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Brandon Burton (00:00.908)
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.
Our guest for this episode is Tony Vedda. Tony is the President and CEO of the North Texas LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce, where he has led the organization since 2007 as its first chief executive. With more than four decades of chamber leadership experience, Tony began his career as membership specialist for the greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and later worked with the Metropolitan Chambers in Arizona and California.
He also served as the executive director of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Business Association, the nation’s first LGBT Chamber of Commerce, further solidifying his commitment to inclusive economic development and advocacy. Tony returned to the chamber to chamber leadership in 2005 as secretary for the newly formed North Texas LGBTQ chamber before being named president and CEO two years later.
a role that he continues to hold today. Under his leadership, the chamber has grown into a powerful voice for LGBTQ-owned businesses and inclusive economic growth across North Texas. Tony is an IOM graduate and he holds a prestigious certified chamber executive designation from ACCE as well, an honor earned by only 3 % of active chamber leaders nationwide and the only LGBT chamber leader to receive it.
Brandon Burton (01:57.102)
He also holds a certificate in diversity and inclusion from Cornell University. Tony is deeply engaged in professional leadership and advocacy. serves on the ACCE board of directors, chairs the ACCE certified chamber executive commission, and is a founding member of the Texas LGBTQ chambers of commerce, a statewide advocacy coalition.
He is also a respected speaker and faculty member of the US Chambers Institute for Organization Management. But Tony, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening. And if you would share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (02:43.959)
Well, I’m really impressed with what you just read because I don’t know who that guy is, but I’d hire him in a heartbeat. He sounds perfect. Yeah, it’s always weird to hear those those introductions, but thank you, Brandon. Thank you for inviting me to be on today. Something interesting about me. I am the most uninteresting person in the world, I believe, but I’ve had a lot of
Brandon Burton (02:51.371)
That’s right, for anyone listening.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (03:13.641)
interesting jobs in my life. When I was very young, I worked in a computer assembly plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, prior to working at the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Shout out to Terry Cole, who is still the CEO at the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and was when I was just a little baby membership person.
Brandon Burton (03:26.795)
OK.
Brandon Burton (03:42.412)
Wow.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (03:43.671)
Anyhow, I ended up leaving Albuquerque to pursue a degree in music theater performance at Arizona State University, which has served me well in my chamber work. There’s a lot of acting and cap once and going on.
Brandon Burton (03:58.275)
I was gonna say, Tony is a great emcee for anyone who’s ever been at a conference, he’s emceed, he’s great.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (04:04.119)
I find myself often tap dancing in front of my board. No, not really there. I love my board. But yeah, and I’ve had a chance to live in great places. I lived in New York for a while. I lived in New Hampshire, not so great. Just kidding, New Hampshire’s fine. I performed at Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where it always smells like chocolate. Anyhow, I finally ended up here.
Brandon Burton (04:10.208)
Right?
Brandon Burton (04:26.444)
Very cool. Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (04:32.246)
my husband, who was not my husband at the time. We had been dating for two years in San Francisco and his job moved him back here. And as I like to say, I had just about gotten him the way I wanted him and wasn’t really wanting to start all over. So I moved with him and we’re still together. 30, 31 years later and we’re still together.
Brandon Burton (04:50.134)
I love it.
Brandon Burton (04:56.79)
It’s worked out. That’s great. I love it. Well, it’s fun getting those interesting histories and facts about people. If you would spend a couple of minutes and tell us about the North Texas LGBTQ Chamber just to help give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work you guys are involved with, budget, but also I think it’d be helpful to tap into some of the demographics of the LGBTQ community.
and how that plays into the larger economic impacts.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (05:28.407)
Yeah, sure, I’d love to. And I’m a little bit of a geek when it comes to number kind of things. So I’m always happy to talk about that. So our chamber, as you mentioned earlier, was started in 2005. There was a predecessor organization that began in 1996 or so, I believe, called the Stonewall Professional and Business Association, which was mostly networking. So the idea of creating a chamber
came along at the time Houston had a very active and very successful Chamber of Commerce. So their CEO came up and helped the founders of ours get things going. Interestingly enough, a few years later that chamber closed. But then a few years after that, I went to Houston and helped them restart a new chamber, which is having its 10th anniversary. they are doing great guns. mean the…
Brandon Burton (06:06.87)
Okay.
Brandon Burton (06:16.802)
Restart it, yeah.
