m sure glad that we had this attorney who could think through things and and take the experience that they’ve had and and be able to help apply it back to me and and in this case to the businesses. well Bradley, as we start to wrap things up.

I’d like to ask on behalf of the those listening, those watching who are wanting to take their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you share with them to help accomplish that goal?

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (19:56.868)
Make a really strong analysis of your business community. Find out what issues and needs are out there for the business community. And then go see if you’ve got someone, some organization, some person in the community that’s adequately addressing that issue. And if so, make sure everybody knows that it’s out there. If not, try what we’ve done.

We started out in every one of these programs that we have not knowing anything. Like we’re in the midst of starting childcare right now. We don’t know anything about childcare. But chambers are uniquely situated to bring people together in the room.

To foster conversation around what the topic is and then come up with something that’s concrete that can be done. And then you go find the people that can do that andor fund that and then go drive it. That’s what we’ve done with Navigator, that’s what we’ve done with MOGO, that’s what we’re doing with childcare, it’s what we’ve done with attainable housing. I mean

We’re doing that knowing that we’re not gonna know anything about it go going into it. But it doesn’t face us and it shouldn’t face anybody out there. Because chambers are really good at solving problems. It’s really what we are, our problem solvers. And all of us can get more involved in our community to solve problems that perhaps would never get solved otherwise.

Brandon Burton (21:14.764)
Yes. I I totally agree with assessing the needs of your community. And for those listening, don’t just listen and think, well, if if mobile’s doing this, we need to do a a mogo program or you know, it’s a rideshare program. No, like assess the needs in your community. You don’t need to guess. You don’t need to just totally rip off and duplicate as as chambers do. There’s times for that, but you need to assess what the specific needs are for your community. Otherwise if you’re

Guessing it’s gonna fall flat on its face and find out what those needs are and be that problem solver. I love that advice.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (21:52.1)
Don’t be afraid if you don’t know anything about whatever that is you’re going into. I mean, you are uniquely situated to bring in people that do know, to bring them together, to work together and solve the problem. and it’s for us it just has happened over and over and over again.

And we don’t ever go to sleep on this. We keep our eyes open if something new’s out there. We’re gonna get on top of it. And I think the people in the mobile community, particularly the business community, I think they appreciate that that’s what we do.

Brandon Burton (22:23.33)
Yeah. And those things that are real problems, others will line up to help to answer those problems.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (22:30.701)
People have been great. I mean, every time we’ve asked somebody to come to a meeting, to lend us their professional knowledge, do anything, they’ve been great about getting involved.

giving us the benefit of what they know, working with other people. I mean, we n we n almost never have it somebody telling us no. They may say, we can’t do it that way. You gotta do it a different way. Fine, good. You do, and we’re gonna listen to you. So i we’ve been very, very pleased with the response we’ve gotten to everything that we’re doing.

Brandon Burton (22:52.023)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (22:55.832)
Sure, yeah.

Brandon Burton (23:05.934)
Good. so I like asking everyone I have on the show about the future of Chambers of Commerce and how specifically how you see the future of Chambers and their purpose going forward.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (23:18.637)
Well, chambers are going to become more important going forward because with the speed of information, not just AI, by the way, the next thing that’s coming after AI is quantum computing. Chambers are going to have to stay out there in front.

And help our members, help the business community figure out how we’re going to deal with all this exploding information, how we can protect ourselves when it may hurt us, but also how can we include that in our operations where we can use it to become more profitable? So I think chambers are going to have to be the leaders in all that. And also in many respects the thought leaders in those communities as things change.

Sometimes there just needs one voice to stand up and say, we should consider this. And chambers have a great opportunity to use their voice to help lead our businesses, to lead our communities through whatever is going to happen in this rapidly exploding information age.

Brandon Burton (24:21.026)
Yeah. I think to your point with all the information, it reminds me of how chambers are uniquely positioned as well to be the same center when it comes to political issues, but they do that by digesting information.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (24:34.627)
Yeah, I didn’t mention that, but that is an important part of what chambers do. We bring people together, as we do here in this chamber through our governmental affairs committee, to find out what are the issues that are confronting our members and how can we get together with other people and be advocates for our business members on those issues. We do that every year for the legislative session. We do it during city council meetings, county commission meetings.

And it’s our voice, the voice of everybody, every business in this town. Just while we like having small businesses, we speak for all businesses in this area. And I think it’s incumbent upon chambers to get up and speak when there are issues that are important to the business community, important to our members. We do that and I know many, many other chambers do that as well.

Brandon Burton (25:20.92)
Yeah. I think that that goes to your point of being able to process information and be able to to give warnings, to be able to help guide businesses, to help them understand what’s important, where the threats are, where they need to be focusing going forward. And I think you hit the nail on the head there. So appreciate that.

I’d like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and learn more about how the how you’re doing things there in Mobile. where would you point them and what would be the best way for them to connect with you?

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (25:56.899)
So we have a great website called mobilechamber.com. And virtually anything that we’re doing here is going to be on that site. And if you want to know more about it, you can go on that site and decide who it is that you need to speak with. We talk to other chambers pretty regularly. We benefit a lot from those conversations. And we’re more than happy to be in conversation with any chamber in the United States of America. Because working together, we can help one another and make our community.

Brandon Burton (26:26.81)
Absolutely. Well we’ll make sure we have your website and our show notes for this episode. But this has been great to have you on the show, Bradley. I really appreciate you spending time and setting aside the time to to be with us today. And again, congratulations to you and your team for getting on this stage and wish you guys best of luck as Chamber of the Year.

Bradley Byrne – Mobile Chamber (26:49.657)
Proud just to be there, honestly. To be one of the top three chambers in America is outstanding. I give all the credit to my team. They’ve done a great job.

2026 Chamber of the Year Finalist-OneSpartanburg Inc. with Allen Smith

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Brandon Burton (00:01.344)
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and here on the podcast, I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us today for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist series. And today we’re joined by Allen Smith, president and CEO of OneSpartanburg Inc.

A native of Greenville, North Carolina, Allen began his career in local government before moving into chamber leadership with the Greenville Pitt County Chamber of Commerce. He later served as president and CEO of the Greater Greer Chamber, where he helped drive financial strength and membership growth. In 2014, Allen since 2014, Allen has led

The Spartanburg organization through major transformation, including the launch of One Spartanburg, Inc., a comprehensive community and economic development strategy designed to build a more vibrant region through business, economic, and tourism development. Allen’s work reflects a deep commitment to community leadership, regional collaboration, and long-term growth for Spartanburg.

Allen, welcome back to Chamber Chat Podcast. First of all, huge congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a Chamber of the Year finalist again. And love to give you an opportunity to say hello to everyone out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can get to know you a little better.

Allen (01:32.771)
Huh.

Well, I appreciate the opportunity to be back. I really do. And I think it’s such a valuable service. And so I’m I’m grateful to you that that you do this and just incredibly grateful to be back in the US Chamber of the Year space again. we won in twenty twenty one. We we haven’t applied since and so we decided, hey, look, we’ve we’ve had a really good run, so let’s let’s put an application together and you know, thanks to our partners, our team and and just a a willing community, here we are again and it’s very humbling.

particularly when you consider, you know, the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the Mobile Chamber of Commerce. They’re other they’re the other two finalists. So we find ourselves in in very good and elite company. So delighted to be with you today.

Brandon Burton (02:16.453)
Absolutely. Yes, we need that.

Allen (02:16.713)
interesting. Interesting. So that that’s that’s where I have to really think because I think any of our chamber leaders that are listening, there’s not a lot of time for interesting things or or hobbies in this space, particularly when you have two two young daughters. And so

I’m girl dad, I guess that’s the interesting thing about me. I’m all in. Painted toenails, painted fingernails. If they wanna do it, they wanna fix my hair, they wanna put makeup on, I’m I’m all in. Life is short, you know, time’s fleeting and you know, I I would rather my hobby be them than than something without them.

Brandon Burton (02:42.292)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (02:55.776)
Yeah, I love that. And that means they’re doing it right. So awesome.

Allen (02:59.799)
Trying. Every day it’s a learning process. And and when I get it wrong, they will they will tell me. That’s right.

Brandon Burton (03:02.616)
They’ll let you know. That’s right. well, for those listening, help help us understand one Spartan Burg geek. Help us understand the the organization, the scope of work you’re involved with, staff, budget, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Allen (03:22.413)
Sure, we well, you alluded to it earlier in in the bio. So in September of 2020, we took our countywide chamber, countywide economic development, countywide tourism, and consolidated it all into one organization. In fact, we renovated the whole building with that consolidation in mind. So it’s it’s one of the few places in the country where a chamber specialist or chamber expert is sitting right next to an economic development expert. So you might have somebody championing

Small business sitting right next to someone that’s working on tourism. And then about 18 months ago, we said we need to make talent our fourth vertical as well. So business, economic, tourism, and talent development all under the same umbrella. We’re about 33 FTEs, about seven tens, including our foundation. We’re coming up on a

Of $10 million. Incredibly blessed to be in this community, the third fastest growing MSA in the country. 29 people a day are moving to Spartanburg County. That’s about 10,600 net new residents a year. So it’s an exciting time to be in Spartanburg County. Obviously, growth comes with some challenges as well. But I will take those problems over the alternative. So again, just very blessed to be here in

Brandon Burton (04:40.802)
Yeah.

Allen (04:47.482)
this community and and and particularly under this model. I I really can’t imagine doing it any any differently than the way we do it here now that we’ve we’ve been under this umbrella now for six years.

Brandon Burton (05:01.878)
Yeah.

So I mentioned before we hit record that a couple weeks ago I had Matt Pavarnik on the show at Myrtle Beach and talked about the new collaborative that they formed there in Myrtle Beach, and he referenced One Spartan Burg Inc. a couple of times in that episode. obviously hold you guys in high regard with the model that you have. And it it’s something for the right communities to look at and and see how you guys are executing and bringing everything together and having that that synergy and focus.

is to help further further develop your community. So you guys are you’re doing something right there.

Allen (05:39.608)
Well I appreciate that and appreciate Matt’s kind words as well. We are we are so happy that he’s in the state of South Carolina.

Brandon Burton (05:46.743)
Yeah. well on these Chamber of the Year episodes, what I like to do is spend the majority of our time talking about the programs that you guys submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. So we’ll take a quick break and when we get back we’ll dive into those programs and learn more about the impact you guys are driving there in Spartanburg.

Alright Allen we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re gonna dive into the programs that you submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. if you would just give us an idea what those what those programs are and then we can dive into them in a little bit more detail.

Allen (06:21.858)
Well, you know, it’s it’s interesting. I our vision plan one point zero, which is a five year community and economic development strategy, two point zero, which was a five year community economic development strategy. Now we’re developing three point zero, which is a five year community and economic development strategy. So 15 years when we’re done with three point zero. And it is eerie how well it aligns with the Horizons initiative. and when you look at redegree and and power up and edge, all three of those programs, I I

Brandon Burton (06:45.121)
Yeah.

Allen (06:51.792)
Align quite well with the industry’s vision for the industry, and then of course with our vision plan. And so, first, redegree. So, we have economic development house here as we spoke about. One of the things that we need to do in Spartanburg is diversify our economic development approach. Our our bread and butter is advanced manufacturing, but if you want to diversify your economic development approach, you need to raise your education attainment levels. And so the quickest way to do that is to engage those people.

That have some college and no degree. And we’ve discovered there’s about 55,000 people that started their higher ed pursuit and life got in the way. Somebody got sick in the family, there was a financial hardship, whatever it may be, they had to stop and they never really went back.

And that’s sad, but you can reverse that story and that’s what Redegree is doing. So thanks to a partnership with the Spartanburg Academic Movement and Movement Twenty Thirty, we launched Redegree less than three years ago and the scale has been tremendous. I say less than three years, it’s actually been two years and two months.

1,703 people are have inquired about redegree, but most importantly, five hundred and two individuals have re-enrolled, and seventy four have graduated either with a credential, associate’s degree, or a bachelor’s degree. And again, that’s a very short amount of time. we believe that we’re really hitting scale. And so we think about in any community, if five hundred new

Brandon Burton (08:30.974)
Yeah, that’s a funny.

Allen (08:35.562)
People were going back to college, that would be like adding a small institution in your community and having a freshman a freshman class. And so that skill, we also know that this population, if left to their own devices, has a 2% chance of returning to college. So if you’re doing if you’re doing that math, you know, 1700 people that have started the process and 500 have re-enrolled, you know, we’re all over 30% of

Brandon Burton (08:41.559)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (08:55.34)
Wow.

Allen (09:05.442)
Actually re-enrolling. So that tells us that our interventions, our hand holding, we’re getting people across the line to re-enroll. And so that’s redegree. Under talent is Edge, which is our work-based learning program. We’ve engaged more than 120 employers. and since this thing kicked off two years ago, we’ve created 1,041 work-based learning opportunities. And that’s the new fancy way to say internships. but we believe that that’s in

Brandon Burton (09:10.657)
Yeah.

Allen (09:35.265)
incredibly important with seven institutions of higher learning. If we can ignite something in a junior or senior high school student and they can find applicable program here locally, we have a really good shot of keeping them. You know, if you’ve got that job at the end of the educational pursuit, you’re more much more likely to stay in the community. So delighted with the scale the edge has produced in a really short amount of time. And then power up power up

Brandon Burton (09:38.388)
Yeah.

Allen (10:05.218)
Was launched in April of 2023. We got some data through our visioning process. It wasn’t too good. Small businesses were not starting and growing at a rate comparable to our peers or on a national average. Furthermore, black-owned businesses were starting and growing at about half the national average, which sadly is a case all across South Carolina. And so, you know, chambers forever have been supposed.

Brandon Burton (10:29.496)
Allen (10:35.088)
Supporting small businesses, but we really wanted to do something differentiating and skilled. You know, not having a program where twelve or fifteen businesses went through it, give them a plaque, have a banquet, and celebrate what we’ve done to help small businesses. We really needed scale. And so we went to the county, and fortunately, the county had just gotten American Rescue Plan dollars. And they said, We believe this. We’re the best in the nation at recruiting big businesses. Our levels of investment indicate as much. But we want to be the best at starting and growing small businesses as

Brandon Burton (10:38.648)
Right.

Brandon Burton (10:57.832)
That’s right.

Brandon Burton (11:02.488)
Well,

Allen (11:05.038)
Well, so they entrusted us with a $6.5 million grant. we put our own resources with it, and since April of 2023, 2,538 small businesses have filled out intake forms. 66% have engaged, which means they have taken advantage of two or more of our offerings. And let me speak to our offerings. in three years, we’ve deployed $4.1 million dollars of grants and loans.

Brandon Burton (11:13.662)
Yeah, yeah.

Allen (11:34.881)
In the community. Talk about these are like 3.9% type products. So beating beating the private sector, these businesses would not be able to get that product in the private sector. 56 new small businesses have started. The small businesses we’ve been working with have created 234 new jobs. And this one’s a big one. We have been very successful at recruiting.

Brandon Burton (11:42.017)
Yeah.

Allen (12:04.844)
big businesses, but we would hear it all the time. Small businesses would come to us and say, hey, we want to do business with Corey Dr. Pepper. You know, we want to do business with Hintech. We want to do business with BMW Plant Spartanburg. But when you begin to unpack to them what that really requires and what they need to do, they are not even close to being ready. So what we did is we hired the recently retired supplier readiness person at BMW Plant Spartanburg and she has been helping small businesses

Get ready to do business with big business. And results are off the chart. So in three years, she’s helped small businesses secure $15.1 million in contracts with these big businesses. And so this whole power-up movement really is just starting, three years old, a whole team dedicated to that. So we’re very it’s excited about the potential that that power up brings.

Brandon Burton (12:38.7)
But

Allen (13:04.834)
small businesses all across all across Spartanburg County. We’ve actually had two hundred and there it is, fourteen hundred inquiries from twenty five states of small businesses that wanted to take advantage of power up and we had to say, you are welcome to do that, but you got to move to Spartanburg County.

Brandon Burton (13:12.696)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (13:16.824)
Well

Brandon Burton (13:25.156)
That’s right. I love that. And man, what an impact. I think you said fifteen point one million in contracts to new local businesses there. And being able to have that money stay in the community versus going, you know, somewhere out of state or maybe overseas for some of those contracts. Who knows where they were fulfilling those contracts before? But that’s a that’s a huge impact in the community. And I love that with each one of these examples.

you have the numbers down to the exact number of businesses that inquired, new businesses that have started, the number of internships that I forgot what the new fancy word was for the internships, but the number of internships that were started or created and and the number of people with the the re-degree. So I’m curious how

how you went about finding the information for redegree to be able to see how many people there were in the community that had some college but not a degree associated with it. Where were you able to look for that that information and and pull that data together?

