Scott Swanson
It’s been a year of big changes, to say the least, for Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce.
One year ago chamber leaders discovered the organization was in deep financial trouble, was in arrears with the Internal Revenue Service and other government agencies, and was facing an exodus of board members, for a variety of reasons.
A year later, the chamber is in the black financially, has a solid board of seven members representing a variety of larger businesses in town, with the possibility of adding more, and has reconstructed five years of delinquent IRS Form 990s, required of nonprofit organizations.
“Financially, we’re in a much better place,” said Board President Bill Matthews, who personally devoted hundreds of hours into the reconstruction process. “We have no debt. We have ample reserves for the future. Our incomes will exceed our outgoes.”
One of the reasons for the financial turnaround was the sale of the chamber’s property at 1575 Main St. to Tony and Shelly (Tack) Larson. The Larsons have allowed the chamber to stay in the building under “favorable lease” terms, Matthews said.
“By selling the building, we turned a nonproductive asset into cash, which allows us to do what we’re doing,” he said.
The turnaround goes beyond the finances and paperwork, though.
The organization is board-driven from the top down – without an executive director, for the first time, with board members leading various committees to handle finance, marketing, economic development, events, business and governmental affairs, communications, membership and Ambassadors, and other activities.
“Our management is a hands-on board,” said Matthews, who operates HealthMarkets, a one-stop health insurance consulting firm in Sweet Home.
In addition to Matthews, current board members are Brian Adams of Safeway, Dave Bauer of Steelhead Strength and Fitness, local resident and chamber volunteer Michele Carter, local Realtor Karla Hogan, retired teacher and local resident Dave Jurney, George Medellin of Linn-Benton Community College, Ian Rollins of Samaritan Health and Tess Yahyazadeh, manager of Key Bank.
City Council member Susan Coleman serves as liaison with the city.
Currently, the sole employee is Sandy Thompson, who staffs the office part-time, with help from Carter.
“The big experiment is nobody said we could do this, to have a board- and volunteer-driven chamber without strong a executive director on staff. That is an experiment: Can you do this without executive staff? Right now, our only paid staff is a part-time office coordinator.”
In addition to coordinating area events and putting on the Awards Banquet, the chamber is also offering free consultation to small businesses. Both Medellin, who is a business adviser assigned to LBCC’s Sweet Home branch, and Matthews, who has extensive experience in many levels of business, are available to advise local business people who want help, he said.
Financials and transparency are prominent areas of focus for the chamber itself, Matthews said.
“All of our meetings start with financials, including bank statements, outside P&L and balance sheets. All of these are numbers that can be easily verified by anyone familiar with a balance sheet and if they can’t, I’ll be glad to walk them through it.”
Having taken care of some of those basics, the chamber is now focusing on relationship-building events and trying to steer local activities and policies that will benefit local businesses and residents, he said.
“We’re having quite a few after-hours events, even some breakfasts,” he said. “We know we need to make them more meaningful, business-directed.”
Yahyazadeh and her staff recently hosted a networking breakfast at Key Bank that drew participants from throughout Sweet Home and Lebanon.
Matthews said the chamber is also already or looking to actively involve itself in efforts to improve the aesthetics of the downtown and other commercial areas in Sweet Home, and policies that will improve or promote local business.
“We want to share information that will make individual businesses and the business community better,” he said. “We want to be active in the revitalization program for downtown, the stuff SHARE is working with. Overall, we want to build strong relationships with community partners – the schools, the business community, the city, of course, and other nonprofits that are connected with economic development.
“We have so much further to go, to make sure every business values being a member.”
Matthews said he believes Sweet Home can solve problems such as poverty and homelessness “if we have an army of volunteers doing that.”
He credits the chamber’s turnaround entirely to the efforts of volunteers – one of whom in particular is Mindy Howland, who, Matthews said, works a dozen hours a week as librarian and custodian. He also noted that Carter, Thompson and board members contribute many hours.
“It’s dedication, the willingness of volunteers to make our organization better.”