I was going say, I thought they had one in Houston now. So yeah, that’s awesome.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (06:24.629)
the student has surpassed the teacher. So anyhow, so we are a dynamic staff of two who do the work of probably 12. Lisa Howe is my vice president of membership and programs, and I lean on her a lot. She also runs our leadership program through our foundation, which is a big job. We have just under
just under just over 400 members, let’s just say 400, 400 members in our chamber. estimate, again, we have to estimate on LGBT statistics mostly because we only know if somebody self identifies, but based on some trusted data, we estimate that they’re probably about,
Brandon Burton (06:56.909)
Okay.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (07:20.302)
3,000 to 3,500 LGBT owned businesses in Dallas County. So you can think that out further from that North Texas. So when you look at that, our penetration rate really, really is not very good. So I don’t know why I’m admitting it, but there you go. That’s right, there’s endless opportunities. I will say, you we’ve had a
Brandon Burton (07:27.522)
Wow.
Brandon Burton (07:38.958)
You got your work cut out for you, that’s all.
That’s right.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (07:49.098)
a lot more interest from small business members lately, which has been good because of the current political climate. A lot of our corporate partners, not a lot, a few, have felt the need to step back, which is disappointing, but understandable. So we’re okay. Let’s see. So for years, this great firm in D.C. called Whittick Communications would estimate the spending power of the LGBTQ community.
Brandon Burton (08:05.837)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (08:18.039)
Last time they did it, I think it was pre-COVID or just around then, and it was about a trillion dollars. So we take that information and we kind of extrapolate for us here. And in North Texas, that spending power is about 5.4 million. I’m sorry, billion. You know, my M’s and B’s. So 5.4 billion dollars. So that’s a pretty significant number.
Brandon Burton (08:30.793)
you
Brandon Burton (08:37.624)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (08:46.359)
And so that’s great when you’re looking at the consumer side of things and businesses itself to consumers. But because we are a chamber, we also look at GDP. So what are our businesses adding to the local economy? so I believe, hang on, I have to look at my note real quick. Yeah, so the information that we’ve garnered says about $4.4 billion.
A GDP is generated by the LGBTQ by LGBTQ businesses in the North Texas area, and it’s a metropolitan statistical area. know that kind of thing. So we are we are we are adding to the community and to the tax base in a big way.
Brandon Burton (09:26.318)
Wow.
Brandon Burton (09:33.799)
Absolutely. So it’s an interesting.
challenge, I guess, when, you know, individuals need to self identify and almost put themselves out there saying, Hey, I fit this demographic of a LGBTQ, you know, owned business to be able to find those 3000 to 3500. Um, so I, mean, I don’t, I don’t fault you at all for having 400 members because it’s got to be difficult to sift through.
all of that to try to find all these individuals and businesses.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (10:11.159)
And to be clear, we do not ask anyone to self identify. And so members of our chamber do self identify and many of them are allies who have varying reasons for being part of the chamber. But they support our mission and the work that we’re doing. And as long as they do that and of course pay their dues, we’re happy to include them in the chamber.
Brandon Burton (10:24.75)
Yeah.
Sure.
Brandon Burton (10:38.026)
Absolutely. So I guess the question I was getting at is, is there a way to try to find your way to those businesses? Because you’re not asking them to self-identify, but you want to be support for them and help them in their business. And how do you try to bridge that disconnect there?
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (10:55.881)
Yeah, so you know, we just passed our 20th anniversary and we are still and I should not be proud of this. We are still probably the best kept secret in North Texas. It seems like weekly I hear some is that I didn’t know there is a gay chamber in North Texas, so. And I think that’s typical for most chambers. I think within certain communities you you assume there’s going to be a Dallas Chamber, Plano Chamber, etc.
Brandon Burton (11:07.694)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (11:23.255)
Sure.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (11:24.907)
But, you know, the LGBT community isn’t often thought of in those same terms. And like most chambers, we do not do a very good job telling our story. Most of the time, our story is somebody else’s. So a good example, this is from many years ago, so I think it’s safe to talk about now. So there was a hotel being built in Dallas that the city was very involved in. We were very supportive of the hotel.
Um, and then found out that the operator of the hotel, uh, didn’t even offer, uh, domestic partner benefits, which is kind of a minimal thing back then. Um, and so we were able to get in with them, have a good talk with them. Um, they, they of course had to offer those in California, except it was the law, but they didn’t hear, but they did. Uh, and then a few years later, the national chamber was coming here for its annual conference. And I reached out to the same folks and the.
