The Greater Seymour Chamber of Commerce has decided to expand its reach to serve all of Jackson County due in large part to COVID-19.
Later this month during the Jackson County Fair, the chamber will launch its new mission, branding and marketing as the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber President Dan Robison was on hand at the July 6 Crothersville Town Council meeting to talk about the widening scope of the business and community organization.
Early on during the pandemic, Robison and his staff came up with the idea for the Smalltown Strong Facebook group page. Its purpose was to connect businesses with the community to share information about their hours, menus, services and COVID protocols.
“There was a lot of uncertainty and some panic among small business owners. Everything was changing,” he told the council. “As the chamber, we felt like we needed to do something to help.”
Smalltown Strong was the answer. It provided a bulletin board for businesses and was a great way for the public to support local businesses during that time, he said.
The site was available for the entire Jackson County community to use, and Robison said he received a lot of positive feedback and gratitude from business owners and the public.
“We made the decision that we don’t care if you’re a member or not, this is not the time for that,” he said. “We don’t care if you’re in Seymour or not. We just want to make this resource available for Jackson County businesses, a place for them to share information.”
Business owners from all over the county began to associate the chamber and Robison with Smalltown Strong.
That’s when Robison said he realized there was a need and desire for this kind of county-wide connection.
“We have a trend of becoming more inclusive,” he said. “This organization started as the Seymour Men’s Business Club. Then it became the Seymour Chamber of Commerce and later expanded to become the Greater Seymour Chamber of Commerce. So this is really following the path of historical, natural progression of expansion and inclusion of the organization.”
He decided there is no room for rivalries between communities when it comes to the economy and the business community of Jackson County can only be stronger together.
“It doesn’t work like it used to. We are more of a regional economy now than we were before,” he said.
Robison said he first pitched the idea for a countywide chamber last August to the Seymour Chamber’s board of directors. The initial response was excitement and interest but no one wanted to step on toes, he said.
So for the next few months, Robison and his staff did research on how many businesses are outside of Seymour and a survey of existing chamber members.
“We see it as a win-win,” he said. “For our current members, what business would not want countywide exposure over more localized exposure?”
He reached out to other countywide chamber organizations in the state and started conversations with organizations like Brownstown/Ewing Main Street, which took over the role of the Brownstown Chamber of Commerce after it dissolved.
“When I first pitched the idea to their leadership, they were excited about it, because if we were to expand, they would have another organization to partner with,” he said. “If we’re helping them do chamber things, they would be able to focus more on Main Street things.”
After hearing Brownstown/Ewing Main Street’s support, it was put to a vote by the Seymour Chamber’s board and it unanimously passed.
Robison said the chamber isn’t just getting a new name, there are structural changes taking place. Beginning in 2022, the chamber board of directors will include business and community leaders from outside of Seymour.
“This will help us align better with other organizations that already exist and are doing great things like the Jackson County Community Foundation, Jackson County Industrial Development Corp., Jackson County Education Coalition,” he said. “There are already a lot of countywide organizations that we have a great working relationship with. This will just expand those relationships even more.”
“I believe this expansion will lead to new partnerships and projects to work on,” he said.
Chamber events will be expanded to include all parts of the county.
The Greater Seymour Chamber currently has 375 members and expects that number grow.
Town Council President Danieta Foster welcomed the news of the business organization expanding to include Crothersville and other Jackson County communities.
“This should be good for our businesses and for your organization,” she told Robison
In other business the town learned from its insurance agent, Jason Bukowski of Shepherd Moore Insurance that the town’s premium for liability and property coverage would be increase just 2% when it renews next month.