Allen (14:32.984)
Well, first of all, a a little a little tip, I guess if they wanna call it a tip, maybe it isn’t, but I I believe it is and I always talk to our team about this. You know, you mentioned specific numbers. Well, you know, one of my pet peeves is when somebody says, More than one thousand or over five hundred, you you don’t you don’t seem very credible. And so I tell our team all the time, like, five eight.

Brandon Burton (14:45.121)
Yes.

Brandon Burton (14:51.138)
Yeah.

Allen (14:58.496)
One thousand two hundred and eleven. Like I mean that that shows the hey we’re we’re real time we’re tracking this. So I I just I think you have so much credibility when you use the exact number. So thank thanks for pointing that out. We identified the the redegree number through a talent gap analysis with Lightcast. and we’ve done a talent gap analysis now every two years. they’re not cheap but but they’re well worth it because the talent market in your community is literally changing.

monthly. And so, you know, how can you come up with programs? How can you develop things like edge and redegree if if you really don’t know what the needs are, the opportunities are, the gaps are, so on and so forth. And so one of the things that they pointed out is, hey, you know, you got you if you’re trying to raise education attainment quickly, you got fifty five thousand people that already have some credits in their back pocket. that’s that’s the audience that that you need to be reaching.

Yeah.

Brandon Burton (16:00.183)
So I’m gonna go back to again with the the specifics that you shared. it it goes to tell the story too of the chamber and the impact that you’re making. When you can say that there’s been seventy-four graduates that have completed a a degree through the redegree program.

Those are households that are being changed. It’s life changing to be able to have a degree, to be able to further your career, to change the economic s situation for the families, and to be able to tie dollar amounts back to whether it’s the number of you know contracts that are being brought back through the power up program, it really shows that, you know, without the chamber, what would the community be like?

If if if one Spartanberg Inc. wasn’t there, it would be a huge void and you guys are making a huge impact. So I th the specifics and being able to show that direct impact are are huge. what are we missing with these three programs? I know, I mean, you you hit high level and I know you know you can

probably talk for an hour each on both of these, but what are some of those things that that really stand out as far as the the differences being made and the impact that you’re seeing through these programs?

Allen (17:21.272)
You know, we did we didn’t even speak on and because we didn’t include this as as part of our application and ma you know, maybe we should have, but but last year was a record year for us in terms of new investment, three point five billion dollars in new investment, one thousand one hundred and twenty four new jobs. So, you know, you talk about impacting people and families, one thousand one hundred and twenty four new jobs is is a good is a good measure of that. you know, another another

metric related to power up was our access to space initiative. And that’s not like NASA or going up in space. This is actually action access to physical yeah on the ground physical space. So you know all across America, you know, there’s different municipalities that have boarded up storefronts and and so on and so forth. And and so our access to space initiative, we engaged and again this one’s relatively new, but we engaged

Brandon Burton (18:00.994)
On the ground. Yeah.

Allen (18:21.082)
A lot of those landlords, and we said, hey, look, if if we were to get you a promising tenant and subsidized their lease for six months and then scale it down from seven to twelve, you know, would you be willing to upfit your building? and we’ve had great success in that regard.

Place 12 small businesses in storefronts that quite frankly have been idle for years. And so we see that gaining some steam as well. We’re about we’re about to build a little incubator village at the start of one of our trails in downtown. So think cargo containers with promising small businesses in it, and it’ll be programmed so you know with music and all kinds of different events, so people will be.

Brandon Burton (19:04.002)
Okay.

Allen (19:11.704)
driven to it. So access to space is is just a part of the the general overall offerings of Power Up Spartanbird.

Brandon Burton (19:23.072)
Yeah. I love that idea. The the whole access to space a while back I had a guest on the show and we talked about doing empty building tours to be able to get people out and

visualize the space in some of these empty buildings and but the approach that you’re taking, going directly to the landlord and saying, We can bring somebody to you, if you can make the building something that that could be worthwhile to to host a business in here, we can help make sure that, you know, you’re getting paid, you’re getting your rent and helping to to make that transition, I think, is a very smart way.

Allen (19:55.853)
Yeah, I I tell you y you mentioned people, real people and and and and stories and this is a great story. Puddin, P U D D apostrophe N. this is a guy that had a pudding business, all kinds of different flavors and there was a storefront that that hadn’t seen a tenant in years and it was is literally contiguous to

a a railroad that went right across the main street in one of our smaller towns and the train always, every day clogs traffic, you know, for twenty, twenty five minutes and so we talked to him about this space and I said, You you know, you worry about the the train? He said, No. He had a whole plan for when the cars get backed up by the train, they’ll have somebody out there in the puddin, you know, uniform with order forms, you know, basically cap

Brandon Burton (20:48.63)
Yeah.

Allen (20:49.75)
Customers. So I love that approach and I’m I’m glad we were able to activate that space in Duncan, South Carolina.

Brandon Burton (20:57.484)
That’s awesome. That’s like it’s just like a drive-thru line, right? You just go out and take your order like you’re at Chick-fil-A or something. So Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. I love that example. so what I I like asking on behalf of those listening who are interested in taking their organization up to the next level.

Allen (21:04.258)
Well, but and you didn’t choose to be there. So you’re you’re captive.

Brandon Burton (21:23.414)
What kind of tip or action item might you share with them as they strive to accomplish that goal?

Allen (21:29.676)
Well, I’m humbled that you would ask that question. I mean, we we’ve got a long way to go here, but I I’ve learned I think the difference between good organizations and great organizations in our industry are those that have left activity and moved to performance. You know, we’re not we don’t we don’t well we don’t even have a golf tournament.

we’re not talking about attendance at last month’s event was up. You know, we’re not saying we have more golf tournament sponsors and things like that. That’s those are activities that support the organization, which are important, but you you need to move to performance metrics that support the community. And you know, I I you know, we have that conversation all the time in this building, you know, w

I is this initiative really about, you know, supporting our organization or is this really about supporting our community and the people that live in it and the businesses that are hoping to thrive here? And I understand, you know, you gotta put you gotta put fuel in the tank, you gotta have gas in the car, you gotta drive revenue, understand all those things. but but less of this and more of that and the revenue will come.

Brandon Burton (22:43.446)
Yeah. In fact I just last week did a presentation on that very thing at a chamber conference and we talked about those events and programs often they can be that b to using the engine analogy, kinda like the pull string, you know, think of the lawnmower, i it’s that that initial effort, but then after that you have to show your value, you have to be able to tell the story what the chamber’s doing, drive the impact, and the revenue comes, the sponsorship comes, all those things come.

But like you said, less of less of those things and more of those impactful things that are gonna really make a difference. So I love that you put that out there. I like to ask everyone I have on the show as well about your outlo outlook for the future of Chambers. How do you see the future of Chambers and their purpose going forward?

Allen (23:19.426)
That’s right.

Allen (23:34.595)
That’s a great question. because it’s

We’re in this rapid time of of change and you know, I can I can speak on behalf of of this organization and I and I know that this is the case across the country. You know, those of us in in high growth areas, you know, it’s it’s become very challenging because, you know, you’re viewed it’s a perception it’s not true, but you’re you’re viewed a as the entity driving all the growth and growth is bad.

And so it’s just interesting. Yeah, well exactly. And, you know, in in the book of Revel Revel Revelations it talks about what’s up is down, what’s down is up. And these days seem that way sometimes when you’re when you’re literally

Brandon Burton (24:10.328)
Until it’s not happening. Yeah.

Allen (24:24.946)
defending the creation of jobs. so it it’s a challenging time to to be in this industry, but I think that also speaks to the essential nature of what we do as well. I mean, we we serve the people whether they know it or not. I mean there are thousands, literally thousands of people in our communities that benefit from the work they do, whether they they like us or not, or whether they

know that our work has benefited.

them and their families. I think also think the future of chambers, particularly the standalone ones that don’t have, you know, maybe they don’t have economic development or tourism, it’s in advocacy. I really believe that’s where their relevancy is because you’re in a unique space. You know, if you’re not going to be the voice of business and then who is? And that can be pretty scary because taking a position on an issue is going to win you some friends and it’s going to win you some enemies. But progress never comes without criticism.

criticism and so you can’t be afraid, you know, to get in that space. at the end of the day, you’re the business business community’s only hope. And that’s the way that’s the way I I look at it. You know, I have a I have a little poster that says three hundred and eighty one thousand.

That’s the population of Spartanburg County. That’s I have 381,000 reasons to to do what I do, and and our team thinks about it the the same way. And so, you know, it’s gonna change, the work’s gonna ebb and flow, the external conditions will change, but the essential nature of our organizations I think will remain a constant.

Brandon Burton (26:08.472)
Well, to your point, when you’re helping to spark the the ideas for two thousand five hundred and thirty eight businesses and help stand up fifty six new small businesses and create two hundred and thirty four new jobs and help connect fifteen point one million in contracts with some of these bigger companies. I would argue that

lot of the people in the community don’t know the role that the chamber has to do with that, but it’s driving income into their homes, into their households, it’s creating jobs, it’s providing a lifestyle for them that they wouldn’t have otherwise. So you guys are are making a huge impact, whether or not the average person in the community knows it. But I I think that’s a a great, great response to the future of chambers and need to be driving that growth and in employment.

Helen, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and learn more about how you guys are doing things there at One Spartan Berg Inc., where would you point them and what would be the best way to connect?

Allen (27:18.158)
Sure. we and again I I’m happy to help. We we don’t have all the answers, but if someone reaches out, maybe we can figure it out together. my email address is asmith@onespartanburginc.com. That’s onespartanburginc.com, not the number. and my phone number is 252-327-0069 and I welcome any feedback, questions, comments, be great.

Brandon Burton (27:48.96)
That’s perfect. We’ll get it all in our show notes and make it easy to connect. But this has been great having you back on the show for those interested in going back and checking out some of the previous episodes.

Allen was on back in episode 136 as a Chamber of the Year finalist when they won Chamber of the Year in in 2021, and also back in episode 107, so back in the early days of the podcast. But he always brings great value to the show. So it’s been a pleasure having you back on today. Thank you for setting aside some time and sharing these great programs and impact that you guys are driving there in the Spartanburg area. Appreciate it.

Allen (28:26.676)
Absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity. And I and I hope I’ve improved each time. I d I don’t know, the jury may still be out.

Brandon Burton (28:31.992)
Leave it to the listeners to find out.

Allen (28:36.78)
That’s right.

2026 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Murray-Calloway County Chamber with Michelle Bundren

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Brandon Burton (00:01.026)
Hello, Chamber Champions! Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and here on the podcast, I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year finalist series. And today we’re joined by Michelle Bundren, President and CEO of the Murray-Calloway County Chamber.

Michelle is a respected chamber leader with more than 11 years of experience in the industry and a strong background in business management. Michelle made history as the first female president and CEO in her organization’s 99 year history. Her leadership has earned national recognition, including ACCE certified chamber executive designation, a distinction held by only a small percentage of chamber professionals nationwide, as well as a four star accreditation.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She’s helped lead the award-winning chamber work, including bringing home ACCE’s National Chamber of the Year honor in 2019 and continues to invest in leadership, workforce development, education, and regional collaboration across Kentucky and beyond. But Michelle, I’m excited to have you back on Chamber Chat Podcast, especially under these circumstances. It’s very exciting and big congratulations to you and you and your team.

But I wanted to give you an opportunity to say hello to everybody and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

MIchelle Bundren (01:34.558)
Sure. Well thank you so much for having me back. Obviously we’re we’re really excited to be a finalist again. it’s been what six years. so it’s been a fun and exciting s you know, six years since then. I think just interestingly, I’ve been married for twenty-two years. my husband and I both graduated from Murray State University. We have three children, fixing to be a senior in high school, which is an interesting time.

Brandon Burton (02:04.92)
Yeah.

MIchelle Bundren (02:04.991)
and have a fourteen and twelve year old. So we have teenagers in our house. So I not only do you know work, but obviously that’s a full time job in itself as well. So that’s my season of life. We’re busy with them and we have two miniature dachshunds. We’re huge dog lovers. so we we we stay busy, what can I say?

Brandon Burton (02:25.986)
That’s right. That’s right. I’d forgotten how close our our kids line up pretty closely. We just had one graduate and and we’ve got a a twelve and thirteen year olds so that are still at home. But very good. Well tell us a little bit about your chamber, give us an idea of the size, staff, scope of work you guys are involved with, budget, just kind of set the stage for what you guys are doing today.

MIchelle Bundren (02:54.157)
We are in the far western part of the state of Kentucky. So if you look at us on a map, think far west Kentucky, down in the corner. Our population is about 40,000 in the county. We are anchored with Murray State University, which has made some national headlines over the years with players like Jaw Morant, who’s now in the NBA. And then last year our baseball team made it to the College World Series. So we loved being on the national on the national stage.

Through sports a couple times. Our chamber, we have about 450 chamber members. We represent about 12,000 employees through through that count of businesses. We have three full-time staff and average around a $350,000 to $400,000 budget annually. So Murray, Kentucky itself has been named friendly small town in America, and we were just recently named for

friendliest small college town in America. So we have a lot of national attention for being a small friendly town. and so the chamber’s really excited now to be putting ourselves back again on that national stage.

Brandon Burton (04:08.605)
That’s cool. I love all those opportunities to be able to be on the national stage and be like, that’s us, that’s our town. That’s cool. That is very cool.

MIchelle Bundren (04:15.495)
Yeah, we’re excited. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (04:20.28)
For those listening, if you’re curious and going back in time and and checking out the first episode we did with Michelle, it was actually episode thirty-three as a a Chamber of the Year finalist in twenty nineteen. So that that may be interesting to go back and look at. That was the first year that I did these interviews as the Chamber of the Year finalist. So yeah, come a long ways.

MIchelle Bundren (04:40.399)
okay.

Brandon Burton (04:45.612)
So with these episodes, I like to spend the majority of the time talking about the programs that are submitted on the various chambers applications for Chamber of the Year. So we’ll take a quick break and when we get back, we’ll dive into that and learn more about the impactful work you guys are involved with.

Brandon Burton (05:04.35)
All right, we are back. As I mentioned before the break, we’ll dive into the program that you guys submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. if you could tell us what what the program is, kind of where the I always like knowing the origins and of course the impact that it’s making in your community.

MIchelle Bundren (05:24.613)
Well, you know, in twenty twenty one we just got through COVID, which was fine. You know, we we won in twenty nineteen, we’re on a high and then twenty twenty and twenty twenty one kinda just took everybody. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (05:29.037)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (05:35.394)
Flat line. Yeah.

MIchelle Bundren (05:37.746)
We realized through those two years that we really weren’t able to help small businesses as much as we’d hoped because we didn’t have a foundation, we didn’t have a five one C three arm to support with other things and ways. so we created it and kind of put the paperwork in motion in twenty one and really started it in twenty twenty two.

Brandon Burton (05:46.99)
Okay.

MIchelle Bundren (06:00.05)
The last two years though we’ve really seen a growth in investments from businesses, really convening people around the table on workforce programs and solutions, and really seeing an excitement around some of our workforce programs. so our synopsis that we put in was about our foundation and the work that we’re doing through the foundation, which is our five one seed three arm. And we decided that our mission starting out with that interest to introduce and educate students.

Brandon Burton (06:26.494)
Right.

MIchelle Bundren (06:30.203)
On opportunities they have to stay local if they decide to have a career here in our region, primarily in our county and city. So that’s what we did. It’s some low-hanging fruit programs of particular that would really help get students to know more about what opportunities are available here. We had some great chambers across Kentucky to be great mentors to us, you know, larger chambers.

Brandon Burton (06:50.592)
Yeah.

MIchelle Bundren (06:59.913)
larger resources we got for them and kind of hear what they were doing and we started for eighth grade career exploration with them called Spark because we wanted to spark a career interest in a student maybe and how to make it stay here local. We introduced that to two school districts. Now we have four school districts attending it’s over 500 students that are involved in coming and we have over 30 businesses about 40 businesses sitting up with about

Brandon Burton (07:00.814)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Brandon Burton (07:13.686)
Yeah.

We should have some.