Brandon Burton (12:04.364)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (12:23.745)
things had changed a little bit. And I said, okay, now we need to talk about marriage and recognizing same sex marriage and whatever. It was hardly a conversation. I mean, it was pretty quick. And so they absolutely agreed the following year at the beginning of the year, they changed their benefits to recognize LGBTQ marriages from any state. And at the time, Texas didn’t have same sex marriage. So those are things that the chamber did.
that except for me talking to you about it now, I think maybe one of your outside person knows because it’s not our story. It’s that business story of all the great things they’ve done, but it was done because of the work of the chamber. But, you know, we’re the background people.
Brandon Burton (13:04.942)
Sure.
Brandon Burton (13:13.548)
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Well, today we’re going to focus most of our conversation around the relationship between the executive and the board and you know the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with that. And we’ll dive into that as soon as we get back from this quick break.
Alright, Tony, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break today, we’re going to talk about the executive and board relationships and
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (13:34.295)
Very good.
Brandon Burton (13:43.265)
I know you have a perspective that you’ve seen throughout the industry of maybe tensions that rise between the executives and their board chairs or the board in general. Share with us some of the background that you’ve seen that’s led up to this topic for discussion today.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (14:01.291)
Yeah, if I go way back when I was at the Golden Gate Business Association in San Francisco, which was the early 90s, I was the only paid. Executive at an LGBT Chamber. There weren’t nearly as many of them, but I was the only one at the time which I thought was kind of odd. But what we saw then in in in the LGBT Chamber world organizations tended to kind of come and go.
Brandon Burton (14:22.2)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (14:30.575)
and or they’d be very active and very inactive and it had to do with their board leadership because they had no staff. There was no continuity between, you know, year over year and such. So that was something that I observed then that I probably didn’t really appreciate until I started working here. But I had been in and out of the chamber industry a number of times, a number of times I kept saying I was going to walk away.
When I moved to Texas, I said, that’s it, I’m done. No more chambers, no more nonprofits. Nonprofits are great, except for when they expect you to be nonprofit as well. And so I wanted to have a successful career and be able to retire one day. So I worked in banking for a while, which if any industry will make you dead inside, it’s…
Brandon Burton (15:10.53)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (15:16.18)
Yeah
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (15:25.111)
banking. But nonetheless, it was it was very educational. I enjoyed my time in banking. But this chamber came along. And I’ve been out of the industry a long, long time. I can can can spare a little volunteer time to help out. And the next thing you know, I was elected to the board, we became the secretary, and then actually put together a plan to hire somebody, not necessarily me, but we ended up with three great candidates and then two. And then I
Brandon Burton (15:27.425)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (15:54.488)
I won, I think. And I got the role. The other person, I will say, because it was down to two of us, the other person the board loved and said, we’re going to ask him to be on our board. And I said, so you’re going to call this guy and say, we’re not going to hire you, but we want you to come work for free. And I said, well, yeah, kind of. All right. So I called him. I didn’t know him from Adam. I called him the next week and scheduled lunch. And we became good friends. And he became our board chair.
Brandon Burton (15:56.663)
Yeah, you were the last remaining candidate. Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (16:24.055)
a few years after that. So it all worked out fine. But why I tell you all that is because at that point, I decided that I had run away from the chamber industry a number of times and that I wanted to or needed to admit that this is an industry that chose me, not the other way around. you know, no one is going to school to study to be a chamber executive. Little kids,
Brandon Burton (16:25.982)
You worked some good magic there, that’s awesome.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (16:53.303)
At Halloween, don’t dress up as chamber executives. It’s not something people think about. It’s all about just following the rules.
Brandon Burton (16:56.476)
Yeah.
You know what, Tony, I can totally see your persona at Spirit Halloween this year. anyways, we’ll send that in to him.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (17:04.757)
Yeah. With my little booby’s face and yeah. I’ll say maybe maybe as a visit organization because no, they they get a lot of fun things to do, but chambers not so much anyway. So once I I got this job, I just decided I needed to go in, you know, whole hog. So I was hired in May of 2007.
Brandon Burton (17:17.282)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (17:32.776)
And the following summer, I went to my first year of Chamber Institute, a chamber in Los Angeles, West is best, even though it doesn’t exist anymore. But I did four years of the US Chamber Institute, loved it, learned so much about it, continually talked to. By that point, I had peers in the LGBT chamber industry, kept trying to get them involved in it, and really the idea of professionalizing.
the LGBT chamber industry within the greater chamber industry. So I graduated from Institute, which was wonderful. excuse me, I was asked to serve on the board then, and then I was the board chair and all those things. You miss a meeting and the next thing you know, you’re the chair of something. And about two years later, the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives was having a conference in Oklahoma City.
Brandon Burton (18:21.538)
That’s right, they nominate you while you’re gone.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (18:31.223)
So I I drove up there to see you know what this all about and there was somebody from my class getting their CCE and I thought hmm I should probably consider this because. I’m not going to remember more by waiting. I’m probably not going to get any smarter by waiting, so the next year I I applied and went through that program and became a certified Chamber Executive, which is I think one of the smartest things I ever did.
Brandon Burton (18:48.492)
Yeah, it’s true.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (19:00.951)
And now many years later, I’m thrilled to service the now the outgoing chair of the CCE commission. But I think that that trajectory that I took going to IOM, not fast tracking and trying to get it all done, but doing it one year at a time, which even then is drinking from a fire hose. It really gave me a better perspective of my role as CEO and
the board of directors and what their roles are. And so lately. It seems like there’s been a lot of. Stress between CEOs and boards or board chairs. And and I I find it. You know academically, I find it kind of interesting. I also find it a little bit scary since you know we do serve.
at the pleasure of our boards. And it seems to me some of the folks that I know who have been victims of this are really excellent people. mean, they’ve done great jobs within their chamber, but I’m always interested to see what is the what’s under the surface. And I think board training is a big part of it.
Brandon Burton (20:01.72)
Right.
Brandon Burton (20:22.744)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (20:26.039)
Now we don’t do everything perfect. I would be the first person to tell you that we don’t. I I tried very hard to do all the right things, but. We have a couple of things I think work incredibly well. First of all, our communication is outstanding many, many, many years ago we started our board chair and I started having a weekly meeting and I know that sounds like simple kind of thing and it is.
Brandon Burton (20:55.725)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (20:55.959)
Uh, you know, we just picked a time, put it on the calendar and we’d meet in my office or we meet virtually after COVID or during, you know, got used to doing that. Um, and sometimes we’d be talking about an issue that, that I saw on the horizon or something that was happening and, know, get their input and talk about it. And sometimes we would talk about RuPaul’s Drag Race. don’t know. I, you know, I mean, it was just a chance for us to touch base together and
Brandon Burton (21:03.768)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (21:26.185)
It helped because not everything is serious, problems all the time, but it just gave us both a better sense of who we are and what we’re doing. And there’s never been a time when I take the chamber duty of care, duty of loyalty, duty of obedience, I take those very seriously and I believe I’ve instilled that in our board as well. And along those lines, I would never challenge
my board chair in a board meeting. I just wouldn’t. You know, he and I or she and I, as we’ve had in the past, you know, we talk about things before me. There aren’t surprises at our board meeting. We do a good job of managing it. So funny, he sent me an email recently that he’s on another board and he said, I don’t know, it might end at noon, it might end at 4 p.m. And I thought, my God, who’s running this meeting?
Brandon Burton (22:00.047)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (22:24.48)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (22:26.113)
I mean, we do our chamber board, our foundation board, and we’re done in less than 90 minutes. So, you know, it’s well crafted, anyhow. But, you know, I think it’s important that we, you I support him. If I disagree with something, you know, we’re going to figure out how to get to the point where I can’t agree with him because I think that’s my issue or that I’ve convinced him otherwise.
Brandon Burton (22:34.146)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (22:55.223)
that I think we often see in some of these other incidents where a board chair will go to a chamber, to a CEO, and say, we’re going to let you go. Now, does the rest of the board know that? Or is this something the board has decided to do on their own? none of us work, you know, the board chair is obviously the person that we deal with one-on-one, but we work for the board.
Brandon Burton (23:11.747)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (23:22.818)
The board, yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (23:24.083)
And so those should be discussions that we have to board.
Brandon Burton (23:27.566)
Well, I’ve heard of board members too, you know, going to fire the chamber executive. Is this your decision? But as the executive, do you really want to stay there if that’s the hostility that’s happening? And so there’s obviously some dysfunction, which goes back to your point of communication and the board training. But sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (23:49.514)
No, no, you’re absolutely right and probably kind of going back before that even is recruitment. And so something I learned from somebody that another nonprofit who had been CEO for like 30 years or something like that is that the key to longevity is to be very active in your board recruitment. I will meet with people that members of ours that I.
Brandon Burton (23:58.114)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (24:17.303)
kept an eye on or I’ve told another board member who’s on the same committee, keep an eye on them, let me know and I’ll meet with them. Usually my conversation is something like, I cannot ask you to join the board. I can ask you to apply and then we go through the whole process and I try to give them probably more information than most would upfront. We go over all the financials.
