LEBANON — One business chamber is better than two.
That, at any rate, is the rationale cited by organizers in dissolving two local business chambers in the Upper Valley, the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce and Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce, and combining them into a single entity now called Upper Valley Business Alliance.
The merger comes at a time when local chambers of commerce are seeking ways to stay relevant as they have seen much of their traditional functions eroded by the internet and the local retail landscape has become increasingly dominated by national chains and impacted by online shopping.
Although the UVBA will continue to organize some of the public events in Hanover and Lebanon for which the former chambers were known, the merged organization will refocus its purpose on business advocacy, economic development, workforce development and tourism, the organization said.
“It’s not like the old chambers of the past, which were very much single-community oriented and working to drive events,” said Jennifer Packard, director of corporate relations and human resources at restaurants Jesse’s steakhouse and Molly’s and chairwoman of the UVBA board. “We want to be an advocate for business owners, have a seat at the table on matters important to them, hit hard on economic development, workforce issues and promote tourism to the Upper Valley.”
The merger combines the Hanover chamber’s 300 members with Lebanon’s 275 members, but since the two chambers shared 85 members between them, the new organization will have 490 members, according to Tracy Hutchins, who was formerly executive director of the Hanover chamber but now carries the title of president of UVBA.
“We hear all the time the Upper Valley is one community,” Hutchins said. “It just makes sense to have one organization to represent the region versus two that each serve a few towns.”
Hanover and Lebanon chambers have had on-and-off talks about combining for several years but most recently were given impetus when Rob Taylor, the former executive director of the Lebanon chamber, left to take a job with the town of Enfield. Shortly after that, the Hanover chamber closed its office in Hanover and moved into the Lebanon chamber’s offices on South Park Street in Lebanon.
The past couple of years has seen both chambers retrench some of the longtime community events. The Hanover chamber last month discontinued the Hanover farmers market after 11 years and has decided to pull the plug on the 2-year-old Art in the Park crafts fair in Norwich. The Lebanon chamber discontinued its keystone HomeLife Expo in Hanover and Wings and Wheels show at the Lebanon Municipal Airport.
At the same time, many of the traditional roles of local business chambers as an information resource for the public — where to eat or hire a plumber — has been diminished by online websites and apps like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Foursquare.
The changes have forced local business chambers to find new ways to remain relevant to members, who want to justify their annual dues, which can run anywhere from $300 to $5,000 annually.
Toward providing services and resources to members instead of costly public events, the UVAA will continue the Hanover chamber’s 6-year-old program, Meet Up Upper Valley, which provides activities, programs and events to employees of member companies. The program offers everything from cooking classes to trips to New York City.
Meet Up Upper Valley, Hutchins explained, was designed as an employee recruitment and retention tool to meet the one of the most difficult challenges Upper Valley employers face — how to attract and hold on to people.
“The idea behind it is that employees coming to Upper Valley from larger companies in urban areas sometimes face a little bit of culture shock,” Hutchins said. Rolled over to UVBA’s top-tier members, “we have a lot of employees taking advantage of this.”
The UVBA next will introduce a new program called First Friday, which will be a monthly breakfast roundtable where members meet to discuss and share information on critical workplace issues such as economic development, the impact of social networking on business or bills facing lawmakers such as family medical leave.
Hutchins, who thinks that local business chambers are “more relevant than they ever been,” acknowledged “we do have to evolve. Every business does. The landscape is never staying the same.”
John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@ vnews.com.