MIchelle Bundren (07:29.843)
90 plus experiences that they can get introduced to career opportunities happening here in our region. We also started a teacher externship program, which is called Lyft Leadership Initiative for Teachers. We take teachers from each school district, we have two here, and put them through an externship program where it helps them get resources they need and connections they need with businesses. And then we help them better be better prepared to go back in the classroom.

Brandon Burton (07:40.43)
Well very much the actual eighth one.

MIchelle Bundren (07:59.716)
To prepare their students for careers in the future. We’ve seen some amazing conversations come out of that. one of them connected to the hospital and has now created this program and shadowing with some of their students and class, you know, their classes can go to the hospital and it’s really created a great partnership that they never would have had without the connection that we helped create through that program. and then, you know, there was partnership on a with our university on a kind of

Brandon Burton (08:25.275)
Yeah, okay.

MIchelle Bundren (08:29.609)
Of an after-school program for females interested in engineering. That was all an exciting idea that came out of the class that’s now coming to fruition. That we just really helped connect the people and then got out of the way and let them create kind of those connections and furthering students’ opportunities. So that’s some of the exciting outcomes. And then even just through our Spark, one of our school districts only had 10 to 15 students going into our area technology center, which is where they learn about trades, electrical.

Brandon Burton (08:45.688)
Mm.

MIchelle Bundren (08:59.559)
plumbing, welding, things like that. After our program, the year the next year they had over a hundred students enrolled in the program, you know, from ten to thirteen. so we’re really educating and introducing students to those opportunities. We’ve been seniors, high school seniors, we reach about four hundred of those a year, getting them ready for the jobs that they could get in May in May if they don’t know kind of what their career path is. So we’ve had lots of successful programs. I only see them growing

Brandon Burton (09:04.436)
Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

MIchelle Bundren (09:29.679)
And our investors have grown the past two years. We had just a handful, and now we have, you know, probably twenty-five investors and people around the table helping us make these decisions. So it’s been very exciting and been something I’m very passionate about the last couple years.

Brandon Burton (09:43.567)
I love that. So I I was gonna come back to that and ask about the the funding side of the foundation because as you notice through COVID, the impact that a foundation can have and if you’re positioned right to be able to deploy those funds in the community. so aside from grants, are you I I assume you’re you’re going after grants for some of this as well. but what’s the positioning like for the

to try to find the funding to get people to invest in the workforce development throughout your county.

MIchelle Bundren (10:19.067)
We actually have had no grants so far. This is all Yeah. It’s all been funded through business local business leaders. You know, we really convened them to the table to hear what their issues were. It was, you know, we don’t feel like students are prepared for the jobs that we, you know, have. And then we convened with the schools and it was like, What are you seeing? and really brought both to the table. we meet about once a quarter now, bringing just various industries together.

Brandon Burton (10:22.277)
really? Okay. Very cool.

MIchelle Bundren (10:49.589)
And really they’ve all stepped up to invest. we raise about fifty thousand plus annually through them currently to manage and kind of organize our programs. Plus we have sponsors, additional sponsors that help lead the different programs as well. So we’re running a pretty strong budget so far to to do these kind of year over year. Yes, we’ll be looking at grant opportunities to really increase our programming and really help us be more.

profitable right now kind of just funding the work that we do currently but they’ve all are invested and eager to help go get other businesses involved because we really have shown them and the return on investment that they really are getting work done for the money that they’re putting in and it’s impactful to the students. So that’s been very exciting.

Brandon Burton (11:21.229)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (11:44.151)
Yeah, no, that is that’s great that you haven’t had to go after grants yet, but obviously opportunities there. so you have these investors that invest in the foundation, but then you mentioned with each actual event you have individual sponsors that help make those events come together. So th there’s additional funding that comes into that. So that’s great. so you you talked about gathering them together at the table from

MIchelle Bundren (11:48.039)
Not yet.

Brandon Burton (12:13.826)
the different employment sectors in the schools. So I’m c I’m always curious from the schools. Who are you getting? Is it the superintendent? Is it those who are involved with writing the curriculum for the schools? certain teachers, how how do you go about getting that side to come to the table?

MIchelle Bundren (12:32.935)
So we c first convened our guidance counselors and ’cause you know, businesses were saying students aren’t prepared. So we went to the schools and said, Hey, businesses are saying students aren’t prepared you know, to which they would say we are preparing them.

Brandon Burton (12:40.973)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (12:49.041)
Right.

MIchelle Bundren (12:49.437)
So we created sort of what we call a roadmap. Okay, where K through twelve are they receiving some kind of workforce connection or education? And so we looked to see where those holes were. That meeting was with guidance counselors. So we saw eighth grade was a great opportunity, juniors and seniors were a great opportunity. and then our teacher program really hits K through twelve. so those were kind of how we figured out the strategy of programs and initiatives.

And where to hit. Our board for our foundation is made up of the assistant superintendent at one school district, and they’re very much involved in the curriculum. Actually, I got an email last week asking them to for us to come look at a new software program and curriculum they’re looking at because there’s a whole engagement on business community resources, and they want us at the table in that conversation. So that’s been encouraging. So, yes, we discussed current.

Brandon Burton (13:43.798)
That’s awesome.

MIchelle Bundren (13:49.321)
curriculum. They went with us on our DC fly in last year to meet with the US Chamber. We’re very impressed by

they have a four chambers, you know, for education partnerships. and our superintendent and our assistant superintendent went on that trip. So th that’s who’s at the table when it comes to the to the school district. So that’s been really great to have the leadership at the top adjusting and knowing what’s going on throughout the schools.

Brandon Burton (14:04.362)
Yeah,

Brandon Burton (14:22.018)
So you had mentioned one of these programs that has come out through the foundation was this teacher externship. I d I find that to be very curious. I’d like to learn more about what that looks like and how you get the teachers in the businesses and what the how is that structured.

MIchelle Bundren (14:39.027)
we met with a couple teachers who were a little bit jealous of our leadership program. You know, they couldn’t come to stuff because it’s kind of during the day. And you know, we heard from them, you know, we would love something similar. And then we’d heard from the business, you know, and this kind of foundation board, you know, we need to reach kids. And so we were like, well, why don’t we create a teacher program? we looked at some other models and the teacher externship we created was basically they apply and we took

Brandon Burton (14:46.166)
Yeah.

MIchelle Bundren (15:08.681)
Take you know, several the same amount from each school district. And K through twelve industry, any kind of subject matter.

And the sponsorship covers the substitute teacher for the day so that the school district doesn’t have to worry about that. and then all the program materials and the transportation and all that is raised through sponsorships. so the businesses are engaged. At the end of it, we have a business education round table where we talk about what they learned and then get feedback from both. but basically it’s five sessions. We do an initial session to get to know them and talk about the resources and things.

things that they need to get out of the program. And then we connect them throughout the next few months to businesses. We take them to our manufacturers, we take them to the hospital, we take them to different industry sectors. And and the conversation is careers. what all careers are available, what talents and passions do they need to help connect their students, you know, with the interests that maybe, you know, they have of that talent. and so that’s kind of how we structured it.

Brandon Burton (15:50.99)
Yeah, so

MIchelle Bundren (16:17.553)
And then the substitute teacher thing has been critical because it’s already hard for the already. so the fact that we help the sponsorship help study that it’s been really

Brandon Burton (16:20.078)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (16:27.625)
Yeah, I could see that being a little bit of friction of well, who’s gonna cover for me when I’m gone, right? but I also wondered if if it might take place during the summer sometime or you know, but they probably want to do it when they’re being paid. I don’t know, there’s all the different nuances to it, but

MIchelle Bundren (16:30.734)
Yes.

MIchelle Bundren (16:45.051)
We kinda line it up with our business series with our chamber. So they attend our our lunches. you know, they get to meet and hear from and those and then they elect a class leader. So when they graduate, it’ll be that last

Brandon Burton (16:48.365)
Yeah.

MIchelle Bundren (16:58.339)
I think it’s our November lunch. They s we have a class person come and speak and talk about their experience and what they learned and we give certificates and and all that. So we really have tried to give them that platform at even our chamber events to get their voice because they want to feel heard, you know, as educators. Sometimes they feel tucked in the classroom and they are key leaders in our community and and the chamber’s really been able to bring them out and help them get the exposure and attention they need.

Brandon Burton (17:25.804)
Yeah. And I assume that the the end outcome is having them promote these different job opportunities throughout the community to their students in the classroom. So as they talk about the things that they learned, what kind of things are they sharing that they take back to the classroom or what what are some of their takeaways?

MIchelle Bundren (17:47.058)
Sure. So a lot of the students really kind of know what their parents do. You know, so taking the teachers to the manufacturing facility, for example, and hearing that, you know, maybe they hear from their students that mom and dad work on the line or, you know, whatever, they don’t know that there’s a whole administrative team or a whole HR team or logistics team. so what they’re hearing from our businesses is and even in healthcare, you know, there’s a whole administrative side to it. There’s you don’t have to

Be a doctor, there’s nurses, and then there’s radiology, and there’s all these different skill levels and jobs out there that the teachers themselves didn’t even know exist. and so if they go out of the classroom and actually experience it and hear from it, they leave with connections and resources for the students. Maybe there’s internship or job shadowing opportunities that now they know about and have seen and heard and have the connection to the HR manager or whatever, they can now go back in and help their students connect.

To those opportunities and connect to those businesses. We’ve seen a lot of success. I know our next step will definitely be connecting more job shadowing opportunities, which will be critical to have the teachers and the schools involved in that. But that’s some of the things that we’ve heard is, you know, you know, they don’t have the resources or know who to contact sometimes to bring in guest speakers to their classroom. And now they’ve said they have a lot of people, business, you know, now that we’ve created that connection, they have those expertise.

Experts coming into their classroom, or they’re creating their own kind of externship with their students where they’re taking a handful who are maybe interested in healthcare and now connecting them to the radiology department. I say that because that’s one particular area of need we have here in Murray is radiology. Now you see the scholarship opportunities that maybe the the students see.

Brandon Burton (19:33.838)
Yeah.

MIchelle Bundren (19:46.784)
didn’t know about and now this the teachers have all that information that they can bring back in the classroom to help one on one champion their students to pick a career path that’s perfect or the best fit for them. and so that’s been a a huge outcome for us is just having people they respect and love, the teachers, be a role model for them in kind of shaping their future.

Brandon Burton (20:10.734)
So when I was growing up, my dad was in pharmaceuticals. So he was always coming home talking about the new drug that he was pushing, you know, that he’s selling. So when I was in third grade, we did the whole, you know, what do your parents do for work? And all I knew is that my dad sold drugs. So that that spurred a a phone call home. And I’m glad that I got other exposure to other industries so I didn’t have to follow

MIchelle Bundren (20:29.021)
I’m sure.

MIchelle Bundren (20:35.259)
That’s good. Yeah. So I’m sure that was very interesting for the teachers to hear.

Brandon Burton (20:36.736)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (20:41.6)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So but yeah, having that exposure to the different opportunities is is so crucial because you’re right. Most of them only know what their parents do. And even at that, they don’t really know the extent of what it is that their parents do. They just know what what gets shared and what what gets talked about in the home. is there anything else from the foundation that you want to highlight and make sure that that you get to shine some light on?

MIchelle Bundren (21:11.349)
I just think if you have if your chamber hasn’t gotten into workforce development work, it really is rewarding and it really is what businesses need. you know, we talk a lot about succession plans and in our community and business, and it’s really an investment in your future to make sure you have that workforce talent developed for the future. I know a lot of times us chambers, we like to do promotion and ribbon cuttings and celebrations. and this is kind of the lesser sexy work, I guess, that you could call it.

It but it really is the most critical for our community that their businesses are preparing for the future workforce. And so that’s been really big for us to help kind of get our businesses to understand what we’re doing to help that this really is a business issue. instead of us just wanting to be in the schools all the time. You know, it’s really a long game plan and strategy.

Brandon Burton (22:00.217)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (22:08.478)
And I like to think of it as the workforce development is really what changes lives of the individuals that are going to be the employees, but also the employers and the impact they can how they can better serve the the community and be more of an impact themselves throughout the community. So it’s important work. so I like to ask for those listening for a tip or action item to

Help those listening who want to take their organization up to the next level, what might you offer for them?

MIchelle Bundren (22:43.483)
Hmm, trying to take it up to the next level. I think one thing that’s been critical for us and it’s been really not easy, even with our board, you know, we used to kind of sit here at the office and wait for business to happen or come to us. and really it’s a shift in our organization. You know, we are out and about a lot. we’re not sitting here waiting for phone calls. We’ve kind of invested in technology as much as we can to be present.

or available through technology, you know, either ring camera or, you know, phone, laptop, all those things. But the idea for us is if we’re not out connecting with people or or doing something, you know, that’s the best use of our time is to be out doing something, not sitting here at the office waiting for a phone call. that’s taking a shift because you know I think sometimes people they’re not in the office, they’re not working.

Brandon Burton (23:40.782)
Yeah.

MIchelle Bundren (23:41.318)
That’s definitely not true. And that’s for a small town like us, it’s a shift because that’s not the model that we’ve had for ninety nine years of business. but for us it’s we’re known for those connections. We’re known for who who the company we keep used to be a tagline of ours way back in the day. and so I really do think that we you’ve gotta kinda think bigger picture with with some of the work that we’re doing for small chambers, one staff, two staff, three staff.

it’s don’t just sit there in the office and kind of feel like you have to man the office. Get out there and build connections and make things happen. and that’s what we’ve seen a lot of success with the last couple of years.

Brandon Burton (24:24.856)
Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense, but it is a perception shift to be able to get that imaging out there and and part of that, I mean, social media can be helpful with that when you can show your members what you’re doing and that you’re out connecting with others and and doing all that. well, Michelle, you may remember from last time, but I like asking everyone I have on the show about how you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward.

MIchelle Bundren (24:55.489)
god I yeah, you sent me this and I was trying to think about it. and we talked about it a little bit, but I think just the idea that chambers just host parades and festivals and events y and and things like that are really not the future of chambers. It’s definitely

convening conversations. We’re we’re great greatly positioned for that because we’re kinda neutral politically and local government, business, education, you know, nonprofits. We work a lot with nonprofits and we’re kind of greatly situated to really convene conversations around critical issues. and you really as a chamber have to kind of put yourself there and really step out and lead in that in that way and kind of make yourself

Hey, I want to be at the table of this. Like let’s put get the chamber at the table. Cause a lot of small chambers I work with, ’cause you know, I’m really connected to ones in Kentucky, they’re bored and their community doesn’t view their chamber as an organization that can do more than just ribbon cuttings or more than just a celebration, like I said.

Brandon Burton (25:50.744)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (26:07.052)
Just crazy. Why are you on the board then, right?

MIchelle Bundren (26:09.121)
I know. they just like it to be on the resume or they’re just happy with what what’s always been. but and then sometimes they’re nervous. I get that. I think when they think policy, they think politics and it’s messy and

But really that’s that’s the future is sitting at the table with community leaders, helping solve problems, and you know, making sure the resources are there and any role the chamber can play in helping connect or bring people around a critical issue is really important. there’s always things going on and I think sometimes we’re like, Well, what does the chamber think about it?

It’s sometimes that’s a great question and we should have a voice and sometimes it’s a situation we can stay out of. but the fact that they’re asking our opinion or asking us is means that they value what we do and who we are, ’cause we are the business community. We’re the voice of business. and so we we don’t take that lightly. but we’re so much more than just, you know, meeting for fellowship with the board and eating of lunch together and

you know, me having an event, it’s it’s definitely more than that. And so if you can as a chamberleader, and I’m speaking with small chambers here, really help your board cast a vision for being more, then that’s a really big deal and a really step a big step forward for them.

Brandon Burton (27:34.156)
Yeah, absolutely. I love that answer. Michelle, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect and learn more about how you guys are doing things there at the the Murray-Calloway County Chamber. Where would you point them and what would be the best way to connect?

MIchelle Bundren (27:51.881)
Sure. you can always email me, michelle@mymurray.com. I you can call our office 270-753-5171. But definitely email. I’ll get it on my phone and all the places. So I I stay pretty connected to that.

Brandon Burton (28:19.592)
Very good. We’ll get that in our show notes to make it nice and easy. But I think it’s fantastic that you guys are putting in the work to be selected as a Chamber of the Year finalist again. And I wish you guys the best of luck.

MIchelle Bundren (28:34.088)
Thank you. I really appreciate it.

2026 Chamber of the Year Finalist-El Paso Chamber with Ricardo Mora

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Brandon Burton (00:01.109)
Hello, Chamber Champions! Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and here on the podcast I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist series. And today we’re joined by Ricardo Mora.