Brandon Burton (24:42.765)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (24:43.863)
We go over a lot of things because I don’t want them to waste their time applying and then later go. So so that’s how we start. And so there’s an understanding of what their responsibility is. And certainly, if I got the sense that there’s somebody who hates me and wants me to be gone, I would be suggesting to the board chair that maybe they not advance in the process. That hasn’t happened yet.
Brandon Burton (24:48.429)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (25:11.011)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (25:13.833)
about every two years, we rotate board members or board chairs every two years. And when the new board chair comes in, I always tell them that when the board is ready for me to go, they want to go a different direction. Just tell me and I’ll pack up my toys and leave. And, know, that’s fine. I don’t want all the drama. Just, you know, and usually their response is, why are you leaving? It’s like, no.
Brandon Burton (25:32.618)
Yes.
Brandon Burton (25:40.632)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (25:42.008)
But I want you to realize I know that I serve at your pleasure. Yeah, the fact that I’ve been here 20 years is kind of surprising to me, but are almost 20 years. But yeah, I think there’s just a need for greater communication between chairs and CEOs and chairs and the rest of the board.
Brandon Burton (25:47.032)
There’s a shelf life to these things, right?
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (26:09.847)
You know the board chairs responsibilities aren’t just to run the meeting. You know you could you know get trained monkey to do that, but the board chairs job is to make everybody on the board successful. So if the board board members have goals that they’re supposed to meet responsibilities, it’s up to the board chair to be working with them to make sure that they are successful and that we’re all on the same page. We’re all rowing in the right direction. All that that kind of thing so.
I think that if you don’t have the proper recruitment, if you’re heaven forbid an organization that elects your board by popular ballot, I’m not sure I be CEO of an organization like that because you end up with the popular people who may not have the skills you need to run your organization. But mine is not the only way, although it should be probably.
Brandon Burton (26:56.834)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (27:03.436)
Right.
Brandon Burton (27:08.59)
That’s right. I wish you’d have an opinion about something, you know?
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (27:09.545)
Yeah. I tell my husband that all the time. But yeah, you know, it’s it starts with the recruitment and the training and that communication with your board chair and and being just really good partners in the work that you’re doing. I think something that helps both executives and and boards.
is for the executive to have a very clearly written contract with the organization. One that anticipates possible mutiny from a board member or two and that provides some kind of financial support for the CEO should someone decide to go rogue and want to get rid of this person. For example, yes, if you know.
We can let you go without cause, but will pay you a year salary. Wow. That that’s going to that’s going to cause a little bit of pause for some board members go. Oh, do we want to do that? Or do we want to get rid of this board member who’s mucking things up? You know things like that. And also we have the issue of. Of boards that are trying. They’re they’re the well meaning people, but.
Brandon Burton (28:09.165)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (28:16.45)
Maybe we don’t want to be so quick.
Brandon Burton (28:23.17)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (28:34.739)
they get in the way of management. you know, there are certain things that the staff does, certain things that the board does. And when the board starts moving out of their lane and into the staff lane, especially of a staff of more than two of us, it can be very confusing for the staff. Who am I supposed to be listening to? And it undermines the CEO and those kinds of things. So
Brandon Burton (28:37.517)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (28:59.224)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (29:04.343)
I think, and I’ve said the word communication so many times, I should be paid by the word. But I think communication with the board chair and a great training and understanding by everybody on the board. And when you have those situations where you have the rogue board member, again, it’s up to the board chair. And nobody likes confrontation.
It’s that’s the time they have to put on their big boy pants or big girl pants, either ones and. Address address the matter or you end up with somebody who’s made the CEOs life hell and you may lose that person voluntarily or not.
Brandon Burton (29:43.758)
soon.
Brandon Burton (29:51.289)
Yeah. So we’ve brought up the idea of board training multiple times now. Who should facilitate the board training? What have you seen? What would be some good piece of advice on who facilitates that?
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (30:06.743)
I am a firm believer. Somebody told me this many years ago. I’m a firm believer in the fact that the that the expert is whoever came from furthest away. So. Yeah, yeah, and and that you know profit is never accepted in their own land. So the Texas Chamber of Commerce executives where we spoke last year does a board board chair.
Brandon Burton (30:17.516)
That’s right. The person from out of town. Yeah.
Brandon Burton (30:32.632)
Yeah.
Thank
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (30:35.479)
training to talk about these issues and chairs and CEOs. And gosh, I forgot what I was going to say about that chairs and CEOs. yeah. And so you find people that are doing their own board training.
But even with us, we bring somebody in every now and then. And we go over all of our board stuff every January. I’m not sure how much the board appreciates it, but I always have that on the agenda. But we’ll go to that meeting. As hard as I’ve tried to make sure they know everything, we will go to that meeting and somebody will say something that I’ve been saying for years. And suddenly, my God, what a great idea. We should do that.
Brandon Burton (31:21.454)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (31:25.278)
I’ve been saying that to you. And so, and that’s fine. As long as the message finally gets there, I’m okay. But it’s true. Exactly. So I think if you can have somebody else come in, and I know in North Texas, the chambers are great here about switching off with each other and find a different CEO to come in.
Brandon Burton (31:33.122)
Yeah. Well, it’s like children never listen to their parents either. So it’s the same kind of principle.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (31:52.502)
and do your board training. Or someone from a training organization or something. That’s always going to be vast. If you can remove yourself from the process, be part of the people being trained so that you’re hearing the same thing everybody else is hearing is ideal. But in a pinch, I guess you could do it yourself, but don’t expect the best results.
Brandon Burton (31:59.182)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (32:22.263)
from that. And the reminder. No. Who are you? Oh yeah. But again, a lot of it has to do documentation as well, so most boards will have a job description for the board members. They may have a code of conduct which we have. They may have something describing their responsibilities. They’re given get their attendance, those kinds of things.
Brandon Burton (32:22.444)
Yeah, because they’re not going to hear you. that’s right. Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (32:52.119)
understanding of the legal responsibilities, the duty of care, loyalty and obedience. Any other important policies to organization, we have an anti harassment policy that we make sure is always in front of new board members and then part of our annual review of documents. So I would like to think everybody reads those every year, but I’m not stupid. we do.
Brandon Burton (33:16.024)
Yeah
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (33:20.769)
put them out there and we make sure that they know these are the documents that are there so they know they exist. And and they’re required to sign off on them. For some reason, when people sign things, they tend to pay attention to them a little bit more. Who knows?
Brandon Burton (33:25.976)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (33:36.781)
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s interesting. So I think we’ve covered a lot here. A lot should, you know, that should give listeners stuff to kind of chew on and maybe rethink the approach that they take with their board. And especially when it comes to board training and how are we communicating these things openly and upfront. I like the part that you mentioned about the contract too, that you have with the Chamber.
If you can work in something in there about a separation clause and some kind of a severance, you know, payout that will help to keep the ship a little more steady, I think, when things might get heated, but you guys can come to level heads as you work through that.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (34:14.903)
Mm-hmm.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (34:26.007)
You know, it’s important if you go that route and I highly recommend that you, the CEO, hire your own attorney. I wouldn’t tell the board that you’ve hired an attorney because that just, you know, lawyering up sounds like really tough. But make sure that you have somebody reading the agreement on your side to give you some advice. And one the things that we’ve always had, and I had
Brandon Burton (34:42.028)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (34:53.227)
great examples from wonderful North Texas leaders many years ago, but that cause for being let go is clearly defined. So these are things that are cause. Anything else is not, and that that’s an important part of it. I also think people need to take advantage. I wish they would of what’s available to them at whatever level, so we should all be budgeting.
for continuing education so that we can be part of our regional chamber executives group. I know in Texas we have a Gulf Coast Chamber of Execs, we the North Texas Chamber Execs, and I’m guessing somewhere in West Texas there’s something too, but I don’t know for sure. But, you know, so that local regional group
You’re statewide Texas Chamber of Executives. Most states have an executive association and then you know the the king of them all or queen. A CCE is is kind of the top of it and of course these are all separate and you have to be so produced for all of them, which is another thing I would work into a contract that that the Chamber pays for your executive. Dues in different organizations.
Brandon Burton (35:59.843)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (36:16.654)
trainings and everything.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (36:19.703)
But just the fact that it gives you an opportunity to network with some people, you know, there’s only one of you. So, you know, there aren’t many people that know what you’re going through or what you’re dealing with. But once you have that network, most people in the chamber industry that I’ve met, I should say not most, but all have been very welcoming.
Brandon Burton (36:28.419)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (36:46.849)
happy to assist, share documentation, anything. And so I think those are the kinds of things that will help, as I said earlier, professionalize the industry. So that you may have been hired because you know how to put on an event that is important to the chamber. But your real work as a chamber is advocacy.
