Business: Struggling to fill emptying chambers

The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, one of the nation's oldest, is among those across the country that have seen membership numbers stagnate or drop in recent years. The challenge now is how to turn things around.

By KYLE PARKS

It was happy hour on the veranda of the posh Mission Inn golf resort in the Lake County town of Howey-in-the-Hills. Martinez and 99 other chamber and government leaders were there for the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce leadership retreat.

Around him were bankers, lawyers, accountants, real estate developers, even small-business owners.

But except for Andy Zupsic, the local representative for Microsoft Corp., there was no one there from the new economy. No dot-com founders, no computer distributors, no venture capital specialists. No one from the fast-growing technology industries that offer the Tampa Bay area its best hope for moving its economy beyond sunshine and call centers.

"We need to reach out to people who aren't in our traditional membership," said Martinez, the Tampa chamber's incoming volunteer chairman.

It's clear the leaders of the Tampa business establishment are struggling with how to do that. And they aren't alone.

Across the nation, many chambers of commerce have stopped growing. As companies go global and business becomes a 24-hour, seven-day proposition, executives are focused more on their jobs than on their hometowns. And many say chambers are stuffy groups that don't offer anything but socializing at rubber chicken dinners.

Jay Garner is the new president of the Tampa chamber, the bay area's largest. And he is determined to change the chamber's image.

He has brought in new managers at the chamber's downtown headquarters. And working with Martinez and Bill McBride, chief of the Holland & Knight law firm and the chamber's chairman, he has made the organization more aggressive. Lately it has gotten involved in everything from the bidding for a Florida A&M University law school to the debate about how to fix Tampa General Hospital.

The new attitude was evident this month at the retreat, where attendees watched clips from Braveheart, Star Wars and, oddly enough, Animal House as motivational tools.

But the challenges ahead are steep, and Garner's effort to shake things up is meeting some resistance. The newcomer's my-way-or-the-highway style has rankled some of Tampa's establishment, even leading to the resignation of a widely known chamber member.

No matter, Garner and his supporters say. They say he's bound to ruffle feathers because he's an agent of change.

"After we get out of hibernation," Garner said, "some people are grumpy."

Ambitious plans

The Tampa chamber is one of the nation's oldest, founded in 1885 as the Tampa Board of Trade by about a dozen men. Among its committees: groceries and provisions; lumber and naval stores; and dry goods, boots and shoes.

In recent times, the chamber has concentrated on providing schmoozing opportunities for lawyers, bankers and company executives, supporting legislation that favors business and working to bring new companies to town.

But now the party's over.

All around the bay area, chamber membership is stagnant or dropping.

Membership at the St. Petersburg chamber has dropped from 2,500 to 2,100 in five years. The Clearwater chamber is stuck at 1,500. And smaller chambers in the North Suncoast also have struggled to grow.

With fewer headquarters here for banks, law firms and utilities, the chambers' traditional power base has eroded. And as companies watch every penny, a chamber membership that can run in the thousands of dollars no longer seems essential.

"There is still a place for chambers," said David May, vice president of chamber relations for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "But they have to change the way they do things."

In some cities, innovative chambers are growing. Big-city chambers in Detroit and Cleveland offer member benefits such as group health insurance.

In other metro areas, such as Orlando and Norfolk, Va., chambers from neighboring communities have joined forces to form superchambers that speak in one voice on government issues and corporate relocations.

And in some cases, growth comes from forceful leadership. In Raleigh, N.C., membership has grown from 2,200 to 3,000 under chamber president Harvey Schmitt. Ironically, Schmitt went to Raleigh from Tampa, where he was forced out seven years ago amid complaints that he was too aggressive.

"The question is relevancy," Schmitt said. "Some chambers do a good job of connecting with their members on issues that are important to them."

Another challenge for chambers is the booming economy. "When things are going great, companies don't figure they need a chamber," said Russ Sloan, president of the St. Petersburg chamber. "In tough times, more people actually join."

In Tampa, Garner hopes to grow the chamber from its current 2,321 members to 3,500 in the coming year and to 5,000 within five years.

He thinks the goals are reasonable because chamber membership accounts for only about 7 percent of Hillsborough County's businesses. The national average is 11 percent.

The key elements of his plan:

Offer more "affinity programs," possibly including health insurance, to give members some benefits.

Spread the chamber's programs around Hillsborough County to get more members from outlying areas.

Better define how the chamber's role differs from that of the county and the Tampa Bay Partnership, an economic development marketing group.

Work to get new economy companies involved.

Of all the challenges, the last is the toughest.

Netting new economy players

Around the table sat some of Tampa's heavy hitters: Martinez. Fowler White lawyer Rhea Law. Ernst & Young accountant Dick Dobkin. Tampa Bay Lightning president Ron Campbell.

On the second day of the Tampa chamber's retreat, subcommittees were discussing topics critical to the city's economic future. This group's task: List five-year goals for economic development.

Before long, talk turned to the new economy.

The night before, Atlanta economic development consultant J. Mac Holladay had offered the group some blunt talk that he described as "truth serum."

At about $29,000 a year, average wages in Tampa are $5,000 below Atlanta and $3,000 below Charlotte, N.C., and Memphis, Tenn., he said. There's a shortage of research and development. You need more venture capital. Training programs are weak. And you must diversify your approach to economic development.