President and CEO of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce. Ricardo has built a dynamic career in the intersection of entrepreneurship, regional development, and cross-border collaboration, launching and managing ventures across real estate, telecommunications, venture capital, and hospitality. Now leading the El Paso Chamber, he’s focused on strengthening binational relationships and advancing the borderplex region as a hub for innovation, commerce, and economic growth.

With deep roots in interconnected economies of El Paso, Las Cruces, and Ciudad Juárez Ricardo brings a unique perspective on what it takes to build opportunity across borders. He uses the chamber’s platform to foster collaboration, support business growth, and position the region as a competitive center for trade and investment. Beyond his work with the chamber, Ricardo has also supported STEAM education and workforce development.

Development through Fundacion Axcel AC helping prepare the next generation for jobs and industries of the future. Fluent in both Spanish and English, Ricardo is a connector, advocate, and community builder dedicated to creating partnerships that drive long term prosperity for the region. Ricardo, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. Congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a Chamber of the Year finalist. I’d love to give you an opportunity

To say hello to all the listeners, and if you would, to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Ricardo Mora (02:01.87)
Well, thank you, Brandon. It’s we’re very excited and thrilled to be part of the finalist for this your great award. Just being a finalist to us is has meant so much to our team. We’re we’re just thrilled to to our existence being part of it. And something interesting about myself that I’d share with you that might be unique is that being part of this cross-border community is is quite different than most would understand.

Brandon Burton (02:09.404)
If you have the save those two pieces, too much.

Ricardo Mora (02:29.942)
And I actually lived in Mexico, which is a five minute drive across the border for about thirty five years and commuted back and forth to school. And this is both communities are really tied by the hip. So that’s come kinda something unique that some people don’t understand. That when you live on a cross border community like El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, it’s the same thing. All that that really is between us is a couple of just a bridge. You get right across and have lunch in one country and have

Brandon Burton (02:56.811)
Yeah.

Ricardo Mora (02:59.8)
Dinner in the other one. So that’s something cool about this this area and about myself.

Brandon Burton (03:05.193)
It’s blown me away as I’ve gone through El Paso, you know, multiple times that you can just look out your window as you drive by. You see Mexico right there. And it very it is very close and very much a cross border town. So I I’m sure the work is very much unique to you guys versus other in other places in the country.

Well, if you would tell us a little bit more about the El Paso chamber, help give us an idea of the size of the chamber, staff, budget, scope of work you guys are involved with to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Ricardo Mora (03:42.529)
Sure. So the El Paso Chamber is a 127-year organization. it has been here through since 1899. we currently run a staff of 17 folks on our team, and they’re all high, effective leaders, really hitting on all all cylinders. our annual budget is around 2.6 million dollars, and and we service the cross-border community. So the chamber unites businesses, government, and

Brandon Burton (04:09.333)
The change is

Ricardo Mora (04:12.054)
and community leaders who advocate for growth, champion innovation, and create sustainable prosperity across our entire region. And we do that through three main pillars economic development and innovation, public policy and government relations, and infrastructure and transportation.

Brandon Burton (04:13.215)
Is it here?

have an innovation and create sustainable.

Brandon Burton (04:30.837)
I just want to

Very good. It sounds like you’ve you’ve you’ve given that presentation a few times, right? Of what the mission of the chamber is and those pillars and that that work you guys are involved with. Can tell it’s part of your being.

Ricardo Mora (04:46.542)
We’re all it is, it is. It’s so important to know what you’re doing and where you’re going. We love it.

Brandon Burton (04:52.661)
Yes, absolutely. Well, that definitely will help set the stage for our discussion today. As we do these Chamber of the Year finalist series, we like to spend the majority of our time talking about the programs that were submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. So as soon as we get back from this quick break, we’ll dive into those programs and learn more of those details.

All right, Ricardo, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, that we’re gonna dive into the the two programs that were on your chamber of the year application. I know one of them has to do with the infrastructure project with the the Bridge of the Americas. Would you like to start there with that project or that program and tell us what it’s about and what all it involves?

Ricardo Mora (05:35.983)
Of course. Of course. So in our community, here in El Paso, Texas, on the Texas side, we have three ports of entry that allow commercial capacity to cross back and forth for production. Our community is known for manufacturing and logistics heavily. There’s 350 manufacturing facilities, 70 Fortune 500 companies here, and

So it’s it’s a it’s a big thing for us as we understand commerce in our community or cross border trade is equivalent to commerce. So as the Chamber of Commerce for El Paso, we believe in cross border trade. And every minute that trade does not get through a cross border entry, it really hinders our entire economy, it locally and also on the national level. So I’ll take you back a little bit.

And the Bridge of the Americas was a port that was started. It’s it’s about sixty years old. It is a federal bridge, it is owned by the federal government, it is owned by the general services administration, and like all ports of entries, they are it’s administered by CBP and Homeland Security. Those are the folks that are there day and night. through the Biden Bipartisan Act, there was seven hundred million dollars allocated close to five years ago.

For modernization of this particular bridge and others across the country. There was a bill that passed for about $3.4 billion, and one of our bridges got selected to be modernized. Although last year, through a record of decision by the General Services Administration, there is a formal record of decision to remove commercial traffic from this Bridge of the Americas. And this Bridge of the Americas today is still operating.

it has car vehicles that go north and they go south. it has pedestrians that cross both ways. And it also has cargo that goes to the north and then cargo or or empty trucks that cross southbound for our production model here in in in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. And for us, when we understood that the record of decision was to remove commercial traffic, this particular port has six booths.

Ricardo Mora (07:58.233)
Where trucks drive up and there’s six inspection booths. if we look at the next bridge we have, it’s called Zaragoza Isleta, and that one has eight, and that is on the east side. And there’s a farther booth that is a brand new bridge called Tornillo. that one has three, but one only operational. It’s about 60 minutes to get there. And on the Mexican side, there’s hardly any infrastructure. So it’s a future project. If you add those 15

Areas where trucks can take their paperwork, deleting or eliminating the ones at Bridge of the Americas at six really hinders us close to 40% reduction of our capacity to cross goods. And that is when the chamber said, listen, we really need to step up and understand that cross-border trade is commerce in our community. And there’s many lives that depend on this.

So for every three jobs across the border in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, there’s one job on the El Paso side. That is about a hundred and ten thousand jobs that will be affected by this d record of decision if it comes to fruition. So from the chamber perspective, it’s been a difficult challenge for us, but we also represent many businesses. We have over seven hundred businesses that rely on us that really come together.

Brandon Burton (09:15.063)
I don’t know.

Ricardo Mora (09:23.648)
And and and we are vocal for them to allow them to have a voice at the local, state and federal level. So we’re very concerned about competitiveness as most chambers are across the country. Currently, El Paso is at about sixty seven percent of the national per capita income average. If we move back about thirty years ago, El Paso was one of the lowest cities per capita income in the nineties.

Brandon Burton (09:29.857)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Brandon Burton (09:53.577)
Yeah.

Ricardo Mora (09:53.577)
And removing this commercial capability of an infrastructure that’s existing, it’ll make our city less competitive. when we started studying the process, we learned that the record of decision states that GSA did not take into account the positive or negative effects of removing commercial cargo to the trucking industry, to the manufacturing industry.

Brandon Burton (10:10.583)
GSA did not have negative.

Ricardo Mora (10:22.422)
Or to businesses. It states it on the NIPA study, a very small study that they did around the bridge. And they said this did not include an economic impact study, but could be done at a different time. So, as understanding what we’re doing to the chamber, we’ve commissioned a full-blown economic impact analysis study that we believe it’s an independent study will show the negative effects of removing.

Brandon Burton (10:25.481)
All right, so I’ll tell you.

Ricardo Mora (10:50.902)
40% capacity to our competitiveness as a region. And we’re just blown away by these decisions that are being made, not taking into account the business community. Today we’re over 250 businesses that are part of a coalition behind us, very active. and we’re pushing our narrative to be able to keep commercial traffic at Bridge of the Americas.

Brandon Burton (11:03.391)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (11:07.671)
So what stage are you in with that with the economic impact study? Is it in the early stages, or are you guys in the the middle of it? How

Ricardo Mora (11:25.326)
We would be in the middle of it. we’re expecting to have the economic impact analysis findings by the first week of July. But hold on, June no August, I’m sorry. First week of August. So yeah, July is just around the corner. And and we’ll see what happens there. I know that the Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness is doing this economic impact study at the University of Texas at El Paso. And and we’ll see what that means. there is also gonna be a positive effect.

Brandon Burton (11:34.591)
Okay. Yes.

Ricardo Mora (11:54.349)
Because the current remodel of modernization is calling for about 30 to 35 car lanes going northbound. Today we have about 15 only. So it would be just basically a lot of vehicles heading northbound. And that would definitely have a positive effect on retail and other industries. However, we believe strongly that since manufacturing and cross-border trade and logistics is so important to our community.

We can’t let that infrastructure project continue. And right now it’s on phase two of the process through the GSA. Basically, they did the record of decision is one, and process number two is there in an RFP to solicit the work to be done, and supposedly it’d be another six months before that RFP is awarded, which will take him to step three of the five step process.

Brandon Burton (12:28.864)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (12:51.689)
Okay.

So my mind goes around to to what all can a chamber do, you know, in a situation like this with the with the bridge and it obviously advocacy is gonna be heavy, right? Getting in front of the right decision makers and being able to to try to influence, but doing this economic impact study as well is gonna be key to being able to have that evidence to back up the arguments that you guys are making. are there other approaches from a chamber standpoint that you can do to to further stand

And make your stance as far as the the impact that it makes to the the local and national economy.

Ricardo Mora (13:30.255)
Well, we we are doing other things. we are convening normally at least once a month our membership. we bring experts to talk about these facts. Any new members that come into the chamber as well. I personally have a chance to speak to them about this cross-border situation that we’re dealing with. And we do find a path forward. I mean, our path forward and our formal ask at the at the state and at the federal level is to pause the implementation.

of this record of decision and allow this decision to be data based on the economic impact analysis. As community members, I would encourage anybody that is dealing with similar issues and maybe not a cross-border international crossing, but anything that is hindering commerce, it’s the chamber’s responsibility. And we have to fight for it. And and I would share that, you know, sometimes we’re not on the same page

Brandon Burton (14:23.02)
Yeah.

Ricardo Mora (14:28.844)
With some of our elected officials. we admire all the work they do and they’re out there doing it. But from an economic side, we need we are really being standing our position that this is not going to be good for our community in the long run. And we just don’t want supply chains to move, relocate, and a lot of things could happen in the future if we don’t get this one right.

Brandon Burton (14:53.289)
Right. And you know, to your point with the elected officials, you know, they they come into office with a limited point of view. They have a limited scope of of understanding and you know, th many of them are very intelligent people, very smart people.

But they get there with only the knowledge they know. And they need chambers like yours to be able to advocate for the local economies and for the the infrastructure and everything else that that takes place and be able to shine a light on it and say, Hey, what you’re doing may have good intentions, but here’s some side effects that are are happening from this as well. well let’s let’s

switch topics now if if if you’re good with that to your second program on your Chamber of the Year application. do you you would like to introduce that to us and tell us what it’s all about?

Ricardo Mora (15:46.691)
Of course. So as any city that that is expanding, and anybody that potentially has not visited El Paso, Texas, we’re on the west tip of Texas, very just right next to New Mexico. Texas, the largest state in the US, Chihuahua, the largest state in Mexico, and we really convene three states and two countries.

And and in our process as a city, a lot of people that drive by by El Paso, there’s I-10. And I-10 goes from east to west and it goes both ways. So Text Dot Text Dot has a project, it already has a phase of part of the project. It’s a $1.4 billion project to make I-10 wider down at at it will start at downtown, which is

We have about seven bridges that connect our downtown to the north part of town. And this is today it’s called elevate the ten. But Techstot is coming in, they’re doing this regardless. The funding is there already to do it. So out of the 1.4 billion, 500 billion are already allocated, the design and the engineering is already on on its way. And as a community, we came together to say, listen.

This is the best opportunity for El Paso to have, instead of having six bridges and a wider highway on both sides, you know, five lanes and five lanes on the other one. Right now we have three downtown. Why don’t we build a cap on top of it? And this will be a green space, like Clyde Warren Park in Dallas that will allow investment, that would allow growth for downtown and

And we’re we’re working together with with the El Paso Foundation, the Deck Foundation, alongside other partners. currently, we’re very excited that we have been making progress and again uniting businesses, government, and community leaders to really understand the impact that this can have on future generations. And this is an impact that is not just, you know, we want to put a cap on it. so as a community, we’re we’ve come together and the community has been able to raise

Ricardo Mora (18:06.306)
About $75 million of a project that is estimated to cost about $207 million in 2027 dollars. But it’s important that the timing is done right because Text Ot is coming anyways. They’re gonna start their construction and we need to be ready to be to do the engineering work, to making sure that we have the columns. As of now, we look very good. It’s moving forward and and making sure that we have the right structure to hold this.

this deck park. We’re super excited about it. And and El Paso it is growing east and it is also growing west and to the northeast. But it is, as you know, downtowns are vibrant and and many downtowns require the heartbeat to be very strong. so so we’re tracking, I mean it’s a huge investment and an outlay for our community. We’re tracking over yeah over a billion dollars in the next thirty years of of of actual

you know, funding for this project that will bring in revenue and and also one to one point five million visitors to El Paso. And we’re just thrilled to be able to form our city.

Brandon Burton (19:13.601)
Yeah. That’s great. But and it’s nice to be able to have examples like Clyde Warren Park in Dallas to be able to look at and see, you know, what does this do for a downtown? What does this do for local economy? What does this do for just the overall

you know, feel and vibe for a city where you can have art and cultural things and being able to to really drive interest to the downtown. I think it’s a a great example. I assume you guys are working with engineers and you know people doing studies to figure out these dollar amounts of what needs to be raised to make this happen. Is that is that something that the chamber takes on, are you working with the city on that, or how does that come together?

Ricardo Mora (19:56.409)
So so it it takes a long time for this to drive, and obviously it is a public private partnership. So recently our city and our county signed the memorandum of understanding to make sure that we’re all working together towards this larger goal. And and then on the on on putting it together, there’s really a lot of meetings that go on in our community. And there’s a lot of concerns as well that need need to be addressed from c our, you know, the entire community about taxes and about

maintenance on this project. So so something important to share is that yes there have been studies. There’s been studies of of other places that have had this and the economic downdrafts of having these type of projects present in a community and we just wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity. this proposed like I mentioned this proposed deck park would be about a six mile deck park that would bring

Brandon Burton (20:27.66)
Yeah.

Ricardo Mora (20:53.834)
Over 1.5 million visitors to our community that would go to local restaurants, that would go to the hotels, that would visit our great mountains and and track all that. And there are studies that show the positive effect of having this. So we are working with our local engineering firms. And it is so so funny you mentioned that because one of our pillars is infrastructure and transportation. And on infrastructure and transportation.

Brandon Burton (21:19.467)
There you go.

Ricardo Mora (21:22.956)
The El Paso Chamber hosts a coalition that is called the El Paso Mobility Coalition. And within this coalition, we see everything that is infrastructure and transportation, whether it’s the I-10 widening, the deck park, what’s happening on international bridges, what’s happening in New Mexico, anything that has to do with infrastructure projects or loop projects, we’re very engaged.

So studies are have shown that by doing this, it’ll allow our community to move forward and scale as a community of our size would, as we need this infrastructure moving forward. So we’re very excited to be part of it. I have a 15-year-old daughter that I want to grow and and she’ll go to college and come back and and see her community, I don’t know, 10 years later, really modified and and and and now thinking that.

The time that I’m here at the chamber and what our team is doing alongside other key partners is making that effect. We’re looking for long term for our community to really be proud of something we were part of.

Brandon Burton (22:28.725)
Yeah. So you bring up a good point of i i it it’s a great vision to have, but there are those things that you need to overcome where people have questions about who’s gonna pay for this, who’s gonna pay for the maintenance and the taxes and so how do you confront that it within the community to be able to

put people’s minds at ease and be able to to show the positive impact that this will have on the city instead of just a a a negative is I I see it all being positive, but I can see where the concerns might come up.

Ricardo Mora (23:00.202)
No, and that’s a great question. So as this began happening, this is several years ago, the there is a definite concern about the community. Alone we’re tracking about five million dollars a year to maintain this actual infrastructure project. but through private public partnership, there was there’s a foundation that was established for this particular project called the Downtown Plaza organization.

