A new organizational structure for a new Greater Parker Chamber?

We did have our breakfast meeting and came up with several ideas, areas of consensus, and assignments. Here's mine: to propose an early draft of an organizational structure for a new, expanded and unified organization serving Parker area businesses.

All ideas are open for discussion. Do feel free to leave comments here.

MISSION/PURPOSE: to build a strong and successful business community in and around the greater Parker area.

GOVERNING STRUCTURE: a board of 7 directors. The first board will probably be recruited, not "elected." But see below under "Elections" for more thoughts.

COMMITTEES. I would propose the following Standing Committees, each with its own leader or chair, and a vice or chair-elect. The idea here is to grow leadership capacity.

* Advocacy. This includes the monitoring of and participation in legislative and town council initiatives, procedures, and elections.
* Continuing Education and Networking. This highlights topics of interest to the membership, focusing on developing opportunities, trends, and challenges. It also provides the opportunity for members to promote their services to each other.
* Membership Development. This committee focuses on the recruitment, orientation, and management (in the sense of creating a directory, annually billing, tracking sponsorships, etc.) of potential members. This includes the Board.
* Marketing and Communications. This committee focuses on getting the news about Parker area businesses to outlying areas, either through direct advertising/promotion, and communicating regularly with existing members.
* Events. This is a significant volunteer management effort to staff various events outside continuing education.
* Mainstreet. While there are many commercial districts in the Parker area, "downtown" is one of the areas that has unique marketing appeal. This committee represents the interests and issues of historic Parker.
* Large scale initiatives. I'm not sure what best describes this one. The idea is that this group works with big developers to "package" major development initiatives, liable to significantly effect business growth.

ELECTIONS: elections sometimes do not result in the most qualified leaders. A suggestion: the board is composed of the chairs of the committees listed above. Those chairs are elected by members of the committees; all members must belong to at least one committee. This enables the Board to have direct understanding of key strategic efforts, and gain expertise on the issue. Since each committee should also have a board vice chair, or chair elect, the new Chamber builds mentoring into its structure. The second idea is that Boards are past chairs of the committees (not at first, obviously, but in the future).

FUNDING: the funding for most such organizations comes from...

* Membership dues. There could be a sliding scale based on the size of membership, or a negotiated contribution based on the perceived value. Thoughts?
* Government sponsorship. Historically, both the town and the county have contributed to either the chamber or the PEDC.
* Sponsorship. Many non-profits depends on the underwriting or sponsorship of some services from its members, in exchange for advertising.
* Events. Events provide funds. They also require a lot of manpower. I'd like to hear more about this; what's a sustainable level of unique events?
* Grants. To my knowledge, none of the organizations has pursued this much. But it might generate some additional revenue.

STAFF: lean times call for streamlined staff. In resetting the organization, it might be wise to limit the staff to executive director and clerical assistance.

Task Force meeting

Members of our Task Force - a reminder. We will be meeting Monday morning, 7:30 a.m., July 26, 2010, at the Warhorse Inn. Task Force members include Josh (DDC), Joe and JJ (Chamber), Justin and Jamie (PEDC). Mitch, past president of the Chamber and current CEO of the PEDC has been attending meetings too, and brings good historical perspective.

There's no formal agenda, really, but if there were it would look like this:

* give each other an update on where our respective organizations are at this moment. What issues are we working on?

* review the comments from our two public meetings, getting the read on the Parker business community.

* decide if further outreach meetings should be done, either separately or together.

* get a general sense if it makes sense to go to the next step of investigating some kind of consolidated operations (check back with our boards?), and if so...

* identify a timeline to (a) do research on various other models out there, (b) talk about what a plan needs to have (a statement of purpose, a broad committee or organizational structure that ensures the needs we've heard about get addressed), and (c) some kind of funding model (membership, events, other?)

* identify any other questions or processes that we need to follow.

Since this is an open process, we may well have members of the general community in the restaurant. To those, I say: buy a nice big breakfast for yourself!

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Evening Forum Recap

·         Bring more business to retailers / larger consumer base by attracting jobs that pay higher salaries

·         Advertising outside our market

·         Promote more B2B

·         Have a unified marketing campaign (Promote Parker)

·         There is not a subscription based newspaper in Parker – how do we attract other newspapers?