How do I learn about advocacy? Well, here’s a chamber that has a great advocacy committee and I’m going to learn from them, put my own committee together and stay at Austin, yada, yada. But I think those things and look for the training that’s available. Of course, IOM, think is a great preface before working on your CCE, which I highly recommend, not only because I’m curing commission and I’m supposed to say that.
Brandon Burton (37:18.264)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (37:43.256)
but also, ACCE has some, training modules that you can do. So find out what you’re not good at. you know, if. Event production is something you’re not good at, but finances well, skip financing, you know, take the class on event production or membership or advocacy or whatever it is. but, I think this is going to sound terrible. So this is only seen by chamber executives, right?
Brandon Burton (37:51.139)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (38:13.175)
Or members can watch this. The more you can do to position yourself as the subject matter expert in the industry, the better off you’ll be. So I have members who.
Brandon Burton (38:14.028)
Right. No board members see this yet.
Brandon Burton (38:29.891)
Yeah.
As Seth Godin says, be the linchpin for your organization.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (38:36.553)
Absolutely yeah, I have members who wants an insurance agent and ones of corporate HR person and ones are realtor and they’re all experts in what they do. They don’t know how to run the chamber. And so if you don’t make yourself that expert and and. Help them see you as that expert. Then you’re doing yourself a disservice, but I I am.
thrilled that you board members will often defer to me and they’ll ask me well what’s what what do other chambers do? What’s in the industry and things like that? I’m fortunate I’ve been in this job for almost 20 years now and I try to remember that there are some advantages to that. The level of trust that my board has in me is incredibly high, which I would.
Brandon Burton (39:12.653)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (39:34.675)
never do anything to hurt that trust. But when you’re new, you don’t always have that. And in starting with the education and getting to, again, make yourself that subject matter expert is key.
Brandon Burton (39:50.627)
Yeah, very good. Well, Tony, as we start to wrap up, I wanted to ask for the listeners who are trying to take their organization up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item would you share with them as they strive towards that goal?
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (40:05.002)
Hmm. Run, do not walk to the nearest exit. No, I’m just kidding. Yeah, I’ll tell you this is a challenge for all of us. Because we all want to elevate our organization and. It takes time having. Organic growth is difficult. Slow.
Brandon Burton (40:09.004)
Hahaha!
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (40:32.79)
But I think often the best. I I some some communities do very well at big membership campaigns and God bless them. I’m I’m thrilled that that that works for them. I don’t think for my community it would again because we’re targeting. LGBT and ally businesses, not everybody within you know the confines of a severe county so.
That doesn’t work, but it works great for other people. So that’s slow, very slow. Organic growth is good. Communication with your members is something that I’ll admit I let go of a little bit after hiring Lisa. Every now and then I bemoan the fact that that for years I could I could name every member.
Brandon Burton (41:22.242)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (41:30.134)
We had, would see them. I know their name. I know their company. Now I’m lucky to remember my name most of the time, but you know that that kind of connection is always helpful. Following through on things that you tell your members you’re going to. You’re going to do for them. And there was another thing I was going to say about next level. Must have been a lie. Yeah.
Brandon Burton (41:57.657)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (41:59.991)
You know, I think, I know what I was going to say. So I belong to an executive group, CEOs of LGBT organizations or CEOs who are themselves LGBT. We get together twice a month and we swear it’s not therapy. But nonetheless, yeah. But it gives us all a chance to talk about
Brandon Burton (42:22.382)
It helps.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (42:29.362)
employees and boards and things like that in a very safe and confidential environment. If you don’t have that, I suggest you get one of those. But the woman that facilitates for us asked us last year for a word that, you know, our word for the year, and I still don’t know what mine was, but then a new one for this year. And I picked two and I said, my words this year are focus and delegate.
Brandon Burton (42:38.403)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (42:59.19)
And I’m very much trying to do that. Stay focused on the things that are important that I do. There’s a lot of things that we could do. Are they really important? Perry Cole once told me, so it was a long time ago in Albuquerque, not to let the immediate overshadow the important. So somebody may come to you and their hair is on fire for some reason.
Brandon Burton (43:16.717)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (43:23.299)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (43:29.142)
you know, that’s fine for them, but you know, their emergency doesn’t necessarily have to be yours. So what’s immediate? What’s important? Focus on what’s important and then delegate. So I have two words this year. Focus and delegate. So one of the things that I can again, we’re very small to staff members, but there are board members who would be willing to do some things. So what board members could I ask to do some little thing or
Brandon Burton (43:43.585)
I like that.
