Speaker says chambers need strong political stance
By John Phane
T.O. Acorn Editor

Saying he has been a business cheerleader for 30 years, Jerry Vorpahl, a California and United States Chambers of Commerce executive, addressed Ventura County Federated Chambers of Commerce members during a recent luncheon hosted on the campus of California Lutheran University.

Vorpahl, who said he visited Thousand Oaks years ago to help the local chamber grow, said he remembered a meeting he thinks was with Grant Brimhall, former city manager.

"I was here on Halloween and meeting with the city manager," Vorpahl said. "He came in dressed as a big orange pumpkin, a stem on his head. Now this was a meeting about important stuff." He said that when he asked the city manager if there was any problem he could help him address, the man in the pumpkin suit said, "You know, people just don’t take me seriously."

Vorpahl said that the mission of a chamber is the same now as it was when the first one was started in 16th century Marseille, France. However, he did say that since the Marseille members were trying to rid themselves of nasty pirates overrunning their harbor, that the focus of chambers has somewhat changed, but it is still to support local business.

The award-winning management trainer and speaker said that the role of the chamber is shifting, and that now the two most important issues for it to address are legislation and regulation.

To illustrate his point that every chamber member must play their own part in the development of a viable local economy, Vorpahl told a parable of wine growers in a specific region of France who discovered the grape they all grew was about to deliver a banner vintage year. He said that to capitalize on their good luck, community leaders put their heads together and decided, as chamber members do, to host a festival to bring trade and commerce to their fair city.

Each vintner was to donate his winery’s best bottle of wine, and they would mix all the bottles into a single barrel to produce the best wine ever known. But when they opened the cask, it was nothing but water because each wine maker thought that their effort wouldn’t be missed, and that their business could prosper by just riding on the coattails of others. "They were wrong," he said.

He said there are three buckets chambers need to keep filled. One is member services such as mixers, festivals and ribbon cuttings. The second is business development, as that keeps fresh blood and jobs coming into the community, and the third bucket is that chambers should take strong stances on public policy.

"What happens when a chamber gets involved in politics?" he asked. He said that at first the chamber loses members, but then, as people see the chamber successfully advocating for needed law and assistance that chambers flourish with new membership.

"Southern California is at a crossroads," Vorpahl said, quoting a James Irvine Foundation study, "and old-style chambers are somewhat inadequate to speak for today’s diverse community. While most say chambers are social organizations, most members are advocating for political action committees to help set policies that support businesses."