BY JEFF CHUDZINSKI
North Country This Week

MASSENA — Efforts are being made to integrate smaller chambers of commerce into the St. Lawrence County chamber in hopes of creating a streamlined organization to better serve each community.

The idea of integrating isn’t new but is gaining momentum, according to Ben Dixon, executive director of the county chamber.

Town of Massena officials recently heard an in-depth presentation about the prospect of the Massena Chamber of Commerce joining with the St. Lawrence County chamber during the town board’s Sept. 21 meeting.

If all goes according to plan the Massena, Ogdensburg and Canton chambers would all fall under the St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, which could greatly benefit each organization, according to Dixon.

“It comes down to scale and efficiency. We are at a point in our economy, in our world, that a local chamber is hard-pressed to be able to deliver on its mission when standing alone. There’s the amount of dues that can be collected from members versus what needs to be done in terms of staffing demands. This is a bit of a balancing act,” Dixon told the Massena Town Board.

One added benefit of integration would include administrative and back office staffing to support efforts of local chambers. Currently, local chamber directors typically handle those functions, Dixon said.

“Things like payroll, insurance, the bookkeeping and the legal filings and all that stuff, which chews up way too much of their time. That time that is saved could then be put toward supporting the businesses, being boots on the ground,” Dixon said.

Dixon said the time savings alone would allow local chamber officials to visit more businesses to receive feedback of what may be needed to make them flourish.

Each chamber would also have a voice with the larger county chamber as officials would split time between the local chamber and county.

Town Board member Tom Miller asked Dixon if Massena would have a seat at the table in discussions and whether the Massena representative would work in Canton full-time.

“So, Ogdensburg would have one person represented strictly to Ogdensburg, one to Massena, one to Canton, and what they would do is work halftime for that community,” Dixon said.

Dixon also said the representative would be from the community and would split time between the county chamber and local chamber.

Staff members would also have specialized skills like marketing and advertising or technical skills that would benefit both organizations.

Dixon said with a merged chamber dedicated staff could provide “community specific, boots on the ground programming that’s needed,” coupled with a specialized skill that would benefit every business.

Branding would also change, with one brand identity being the primary focal point for the integrated chamber.

Dixon said all chambers involved would “communicate and work together.”

An integrated calendar would be one benefit of the new marketing model, making it easier to engage and inform all communities of marketed events.

A feasibility study was conducted and included local chamber officials to see if the integration would work. According to Dixon, the consultant hired to perform the study concluded it was “quite feasible” to integrate the chambers.

Audits were also completed to ensure there would be no legal or financial risk to an integrated chamber. According to Dixon, all four chambers involved participated and no significant risk was found.

Dixon also said the New York Council on Nonprofits are on retainer to provide legal services in what would essentially be the final step toward integration.

““We’ll work with the attorneys to get the legal documents set up, including revised bylaws for the new chamber. At that point, we’ll also share the information sessions for the members of each chamber so that we can make sure all the members understand what it’s all about,” he said.

After all is said and done, the Massena Chamber of Commerce will still maintain its own office in Massena but would have the backing of the county chamber as well.

“We think it’s a great opportunity for us to really be able to bring more to the table for Massena and the other communities of our great county,” Dixon said.