That is the organization that has taken the lead and will fund the project and will fund the maintenance. So in the initial conversations, the citizens’ concerns were like, is this going to raise our taxes? Is it going to go on the city budget? How is this really going to affect us? So by this private public partnership and by being part of it, you start getting a little bit of clarity on this overcast sky.

Where people start understanding, okay, so this is really for the good of our community. And we’ll be able to take, you know, for example, this recent announcement is to build an amazing dock park downtown. And it’s a million dollar investment from one of our local community car dealerships that has long been standing here in El Paso. And I don’t know if you know, but El Paso downtown has a magnificent baseball stadium called the Chihuahua Stadium.

Brandon Burton (24:07.414)
Yeah.

Ricardo Mora (24:22.86)
And you can actually take your dog to the park. So so this is quality of life. And I know I’m kind of getting a little bit out of that, but just sharing how our downtown really embraces and how we work through this as a community on open forums and conversations. So I feel very confident that that with our partnership with the Decktown Plaza Foundation, the city, the county, and the businesses, this will get built.

Brandon Burton (24:25.426)
Awesome.

Brandon Burton (24:52.031)
I love that. I love the vision. I love the the influence you guys are showing as well in the community of being able to to see these projects through and answer questions along the way as you convene the right people and and make sure that the ball’s moving forward. as we begin to wrap things up, I wanted to ask you for those listening, for

a tip or action item that you might share with those listening who are interested in taking their organization up to the next level. What would you suggest for them?

Ricardo Mora (25:25.398)
I would suggest to any any other chamber across the country to know that you have a voice. And the voice that you represent truly represents a body of members that you’re driving progress for. And in our case, our value proposition is very simple. We are business-centric. We are we serve our businesses. It is we are a membership-based organization.

So as long as we keep track of that and we know we’re serving our businesses, you have a voice and your voice needs to be heard. So I’m I’m ecstatic about sharing to everybody that don’t feel that you need to, you know, be quiet on topics that you know you have to speak on because everybody in their own community has a challenge like a bridge of the Americas that requires our ch we’re challenging the federal government, and it’s okay.

We live in this beautiful country and we have access to do that and we are the right voice to do it. So I would just encourage all the chambers to take their voice and make sure that they’re they’re aligned to their mission and their vision. And don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid because we can we can move things forward with what we’re trying to push together as chambers.

Brandon Burton (26:42.229)
Yeah, that is one of the great things about being in America, is it’s okay to challenge the federal government and and push back a little bit. So I love that you made that point. Ricardo, I like asking everyone I have on the show about the future of chambers and I’d like to get your take on how you see the future of Chambers of Commerce and their purpose going forward.

Ricardo Mora (27:06.856)
I I believe that that chambers of commerce have been in our communities for so long. Sometimes new businesses have a hard time understanding our value proposition. So so chambers of commerce will always be here. I believe they will, but it really depends on each chamber and how integrated they are with their own community. In our case, what I could share is that.

We’re very, as you can tell, we’re very integrated cross-border. we understand businesses on both sides of the border. in my particular case, I’m a small business owner and I’ve been a small business owner all of my life. So I understand the pain that businesses go through. And and with that in mind, you know, believe in your in your value proposition and believe that you can also go to the community and have your community think about thriving.

Brandon Burton (27:39.83)
Yeah.

Ricardo Mora (28:06.432)
About how they can scale their businesses and how you can help them move forward. In our case, we’ve built programs since last year, where this is our second year running with AI programs for small businesses to help them really understand the tools that are out there to be able to scale and grow. We have businesses of all sizes. About 95% of our businesses are small, but we deliver, I call this like we deliver caviar.

So every chamber across the country delivers caviar. And when you deliver that on a dish, you also have to collect the caviar price. So my process is to say, listen, as long as you have a strong value proposition that you believe in, you go out there and you that you say this is what the value that we bring, this is why we charge X amount of dollars. So I would encourage every chamber member, every chamber across the country to look at their current offering.

Brandon Burton (28:34.292)
Okay.

Brandon Burton (28:49.751)
Yeah.

Ricardo Mora (29:03.414)
And have a strategic plan and think about how you can move forward. Because in order for chambers to thrive in this new economy, we really need to look at the at the at the revenue models. In our community, it’s doing great, but we’re different than than most. And and our members believe that they need to invest into the chamber that invests into El Paso. They’re really investing in in everything that we’re doing and how we’re driving forward.

Brandon Burton (29:15.553)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (29:31.243)
Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Too many chambers undervalue what it is that they bring as far as influence, about as far as impact to the community. And if you can take a hard look and see what that caviar is that you’re delivering and charge accordingly. Make sure you’re getting the value out of that. And but y but you have to deliver the impact with it, right? You you can’t just charge, you gotta deliver the impact. So I love that that vision.

Ricardo Mora (29:53.432)
That is correct.

Brandon Burton (29:59.247)
Ricardo, before I let you go, 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 learn more about how you’re approaching things there in El Paso. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Ricardo Mora (30:12.856)
Sure. So we are obviously located in El Paso, Texas. Our website is elpaso.org. Very simple. Elpaso.org. And if anybody wants to reach me, my name is Ricardo, ricardo@elpaso.org. And if you can’t remember my name, and maybe you’re old enough, you’ll remember Ricky Ricardo from I love Lucy. So it’s just Ricardo at elpaso.org.

Brandon Burton (30:38.635)
Ricky Ricardo, yeah.

Ricardo Mora (30:42.72)
Shoot me an email. Love to chat and share what’s working for us and what is not.

Brandon Burton (30:49.279)
That’s perfect. Well, I knew you were going there with Ricky Ricardo, so that’s that’s great. Well we’ll make sure we get your contact information in our show notes for this episode. But this has been great to have you on the show. And again, congratulations to you and your team, and I wish you guys the best of luck as Chamber of the Year.

Ricardo Mora (31:10.648)
Thank you very much, Brandon. Thank you for having us and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Brandon Burton (31:15.384)
Yeah.

2026 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Jackson County Chamber with Ryan Tarrant

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Brandon Burton (00:01.484)
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, 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. And you’re joining us today for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finals series. And our guest for this episode is Ryan Tarrant. Ryan is the President and CEO of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and Experience Jackson.

Ryan Tarrant (00:05.23)
Thank

Brandon Burton (00:31.448)
Jackson County’s Destination Marketing Organization. In this role, Ryan leads efforts to strengthen the region’s quality of life for businesses, residents, and visitors through advocacy, collaboration, and destination development. Ryan brings a deep experience in business leadership, public policy, and community development. Before coming to Jackson County, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Business Leaders for Michigan, the state’s business roundtable, where he helped guide public policy strategy and organizational execution.

Around making Michigan a top state for jobs, education, prosperity, and economic health. His background also includes significant chamber leadership experience, where he helps secure more than $1 million in public funding for an award-winning talent attraction and retention initiative. He’s also led advocacy efforts, supporting infrastructure, placemaking, and engagement with local, state, and federal officials. Early in his career, Ryan worked in government and politics, serving as chief of staff to U.S.

Ryan Tarrant (01:29.029)
it.

Brandon Burton (01:31.28)
Representative John Mul Mullinar, District District Director for U.S. Representative Dave Camp, and leading numerous federal campaigns. Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree in public science from Saginaw Valley State University. But Ryan, I’m excited to have you back on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity again 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 even better.

Ryan Tarrant (01:57.946)
Yeah.

Hello everybody. You know, it’s great to be back and it feels a little bit like a follow-up from our previous conversation 18 months ago because we’re going to talk a lot about the program that we were just kicking off at that time and now, you know, really was the program that we submitted this year for Chamber of the Year. So, exciting time, but you know, it’s always interesting. I think I finally reached the point as you were reading my bio where, you know, you read it and the longer it gets, all of a sudden it was like I’ve become the old man.

Brandon Burton (02:29.736)
Right. How did that happen?

Ryan Tarrant (02:30.628)
because I know I’ve been around the block a time or two apparently. know, something I’d like to share, mean, as we talk about.

our program, is called Drive Jackson. you know, part of as I present this locally and, know, we’ve had to go do presentations around the state on this, this new program. One of the slides that I have in there is a picture of a little baby and it happens to be my, first grandchild. So he’s about four and a half months old now. And he was about two weeks old when we first rolled out this program. And so it was that, that initial newborn picture where, you know, the head’s a little bit off and you know, still.

Brandon Burton (03:08.11)
yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (03:08.88)
And so now he’s starting to get a personality, but I think it holds true and it really comes down to sort of the why of why I’m so passionate about the work that we’re doing here in Jackson County.

Brandon Burton (03:20.13)
That’s awesome. I love it. Well, first of all, huge congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a Chamber of Year finalist. It’s a great testament to the work and impact you guys are making there in your community. but tell us tell us a little bit about the Jackson County Chamber to give us an idea of the size, staff, scope of work, budget to kind of set the stage for our discussion.

Ryan Tarrant (03:32.72)
Thank you.

Ryan Tarrant (03:42.478)
Sure, so for us we’re…

know, Chamberside, a couple of years ago, we were at about a $600,000 a year budget. You know, last year was about $900,000. But then we also have Experience Jackson, which is the destination marketing organization for Jackson County or convention and visitors bureau. And so their budget this year is about $1.3 million. So, you know, between the two organizations, we’re a little bit north of $2 million and, you know, being housed in the same place, sharing an executive also allows us to sort of…

hire for different skill sets and talents. And so, you know, we’re blessed to be able to have a overall team of 10. You know, I split my time 50-50 between the two organizations. We have a number of other employees that do that. Some are 90-10. And so, you know, we were able to house a research and data director, for example, who does a lot of our economic impact reports. And, you know, he started out on the DMO side, but we’ve pulled him into a lot of the work that we’re doing here in the chamber because of

the economic impact that we’re having here in our community. As far as scope of work, we do all the normal chamber things, right? This morning we wrapped up our final monthly breakfast before the summer break here in Michigan. So I’m fresh off of that, had our biggest crowd yet. And so we’re doing those types of things. But I think a big part of where we’ve really doubled down is in this community and economic development, but then also the advocacy work. And we’re not gonna talk a lot about the advocacy

Brandon Burton (04:47.18)
Yeah. That that makes a lot of sense.

Ryan Tarrant (05:13.292)
work today, but you know we partner with our state chamber, with our regional chambers on a lot of those business issues, but we also feel like for us we’re actually our community’s advocate.

And so it’s not just those business issues, which we’re strong on on the advocacy front, but also as we’re going through these pieces and looking at what projects are out there in our community that we can we can impact and push forward. You know, over the last couple of budget cycles, we’ve secured a little over eight million dollars in state funding and direct appropriations for different projects in the community. Not a single dime has come to the chamber. You know, a lot of it goes to the city, the county, local nonprofits, but

Brandon Burton (05:52.93)
Yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (05:54.518)
But they’re really incredibly important work that’s happening in the quality of life space, the tail and attraction, destination development. so where there’s those opportunities, we really want to be the ones who are seen as the go-to in our community and really have become that.

Brandon Burton (06:11.212)
Yeah, and if you can help be the driver of those funds into the community, even if it doesn’t hit the chamber directly, it helps foster those relationships that really show the impact we have in the community.

Ryan Tarrant (06:14.502)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I mean, a great, great example right now is we’ve got a hundred year old. turns a hundred, this building turns a hundred years old, called the Hayes Hotel. this year it was a hotel for about 50 years closed down in the late seventies, early eighties, became the annex for a fortune 500 companies headquarters. And then they left it 25 years ago. And so it’s been sitting vacant for 25 years. right now we’re in the process that the chain link fence just went up the shoots and the crane are coming for the roof, this week.

Brandon Burton (06:41.592)
Okay.

Ryan Tarrant (06:51.048)
But we ended up securing four and a half million dollars toward a 32 million dollar redevelopment project that’ll be a couple of floors of mixed use and then 109 downtown market rate apartments that, you really with a Fortune 500 company on one end of downtown and then this new building housing over 100 market rate apartments and some new life sort of will anchor our downtown for, you know, the next generation.

Brandon Burton (07:18.254)
Yeah, that’s fantastic. I love hearing that. Well, with these Chamber of the Year episodes, I like to spend the majority of our time discussing the programs that get submitted on these applications. So we’ll dive in deep on that and and learn more about these programs. And like you said, a follow-up from your previous episode, which is back in episode 310, as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Brandon Burton (07:44.879)
All right, Ryan, we were back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’ll dive into the the program submitted on the Chamber of the Year application. And you teased at the beginning, this is kind of a follow-up from your previous appearance on the podcast. So if you will just dive into that and tell us about the program and kind of the the origins and how it’s evolved.

Ryan Tarrant (08:05.67)
Yeah, sure. So, you know, I think the origins for us, we really started with a problem statement, you know, that that wasn’t a shock to anybody in our community. know, Jackson County and the city specifically have been losing population for the city. It’s been 40 percent over the last 60 plus years of their population down to about 30, 31000. The county over the last couple of decades has has started to stagnate and even shrink a little bit. And so, you know, as we look at that, it’s it’s not unique around the country to Midwest communities.

especially those with a of a manufacturing heritage. And I took trips to Bentonville, Arkansas, and I’ve been to Grand Rapids, which is like the North Star for Michigan, and seeing just the incredible growth and the things that they’re doing in those communities, but also recognizing that here in Jackson, we don’t necessarily have the Walmart.

headquarters and we don’t have the Walton Family Foundation and those types of things. Or if you’re in Grand Rapids, it’s the DeVos family and Amway and so many others. But what we found even with those was there’s a consistency to what they’re doing. For Bentonville, it’s been over 20 or 25 years. For Grand Rapids, even longer. I it goes back to the 70s, the redevelopment that they’ve seen and the consistency that they’ve implemented that with. so, looking around the country at other growth communities, kind of our size in the Midwest,

We can’t compete with you down there in Texas on weather in the winter, you know, or Georgia or Florida, but, know, rapid city, South, South Dakota is growing and Elkhart, Indiana is growing. And those are places like I actually would have never thought of, of wanting to move to, but people are moving there and they’re growing and thriving communities. And so, you know, it really all comes down to this consistency. And so, we kind of took a look at how do we, how do we do a project and implement something in our community? You know, when you, when you look at the.

Horizon initiative and you talk about the disruptions and building out this resiliency in your community, what can we do as our part of that? And I think what we found was this long-term vision of, and for us it’s 20 years and a planning process that took nine months. We brought in a planning consultant out of Columbus, Ohio called Planning Next. They did a phenomenal job for us, but they really sort of helped to organize this whole process

Ryan Tarrant (10:26.76)
for us over nine months where we brought in a key leadership committee of 24 people that looked like our community. When you look at the census data, we had a CEO and we had a server at a local restaurant who served on this. We had a retiree and we had a high school student and sort of everything in between. And they sort of led this charge in our community to go out and engage members and residents through pop-up.

Brandon Burton (10:49.486)
Yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (10:53.286)
pop-ups and table talks in their homes and all of these things. And over the course of two rounds of engagement, we engaged over 1,300 residents. They provided more than almost 6,000 pieces of data for us to sort of input into this that the key leadership committee could then look at and say, we now know what every corner of our community is saying the needs are, what it is that they love about our community, but what we can do better. We got, in some cases, the unvarnished truth.

Brandon Burton (11:23.138)
Yeah,

Ryan Tarrant (11:23.381)
which is a good thing and a great place to start. I I’d love to highlight when we talk about those different engagements.

that even with that second round, we actually went back and looked and we said, okay, we’re really light on our Hispanic population in that first round. So how do we get that up and meet that number for the census numbers in our community? And we actually took these engagement boards and translated them into Spanish. And we had a couple of our key leadership committee members who spoke Spanish. They went through a Sunday mass, Spanish speaking mass and engaged with the person who was afterwards.

And so, you know, from that you look at it and it’s, you know, it’s really tough to engage young people. We over-sampled young people.

