Beach Chamber is not in financial disarray
Upon reading his own obituary Mark Twain is said to have written “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” That certainly applies to an off-island newspaper story on the financial condition of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce. To say the chamber is in deep financial difficulty was certainly true two years ago, or even a year ago. But, today, the chamber is in much better financial condition than it was in 2012 or even 2013.
The story was about the old chamber building on San Carlos Blvd. The building was owned by the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce Foundation, a 501(c)(3). It was the former home of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce, a 501(c)(6) membership-based organization. Each has its own board of directors and management, and obviously differing views. The following comments regard the membership organization.
Two years ago this month I was asked to come back to Fort Myers Beach to provide direction to a chamber that was deeply in debt, had lost membership and respect in this beach community. Job #1 when I arrived was to get the Chamber in better financial shape. Today, thanks to the hard work of our board of directors, members, volunteers and staff, we are in very much better shape than we were in June of 2012.
Having said that, I must also say this is still a work in progress. We have right-sized in terms of staff and overhead. We have increased our income, cut expenses and used the difference to pay off debt. We are now living within our means. To get to this point was not easy, and even painful. There were difficult decisions that had to be made, and decisions that were not well-liked by some.
As part of the expense cutting, this past year the chamber downsized to one full-time employee and three part-time employees. It could not afford to be in a 3,000-plus square foot, 20-year-old building with three large air conditioning units, a $9,500 annual insurance bill, deferred maintenance and a $2,700 monthly lease. Having the chamber remain there was not an option for either the chamber as tenant, nor the foundation as landlord. Simply put, we could not afford to pay the cost of the mortgage, upkeep and overhead that what was expected. So, the chamber left in November and the building went back to the bank, which subsequently sold the mortgage to an investment company on the West Coast.
The chamber has since moved to an affordable location back on the beach, a move that has been applauded by many. The current office is less than half the size of the old building and the chamber has cut overhead by 46 percent. Over the past six months the chamber has seen its membership grow and continues to look for ways to cut expenses and add value for its 400-plus members.
Adding value was Job #2. Like our finances, we have come a long way but we still have room to improve. The first part of adding value was to put our members out in front. It began with changes to our website, social media and making the Chamber more visitor information oriented. Fort Myers Beach is the largest single visitor destination in Southwest Florida. Our job is to help those visitors connect to our local businesses and make our local business’s cash registers ring. We started with a Chamber website that saw about 1,000 visitors a month. Today, well over 15,000 come to the website for visitor information. We have an active Facebook and Twitter presence that put our Chamber members out in front of our visitors. The idea of a mobile visitor information center was taken from concept to reality in the first year. Value has been added providing a direct link between beach businesses and potential or actual visitors.
The Chamber has begun to take a higher and more active role within the community. A good example of this work is your Chamber president being present at most Town Council meetings and workshops to represent the interests of the beach business community. It is simply a traditional and correct role for a Chamber of Commerce. But it adds value for our members to have them know there is a person at these meetings who, along with the elected and appointed officials, will represent the interests of the business community.
Please do not misunderstand my statements. I strongly believe our town council and town manager very much have our island business’s needs at heart. But is always good for us to be there to provide insight or input when asked or when appropriate.
This Chamber has made some great progress in the past two years. But it is, and perhaps always will be, a work-in-progress as we move toward making the Chamber a valued institution within the community and a real value to its members. With the help and input of this Beach community we will keep the positive changes and tweaks coming, ever improving the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce in the years to come.
So it is premature to count this chamber among the dead, or even the dying. Like many businesses, we have been through a rough time. But we are feeling much better today, thank you.
-Bud Nocera is president of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce