Chamber of Horrors
Recently, I was knocking on doors here in Redding, offering my considerable communications experience to various companies and organizations. One was the Greater Redding Chamber of Commerce, considered by many who know to be ineffectual in its best moments.
I was pals with the chamber president, who while intelligent, and an interesting guy, wasn’t their decision maker. So I said to Frank, You know, I could help you with your communications, both within the chamber, and in the community. ‘Cause you know as well as I do that you need it.
Frank knew. Many areas businesses, including the local Sears, had left or refused to join. The chamber had been on the wrong side of a number of key issues, though they never allowed they had goofed. For instance, they had gone whole hog trying to get Gottschalk’s into the local mall, and it didn’t happen. It shouldn’t have happened, and it couldn’t have happened. The primary tenant in the mall had veto power and they didn’t want Gottschalk’s there. Case closed.
So Frank knew that he needed help and he asked me to submit a proposal, which I did. After a month, I emailed Frank and asked him what happened. He emailed back immediately, saying the proposal had been reviewed with the chairman and the chair-elect, and, quote, "They were rather put off by the comments about the Chamber's image."
Well, I wondered what I must have said, albeit truthfully, that would have offended. They have a serious problem, obviously, and I thought that they realized it. Otherwise, why had the proposal been entertained in the first place? I went back to see what might have upset them.
I had said, that I would provide them "with an outside, objective perception of [their] operation." I had written, "I think that you are struggling more than need be with negativity in several areas, and that given a fresh, unbiased look at your image in the business community and in the community at large, you would have the information to be able to restore credibility and regain trust in certain quarters where it has been lacking."
I had written it deliberately, giving them the option to do nothing with the information, since I doubted that they would take the measures necessary to bail themselves out of their mistakes. I had thought, however, that they would like to get a professional assessment of what they were doing, at least to be able to say that they were on top of things. Wrong. Be cool fellas, the emperor looks great.
Frankly, I don’t think less now of the people leading the chamber. Equally, I trust that their members are getting their full 19-dollars worth every month.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.
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