West Volusia Chamber closes its doors

BEACON PHOTO/PAT HATFIELD
Closed — The West Volusia Chamber of Commerce office at 1656 S. Volusia Ave. in Orange City was closed July 2.

DeLand Area Chamber will honor memberships

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jul 6, 2009 - 10:02:22am

The building looked dark. The door was locked around 10:45 a.m. July 2. After knocking and peering through blinds that weren’t completely drawn, a woman came to the door.

The deadbolt clicked; then the woman opened the door.

“We’re closed,” she said, and there wasn’t anyone there to speak to about it.

The woman closed and relocked the door, and drew the blinds tightly.

The place? The West Volusia Chamber of Commerce, on South U.S. Highway 17-92 in Orange City.

Chamber President Linda White later confirmed by phone, “We’re closing right now.”

The closure is anticipated to be permanent.

The DeLand Area Chamber of Commerce has agreed to honor existing memberships, White said. That chamber will become a regional chamber, with about 1,000 members.

The West Volusia Chamber of Commerce has appointed a management team to handle the assets and closing.

It will be up to that team to determine whether the chamber should be dissolved. White anticipates it will be.

“At close of business today, all the staff is terminated,” White said.

The chamber currently lists five paid staff members, including White.

The staff has had a few days to react to the news, and say goodbye to each other, she said. The directors have treated her and the staff well through this.

The economy started going south in Southwest Volusia in 2007, White said, hitting local businesses hard. In recent months, many of those members have been unable to pay their memberships.

Also, the chamber has always been undergirded by corporate and print sponsorship. “We lost that,” White said.

Then, the loss of two partnerships brought the final blow: The River of Lakes Heritage Corridor cut funds for a visitors center at the new West Volusia Chamber of Commerce building. Daytona State College’s Small Business Development Center was to open at the new chamber offices, but pulled out, too.

White said she’s watched people in the business community struggle, cry and, finally, close.

Now that’s come to the chamber. She had cut her own salary in half to try to keep the staff, to no avail.

White asked the business community to support the DeLand Area Chamber of Commerce.

“Community leaders need to start reinvesting in the community. They have to lead,” she said.

STATEMENT FROM THE CHAMBER

This letter to members of the Chamber of Commerce of West Volusia was sent by e-mail to The Beacon Thursday afternoon, July 2:

Dear Chamber Member:

It is with much sadness that we inform you of the closing of the Chamber of Commerce of West Volusia, effective July 2, 2009.

As you all know the Southwest Volusia economy was fueled by the real estate and construction markets which began to struggle as early as 2007. When the new Chamber office was built, it was done so with an agreement from the West Volusia Tourism Authority to house a Visitors Center and the Small Business Development Center of Daytona State College.

At the end of January, due to economic issues, the Tourism Authority cancelled a long-standing partnership and the Small Business Development Center never moved into the Chamber building.

Within another 30 days, long-standing advertising support from Volusia County Economic Development and Daytona Beach Airport was cancelled as well. The snowball effect continued with print media and major corporations pulling long-standing support early in 2009.

The Chamber of Commerce has served this community with integrity and has dedicated its resources to strengthening its business community and building local and regional partnerships that would help define Southwest Volusia as a region both geographically and politically. It was our vision that this would bring much needed resources to our area for infrastructure and quality of life amenities.

Our Board and Staff have worked fiercely to try to save the organization, making many cuts which included the CEO cutting her own salary 50 percent to try to save the organization and staff positions. However as we continued to try to assist others, we eventually succumbed to the same fate that we saw so many others experience. The Chamber has always strived to be part of the collective community during the good times and we have been part of the collective community, sharing and experiencing the pain of some very bad times.

This closing, as with any event, will evoke many feelings within the community.

Some of you will be sad, some of you will be mad, some of you will be glad and for some of you it will be a non-event. Any and all of those feelings are normal and expected responses.

The DeLand Area Chamber of Commerce has graciously agreed to honor your chamber membership through your renewal date and we have shared our database with them to assure they are able to communicate with you. This collective membership will be almost 1,000 strong and gives West Volusia an opportunity for a strong regional voice. We have had a wonderful relationship with the DeLand Chamber staff and Board. Jenny Stumbras, executive director, has assured me she will take good care of you. You will be hearing from them early in the week.

In closing, on behalf of the Chamber Board and dedicated chamber staff, we offer Prayers for our community, Goodbyes for our Friends and Best Wishes to all.

— Linda White, president, CEO

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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