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In the news yesterday was a story from David Grimes regarding the Pulaski Chamber of Commerce once again looking for another director. For some inexplicable reason (the Chamber President refuses to comment on it), Dawn Adams vacated the position.
For those who did not read the story, Dawn is the wife of wife of Shane Adams, who is the president and chief executive officer of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Adams had extensive experience with the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce in Florida so this wasn’t some deal of someone getting hired as a favor to a friend…….she was qualified. While Ms. Adams’ departure is confusing, perhaps the event might set in motion, discussions with the Montgomery Chamber and the Pulaski Chamber about merging the two entities. OH NO……..could someone possibly believe this could be possible? How could anyone even propose such an idea? Those were the same words we all heard several years ago when it was suggested that the Blacksburg and Christiansburg Chambers should merge. But it happened, and most people would agree that it has been good for Montgomery County. A merger with Pulaski would only strengthen the area as a regional voice - The New River Valley Chamber of Commerce. The Blacksburg and Christiansburg Chamber merger proved that, despite the emotions of those wanting to keep separate chambers, reasonable people can sit down and make the impossible become possible. It all started with major community leaders sitting down and forcing both sides to talk. The former CEO’s of Montgomery Regional Hospital and First National Bank, and Larry Hincker of Virginia Tech played major roles of getting the right people talking to one another. It took several weeks, but it happened. The second “right” thing that happened was how the leadership has held it together once it was decided that a merger was going to happen. Shane Adams has been instrumental in keeping the new “Montgomery Regional Chamber of Commerce” working in the right direction. But, there were other key players in the community who were able to look past emotion and do what was best for the area. Reid Broughton and Tim Rosche were great leaders to get things moving in the right direction, and Michelle Vaught has performed extremely well in keeping things moving forward. But, “moving forward” now means more mergers so the Chambers in the NRV will speak as one. It works for a lot of other agencies and charities, why not the Chambers? Perhaps the timing is right, right now, for community leaders to come together again and push for talks to start. We know from experience that directors, employees, officers and many former officers of the respective Chambers might see this as a turf war – and the community leaders should press for representatives from each Chamber that can see a vision and why this could work for the betterment of the NRV. My sense is that the Montgomery County Chamber would come to the table now for discussions. Perhaps there are some members of the Pulaski Chamber who realize that good things can come from a merger, or at least have the courage to talk. Chamber mergers happen all the time in different areas of the U.S. Businesses merge all the time. Mergers are never easy, but many make good business sense….especially in this case.
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Of course the merger between the Blacksburg Chamber and the Christiansburg Chamber was also nuts. Although geographically close, Bburg and Cburg have vast cultural, economic and leadership differences. Just look at what the new Montgomery County Chamber has done for Christiansburg. Keep looking.... hmmm.... not seeing anything. That's my point.