·         Unified community based business organization/effort (Advocacy)

·         Advocacy for local businesses to be awarded contracts

o   ie; building, construction, printing

o   Is preference given to local businesses?

o   Gov’t and organizations should shop locally

o   Notify local businesses of procedures to bid

·         Transparency for tracking income/expenditures

·         Entities should communicate/collaborate with each other to share information

o   Create one place for businesses and consumers to get information

·         New leadership –

o   Create transparency 

§  accounting policies/procedures

§  decision making process

§  representation to larger market area

·          Broader involvement / more  help from membership base

·         Leadership development for non-profit boards

o   Teambuilding development

·         Consistent communication (e-mails)

·         Organized approach

o   Leadership

o   Office procedures

·         Research other models

·         Business incubator

o   Provide office space, business start-up continuation training, employee pools)

·         Focus on businesses who employ large numbers of employees (manufacturing, research)

·         Improve communication

·         Consistent efforts to bring people to Parker

o   Promote community identity

o   Showcase our community

§  Jointly with all entities?  Town, DDC, PEDC, Chamber

§  More events?

·         Marketing  /  advertising to the community

o   Partner with or advertise in HOA resources

 Challenges:        Personal property tax     Sign code

RECAP FROM MORNING SESSION

-          Recession

-         Communication

o   B2B

o   B2C

o   Networking

o   Community

-         Advocacy

o   Town - +/-

o   State

o   Rent

o   Taxes

-         Education

o   Economic gardening

Morning Forum Take Aways

• How can you help me save money?
• How can you help me make money?
• Networking
• Get my message out to consumers
• B2B
• B2C
• Business Expo
• Co-op purchasing
• Group health insurance
• Office products
• Buyer group opportunities
• Honest communication
• Good and bad news
• Economic status
• Chamber who supports business
• Concentrated, focused effort to bring more people to Parker
• Businesses and Residents
• A forum to speak directly to town representatives and share concerns/struggles
• Address specific needs of the home based businesses: Provide communication with updates that affect them (e-mails)
• Quality opportunities
• Fresh outlooks and approaches
• Marketing and awareness outreach to businesses and contacts outside of the Parker area
• Chamber should offer a Welcome Center 
• Provide a place for new and existing residents to gather information about local businesses
• Website to list all events in Parker
• Low cost or free networking
• Business directory/Parker Chamber magazine
• More education opportunities
• Business start-up info
• Market analysis (competitors, business mix)
• Communication
• Social Networking sites
• Basic customer service
• Facilitate meetings to encourage collaboration with building owner
• Brainstorm and create solutions for empty space
• Find/encourage cost effective office/retail space
• Publish cost per sq. foot for office/retail space in Parker and publish to members
• “Skin n the game” between all entities
• Existing entities need to care about one another and promote one another prior to attempting to merge
• Join communication/collaboration
• Local information/news
• Website
• E-mail blasts
• Legislative tracking and awareness -  provide updates on this information

• Wrap Up –
• Communication
• Transparency
• Deliver on promises 

 Challenges

• Growth management
• Government contracts
• Offering benefits to employees
• Affordable real estate
• Abandoned storefronts
• Cost containment
• Zoning
• Currently in survival mode – Have experienced a decrease in revenue
• Sales and property taxes are too high compared to surrounding cities/towns

Building our Business Future: One Voice for Parker

Business people from the greater Parker area are invited to a public forum hosted jointly by the the Parker Chamber of Commerce ("Chamber"), the Parker Economic Development Council ("PEDC") and the Down Town Development Council ("DDC"). Two sessions are scheduled on Wednesday, July 14. Both will be held at the large meeting room of the Parker Library (10851 S. Crossroads, Parker CO). The first will be held 7:30 a.m.; the session will repeat at 6:30 p.m. Each meeting will last 90 minutes.

What kind of "business people?" -- people who either work in the Parker area, or would like to.

The Chamber, the PEDC and the DDC are exploring options to unite the voices for business in the region. But before crafting a plan, they want to hear from those voices directly. What services should be offered to businesses interests? What obstacles must be overcome? What opportunities should be seized? How might businesses come together to improve not only their own well-being, but that of the community in which they operate?

The forum will include a short presentation on the state of business in the greater Parker area. But most of it will focus on listening and recording the insights of the people to whom business matters.

RSVPs are not necessary.