As a paying Chamber member, I would love to see the Chamber do some sort of blog, so it can be updated fairly easy. See our website for a good example. http://www.northfieldhistory.org or the Defeat of Jesse James Days website, http://www.djjd.org

I would like to see the Chamber goals, easily accessible.

All of the Chamber brochures online in a PDF document so visitors can download them before they come to NFLD.

Maybe a one-stop events calendar, not broken down into St. Olaf/Carleton/Arts Calendar, etc….this can be done with Google Calendar. Have it so maybe contributors can edit and change events themselves, so we do not have to contact the chamber to do so.

That’s all I can think of for now, more maybe to come.

I’d like to continue the discuss of Chamber and CVB issues there.

As a frequent customer, I know that Beef O’Brady’s donates 10% of the check total to the church of your choice on visits occurring on Sunday.

You write the church and address on the back of the check, and place it in the designated bucket on the way out.

Beef’s is really trying hard to do it right. Great food, great service, and local franchise ownership. It has owners that are committed to a long term lease, and want to do some good in the community.

I am anxious to see what they do once they are out of their “probationary” franchise period, and have some additional flexibility.

Disclaimer: I do not know if Beef’s is a Chamber Member.

About a year and half ago someone called me about getting involved in the Chamber but they never called me back.

I would love to help set up an informational session, but I don’t think I should be the lone person in setting it up. How can I set up an informational session for something I do not have the answers to?

Hayes: Do you want to be in charge of setting up the informational meeting? If you say yes, we could end this blog. You would be everyone’s hero!!

But first, Britt, notice at your link that, right under blacklisting, another purpose/function listed was price fixing: “Prevention of unnecessary competition by establishing uniform hours, wages and prices.” Hmmm. But it’s Wikipedia, so they’ll dismiss it.

Regarding competition for the Chamber (which is merely good-old capitalism and the invisible hand of the marketplace, ala Adam Smith, doing its job, so the Chamber can’t really complain), what features should a competitor business organization for the Greater Northfield area have?

- Be nicer than the Chamber, and find ways to serve all businesses, even if they’re Chamber members.

- No blacklisting. Instead, good sportsmanship: when the opposing team makes a good play, appreciate and learn from their excellence.

- Accept Chamber dollars (and then turn around and spend them at Chamber member businesses, if the Chamber won’t reimburse)?

- Welcome Democrats who own businesses, and don’t make them feel uncomfortable about their party affiliation?

- Have membership fees that are start-up friendly, and home-based business friendly (especially as we’re in a recession, and gov’t stats show that during economic downturns, the most jobs are created by small businesses, and especially those operated out of the home).

- Give awards to businesses that contribute to the vitality of Northfield’s business community– regardless of membership status.

- Give some free memberships along with awards, and others via lottery system.

- Learn from the Chamber’s mistakes and be willing to think outside the box in ways the Chamber refuses to?

- Play nice with the NDDC, EDA, the Latino Enterprise Center, and even the Chamber, from the start, instead of having to learn through mistakes to come to that point?

Instead of complaining about the Chamber (which seems only to evoke the same refrains about serving their members, optional blacklisting, etc.), start a new org. If the Chamber won’t change, create a better organization to which more businesses would prefer to belong, and make the Chamber appear unnecessary and obsolete.

Sort of like Andrew Carnegie and the steel mills, but no hostile takovers.

If the Chamber wakes up and changes as a result and survives, then the resulting “competitor” organizations might learn from each other’s ingenuity in a healthy and mutually beneficial competition.

If the Chamber shuts down from inability to adapt and lack of interest, well, that would be sad, but it happens.

To paraphrase Gandhi, “Be the changed Chamber you wish to see in the world.”

Later today, I’ll leave a NFLD P.O. box where you can send the money….

Unbelievable, even more so that you do not comprehend it. What next; a five pointer star or similar over the door of non-members?

The Cow and Chapati advertise in the Star Tribune. This brings visitors to Northfield which benefits other businesses. The Taste of Northfield, brought to you by the NDDC, involves quite a few volunteers most of whom are business people. The whole downtown, Chamber member or not, benefits from these labors and initiatives. Ditto Girls Night Out, Shakespeare in The Park, all the volunteering on many and various committees and occasions.

By all means, David, hand over Winter Walk and the Pub Crawl to the NDDC…what’s left for you to feel petulant about? All the The Chamber needs, like so many institutions in town, is an enema. Stop digging, David.

And I think there are other members out there that have the same questions, and that is why I think there should be some sort of meeting of all members/non-members to discuss everything we are talking about here. It would be very productive!

David, I can understand your urge to send all the members to Kathy, but I just think for questions/issues like this it would be better served by a group discussion.

I think the Chamber would have a lot more support if the website bragged about events the Chamber is responsible for. Otherwise, it’s hard to give you credit when I can’t figure out where credit is due. Like, if you fund a Pub Crawl, there should be a write up on your website. That way, other bloggers and business owners will link to your site and a visitor is more likely to come upon it.

If the Chamber funds the Pub Crawl, what does the Chamber’s money cover? Advertising expenses only, right? Or are some drinks and appetizers hosted by the Chamber? I just don’t know, I’m asking.

I understand that Norm won’t be asked to participate in such a pub crawl, as he is not a chamber member it makes sense. However, not asking him to participate is much different from deterring patronage of his establishment. That creates hard feelings all around, so Norm would be more likely to take on organizing of a pub crawl of his own. Then, the Chamber gets no props, so the Chamber loses out too.

Can you also answer some questions about the CVB? It’s part of the Chamber, right? It’s a subset of the Chamber, not a separate entity, right? Does the CVB have a separate budget and separate responsibilities?

Second, each Chamber member gets to decide for himself or herself about doing business with non-Chamber members. I was trying to encourage Chamber members to make Chamber membership part of their decision-making process. I don’t understand why that is counter-productive and not acceptable. Why should Norman get a free ride on the Pub Crawl on the backs of other Chamber members? What is fair about that?

However, from looking at all of the comments to this post, it seems that the Chamber may not be the right entity to lead the change. It’s clear from your responses that non-Chamber businesses are blacklisted by Chamber members. This is counter-productive, and not acceptable.

NDDC can’t handle the task alone, not with their commitment only to downtown businesses. Can you imagine what the NDDC could do with a chunk of that lodging tax money though? Maybe the available funds should be disbursed between the NDDC and the Chamber. From my (very cursory) reading of the city code, it seems the NDDC could fit the role of a local convention and tourism board.

If you were from an organization looking to book a convention in this town, and to plan the accompanying social events for your guests, where would you go? The Grand is our best local event center, so you’d probably plan your convention there. You would organize a walking tour of historic downtown, and include a pass through the historical society. You would organize a pub crawl which would have stops at the Cow, the Rueb, and the Frog. You might plan a cocktail hour with heavy appetizers at the Rueb and run a shuttle between the downtown and the larger motels. Seems like the NDDC is in a good position to encourage such a convention… I hope they wouldn’t leave Norm out just because he’s not a Chamber member.

BTW, last year’s Girls Night Out event was a SMASHING success. That was exactly the kind of event that the Chamber should be backing. I have never before seen the Grand so full…of only women! I’ve got a long history of working in (and patronizing) local service-industry businesses, and I saw a lot of new faces at that I haven’t seen before. Anything that draws the bedroom community to our local businesses is helpful.