Advocacy in Action ~ If not your Chamber, then who?

Strengthening, representing, and promoting business. This is the Chamber’s mission; this is what we do every day. Business is local and business is community. Business is for-profits and not-for-profits. Business is at the heart of everything we do. The health and well-being of our community relies on business across all sectors and of all sizes. We pay attention to decisions that will directly impact your business, your livelihood, and that of your employees and our community.

We do so because our members have a stake in decisions made at all levels of government, every day and because your investment in community has earned you a voice and a seat at the decision-making table. 

Who will advocate solely for business and simultaneously for the community, if not the Chamber of Commerce?

When the Chamber advocates for business, we commit to delivering on one of the most important promises to our members: that your voice be heard.

Our community is facing difficult times ahead. Resources will be stressed, decisions will be difficult. Our leaders in government will be forced to seek new and innovative solutions. More than ever, they should welcome members of the chamber, leaders who are community-minded, bring thoughtful, pragmatic, and creative reasoning to the table. Together, we can make wise decisions if we listen to learn, and learn to resolve our community’s most pressing issues; minus political innuendo or party lines. 

When the Chambers asks our elected officials to hear and respond; when we offer an opinion, a recommendation, take a position, and submit testimony; when we champion projects that advance revitalization and economic opportunity, support the elimination of excessive regulation that stifles innovation and entrepreneurship, or the use of economic development tools that incentivize job creation and economic opportunity; we do so with a vision for improved economic outcomes for our community.

We can never promise to represent all voices. Nor could we promise that we will always be right, or that our way is the only way forward. That would be both misleading and counter-intuitive. But we can promise to do what is in our power to convene leaders of diverse views and expertise in an honest effort to listen, study, understand, and inform the most effective outcomes for our community. 

Some say advocacy should not be personal. I agree if it means advocacy is not a personal attack on personal ideology or values. On the other hand, in many ways in our roles as advocates it is personal, in that a position we take in support of business, we take in support of people: real impacts on people’s livelihoods, on our families, our neighbors, and our community. 

Advocacy can feel ethereal, subjective, even political. I invite you to consider how advocacy plays out in our every day roles here at the chamber. Again, I ask if not the chamber, then…

• Who will spend hours building relationships with legislators, their aides, and government agency personnel just to ensure they answer your call when your small business community needs relief;
• Who will convene business, government, and community members to facilitate difficult conversations in the pursuit of a workable solution, apolitical in nature; 
• Who will not hesitate to pick up the phone to find an answer from city hall or county permitting office, saving you the time and stress so you can focus on more pressing needs of your customers and business;
• Who will craft a letter to an elected representative, sign it, send it, and follow up with a phone call or oral testimony at a hearing, just to be sure they hear and know what their vote will mean to their constituents; that the end result of a vote for or against is understood as real and personal;
• Who will sit through hours of city council meetings or sift through city budgets, agenda packets, and testimony to find the answer to a question concerning a non-profit community application or a controversial decision having repercussions for business;
• Who will purposefully reach out to individuals of different backgrounds, professions, and perspectives to listen and learn, gathering and synthesizing knowledge to inform policy;
• Who will offer a voice for the business owner who feels they have no voice or simply has no time or energy to even know their voice matters?

The Chamber will, through a formidable force of dedicated volunteers, leaders, and professional staff. I invite you to stay informed and engaged with our government issues, education, and economic development committees, all of which have an advocacy component. 

You can find more information on recent advocacy and local elections at our CHAMBER ADVOCACY and ELECTIONS PAGE and committee staff liaison contacts at springfield-chamber.org, or by phone: 541-746-1651. 

If you’d like to discuss any issues of concern to your business or the community, I welcome your reaching out. Confidentiality is always assured, as is follow through.  Remember, we’re always just a phone call away.