Brandon Burton (43:51.054)
Thank
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (43:57.697)
to serve on a city committee so that I don’t have to go to all of them. Those kinds of things. So focus and delegate and check with me in a year or so and I’ll let you know if it takes us to the next level or not.
Brandon Burton (44:04.32)
you
Brandon Burton (44:12.014)
I also like asking about the future of chambers and how you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (44:20.688)
great question. And of course, I only say great questions so I can be thinking about a good answer. You know, if you had asked me this pre-COVID, I would say that we’re all trying to redefine our relevance and what it is we do. So my first chamber job in Albuquerque was in the
Brandon Burton (44:26.142)
Right? That pause.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (44:51.06)
late 70s, early 80s, I think. And we were just at the end of the period where people joined the chamber because it was the right thing to do. And so we get to that period and people aren’t joining because it’s the right thing to do anymore. And they’re not joining because it’s about supporting community. They’re doing it because they want to increase their sales. They want to have networking, those kinds of things.
And that was a major shift in chambers, and that’s why you see a lot of chambers that do a lot of networking programs and I we do them as well. I. I sometimes try to miss them, but but it’s enjoyable to see my member, so it’s like that’s OK. I’ll come and then put on my I love to dance, smile and talk to people. But but they get so focused on that they forget that.
the idea of a chamber of commerce back in the 1600s was to represent business to government. And so that advocacy piece has always been there, whether people have recognized it or not. You will still find chambers that say, we’re not political. Well, it’s not be political, but you have to be advocating for something. mean, you know, taxes or
Brandon Burton (45:56.568)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (46:12.225)
Right.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (46:15.158)
permit use or whatever, I don’t know, but there has to be things that are important to your members. If I can advocate on an issue that’s gonna affect 90 % of our members, that is a much better use of my time than a networking event that’s going to assist maybe 20 % of them. but pre-COVID, I would say, you know, people are still looking for that, whatever. COVID proved that we are relevant and that
Brandon Burton (46:32.226)
Great.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (46:44.906)
There were a lot of things that we did to connect small businesses that made a huge difference. I know in Texas, we were one of the chambers that distributed COVID tests to small businesses. There are arts organizations and our bars and restaurants. They kept us running out of them because they needed them for their continual testing. So that was a way that we were able to connect a service to the business community that
might not have been served before. And same thing with financial support from the federal government, making sure people understood what was out there, how to get the money, what’s involved. So all those advocating for a small business or providing them with support that they need in a broader sense really came to light during COVID and proved that chambers are relevant.
We may do things a little different like this, but we’re still about helping businesses grow, helping our communities thrive, and for ours, of course, advancing equality.
Brandon Burton (47:46.339)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (47:59.875)
Yeah, very good. Well, Tony, this has been a great conversation and hopefully those listening have been jotting down some notes, at least getting some thoughts spinning about how they want to have some conversation with their board and be better at recruiting and looking out for themselves. But I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for anyone listening who might want to reach out and connect with you or learn more about your approach. Where would you point them and what would be the best way to connect?
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (48:29.172)
Yeah, just yesterday told someone gave them my phone number and I said, you know, give me a call. I I answer sometimes, but. Yeah, my my direct dial number is 214-865-6516 and that comes to my desk and if my phone systems working properly to my cell phone at some point. I do return phone calls.
Brandon Burton (48:36.086)
Yeah. I recognize the number, right?
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (48:58.07)
And then my email address. I think it’s pretty darn easy to remember. It’s my name tony.vedda@lgbtqchamber.com. So and if you mess up and you put the Q, I’ll still get it. I got we have a lot of email things, but yeah, email is always great if.
If you’re in North Texas and need a connection to the North Texas Chamber of Executives, I’d be happy to facilitate that. If you want more information on the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives or the CCE program, I’m happy to provide that or connect with folks there. So give me a call, send me an email. Don’t hit me up on social media because I’m not often there. I’m on Facebook about once a month.
Brandon Burton (49:46.274)
Yeah.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (49:49.77)
Whether I need to be or not, that’s about it.
Brandon Burton (49:51.596)
Yeah, yeah, very good. Well, we’ll be sure to get this in the show notes for this episode so people can find you. But again, Tony, thanks for setting aside some time and spending it with us here on Chamber Chat podcast. I appreciate it and appreciate your experiences and stories you had to share with us as well. Thank you.
Tony Vedda, CCE, IOM (50:09.153)
Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Have a good day.
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