“Chamber 101” with John Tayer

Ryan Beckenhauer [00:00:05] Hello, my name is Ryan Beckenhauer, and you are listening to the Boulder Business Podcast. Today we are with John Tayer from the Boulder Chamber. John, thank you so much for being on the Boulder Business podcast. Ryan, I'm so psyched to be sitting here with you. So let's just kick it off with what is a Chamber? Let's do Chamber 101.

John Tayer [00:00:22] Well, Chambers have a long history of dating back to the 1300's, but fundamentally, they are an association of businesses coming together to share mutual support, to share opportunities for business, to business relations and to represent their interests in a community.

Ryan Beckenhauer [00:00:44] How long have you been involved with the Chamber and is that something you ever thought you'd be involved in?

John Tayer [00:00:49] So my involvement with the Chamber actually dates back to well before I was in this position at the Chamber working for the Chamber, I worked for a pharmaceutical company in town and we had an interest in building connections with the community to make sure that they understood what our business was and to demonstrate that we were good civic partners. And so we found a great partner in the Boulder Chamber. And that is because the Boulder Chamber has excellent ties, not just to the business interests and the community, but to all the activity that's happening to support the quality of life in our community, the education interests, the the environmental sustainability. Through the Boulder Chamber, we were able to access that kind of activity and connection. So for me, getting involved in the Chamber through my old company was my first introduction. I actually served initially was brought in and served on the policy committee. So I called our Community Affairs Council now, and that's the group that advises the board on different policy positions. I then was selected. It was an honor to be selected to sit on the chamber board of directors and then ultimately moved up to be the chair of the board. So I've seen the different activities at the chamber. I had a chance to participate in the governance and all of this well before I even ever considered being an employee of the Boulder Chamber.

Ryan Beckenhauer [00:02:25] How has that role changed throughout this progression?

John Tayer [00:02:28] Well, it's significant. I mean, it's I think, as with most organizations, when you are a member and a participant in a stakeholder, you get one perception of what life is like under the under the roof of an organization like the chamber coming in to the chamber as an employee, as the CEO and president. I came to understand that you're operating a business, a nonprofit business, but a business, nonetheless. And you have to be very cognizant of all the rudiments of business. You need to be selling a product that folks want to buy or to contribute to and invest in. You need to make sure that you have the best staffing to serve the interests of your membership, and you want to make sure that the services you're providing are of value to the stakeholders in the community. And how many how many employees do you have? We have now, I think upwards of 15 with a vacancy that we're we're gonna be filling. Okay. And how many events do you guys do a month? Have a very full events calendar. And why do we have that? One of the key functions of an organization like the Boulder Chamber is to bring business leaders together to connect, to understand each other's business value, to then identify potential business to business relationships. And so we want to create an environment that's fun, dynamic, but allows for all of our members and stakeholder businesses to come together to connect and get to know each other so that they can support each other and build their businesses. Also say that we have our events as a reflection of the character of our organization. So we have some signature events that celebrate entrepreneurship in our community because the Boulder Chamber recognizes that the startup business activity in our community is critical to the success of our economy. We also have events that are just plain fun and meant to bring people together in a relaxed atmosphere that's most conducive for building business relationships. So we have a whole variety of events that then speak to the values of the organization and the goals.

Ryan Beckenhauer [00:04:58] Events are fantastic, John, and that's kind of how we met through all the different networking events that you guys have. Tell us a little bit. What does a chamber do?

John Tayer [00:05:06] So a typical chamber has as one of its foundational activities and values is members support services. And in that category, members support services, I say, falls in the types of things like the events, the business to business relationships, the ability for businesses to market to customers and to other businesses through are services, discount programs, lots of things that support business success. So its members support services. The Boulder Chamber also is an advocacy voice for our membership. So we are strongly engaged in policy activities, representing the business concerns in policy issues and whether they're local issues or statewide interests, things that matter to the success of our businesses. Now, we always say, just to be clear and I yeah, detail more of that later. But, you know, we represent business interests in our community in harmony with the other values, like environmental concerns, like social policy issues. But as I say, somebody has to speak on behalf of business interests, and that's the role of the Boulder Chamber. And then finally, a function of our chamber is economic vitality. And in many communities, you would see that those functions might be separate. You might have a chamber organization that does members support services, maybe some advocacy, a separate organization or maybe a government entity would do the economic development or economic vitality. We call it work. We are fortunate in the Boulder Chamber to have that all under one umbrella, which allows us to do economic vitality, work in synergy with all of our other members, support advocacy activities. Now, what does that mean? What is the economic vitality work? It's the work that is primarily done through our Boulder Economic Council, as you mentioned, and it is the support that we give to building the strength of our economy. Now, we do that a number of different ways. First of all, we are the group that monitors the health of our economy. So we do a lot of analysis of economic indicators. We are constantly assessing certain factors in our economy and the strength of certain industries to see where there may be weaknesses or where we can exploit strengths to continue to strengthen our economy overall. We also work with individual businesses in that capacity because we want to make sure that each business is supported in their success in our community. Primarily in that way, we we will support what we call primary businesses, brought businesses that bring dollars into our community because maybe they sell a product outside. But we want to make sure that they are strong and healthy. If they're there, they need additional staffing support. How do we help them to get training to their workforce if they need additional space in our community, how do we help provide that? So there's a number of things that fall under this economic vitality arm of the chamber. But that's the work that we do in that category through our bolder economic council.