Technology is the key, Holladay said. And after you decide to improve the quality of your jobs, "you have to figure out who is going to do it, and who is going to be held responsible if it fails."

Garner and Martinez want the Tampa chamber to be the group that does it. As they sat overlooking the Mission Inn golf course, they talked about the need for a technology incubator and more research and development facilities for technology companies.

But after that, the talk got fuzzy. How do we go about it? several people asked.

The missing link: With no one from the new economy in the group, there was no one to offer advice on turning ideas into reality.

Martinez hopes to name several such executives to the chamber board, which would be a start. But it will be tough. "You have to show them they are getting something out of it," Garner said.

Tech execs already have their own gigs where they see more value, such as the Tampa Bay Internet Forum and get-togethers sponsored by Tampa's Foley & Lardner law firm. One such get-together two weeks ago attracted about 70 people. The average age: 35.

And because many of these executives travel constantly, time is a serious issue, according to some who might be top targets if the chamber tries to recruit top tech leaders.

"I just don't know them at the chamber," said Scott Miller of Tampa's Lovett Miller & Co., a venture capital company. "There's no relationship between them and the tech community."

Tom Wallace, most recently president of Brainbuzz.com, an online tech job service, says the business establishment needs to change its attitude to get tech industry support.

"The chamber has been slow-moving, lethargic," he said. "Why, instead of recruiting call centers or trying to get chip plants, aren't they working to grow more companies like Tradex and CommerceQuest? Those locally grown companies are our best opportunity for high-paying jobs."

Tradex Technologies Inc., an Internet start-up, moved from Tampa to Atlanta last year and then was sold to Ariba Inc. for almost $2-billion. CommerceQuest Inc. is a fast-growing business-to-business Internet company in Tampa that has attracted a number of recruits from Silicon Valley.

The chamber's Garner, 43, talks about the challenge with passion, and that is why Tampa business leaders plucked him from the Asheville, N.C., chamber for the job.

But that intensity and a blunt approach that's new to this chamber also have led to some problems.

Differing perceptions

"I am deeply troubled by the style and substance of Jay Garner," the letter said. "In my opinion he is unfit to lead the chamber, and I cannot in good conscience work with him."

With that, Jeffrey Mount quit the chamber last month. Mount, owner of Wright's Gourmet House in Tampa, had helped the chamber organize its Small Business of the Year contest.

In the past, the chamber had considered only chamber members in Hillsborough County. But Garner decided he wanted the contest to include members beyond Hillsborough, because 10 percent of the organization's members are from outside the county.

"We had gotten 300 or so nominations back and then Jay wants to change the rules," Mount said.

So Mount called Garner to see if the changes could wait a year. No, Garner said.

"I couldn't believe the way he treated me on the phone," Mount said. "It was like, "I'm the president, and I'm going to do what I want.' "

So Mount quit the chamber. The decision cost him some money -- Wright's Gourmet did $3,423 worth of business catering chamber events in the past year -- but he felt he had no choice.

Garner disagrees with Mount's description of the events. The change wasn't made so far along in the process that it was a problem, Garner said. And he says he handled the situation professionally.

"Because we have done things a certain way so long, some staffers and volunteers resist change," he said.

Garner had another run-in with an area business, the Tampa Marriott Waterside, after a hotel executive told a chamber staffer that the group would have to move its annual meeting.

Now the meeting will be at the Tampa Convention Center. "I didn't like the way the news from the Marriott was conveyed to us," Garner said. "It wasn't professional, and I let them know that."

Some around Tampa are using the incidents to try to discredit Garner, saying he has the wrong style for what in many ways still is a traditional Southern town. There have even been comparisons to Schmitt, who left Tampa in a firestorm of controversy.

But Garner's supporters say an effective executive will never be popular all the time. The community has some adjusting to do because it was used to Garner's laid-back predecessor, Don Barber. And they think most of Tampa's business leaders appreciate Garner's directness, though some suggest he should pick his battles carefully.

"Jay is a no-nonsense, no-excuses kind of guy," said Ron Weaver, senior partner of the Stearns Weaver law firm. "When you're like that, there are going to be obstacles in the path. But to his credit, he has a passion that's a real gift."

Since he arrived, Garner has been working 50 to 60 hours a week, leaving him little time for his golf game. He's also an accomplished drummer who has performed with jazz and orchestra groups.

As he settles in, Garner knows his role needs to be as a consensus-builder. But he isn't going to become a softie just to make people happy.

"I want you to see something," he says, walking across his office.

It's a faxed version of Gen. Colin Powell's A Leadership Primer, which is finding its way around some of the country's management suites these days.

Lesson 1: "Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off."

Too many chambers?

One reason that the Tampa Bay area's larger chambers of commerce struggle to build consensus and clout is that there are so many smaller groups diluting their power. Here's a list of chambers in the area:

Tampa 2,321 members

St. Petersburg 2,149

Brandon 1,819

Clearwater 1,500

Gulf Beaches 1,100

West Pasco 1,000

Hernando County 1,000

Citrus County 850

Dade City 687

Pinellas Park 600

Dunedin 551

Largo 550