And so, you know, we felt really good about the process and what came out of it that we were hearing from our entire community. And so since then, we rolled out this, you know, 72 page plan in March that has four goals around quality of life and the perception of our community, housing and economic development, know, K-12 education and lifelong learning, and then health and public safety. And within sort of these four buckets, you’ve got 54 strategies that are going to lead our community through the next 20 years.

to make sure that we were implementing with some fidelity. We early on in this process started to create a vision council. And so that’s sort of our CEO leadership group, which is exactly what you would think of it as, right? mean, generally in the community, you get these CEOs in a group and they’re going to put together the plan and it’s done in this ivory tower. And then they come out and say, this is the plan and what we’re gonna do and where we’re gonna go. In our case, it came from all of Jackson County

Brandon Burton (12:54.744)
Yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (13:09.032)
and the people. And now it’s up to this group to really be the engine that drives it because they’re the funders. We’ve got philanthropic CEOs and chairs at this table. And so it really becomes in a community our size about aligning resources, making sure everybody’s on the same page and prioritizing these 54 strategies. Because for us, it’s not a chamber plan. It is entirely a community-based plan, even if we’re the ones that maintain ownership

and know, the administrative functions. And so, you know, we’re working in a process of aligning funders for projects in addition to now going back and going out to the legislature for appropriations because, you know, the phrase we use is 40 and 20. It’s a 20 year plan. We want 40 transformational projects in that first 20 years. And we think we can get there between that local funding and then that state level funding.

funding through grants and appropriations. we’re really excited about it. Implementation has rolled out really well. We can talk a little bit about that as we go through, but that’s kind of the crux of the program, I guess, if you will, that we submitted.

Brandon Burton (14:20.142)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (14:24.558)
That’s awesome. So it’s funny you mentioned Bentonville. I was actually in Bentonville, Arkansas last week and I thought of you before the the finalists are announced because of our previous conversation and you know the the efforts you guys are making with placemaking and everything there in Jackson County. but I I’m fascinated by the the idea of getting, you know, putting together this twenty year plan and

Ryan Tarrant (14:31.014)
Yep.

Ryan Tarrant (14:38.907)
Mm-hmm.

Brandon Burton (14:46.9)
and getting the input of citizens throughout the community. So do they do these individuals have a formal role? Is it a matter of just polling them? Do they sit on some sort of a committee? How does that I don’t know if that plays into the implementation part that you talked about or or not?

Ryan Tarrant (14:59.332)
you

So you’re talking about the 1,300 people who engaged in this process? Yep.

Brandon Burton (15:06.286)
Yeah, so I guess yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (15:08.294)
So we had the leadership committee that was really the ones that sort of looked through that feedback and helped to shape the plan. But as far as the 13 heart, what we tell everybody every time we present is this is not a chamber plan, this is a community plan. You should see yourself in this. mean, just this morning I was talking to our breakfast group about over the summer as we’re on our break, thinking about where it is they fit, whether you’re an organization, a business, an individual, there is a strategy in there that you can

you can help to move the needle on and you need to find that place so that we’re all working together.

Since we’ve rolled it out, we actually have a fellow who was provided to us by the state of Michigan that we had to apply for and it was competitive. She came to us. She was the director of policy and research at our state’s population growth office actually for the last year and a half. And so now she’s embedded here. She’s a Jackson native. And so she and I have been kind of going out and doing what we call coffee chats. And so every corner of the community, know, the small towns and villages here in the city and being able

to engage with those people who engaged in the process early on, but maybe aren’t necessarily coming to chamber events. And it might be a retiree in a village called Concord on the west side, or it may be folks in a lake community called Brooklyn, the southern end of the county, and going to a coffee shop and gathering people to be able to say, OK, so you’ve had a chance to review it. Now, what are these actions that we can take to actually implement a strategy, move the needle,

and feel like we’re accomplishing some of these goals. And so I think it’s important to keep those people engaged and even to expand it out past that group that had engaged in the first part of the process.

Brandon Burton (16:58.114)
Yeah. Okay. So you talked about the twenty and forty, so or the forty and twenty, I I can’t remember the the order, but forty projects in those in those twenty years. can you give us an idea of what the range of those projects could entail? I mean, an average of two projects, depending on the scale of could be pretty intimidating, but just help help give us an idea of what what the size of these projects might entail, what they might look like.

Ryan Tarrant (17:02.822)
Yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (17:23.546)
Yeah, so we rolled this out at our annual meeting on February 11th and in the first 90 days, we’ve actually had three projects that have been rolled out. So when you talk about two a year, we’ve got three that are essentially privately funded, have nothing to do with state appropriations. We’ve got a number of those pieces out there right now as our legislators work through that process this year.

Brandon Burton (17:34.988)
Yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (17:45.378)
The first one was called RX Kids, and so this is something that started in Flint, and it’s a program that regardless of a woman’s income, any woman in the city of Jackson and Blackman Township, and there’s other communities around the state that are participating, any pregnant woman in those two communities here in Jackson will receive $1,500 regardless of income during pregnancy. And then for the first six months of the baby’s life, they also receive $500.

And this is one of those things, like I said, this isn’t a chamber plan. It was spearheaded by our community foundation, but it comes directly out of drive Jackson and the 20 year plan. You have our fortune 500 foundation. You’ve got other company foundations and individuals who raised over $300,000 in a matter of six weeks to be able to match the state funding for this. And that’s a program that during the three year pilot is gonna have about $11 and a half million of economic impact in our community. And it’s really about,

that health and wellness and some of that financial security that we all see it when we go to the gas pump right now. Like I said, I’m old, I’m beyond having children, but imagine having a kid and being pregnant and all of sudden gas is jumping to five bucks a gallon and the cost of beef is up to $7 a pound and all of those things. And it’s just an opportunity and we’ve seen in some of the early stages of this that there’s been some impressive health outcomes and it helps reduce

some of that stress on the mother and baby. so, you know, so that’s an incredible one that came out right out of the shoe. You know, fast forward another month. I mean, it feels like we’re rolling something out every month, right? We have a nonprofit in town.

Brandon Burton (19:20.846)
Yeah. Yeah, fast forward.

Ryan Tarrant (19:29.734)
called Grow Jackson that started a few years ago working on food insecurity. And they signed a lease with our county government who owns the Michigan’s oldest prison, was in Jackson in the city. And the county owns the property now. It’s no longer a prison, but the historic walls are there. And they have an old armory within these walls. And so they’ve signed this lease to create a food hub.

and a farm stop. And so they’re now managing our county’s farm market inside the prison walls. They’re in process of building out this food hub farmers market where it’s something that happens not just on Saturday for our farmers, but they can bring their produce directly to this food hub and food stop. And they’re capturing 80 % of the profits off of it versus the 15 % when you go and buy it, a Kroger, a Hy-Vee, a Meyer,

whatever the grocery store is, wherever you live in the country. And so it benefits that local economy. Well, fast forward, the executive director is 27 years old. Experience Jackson was in talks to create a beer garden as part of our destination development and placemaking. And so we were going to be running this beer garden and we had a budget for it. And what I realized was with him having this space over there, we got to talking one day and it’s to the

Brandon Burton (20:25.228)
Yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (20:52.686)
that you have to not care who gets credit for stuff. So what I recognized was, number one, I don’t want to run a beer garden. don’t have the capacity for it. Number two, it’s probably going to be cooler if a 27-year-old builds it out versus the 50-year-old. Right?

Brandon Burton (20:55.938)
Yeah, absolutely.

Brandon Burton (21:03.554)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (21:08.862)
Maybe, yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (21:12.39)
Right. And number three, he moves with such rapid pace that we were never going to get something off the ground this summer. He now has a beer garden opening this summer where we’re doing this farm stop food hub, this build out of the farmers market. And it’s just kind of building on itself. And that’s a program when you look at that three year economic impact, it’s over $25 million.

And then the third one is something the chamber’s directly running, is called Build in Jackson. The New York Post actually ran an article about a city program that we have here called 100 Homes, which was offering $25,000 in down payment assistance that you could couple with $10,000 in state assistance toward a down payment on a brand new three bedroom, one and a half story build in the city of Jackson. And the cost of the home was $178,000. So you do the math, 35K off of 178 for a brand new

built with the basement. Well, it’s ARPA dollars. so fast forward to this year and come, you when we got to March, the city came to the chamber and said, we’ve only sold half of the homes and we have to spend the money by the end of the year. And so what we did was in in about a 48 hour window, with partners put together a package that includes, you know, a bike or a kayak because we’re leaning into our outdoor amenities.

know, sort of those downtown experiences, whether it’s our symphony orchestra and restaurants, restaurant gift cards, but then also those wraparound pieces, you know, dinner with the mayor and engaging them as an 18 to 35 year old cohort to, you know, get out to meet people, to get embedded into the community, to get them on, get them serving on non-profit boards. And so we’re running a cohort of 10. We’ve just approved this week our first three. We have two in the next

next four in the queue that are from out of state. So we’ve got one moving from Tennessee. Can’t tell you the last time somebody moved from Tennessee to Michigan, so we’re pretty excited about that.

Brandon Burton (23:10.742)
Yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (23:12.612)
You know, but that one when you look at that three-year economic impact is about seven and a half million. And so, you you look at those things that have been rolled out in the first 90 days that, you know, are getting threaded throughout the community, and you’re talking about $42 million in economic impact just in the first three months over the next three years. And so, you know, and every time I talk to somebody, we’ve got a local manufacturer in a rural community who’s partnering with their local school district because the school district, because of Drive Jackson, wants to create a tech hub for their students.

company wants to be involved in moving the needle for Drive Jackson and so they’ve offered the match money. And so now we’re playing matchmaker for the manufacturer and the school district with some of the potentially interested philanthropic groups in the community to make sure that this gets funded and gets up and running for the next school year. And so, you know, everything that’s happening in our community is being touched by the chamber. You know, and we’re sort of viewed as that when you want something to happen,

Brandon Burton (24:00.151)
Well.

Ryan Tarrant (24:10.628)
you know, it starts here, we’re the hub.

Brandon Burton (24:13.228)
Yeah, that is those are some great examples and I couldn’t help but think with Gro Jackson that there’s gotta be a curiosity factor too for people to wanna come in and check out the the market to be able to get inside the walls of the prison and and check it out a little bit.

Ryan Tarrant (24:27.015)
it

You know, and I’ve got to tell you, I went to their grand opening farmers market, you know, this spring. And when I pulled inside the prison walls and you think about, mean, we’ve still got the biggest prison in Michigan now, but you know, it’s not there anymore. It’s newer and nicer. But inside these old historic walls that make you feel a little bit like you’re looking at the Shawshank Redemption Walls. And it felt like the entire area was full of cars the first day because, you know, it was just

Brandon Burton (24:44.002)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (24:49.804)
Yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (24:57.736)
is so enormous compared to what we had had before. And so we’re really excited about the opportunities there.

Brandon Burton (25:04.374)
That is really cool. I love those examples. I love the the impact that those programs are gonna make in the community. And that’s only three of the forty in the first twenty years. So

Ryan Tarrant (25:07.354)
here.

Ryan Tarrant (25:15.362)
And I think that’s the piece that’s so important for chambers now is as we shift and, know, I think what some of us have struggled with over the years and, you know, I certainly have been guilty of this as well, is understanding the data, understanding how to tell the story that that data tells, but then also measuring that economic impact because more and more our members, you know, especially the larger the business, you know, the more they want to see that data and return on investment. And so how do we as chambers tell that story?

show our impact and I think that’s where this is one of those things with some of the partnerships with those.

Brandon Burton (25:46.765)
Yes.

Ryan Tarrant (25:53.106)
having a data and research director being able to pull down. Every time there’s one of these projects, we run an economic impact report because we want to know what the economic impact is. initially it was, OK, can we impact $10 million in the first year? Well, here we are 90 days in, and it’s like, OK, we know we’re measuring $42 million. And so now we’re starting to look at it and thinking, how quick can we get to $1 billion in economic impact for our community? And with everybody on board, every CEO, every company,

Brandon Burton (26:16.502)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Tarrant (26:22.92)
them aligning instead of being in silos. I think it becomes, the longer you do it, the more you embed it in the culture. I think the easier it is. mean, you we talked about the rise in report and sort of, you know, the speed that things move and, you know, how things happen. And we talk about dealing with disruptions and yes, we have to build that resiliency, which we feel like we’re doing with this. But I think in some sense, it’s also being the disruptor.

a little bit in your community. mean, you know, the community of Jackson sort of has, I think, for a long time felt like we have Ann Arbor to the east and Detroit, you know, so you have University of Michigan and then to the north you have Michigan State University and here people sort of think of us as prison city. And I think this has given them, you know, sort of that hope of hope and optimism of, you know, we are going places and we’re the example for the state now.

Brandon Burton (26:53.134)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (27:18.402)
Yeah. that is awesome. And that my thoughts were going there next with how do you get the story out there? You get the the the reports of the economic impact and be able to share those stories. ’cause nothing, you know, gets at me more when you hear somebody say, Well, what does a chamber even do? And if you’ve got a whole catalog of all these things that you’re doing and the impact it’s making in the community, it’s like, what would the community look like without the chamber, right? Exactly.

Ryan Tarrant (27:43.185)
Exactly. Yeah. And to those stories, mean, you one of the other things we do, because again, we’ve sort of got this combined resource, is we’re able to bring in a storyteller who comes in and does eight interviews a week. And so we’re not just sort of telling, saying, hey, you know, come to this store because it’s got a sale. He’ll go in and meet with the owner and talk to the owner and sort of tell the story of the person behind the sale, right? Who’s started this from scratch or who bought a boutique in a small

community and why they’re there, why they have the passion for the community because whether you’re a resident, a visitor, you’re looking at a community to move to, you you want to feel that connection. I mean, part of social media, working remotely so much, you know, I think when people travel, when they’re in their community, they really want to feel connected to it these days. And so that’s really been a great opportunity for us. And it’s really kind of cool and exciting to see it sometimes because, you know, we ran one in a small village on a boutique owner and

And one of the neighboring stores down the street actually put up a billboard that said, put the little billboard up congratulating her on this story that was written about her and shared on social media. And they get hundreds of thousands of views because people are so passionate about their community and it reaches outside of your community too. And so it starts to sort of feed back to that, people think of us as prison city, but there’s so much more. And so it’s really something that we’ve taken on.

Brandon Burton (28:55.96)
That’s really cool.

Brandon Burton (29:03.927)
Yes.

Ryan Tarrant (29:12.53)
is what does that public perception look like, not only internal to Jackson, but externally around the state for us. And so it feels like we’re starting to make headway as we get out and talk about Drive Jackson and the things that we’re doing.

Brandon Burton (29:25.89)
Yeah, that’s awesome. well John Ryan, as we start to wrap things up, I always like asking on behalf of those listening, yeah, especially right now as a chamber the year finalist, what kind of tip or action item might you leave for the listener who’s wanting to take their organization up to the next level? Well

Ryan Tarrant (29:44.868)
Well, I mean, I think what I would say is, you know, having grown up in and now living in a community where I’ve heard a lot of, well, you know, this is just kind of what we have and we should be happy with it. I think there’s nothing that’s impossible in your community.

it’s aligning the right partners, it’s determining where it is you wanna go. think having sort of a vision of where your community wants to go, but engaging the entirety of your community. I mean, it’s really, really tough. Our friend Bob Thomas, who’s the COO at the Michigan Chamber, early on, I think in my first couple of months running a chamber a decade ago, said it’s really challenging to build consensus now and perhaps all we can hope for is grudging consent. And it’s okay to get to

Brandon Burton (30:17.484)
Yes.

Ryan Tarrant (30:31.076)
and consent because over time if you’re consistent you implement with fidelity you start to build consensus around things and so I think it’s really rewarding when you see that stuff happen. You know I’m always happy to help help other chambers and to talk through the things that we’re doing. I mean it’s such a great industry to be able to lean on those people who are doing the things you know. I know we’ve got a lot of a lot of great finalists out there. Janelle Smith from Howell Area Chamber of Commerce who will be on at some point as a good friend.

mine and about 50 miles away so you know we were excited to see each other both as finalists and so you know look look forward to sharing that and you know just just kind of kind of keep at it we can we can transform our communities and shape them into the things that we want as as residents of our own communities and the things that businesses need so.

Brandon Burton (31:07.0)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (31:21.432)
Yeah, that’s great. I w I also like to ask about the future of Chambers. You’ve mentioned the Horizon Report a couple of times, in our conversation, but how do you see the future of Chambers and their purpose going forward?

Ryan Tarrant (31:27.952)
Okay.

Ryan Tarrant (31:33.37)
Well, I think it’s always going to be critical to be able to make those connections.

between business owners, those networking opportunities, those advertising opportunities, they’re always going to be a piece of what we’re doing as chambers of commerce. But I think when we look at sort of the holistic, think it’s what are these bigger programs and projects that impact our entire community? Because people are so transient and can move with remote work, with changing jobs, that what is it that we do to keep populations where they are or to attract new population? And so for us, we’re working on building

out our model where, you know, those events and sponsorships are about a quarter and membership is only a quarter.

