The Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, which has been without a leader since the retirement of Ann Hamilton after 32 years on the job, is seeking an executive director to take the 98-year-old organization into the future.
The regional chamber and tourism council of nearly 500 members provides business support, economic development, regional marketing and advocacy. The organization began advertising for the position following an intensive strategic planning effort by the chamber board. The process was open to chamber members as well as others by invitation.
Focus groups looked at things about the chamber that should be part of the organization’s future — including networking, marketing the region to the outside, fiscal responsibility and advocacy, as well as outreach to members and collaboration with other organizations.
Things that the chamber ought to leave behind, the groups suggested, should include the “chamber as dinosaur” perception, its membership structure, using strategies that have stopped working and events that are “tired,” such as the annual home show, and over-dependence on state funding, including Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism money, because it creates crises when it’s cut midyear.
Among emerging trends that the group suggested the chamber needs to embrace, said Linda Dunlavy, chamber board chairwoman, are greater diversity and use of technology. She suggested that the organization embrace the more self-directed, tech-savvy characteristics of millennials, who are more comfortable with social media than on traditional membership organizations.
“I think people want to think there’s a new direction, a new financial model, membership model and partnership model with other business associations, chambers and regional tourism councils,” she said. “We’ve come up with lots of questions. We want a new, vibrant executive director to look into these and help us figure out the rest for the future.”
Unlike chambers of commerce in other areas, the Franklin County Chamber, which has also served as a partner in the state’s tourism promotion efforts, represents a broader constituency than business interests, said Dunlavy, who also serves as executive director of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
“The board sees the chamber as supporting and assisting the businesses of Franklin County, especially the small businesses, but also recognizing a way to do that that’s always aware of how we improve the economic strength of Franklin County as a whole, going back and forth between direct business support and larger advocacy, economic development and more.”
The application deadline for the position is May 9, and the board hopes to hire its new executive director in June, in time for the July 1 start of the new budget year, Dunlavy said.