W.a.c.e.'s Chamber Leadership Podcast

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., provides follow up to episode 74 with 7 more tips to help Chamber CEOs not only survive but thrive in the chamber industry. Listen now!

This week Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., debuts a new format and answers questions submitted by some of our members. Topics covered include membership drives, having a chair-elect and who “owns” funds generated by committees. Have a question you want answered? Submit your question for a future “Ask Dave” segment to dave.kilby@calchamber.com.  

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby is joined by Diane Schwenke, President/CEO of the Grand Junction Area (CO) Chamber and long time chamber executive. Diane shares the secrets to her career longevity at one chamber while reflecting on the biggest changes and challenges to the chamber industry during her tenure.

In this week's episode Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., dispels 6 chamber myths that can pop up unexpectedly at any board meeting and offers best practices to combat them.

In this episode Dave Kilby is joined by Mark Turner, President/CEO of the Gilroy (CA) Chamber and longtime W.A.C.E. member as he discusses the 4 potential disruptive forces that can wreak havoc on a business community and your community at large. He also shares valuable insight into what is most important for a chamber when managing a community crisis based on his own experience.   

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., offers ten data points which are useful to have in order to help your chamber grow and provide a higher quality service to your members.

If your board or staff were approached by someone in your community with the question “What Does the Chamber Do?” what would their response be? Would it solely focus on events? Would it reflect the chamber’s mission? Would they only include those tasks that they personally handle? Dave Kilby discusses the importance of an agreed upon elevator speech and consistent messaging and offers ideas of content to include as well as a sample elevator speech.

Being a chamber CEO has never been easy, but now it seems it’s harder than ever before. This week Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., discusses the need for risk in leadership and how to protect yourself and your chamber amidst the current cutthroat cancel culture mentality.  

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby is joined by Lorraine Clarno, ACE, President/CEO of the Kalispell (MT) Chamber and W.A.C.E. Chair-Elect. Lorraine shares lessons learned from her twenty-seven years of experience in the chamber industry and offers advice to both professionals new to the industry and executives moving from one chamber to another. Listen to the end for a sneak peek of our new CEO Peer Group Program which will be coming soon!

The Chamber industry has not been immune to the great resignation. Each week we hear of a new executive job opening. In this episode Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., offers his thoughts for new executives and any existing executives considering a move. 

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby is joined by Leron Gubler, Life Member of W.A.C.E., to discuss his new book “The Walk of Dreams: Finding Fame in Hollywood (or Wherever Life Leads).” Gubler shares key messages from his book, suggestions for success and lessons learned throughout his 40+ year career in the chamber industry. 

A common denominator found amongst successful chambers is excellent leaders on their board of directors. This week Dave Kilby, president of W.A.C.E., discusses the ideal traits your nominating committee should seek out when deciding who will be on your board. Making sure you have the right team to get things done is critical to your chamber soaring to success.  

Are you frustrated with your board? Are they frustrated with you? On this week’s episode Dave Kilby is joined by Hardy Smith, consultant, speaker and author of ‘Stop the Nonprofit Board Blame Game: How to Break the Cycle of Frustrating Relationships and Benefit from Fully Engaged Boards’. Hardy addresses the question “Why don’t board members do what they are supposed to do?” from the perspective of the board members themselves. Learn more about how to improve the relationship between staff and volunteer leaders now. 

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby speaks with Mike Varney, a 23 year chamber executive and industry icon. Inspired by the leadership of Colin Powell Mike shares insight and 5 lessons from ‘The Powell Principles’ by Oren Harari and discusses how they apply to chambers of commerce.   

While pondering Charles Dickens ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ Dave Kilby, president of W.A.C.E., was inspired to ask Chamber executives and industry professionals about their outlook for 2022. Hear some of their responses offering optimism and inspiration with a bit of a reality check. 

In this episode Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., shares a message from author and speaker Greg Mckeown about the importance of designing time to escape. With the evaporation of boundaries and 24/7 availability of the pandemic many people are struggling. Dave offers some tips on how to design those moments of escape into your schedule and why it is essential that you do so.

Does your chamber board have a clear understanding of who does what or are you “winging it”? This week Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., discusses the importance of understanding management vs. governance and having clearly defined roles and responsibilities that are understood by everyone in the organization. Have you had this discussion with your board lately? If not, now might be the time so you can all start the year on the same page!

Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., is often asked as a part of his discussions with chamber executives what he would do if he were “in their shoes”. In this episode Dave shares 5 things he would definitely be doing to take advantage of the chamber’s stock going up and capitalize on the positive chamber image that was strengthened over the last two years.    

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby is joined by his colleague Tiffany Fulmer Ott, Executive Director and Administrator, for 6 chamber associations including the Carolinas, Georgia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Dave and Tiffany share and compare feedback they are receiving from chamber executives in multiple states and discuss the successes and struggles of the chamber industry amidst the ongoing pandemic. 

This week Dave Kilby is joined by W.A.C.E. Board Chair and Vail Valley (CO) Partnership President/CEO Chris Romer, ACE, IOM as they impart some movie wisdom as it relates to the chamber world. With themes of hard work, flexibility and being a visionary there is sure to be a reminder for success and/or lesson for each of us.