This Thursday evening, Nov. 19, the Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual meeting at 5:30 p.m. in the chamber office at 1575 Main St.
All chamber members are welcome to attend the meeting and they should, to elect members to the Board of Directors, for which, as of early this week, there were two nominations to fill four empty seats.
But there’s more to discuss.
In our Oct. 21 issue we published a report on some of the many difficulties the chamber has experienced recently, some for many years, that sort of came to a head with the resignations of three brand new board members. We won’t rehash the details now, but the problems were significant, including: failure to file required IRS 990 financial disclosure forms, apparent confusion by chamber leaders over the organization’s bylaws, failure to file reports with the state, financial shortfalls, a lack of personnel and resources, poor communication and disagreements that, in many cases, appear to be a direct result of these problems.
Clearly, there are things to talk about, and we are going to offer some thoughts rather directly, because we think it’s time for all of us to address our chamber’s situation very honestly.
Before we go any farther, we want to reiterate a point we made in an editorial that also appeared on Oct. 21: To put it bluntly, most of the problems noted above are not entirely – if at all – the fault of beleaguered chamber staffers. They may not be the fault of board members, many of whom have quit out of exhaustion or frustration. The rate of turnover at the chamber, both of staff and of board members, has been debilitating.
During the chamber’s ebbs and flows, we’ve seen fingers pointed in a number of directions: lack of reward for effort invested, personality conflicts, communication problems and misunderstandings, dysfunctional governance, the sacrifice of forthrightness in favor of diplomacy, etc., etc.
The chamber has not functioned well for years, at least not in relation to what it could or should be. There is little or no representation from the largest employers in the community, who should be leading the charge. Unfortunately, some of the most prominent businesses in the community aren’t even active members.
Ultimately, the hard truth is that our chamber’s condition might be a reflection of our business community – all of us.
Last week the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce held its monthly meeting. Thirty people crowded the city’s Community Center on the second floor of City Hall. (That’s about triple the number that attended the last Sweet Home Chamber monthly After Hours.)
Representation at the Brownsville meeting included local clubs (Garden, Lions), local organizations (CASA, Linn County Pioneer Association, Northwest Student Exchange, Start Making A Reader Today, Sharing Hands, the Brownsville Foundation), the Central Linn School District, local businesses, cities (Brownsville and Halsey) and more.
Brownsville is a town of 1,686. We’re a city of some 9,000. The Brownsville chamber doesn’t have a building, but it’s got an active membership, as was evident from the meeting. Board officers are local or retired businesspeople. Before the featured speaker (whose presence did draw a few visitors), attendees introduced themselves.
More than one mentioned that they had moved to Brownsville within the past few years and at least two noted that they were excited to be part of Brownsville: “We have an amazing town.” It was clear that they believed it.
Sweet Home is an amazing town. While our counterparts down the road are planning for the 30th anniversary celebration of “Stand By Me” – “We’re going to put Brownsville on the map,” one organizer predicted, without prejudice – we look north, south and east to some of the most beautiful and accessible scenery in the state. We don’t need a movie to sell Sweet Home.
Brownsville has a sizable representation of period architecture. Sweet Home’s buildings, admittedly, aren’t much to write home about, though tasteful facade improvements would greatly disguise that deficiency.
Brownsville has bustling downtown businesses – a hardware store, a convenience market, some eateries, a few curio shops.
Well, so does Sweet Home – and more. We can’t name them all in this space, but here’s a sampling: true grocery stores, variety stores, sporting goods, auto parts, fabric, a florist, a bustling hardware store and a couple of lumber yards – and some very decent eateries and coffee shops.
Brownsville has a country music festival. Well, so do we – the one Brownsville’s is modeled after. Ours happens to be closing in on its 25th year.
Brownsville is largely surrounded by flat, often-fog-shrouded fields and a flat river not much larger than a creek. Sweet Home is enveloped by mountains, forests, lakes and rivers, including a fresher version of the stream that flows through the neighboring town.
Brownsville has optimistic, energetic folks who see what their community has to offer and have clearly demonstrated that they can plan and promote events to maximize what their community has to offer.
Sweet Home has dedicated residents who, though many are forced to work elsewhere, still manifest the solid volunteer spirit and generosity that have evidenced themselves in a number of notable community projects, the most recent being the beautiful new artificial turf field at Husky Stadium.
We aren’t Brownsville and we don’t want to be. Things aren’t perfect there, either.
But the example of our smaller neighbor should be a heads-up for us all. At the risk sounding uncharitable, what Brownsville seems to have that Sweet Home is still working on is functional cooperation in developing a united vision for our business community.
Again, speaking frankly, we have had difficulty achieving the critical mass of energy and goals that obviously are necessary to create and execute a plan for really turning things around in our community, for taking advantage of the multiple opportunities lying at our doorstep to improve livability and create new economic strategies based on the natural resources we’re surrounded with.
Our chamber should, theoretically, be leading the charge on all this. Instead, it’s looking for more replacement board members.
A chamber of commerce is supposed to be a joint, cooperative effort by the local business community to advance its interests, which generally parallel the interests of local residents.
As a community, particularly as a business community, we need to decide if a chamber of commerce is the vehicle we need to take ourselves to the next level, economically, and to make ourselves more amenable and receptive to prospective businesses that not only meet local needs but can cash in on the tourism potential and realities we enjoy here.
If it is, we need to fix it. If it isn’t, we need to figure out what is.
If local businesses expect and want a thriving chamber that looks after their interests and promotes Sweet Home to the outside world, they need to take the reins, provide direction and get involved in the projects and programs that will take us there.
The chamber is its members.
We may no longer be blessed with a booming timber industry, which is what made Sweet Home a power player back in the days when all those state government officials from Salem made it a point to attend our yearly chamber awards banquet.
But we are blessed with resources, backbone, volunteerism, intelligence and people who could craft a clear vision for what they want Sweet Home to be and what role the chamber could play in the process of getting there.
Ultimately, the chamber membership needs to step up and reach resolution on these issues.
As a voluntary, membership-based organization, the chamber should be a tool to serve its members’ interests. If those interests aren’t being served, we need to ask a critical question – of ourselves.
Why not?