In July of 2020, Boulder resident and business proprietor Carey Burnside submitted a letter to the Boulder Area Chamber of Commerce questioning the organization’s purpose and function. Her letter articulated frustration with the lack of benefits the Chamber offered area businesses, and confusion as to how exactly, as written in its mission statement, the group “promotes economic and social development that leads to the enhancement of the quality of life of the Boulder area.”
In response, the Chamber claimed that it was in a transitory phase and that it would seek to create more opportunities for participating businesses to liaise with and help improve one another. Yet nearly five years later, the Chamber’s calendar of community events and resources offered to members remains largely unchanged. Now faced with an aging board and a dwindling pool of active members — there are now 60, half of them individuals — and working volunteers, questions on the Chamber’s future now grow more serious. How can Boulder’s business community more meaningfully benefit from Chamber membership? Does Boulder need a Chamber, at all?
Current Chamber board member Pat Lewis thinks not. “Main Street businesses in Boulder most certainly benefit from the events that we’re doing, but we’re basically just entertaining the community at this point,” said Lewis in an interview. “We should realize that the personality of the business community has changed. There doesn’t need to be a Chamber. We don’t need to save it, but we do need to think of what we can evolve into. ”
The Chamber hosts five annual events — the Community-Wide Garage and Yard Sale each June, a weekly summertimeFarmers and Artisans Market, the Classic Car Show, the Music and Arts Festival, and the Holiday Bazaar. The Chamber also hosts an annual networking event for members to gather and socialize. For this, individual members are charged $25 a year, non-profit organizations $50, and for-profit businesses $75.
Chamber President Bruce Binkowski, who is also the Jefferson County events coordinator, defends this approach. “You’ll hear people say that Chambers of Commerce aren’t supposed to be event coordinators, but don’t you want the Chamber to generate interest in the community? And have people come and visit and see what Boulder has to offer?” “Every time we put on an event that brings people in, they spend money at our businesses. Every event creates a positive economic impact for the community, even if people can’t necessarily see it.”
Beyond hosting events, the Chamber also allows a number of local organizations, like the emerging Boulder Arts Council, to utilize its employer identification number for grant-seeking and administrative purposes. It also allows groups and individuals hosting events at JHS and Veterans Park to utilize its liability insurance. It has published a biannual community phone book, but, according to Chamber officials, that is unlikely to continue.
With an annual budget of roughly $25,000, funded by membership dues, miscellaneous grants, and event sponsorships, and nearly $8000 in accumulated savings, the Chamber has the financial resources to operate as is for the foreseeable future. However, it lacks manpower. While volunteers can be mustered to stage and execute events, the Chamber only has three remaining board members: Lewis, Binkowski, and local resident Connie Grenz, who is responsible for operating the Farmers Market over the summer months.
“Businesses here, overall, are very generous,” said Grenz. “People do, give, and care a lot here, but, with our businesses working all the time, when do they really have time to do much else? When we host an event, lots of people want to help, but you have to hand them a job. They won’t just volunteer, and it’s hard to always keep asking people to do things.”
The Chamber isn’t the only organization in Boulder that would benefit from additional volunteers, though is perhaps the most existentially threatened by a lack of them. Binkowski, Lewis and Grenz all say they intend to step away from the Chamber sometime in the next five years. Without new leadership, the Chamber will likely dissolve.
“If we had more help, it’d make life a lot easier. We’re not the only ones saying we need it, but, if we run out of volunteers, the Chamber will just go away,” said Binkowski. “I think people know that the Chamber is a good thing for the community, otherwise they wouldn’t give us their membership dues. And I’d love for the business community to talk to us, and let us know what we can do to help them.”
“We are absolutely not shutting down,” said Lewis. “But we’re all starting to limp away. We need to find a new board, with a new philosophy, that we can help on our way out. But we need to do something. ”
While the Chamber’s situation may seem bleak, it remains, in my opinion, perfectly solvable. I believe the Chamber can correct its course by creating new and more consistent sources of revenue, starting a number of new recurring events, akin to the farmer’s market, and hiring part-time staff.
For example, why not ask member organizations to attach a five cent “Chamber” fee to each transaction? The Chamber could likely request a larger transaction fee at the events it sponsors, like the Farmer’s Market (perhaps a dollar). In such a small community, the fee would in no way deter customers from the shops on Main Street — and over the course of the year, an additional few hundred dollars might be raised. While a seemingly insignificant amount, this would equate to a several percentage point increase in the Chamber’s annual budget.
Consider purchasing a large screen and a projector. Set up an impromptu movie theater in Veterans Park. Charge people two dollars to sit and watch on summer Fridays. Over the course of the summer, even if lightly attended, that amounts to another few hundred dollars and another few percentage points on the current annual budget. Invite the Boulder Bull Mountain Soda Fountain to sell pints of ice cream, with 50 cents per pint going to the Chamber. Maybe another point.
Chamber membership dues have not changed for over a decade. So, raise rates to $50 for individual members, $100 for non-profits, and $150 for businesses. Requesting more might mean promising more, but it would also give the incoming board and future volunteer pool the resources they need to actually transform the Chamber.
With nickel-and-dime revenue hunting, significantly
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raised membership fees, and a few new board members, part-time staff can be hired to coordinate with local businesses, create educational and promotional materials, and plan and execute new events, both for the community and exclusive to paying members. The phone book can be continued and joined by a quarterly coupon booklet featuring deals at local shops.
Or something. Or anything. A small handful of people with resources and backed by the local business community can continue what Binkowski, Lewis and Grenz have worked so hard to preserve. The Chamber can be an extremely useful resource to local businesses, should it arm itself with a plan, and people.
Boulder may not need a Chamber, but it has one. That Chamber does wonderful things for this community. I would urge all its members, and anyone even vaguely interested in Boulder’s future, to save it.
