Q & A with new chamber CEO Moss

Dave Moss, who was credited with turning around the Surprise Regional Chamber of Commerce by helping to double its membership in three years and growing its bank reserves from $7,000 to more than $250,000, was named president/chief executive officer of the Maricopa Chamber of Commerce May 9.

The chamber board also hired Maricopa resident Marla Lewis as its chief operating officer.

As Moss settles into his new role, he answered these questions through email from InMaricopa News.

What do you see as the main role for the chamber?

The chamber is (or should be) the voice of the business community. It exists to help businesses be more successful (increase revenues/profitability). It does this by creating services, programs and events in three areas: business services (direct impact), civic engagement (both direct and indirect impact) and community impact (creating a conducive environment for businesses to flourish).
When operating at a high level, a chamber wields a great degree of influence within the community — influence used to create, sustain and expand a dynamic business community.
A highly effective chamber works side by side with its municipality as partner organizations since both claim to want to help businesses and both stand to benefit from their success.

You say you will reset the chamber. What do you mean by that?

Chambers, like any other organization, need to be reset from time to time. Chambers can be organizational “hoarders.” Often services, activities, etc., are carried along year after year even if they cease to be relevant and offer any real value.
Additionally, hanging on to “the way things have always been done” crowds out future innovations, modernization efforts and almost gives license to chambers to not be in a constant state of value-searching for its members.

The reset process starts with an organizational/strategic audit, then goes to an “output study,” where we determine what we should drop and what we should start doing. Next, we push the reset button and implement the various new programs and services.

Finally, we package and present the new chamber. When I speak at the upcoming chamber breakfast in June (June 13), I’ll be going into greater depth on this process.

What were some of the successes you had in Surprise?

While we more than doubled chamber membership in about 18 months and increased our bank reserves from less than $10,000 to over $250,000, these were simply byproducts of the real successes: We dramatically increased the value of chamber membership by overhauling our service, program and event offerings. We increased the credibility and influence of the chamber of commerce — it took its rightful seat as a community-leading organization that could affect significant change on behalf of its membership.

We also modernized various elements of the chamber: website, communication mechanisms, building, packaging, etc. No single individual can do all these things — I was fortunate enough to be able to put together a great team that allowed us to accomplish a lot. And now in Maricopa, with Marla Lewis as part of the team, along with a great board and the help of former President/CEO John Kennedy, we’re looking forward to making some significant progress in Maricopa as well.