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New Blood at the Chamber, Part Six |
Bill Hudson | 2/3/10
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Read Part One
Bill Schwab, owner of Piedra Automotive on Piedra Road, sat across his desk from me, fielding some last minute questions from his staff before we kicked off our interview. Bill had just been asked by the Pagosa Springs Chamber of Commerce board of directors to fill a vacant one year slot on that board, after coming in fourth out of nine candidates at last month’s Chamber election. And he’d accepted the challenge.
Bill was talking about a truck that had been repaired eight months ago, and was still sitting in his car lot. The owner had not been able to pay the repair bill.
“People just don’t have any money. Of course, this particular guy went to jail. The dad called me and asked me what I would charge to store the truck for him. I told him $20 a month. I try to help people along.
“Times are tough right now.”
 The Chamber of Commerce is, of course, dealing with the same difficult business environment — and that may be the main reason the Chamber has seen a recent drop in membership after many years of membership growth, as Pagosa doubled in size between 1995 and 2005.
But some of the decline may be due to member dissatisfaction with recent Chamber policies and leadership. At least, that’s an indication I’ve gotten from my conversations with business owners in recent months.
Bill Schwab is stepping onto the Chamber board, along with Madeline Lyon, Paul Boyd and Thad Cano, in the midst of this economic slump — and all four new members seem to have ideas, about making changes in the way the Chamber operates.
“I’d really like to see the Chamber become less of a social event calendar for the people of Pagosa — and become more business oriented. I think the Town Tourism ought to be separate — and I think County Tourism and Town Tourism ought to get together, and somebody figure out what’s really going on.”
Over the past three years, the Town Tourism Committee — a relatively new government advisory board — has become increasingly involved in the non-profit Chamber operations, and now provides, I believe, about half the Chamber’s annual revenues. The two organizations have been, for example, sharing a joint, $40,000 website for the past two years — although that somewhat dysfunctional website is now due to be completely replaced by a brand new $10,000 website — again funded by the TTC. It's not clear, at this point, if that new website will include the Chamber information.
“I think the Chamber should be focusing more on businesses. We need to build a base economy here. We can’t just rely on tourism. We’re in sad need of a more diverse economy.
“Archuleta County, and the Town, and the Chamber, put all of their eggs into just two baskets — and that was tourism, and second-home building, which is really just another a form of tourism.
“What else do we have? We’ve got nothing. A little bit of farming, but not much. That’s about it.
“There’s ways to get clean companies in here. Instead of saying, ‘Don’t come here’ we need to court those people, who can bring in businesses.
“How do we sell Pagosa? That’s the question that needs to be answered right now. How do we sell Pagosa? We’re not a Telluride or an Aspen, because we’re not close enough to the ski mountain. We don’t have oil and gas. We don’t have a college.
“We’re competing against everyone else who’s saying the same thing: ‘Oh. We’ve got a great quality of life. We’ve got great schools.’ Then some business person thinks they might like to relocate here, and they want to know what their annual taxes will be. And you call the County and nobody gets back to you. Nobody gets back to you.
“The Chamber could be handling those calls — and that’s what they should be doing. That’s where the Chamber has got to lead the way.
“Okay, it’s nice to have social events. It’s nice to have the wine and cheese party. But we also have to have something for the non-elitist.
“Let’s throw a party for the Mounted Rangers — even if it’s potluck. Let’s show them that we appreciate them, because right now, they’re ready to bail.”
The Mounted Rangers are a volunteer group which provides security and directional services at numerous non-profit events in the community — and which themselves rely on voluntary donations from residents and businesses.
“And we really, really need to promote the businesses that are members of the Chamber. We’ve had a great facility, for example, down here at the Pagosa Lodge. Why couldn’t we have gotten some grant money to help the owner revamp that — and turn it into a convention center, and then advertise that? Did anyone approach him, until the twelfth hour?
“Instead, they completely shut down the whole thing. It’ll never open again. It’s going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to open that back up.
“Why didn’t somebody within the Chamber, or the Town Tourism Committee, do something?
“I recently found out, through the Chama [New Mexico] Chamber of Commerce, that there is right now available, through SBA [Small Business Administration] $35,000 if you are expanding — interest free for a year, and no payments for a year. How good is that?
”But nobody here in Pagosa knows anything about it. That’s the kind of information I’d like to see the Chamber sharing with its members.
“To me, that’s the Chamber’s job.
“Let’s get quality back into this thing, and figure out how we can sell Pagosa in a special way. And not just for tourism, but as a lifestyle.
“We live in a great community. A great community. There are so many people here, that when the chips are down, we pull together. If Joe Smith over here has cancer, how many fundraisers do you see?
“But we can’t seen to get the Chamber to agree. Or the Town Council to agree. Or the Commissioners to agree.
“I’m not 100 percent sure how you change that. But that’s why I ran for the Chamber board. That’s my goal.” |
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