But the other half comes from grant funding for programs and projects and then capital campaigns. You know, we’re just kicking off this week a quarter million dollar capital campaign for our new foundation, which incidentally is called Drive Jackson. It makes it a little bit easier to fund drive days when you name it right. But I think having that diversity in your revenue mix and being able to impact your entire community versus

Brandon Burton (32:32.16)
Right. That’s right.

Ryan Tarrant (32:45.352)
thinking more narrowly as to just our members is really where those growth opportunities come in for chambers going forward in the future.

Brandon Burton (32:54.69)
Yeah, that’s great. well I wanted to give you a chance, Ryan, to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you or learn more about these programs you’re implementing there in Jackson County Chamber. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Ryan Tarrant (33:10.48)
So I’ll give you two ways. You can reach out to me on my cell phone. That is 989-708-7683 or my email, ryan@JacksonChamber.org. And if you want to learn more about the Drive Jackson plan, it can be found at drivejacksoncounty.com. And our entire team is happy to help and share. We’ve got incredible staff here. Our leadership team’s amazing.

So happy to help anyone if they think we can.

Brandon Burton (33:43.788)
Very good. Well we’ll make sure that’s in our show notes and make it easy to connect. But this has been great to have you back on the podcast and especially under these circumstances. And I wish you and your team the best of luck as Chamber of the Year.

Ryan Tarrant (33:56.41)
Thank you. It was great to come back on and be able to talk about, you know, from the plan and where we started the idea to actually now implementing it. So thank you very much. Full circle.

Brandon Burton (34:05.987)
Full circle moment, you bet.

2026 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Boone Area Chamber with David Jackson

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Brandon Burton (00:01.25)
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and here on the on the podcast, I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year finalist series. And joining us today is David Jackson.

President and CEO of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina, and one of the high country’s most influential community advocates. Since taking the helm of the chamber in 2016, David has helped drive initiatives that strengthen economic development, support local businesses, and enhance quality of life throughout the Boone region.

His leadership has helped position the organization as a trusted partner in addressing community opportunities and challenges while earning recognition as the 2025 Carolina’s Outstanding Chamber of the Year. David’s commitment to community service extends well beyond the chamber. He serves on numerous local and regional boards and commissions, contributes to economic development efforts across the high country, and teaches as an adjunct professor at Appalachian State University’s Walker College of Business.

His impact has been recognized through several honors, including being named Community Advocate of the Year by the North Carolina Rural Center and receiving both the Town of Boone 1872 Award and the Community Inspiration Award in 2025. Before leading the chamber, David spent 16 years with Appalachian State Athletics, including a decade as Associate Athletic Director.

Many listeners may recognize his familiar voice from behind the microphone, where he built an award-winning broadcast career, earning two North Carolina Sportscasters of the Year honors. Today he continues to be a familiar voice for App State Athletics and the Carolina Panthers. Whether discussing leadership, community growth, economic development, or the future of the high country, David brings a unique perspective shaped by decades of service, storytelling, and engagement. Let’s welcome back David Jackson. David,

Brandon Burton (02:09.218)
Love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions who are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you even better.

David Jackson (02:18.063)
Yeah, well it’s it’s great to be back. always good to to see an email pop up from you in the inbox, but and it it’s also great to be in a space where you know you can talk to people that understand the work that we do on a daily basis. So yeah, so in and thinking about the the next fun fact here, I actually got into the broadcast side that you were talking about by growing up in a household where my dad was a local television weatherman.

He he served as meteorologist at WFMY TV in Greensboro for a little over twenty years and had about thirty years in the industry. so we we moved to North Carolina in nineteen eighty-two, right after Michael Jordan hit the shot that gave North Carolina the national championship and made him a little bit famous. And and and that that kind of solidified my love for sports in a new area, but but yeah, so I I used to go back to work with my dad at night and

Brandon Burton (03:00.012)
La vea.

David Jackson (03:11.515)
sneak out of the weather office and go hang out with the sports guys and and that’s kind of where my career interest got started.

Brandon Burton (03:17.294)
Yeah, that’s awesome. So I’m curious, did your dad have to change his name as a weatherman? You see all these, you know

David Jackson (03:23.793)
No, he he had a plain enough name that that was okay. So he d he didn’t have a stage name or anything like that. But but it it’s interesting he he got started in sports as well and was was the radio station director. he went to Southern Illinois in Carbondale and was the the sports director at the radio station and and called games for the Salukies. So when I was working at App State, after he left TV weather

Brandon Burton (03:28.074)
Okay.

David Jackson (03:49.052)
I actually had him join our broadcast crew as our sideline reporter, and we worked together for about a decade in that in that way. So he actually continued on with the network after I left. So he was he was the my inside scoop for for information there for a while. But it it was a fun opportunity to work with a parent and and anything, let alone something like that, was really special.

Brandon Burton (04:00.055)
Okay.

Brandon Burton (04:12.642)
Yeah. Very cool. well I know we just

Recently had you on I say recently, it was I guess December of twenty twenty five that your your previous episode aired on the podcast. But it you’re definitely a familiar voice and face on the on Chamber Chat Podcast. But for those who maybe miss that episode or s tune in especially for these Chamber of the Year final series, tell us about the Boone Area Chamber to give us perspective, the size of your chamber, staff, scope of work, budget you guys work with, just to kind of set the stage for our

Yeah.

David Jackson (04:47.665)
Yeah, sure. So the the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce is located in the mountains of northwest North Carolina in Watauga County. We are on the state line of Tennessee and are real close to the Virginia border. So if you think about the triangle where where North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia come together up there in the northwest, we are located in in that region of the state. About an hour and forty-five minutes northwest of Charlotte, about an hour and forty-five minutes west of Greensboro. So beautiful area of the mountains. We’re at about thirty five hundred feet up here.

and and enjoy the the mountain climate. We’re in rainforest season right now, which is good because we we were also experiencing drought conditions. So rain right now as Chamber of Commerce weather. our organization has about 700 members, give or take on the day. You all understand that. our budget annually for the C6 side of the house is about 850,000 in terms of revenue. and that number has has grown some over the years.

Brandon Burton (05:30.237)
Okay.

David Jackson (05:46.45)
We’ve got a staff of eight full time employees and and a couple of part time employees at this point. And in the last two and a half years or so, we’ve taken on a five one C three foundation, which was very helpful to us in the recovery from Hurricane Helene. I know we talked about that a lot in the last episode. but that that has made for us to to have between a one point seven five and two million dollar organization totally.

Brandon Burton (06:01.326)
Must be a recovery.

I’m sorry. but that no.

David Jackson (06:14.379)
if you if you use Mike Gelman terminology, our our our full full organization runs right around two million and and has a lot of philanthropic tie-in to it as well. So we we’ve evolved in that way in the last three to four years and and really feel like we are a different organization now than we were five years ago.

Brandon Burton (06:34.668)
I’m sure you feel bit just more solid, more strength behind that with having more of that infrastructure built out and we I’m sure we’ll talk more about that throughout this episode as well. that definitely does help to set the stage though.

David Jackson (06:42.759)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (06:49.622)
So, for these Chamber of the Year finalist episodes, what I’d really like to spend the bulk of our time on is the programs of work that were submitted on your Chamber of the Year application. So, as I understand, just from a high level, you guys have a child care program that we’ll address that ties into your economic development initiatives, and also a community resilience fund that, if I’m not mistaken, came out of the Helene recovery efforts. So we’ll dive in deeper on the details of those two programs.

As soon as we get back from this quick break.

All right, David, we’re back. as I mentioned before the break, kind of hitting on the the two programs that were submitted on your chamber of the year application. I don’t know if you have a preference on which one you want to address first in our discussion today. yeah, yeah, we can part. All right. Well let’s let’s let’s attack the child care front. I know that

David Jackson (07:36.851)
He yeah, yeah, we can we can start with whichever one you would like to.

Brandon Burton (07:44.994)
That tends to be something nationwide that there’s issues with. So hopefully there’s some good things that listeners can learn from.

David Jackson (07:51.41)
Yeah, so we we touched on this the last time we talked a little bit. you know, most most chambers and economic development organizations, if you haven’t been involved in this space, you’re warming up to it now that that early childhood development and and child care in general is an essential piece of economic development strategy. we have been involved in this conversation in our community for nearly a decade now. we had our our smart start agency got together a group of business

leaders and business owners and and just community influencers a little over nine years ago now and just said, hey, you know, we need to do an asset map. We need to first of all tell you, help you connect the dots why childcare is essential for businesses that that may not even have employees with children, why why this is such an important fabric of our community. So we really took took that that on as a challenge to try to help message that to our business community. just the the essential

workforce that that that industry represents. But then also shining some light on how porous that industry was. you know, you were talking about solid foundations earlier, and I don’t know if there’s a state in the country that can claim that they’ve got a solid foundation underneath their early child care system. Here in North Carolina, there is a state a state subsidy floor that is actually being debated in the General Assembly as we speak.

That has not been reset in about six years. So when you start thinking about the the cost of doing business for the business and getting full cost of care for the children that they are caring for, they are missing the mark by a lot. And that that doesn’t even account for the inflationary increases that we’ve seen, you know, over the last 18 months or so. So this industry is is in a very difficult situation for its own solvency, yet we rely on

these centers and these workers nurturing our children at their most vulnerable time of brain development, trying to get them ready for for pre-K and kindergarten and on into third grade assessments. But we also know that without those businesses, we have no business. We we have so many people in this particular community, dual family career households are the norm. You you cannot afford to live here on one income. So

Brandon Burton (10:02.85)
Really, yeah.

David Jackson (10:15.249)
Families need that security of knowing that they’ve got a place for their children to go, that it’s safe, it’s well maintained, they’re going to get education and not just screen time sitting over in the corner. you know, so we have championed those efforts and and have been, you know, kind of carved out our space as a statewide advocate in connecting the business community to to this work. So we we have used our foundation as as a catapult for this over the last few years.

take it back to Helene for a second and and that the the first fundraising that we did post disaster, we raised about two hundred and sixty thousand dollars in you know the first five or six days after the after the storm. So our foundation board met and and we we tried to figure out what we could do with that kind of money at that time and they said let’s be what we are about and we are about childcare in in our community. So we we were able to take

The majority of those funds and and combine them with another grant that the Spar the Smart Start Agency had and got about two hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars out the door within a few days after the storm to pay off the October tuition debt for families that had children and early child care facilities in our community. that not only freed up short-term cash for those families to address emerging hurricane repair needs, but it also helped make sure that the the

Brandon Burton (11:33.998)
Yeah, yes.

David Jackson (11:39.88)
The business model of early childhood was still intact when everybody came back to work in in November. so we’ve made it now an October tradition to fundraise for a unique project within the early childhood landscape. Last year we did a fundraising project for a child care for child care workers initiative. And this year we just recently announced that we’re doing a one-time retention bonus for.

Brandon Burton (11:39.93)
Okay.

Brandon Burton (11:46.67)
Right.

Brandon Burton (11:58.531)
Well.

David Jackson (12:05.995)
childcare staff that have been at six month, one year, and two year plus increments. And so we’re trying to raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $65,000 to do a one-time retention bonus for those staff members to show them, number one, that the community cares about them, that that they see them. This is often a a very overlooked element of our workforce. But that that two, the the centers can use this as a retention bonus. And as we’re we’re looking at the fluctuation of education professionals at this time of year.

Brandon Burton (12:10.926)
Yeah,

Brandon Burton (12:17.166)
Right.

David Jackson (12:34.555)
those that maybe have enough education and background to get into a teaching assistant position in the county, those those child care centers need to keep that staff. And we we hope that this is an enticement that that can keep folks working, put a little bit more money in their pockets right before the holidays and again show, you know, shine a a a bright spotlight on a very critical element of our workforce here in our community.

Brandon Burton (12:58.944)
Yeah. Just this last weekend I was having a conversation with a a friend and he and his wife are just a young couple and they just had their second child. And they both have their own careers and everything, but now they’re debating, you know, do does the wife go back to work or you know, trying to weigh out the child care costs versus what the income levels are and that’s kind of that threshold where it’s like I it’s so then you’re pulling from the workforce and and all that. So child care is so so important to address.

I’m curious with your approach. Like you talked about the one time retention bonus and the the annual fundraising around childcare. w what kind of childcare facilities would qualify? Is it just any licensed facility within the county or is it like the home daycare places and would they qualify? Like what’s the that threshold?

David Jackson (13:48.658)
Yeah, so it’s a great question. And it and it speaks to how every state is aligned a little bit differently too. So in our case, we are are allocating these funds to licensed care facilities, both the the traditional centers that you think about, but also the in home care centers that also have to go through a licensure you know, qualification here in North Carolina. And, you know, we found when we did child care for child care workers, so I’ll I’ll back up and say that we have always picked for for these

now two years and and even take it to Helene, we have we have picked things that have had some sort of a legislative priority or are a priority of the advocates within the industry. So certainly Helene recovery was at the top of the top of the top of the list back in in October of 2024 throughout Western North Carolina. And there are still some centers that have not reopened yet because of the damage that they sustained during that period of time.

When we when we’ve looked at these last two years, we have gone back to that same advocacy group and said, All right, tell us what your your priorities are. Well, Childcare for Childcare Workers was about having a pilot program where we could and this was this is another program that’s being debated in our our state general assembly now, about funding the the slots that are taken by workers from those facilities. So in some cases, you know, a a center.

staff members taking one of their own children into that same center. And rather than them just giving their paycheck right back to their boss essentially for for the reasons that you just articulated, there there is a push in North Carolina to try to create a fund where those funds could at least be partially subsidized, if not fully paid for, for those staff members. Again, in the in the spirit of workforce retention and recruitment, but also

A healthy stabilizer for the child care business because what we found was that a number of those facility owners were writing that cost off anyway. You’re looking at a business model that has about a 1% profit margin to it. They can’t afford to give away too much. So it does those payments went directly to the centers to offset income that would be coming from the family, and everybody kind of won there. And then we we authored a white paper and sent that to our General Assembly members and said, here’s what we learned.

Brandon Burton (15:50.574)
Yeah.

David Jackson (16:08.827)
And one of the things we learned was that the in-home childcare centers could not take advantage of that because they didn’t really have a staff. there was just one person with about five kids and and so we we were able to help them understand that if that was going to be a legislative priority, there had to be some sort of set aside or carve out or or or at least acknowledgement of the fact that not every business within the industry operates the same way. so so that’s been helpful. It it’s kept us in in

Very close contact with legislators as as we’re looking at at the overall systemic issues there. And another thing I’d point out quickly is the regulatory aspect of this. when and when we think regulation, a lot of people’s minds go straight to safety. There is nothing being discussed in our state about changing the safety standards around how children are cared for. As a matter of fact, it’s going in the other direction and and really leaning into ways that that that children can be cared for as as safely as possible.

But what we have noticed in our state, and we have heard this from other states around us, is the duality of some of this regulation and the contradiction that comes from that. And what I mean by that is we we’ve got a very real scenario here in our county where there is a person that comes in and does the license requirement review for one set of standards. They will then leave the facility, go sit in their car, eat their lunch, come back inside the center.

And judge that same business off of a completely different set of standards for another licensure requirement. And oftentimes those things are contradictory. And we’re talking about things like the the food quality of lunches and and you know some of the the fundamental things around building structure, you know, access points, those things all tie to safety and we don’t want to see any of that change. But but some of the the the paperwork chase that is involved in this industry is

Brandon Burton (17:44.621)
Not

David Jackson (18:02.851)
is enough to to take up one if not two staff members. And again, these are businesses that run very lean because the profit margin is is next to nothing. So so we we are involved in this in the in the foundational sense and trying to support this industry and lend some voice to an industry that doesn’t have time for the voice. We’re we’re fortunate that we have a a well placed board member of ours that is in some of the statewide decisions on one of Governor Stein’s task force initiatives for this.

So we’re able to to to be, you know, kind of at the ground level of some of the substantive conversation that’s coming up in the in the legislative pipeline. And then again, you know, to close this, all of this is being being done to support an industry that supports every other industry here in our community. And anytime there’s a center closure or a hiccup in the system, it snows and the centers close. We find out real quick just how valuable that that business line is to our community, especially a rural community like ours.

Brandon Burton (19:02.19)
Yeah. Well it sounds like you guys have definitely done your homework and you know the the industry, you know, very well. I was gonna say inside and out, but I’m sure there’s some thing you know, still room to to learn more about it, but definitely making an impact there. Let’s let’s shift gears a bit to the other program of work that was submitted around your community resilience fund. If you wanna tell us what that is and how that came to be.