Ryan Beckenhauer [00:08:37] So you mentioned that the primary employers, why is it so important to give such support to these primary employers?

John Tayer [00:08:45] Because primary employers bring resources into our community. So when, for example, a Ball Aerospace sells a satellite to a foreign country, those are dollars and resources that are then reinvested back in our community, which cycle through the economy in terms of great jobs for our workforce, giving them the buying capacity to shop in the stores around our community. It also allows for a business like Ball to work with some of our local businesses to get support services, everything from legal services, etc., to materials and other complementary products that that feed their business. So that is all a critical element of economic strength for any community is to have that kind of income generation of revenue generation coming into the community from outside. What's something that most people don't know about the chamber? Well, you know, it's funny. When I came into this position, there was a lot of things I didn't know about the chamber. And I always say there, you know, other duties as assigned. So one of the more unique thing. The Boulder Chamber has under its umbrella is being the steward of the Boulder Star. Not sure if you're familiar, Ryan, but there's a star up on Flagstaff Mountain that is lit now every year on Veterans Day in honor of our veterans, but also then to celebrate the start of the holiday season. And that stars lit throughout the holiday season all the way through New Year's. And that star sits up there and you might take it for granted as somebody who observes it and enjoys it. But it takes a lot of work to keep it running, to make sure that the light bulbs are not broken, that you deal with any vandalism up there. So we are the stewards of that Boulder star. We have some great partners. A man named Craig Reynolds, I call him the Star Man is the person who is the electrician who's really spearheads the maintenance. He's just a wonderful person. And then I also get to partner with a man named Rex Lacy, a veteran in our community who helps us to do the annual lighting ceremony that leads the color guard celebration that we have in honor of our veterans. So it's a team effort. But the Boulder Chamber, is the lead on the arm. And how do people engage with the chamber? There's so many ways. So first of all, our events are generally open to the public. So if you're not a member that you can you can sign up and register for our events. They are usually a little bit higher fee for entrance. But it's a great way for somebody who's new to town is just starting their own business to test the chamber. The other way, of course, is to become a member. And the rates are very reasonable. We think, to providing great value for our member businesses. And once you are a member, you are we are your partner in your success. So we want to make sure that you are getting the support you need, that you're making the connections that would be useful for building your business and helping you just to navigate through. We'll be at, you know, city complex city regulation or understanding the business climate. We're there with you. So, you know, our members not only just to get to participate in the activities, but we're there, to stand with them and support their success. It's so great. So a number of great ways to get engaged.

Ryan Beckenhauer [00:12:34] And any last words? I think we're going to wrap it up here. Sure.

John Tayer [00:12:38] You know, I just say that it's an honor to serve in the role as the Boulder Chamber present CEO. And we always say that we build community through business. So I talked a lot about the work that we do on behalf of our member businesses. But fundamentally, the work of the Boulder Chamber is about making sure that we have a healthy and sustainable economy so that our community thrives as a whole. So when you think about the Boulder Chamber. Think about it as not just a business association, but it's a community organization that is geared toward making sure that everyone in our community has the opportunity to thrive economically, but also in balance with just all the other things that make a healthy community, environmental, socially, etc, so proud to serve in this role. And I just would urge your listeners to please join us, investments in us and consider becoming members.

Ryan Beckenhauer [00:13:34] Thank you very much, John, for being on the Boulder Business podcast.

John Tayer [00:13:38] Loved it, Ryan. Thanks for inviting me.

Ryan Beckenhauer [00:13:51] The views and opinions expressed by me, Ryan Beckenhauer, contained in this Podcast are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BBVA USA. Any content provided by the author are of their own opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anything or anyone.

The Boulder Chamber of Commerce

Website: https://boulderchamber.com/