David Jackson (19:25.957)
Yeah, so we we submitted some information about our hurricane response. you know, as as all chambers and and no matter what community you’re in, I wanna shout out Sharifa Jones out in Iowa, who has been just a wonderful resource for us here in North Carolina. they were a few months ahead of us on a disaster claim due to a flood and just being being able to benchmark where they are versus where we’re going. you know, she has been just a wonderful resource. So

Brandon Burton (19:47.319)
It flood, yeah.

David Jackson (19:55.4)
So to shout out to Sharifa. But i in that spirit, you know, as we’re thinking about how we responded to that, both from a monetary standpoint, from an advocacy standpoint, we we are involved. I’m I’m a member of Governor Stein’s task force for Western North Carolina recovery. it’s about, you know, fifty people you know across all kinds of of business scopes as you would imagine. So we

We get a chance on a monthly basis to meet and and chart different areas of of Western North Carolina’s recovery. And then my area of focus is with a number of professionals on the long term economic recovery. One of the things that we have learned in this is that as FEMA is being reshaped in front of us nationally, and really that process started as we were getting started with our recovery here in in Western North Carolina. you know, you can play the timing.

Of that. I think I said on the last episode, never have your natural disaster in the middle of a contentious presidential election. That that’s what we found. We could have written our synopsis on that, right? But but what we found in in the process is that that in our state, communities are going to be tasked with the rapid response element, both from a personal side through the LTRGs, and and any kind of business support is gonna have to come as rapid response from the community itself.

Brandon Burton (20:53.998)
That’s right. Plan for that. Yeah.

David Jackson (21:16.615)
We have we have long noted and and have beaten our heads up against the wall about business support. coming from disaster funding, we have yet to see any kind of federal allocation. We’ve received one state allocation through the governor’s office to a nonprofit that was able to to dole out some funds. But but every time that we’ve gone back to say, hey, you know, we we need to get these businesses back on their feet again so they can continue to create the tax revenue that these local rural communities need to survive, we get

Sorry, we can’t give money directly to to to businesses from the state government. There’s an emoluments clause in North Carolina that prevents that. So all of that said, we have have started working on the local answers. So we we raised about $1.4 million and distributed that through disaster grant funding to small businesses from our chamber. We had a lot of philanthropic interest in that, of course. but we had a lot of donors that that they’re in the onset of the storm.

The heartstrings attachment to our area. It was $10, $25, $100 donations that made up a large pot that we were able to distribute disaster grants through four funding rounds. We are now looking at reshaping that program to be a community resilience and stability program where we know that we’ve got dollars that that we can fundraise for throughout the year. It’s not sexy fundraising, we understand that, but but we want to.

have at least a pool of money to where when the next disaster strikes, whatever that happens to be, we’ve got some deployable funds immediately available to us. And then we can fundraise to refill that off of whatever happened. But it’s it’s just about having rapid action cash that a lot of communities don’t have available to them when a business burns down due to a fire or there is an economic disruption of some sort.

So we’re in the process of migrating our disaster grant program into this more you know kind of 365 day a year evergreen community resilience fund. And then thinking out how we can allocate those funds. So we we anticipate and our foundation board’s working through this now of of you know probably having about 80% of those funds attached to the disaster need and defining what disasters are.

David Jackson (23:32.616)
But then thinking that we’ve got 20% of that funding that can be micro loans or micro grants to the business that is still struggling at a time like this. We have not been dealt any favors economically from our hurricane disaster on top of a difficult winter, on top of gas prices raising, on top of, on top of, in a tourism-dependent economy. So we want to create some things that could be, you know, a microgrant to a business that needs a little bit of a boost.

Could be professional development funding for a group that needs to be trained in a certain way to handle new circumstances. We’ve got some flexibility there. And that that’s really given us some opportunity to dream a bit about what, you know, we could work off the interest on something like that. You know, we’re we’re still kind of in the formative stage of all of that. But the the synopsis that we wrote was that, you know, not only did this was this funding necessary in in the immediate, but we also

all need to think about how these funds are deployed in our community outside of the federally declared disaster. And if the federal government’s not going to declare them in the same way, surely our states are not yet understanding of what that looks like for them. So again, we can’t wait on anybody else. We we’ve got to to create the case that that this kind of funding is needed.

It’s separate from the personal lines that that again are handled by the long-term recovery groups, but very much works in concert with those things. And hopefully we can create a scenario where our community feels like we’ve got a little bit of a of a a tool that we can use until larger help arrives. And and something we did not have before the hurricane. you know, that that kept us from getting resources out for weeks.

Brandon Burton (25:06.136)
Yeah.

Yeah.

David Jackson (25:17.605)
Now we’d like to create a situation where, hey, within a couple of days, we’re stroking a check, we’re helping somebody out and getting them a few steps farther down the road to recovery in a way that does not lock them out from any other funding moving forward.

Brandon Burton (25:32.462)
Yeah. I like the the self reliance aspect of taking care of your community, you know, taking care of your own first and not needing to sit around and wait for federal aid to come in and and hopefully it does come, but you’re not gonna sit around and wait for it. you’d mentioned the go ahead. Yeah.

David Jackson (25:37.405)
Mm-hmm.

David Jackson (25:47.974)
Yeah, and yeah, just just to say real quick, you know, to I I think part of of what we’ve learned in the in the last couple of years and where Sharif has been helpful and and several others around the country that have gone through these kinds of things is is to understand the the level of red tape that exists with all of these programs. Certainly and understandably so. We’re we’re all smart enough in this industry to understand why federal funds have the have the extra hoops to jump through, right?

And some of our state funding is like that. And even some of our local funding, depending on where it’s passing through, gets bogged down in in the the quagmire of paperwork. But what we are hopeful in that we can come up with a trustworthy but simple process where we’re not bogging people down with chasing every piece of paper that they’ve ever, you know, had with their business. There needs to be some truthful understanding of where they are and and why they are in the situation that they’re in.

But we’re hopeful to create a scenario where we’re we’re able to we’re we’re able to get funds to people quickly because we’re taking away some of those barriers. and part of that I I think goes back to the nature of our business and that’s the relationships. to sit around a room where grants are being allocated and say, I know that business and I know their last five-year history and I know that their son is just getting ready to take it over or or what have you.

That’s valuable information that I think that we in our industry take for granted sometimes when when we can just have that kind of top of mind. yes, this is my community. I I understand it and I can get to yes faster because I’ve been paying attention. And and I think so many of us are in that that position where we all have this crazy amount of information in our brains, then we don’t know when we’re gonna need it. Well, you need it at a time like that. And I think that’s where our organization could be very helpful. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (27:15.598)
Sure.

Brandon Burton (27:35.311)
CRM doesn’t quite carry all that information that’s in your head, right? Yeah. So you had mentioned that the the fundraising for it is not necessarily sexy. And I know, you know, coming out of the the storm, there was the obvious need you could say, you could, you know, have things to point to and say, this is why we’re fundraising, and you get that support of $10 here, $20 there, $1,000, you know, all over the board. But going forward, when you don’t have that.

That initial emotional moment that pulls on the heartstrings, what does that fundraising look like that that is not sexy?

David Jackson (28:11.505)
Yeah, yeah, it’s a great question. And and and it’s an answer that we don’t really have fully addressed yet. we’re in the relationship building stage of that right now. So we’re just shy of two years out from from our disaster. And and again, as we benchmark against other communities that have been through similar things. you know, we’ve got Gatlinburg not far from here from the the fires that they went through you know, several years back now. And talking to some of these professionals and and the businesses around there.

You know, we find that now is the time to make the deep philanthropic relationships work. So our state is actually being helpful with that. The governor’s task force is trying to bring in some national and even international philanthropic efforts to Western North Carolina recovery, but they are doing a great job of making sure that those folks are meeting local contacts on the ground. And as we all know, in the grant funding world, there’s a bucket over here and a bucket over here, and those two buckets can’t pour into the same thing.

But they can pour into similar things. So you might meet somebody that that is controlling bucket number one. And one day they will say, hey, but bucket number two is now available, and that one’s for you. So I I think the the relationship building piece of it is the work that nobody ever sees. it’s the work that you don’t write the press release on, but it is essential to the next step. So we we have been really working that right now, trying to get out in front of people what.

Brandon Burton (29:30.168)
Yeah.

David Jackson (29:36.232)
the true conditions are on the ground. And I’ve I’ve found that that’s the toughest message to communicate. It’s the, you know, the the the road is fixed, the the ground may be healed over a little bit, and people can’t see necessarily as easily the impacts of that that disaster from two years ago. But we all in this industry know that the economic ramifications from that kind of disruption take years to to get over. And we’re in the middle of that right now.

We we’ve got businesses that that any disruption is a magnified disruption. We had a rainy Memorial Day weekend. That really put a damper on our retail and and and tourism based industries. We had snow on every Friday in January. That that does not work well for the ski industry here because the roads were not accessible for people to get to to the area. you know, so we’ve had to fight some curveballs off and and foul a few pitches off, but we’re we’re hopeful that through relationship equity.

Brandon Burton (30:12.302)
Yeah.

David Jackson (30:30.739)
Through our state continuing to support the region, we can we can make some of the relationships that we’ll then decide to learn more about our communities. And then we get into storytelling mode, which we we all know we can flip that switch on and and we’re all passionate about the things that our community needs. And that that’s what we’re hoping is the next step in in all of this. And and are starting to make some inroads in that direction.

Brandon Burton (30:52.278)
Yeah, very good. But I love how both of these programs show that you guys have day you know, a vision for the future.

You guys are creating that roadmap going forward to make sure that your business community and the local economy there is going to be as sound as possible because of the efforts that the chamber is making. So kudos to you guys for being that you know foresight kind of thinking. as we begin to wrap things up, I wanted to ask you on behalf of those listening, what kind of tip or action item would you leave for the chamber out there listening who wants to take their organization up to the next level?

David Jackson (31:29.821)
Yeah, that’s a great question too. We, you know, we’re going back to the the chamber of the year finalist piece, you know, we we set into that process to learn. we we had just gone through a a program here in North Carolina called Family Forward, which is a certification that you can get if you have some HR principles for the most part that are in alignment with Family Forward practices and policies. Everything from making sure that you’re offering maternity and paternity leave, to to how your your

Dealing with all kinds of staff retention initiatives and things along those lines. So when we went through that process, we got certified, but we saw some things that we wanted to change. And that led us down a road with policies and procedures. And then that led us down a road of membership retention and recruitment and some of our internal chamber strategies. So when it got to time for the for the ACCE submissions, we thought, well, we’ve done a lot of work. Let’s just see where we are. Let’s see how we benchmark against some other peer organizations.

And and we were we’re gonna rely on that feedback. And you know, little did we know that that we got to this stage, but we are as excited to get to New Orleans to learn as much as anything. And I think that’s my my advice is to go into it hoping to get better through the process, whether you get selected, whether you whether you and that this could be your state organizations or or any type of way that you can say, are we on the right path?

And can we judge that against organizations that do something similarly? Because there really are no organizations like ours. It’s not like you can look down the street and say, hey, you know, there’s a building business in the building next door. Let’s see how our sales match up. That’s not what the chambers are. So I I think it’s one of the the most helpful things with with ACCE has been to do that with like peer sets. And and you know, whether that’s budget,

type of community, size of population, all those types of things, to be able to go in and look under the hood and say, hey, yeah, we do these things really well. But here’s some areas that we can learn from some others on on how we can just get better as an organization. And as I mentioned, we’ve had a lot of change here in the last four years. added staff, new building, new foundation, hurricane recovery. It’s time for us to take that look and say, where are we? And and how can we become the chamber of the future, knowing that that

David Jackson (33:48.988)
some of the the the methods and and methodology of the past is no longer no longer gonna be something that we can count on. you know, so that that’s part of the process. I think if you enter into it with that that constant mindset of nothing is nothing is sacred, everything deserves to look under the hood every once in a while and you can get better for that. I think that’s what we’re most excited about being involved in this process.

Brandon Burton (34:12.27)
I think that’s great advice and it’s a great perspective to take, you know, going into this this kind of process. I know I’ve asked you before when you were on the show, but I like asking, you know, whenever I have somebody on the show, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

David Jackson (34:28.007)
You know, I think my answer has changed in the last six months. you know, we are in a very odd economic time around the country, and and I think everybody’s got their version of this right now. we are in a tourism dependent area though we are trying to diversify our economy. And I think I touched on that last time that we’ve had two major disruptions in the last six years that have shown us what major pieces of our com are are or what our community looks like when major pieces are turned off.

We are a in a university town with Appalachian State. When the university goes away and tourism goes away, we become very quiet and and very, very isolated. so we have been thinking about that economic diversification at a time where everything costs more. So while we’re championing the business startup and the entrepreneurial effort and and trying to get some of that intellectual property off of campus and into businesses, we know that we’re encouraging people to do this at a time that it costs more than ever to do these things.

Brandon Burton (34:55.788)
Yeah.

David Jackson (35:24.941)
And I think that that the the future version of the chamber world has to be one where you’re getting the real time information and reacting off of that real time look. I I don’t think that we can sit here and say today, I I know I can’t, from from R C what our community’s going to look like three hundred and sixty five days from now. There are a lot of ifs that come into that, more so than ever that I’ve experienced in the ten years of being in this job.

We have to be really good at anticipating the if scenarios and helping people see, all right, here’s option A or here’s what could happen if these things fall into place and here’s option B and so on and so forth. And not do that as a scare tactic by any stretch, but but helping people, taking that that helpful nurturing nature of ourselves and and being just a little bit more detailed with that. And being able to go to a business and say, all right, if we

If we have a strong summer, this is what you’re looking at in terms of size of events or whatever your thing might be. And if we take a step back, here are some tools and resources that we can go ahead and get introduced to you. It’s so much more personal and people are tired. In a community that’s gone through COVID and a natural disaster, people are short, they are frustrated, they’re tired of being in this same place of kind of spinning wheels. And we have to be kind of the psychologists.

To say it’s okay. Everybody else is dealing with this and we can help you. But we’ve got to be able to match the help that the moment needs, not what a book 10 years ago told us about, because that that book is no longer valid. I think there’s been some some great conversation within the industry on your podcast and and other other sources that are encouraging us to think about how we evolve. And I I think that conversation is

Brandon Burton (36:51.672)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (37:03.0)
Right.

David Jackson (37:14.619)
As relevant as it’s ever been. And I’m looking forward to getting to New Orleans and hearing where other people are with that. Because that I think this is a real critical time, once again, for us to prove our worth, like we did back during COVID. Whatever the next six months looks like or the next year looks like, you know, as we we head closer to the midterms, we have an opportunity to be the industry that helps people make sense of it all. And I think if we’re committed to that, we’re we’re gonna come out on the other side even stronger than we’ve

Brandon Burton (37:21.528)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (37:40.758)
I love that response. Very, very good. well, David, before I let you go, I want to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing things there in Boone. Where would you point them and what would be the best way to come?

David Jackson (37:54.161)
Yeah, sure. So Boonechamber.com is our address. Don’t confuse us with Boone, Iowa. we we get calls for each other all the time and we we have a good relationship there. we’re all named after the same guy. So, you know, celebrate Daniel Boone in whatever part of the country that you would like to. but we are Boone, North Carolina. Boonechamber.com is our address. You can learn more about what we’re doing with our foundation. and anybody that that would like to to have a a quick chat and

Brandon Burton (38:01.998)
Yeah, better.

David Jackson (38:21.543)
Talk a little bit about initiatives. And if you’ve got advice for us, we’re we’re all ears for it. But we we love talking with people in the profession. Again, we all know that that this is a small world, a small universe. I’ve got my IOM shirt on here. Shout out Tucson class four getting ready to to head out there to finish things up this year. But w we know that the more we talk and communicate, you know, the stronger that we all are. And I I’m so thankful for our Western North Carolina Chamber.

Brandon Burton (38:34.881)
Yeah, yeah.

David Jackson (38:49.531)
brethren that have have helped shepherd us through this time and and for all of the people that have poured into us over the last couple of years, we’re here today because of that. And we want to be that resource to anybody else that that we can ever help. So just reach out anytime. And Brandon, always great to talk to you and and continued best of luck with the podcast and know that we’re out there listening every week.

Brandon Burton (39:10.784)
I appreciate that so much. And best of luck to you and your team and again congratulations being selected as a chamber of the year finalist. yeah, good luck in New Orleans.

David Jackson (39:18.781)
Thank you very much.

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