Lake County Chamber of Commerce seeks to rebuild membership, offers business resiliency planning

Nancy Bailey, interim president of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, told the Lake County Board of County Commissioners on Oct. 26 that the chamber has reconstituted after a multi-year pause and is focusing on business retention and local networking.

Bailey said the chamber, which she described as a “12 year old institution in Lake County,” had been “on pause for over 5 years since before COVID” and has spent the past 11–12 months reactivating programming, recruiting members and rebuilding relationships with county and city partners. "The intention of kind of reimagining this Chamber of Commerce really is was born behind the need of the business community," she said.

The chamber, represented at the work session by Bailey and Norm Ryder, reported roughly 40 members and three membership tiers, including a lowest tier priced at $100 to lower the barrier for small businesses. Ryder said the group’s organizers aim to reach about 75 members by the fall, at which point they plan to hold a membership vote to formalize a permanent board.

The presenters outlined ongoing programming that includes monthly “leads” meetings for peer-to-peer problem solving, quarterly business-after-hours networking events and a member onboarding process that pairs businesses with tourism and EDC visitor-data to identify local market trends. Ryder said these forums let businesses share practices and surface early economic indicators — for example, hiring slowdowns — before official metrics such as sales tax receipts reflect them.

Bailey and Ryder also described several institutional backers and investors currently supporting the chamber’s startup phase, including Colorado Mountain College (listed as CMC), St. Vincent Health and Climax (named by the presenters as top-tier partners). The presenters said their approach is to grow membership and value organically while serving as a conduit between businesses and county decision-makers.

Among new initiatives the chamber offered to host or coordinate was a proposed business resiliency roundtable intended to gather multiple partners and produce proactive strategies for events such as mine closures or downturns in tourism. Bailey said she has a longer briefing document and would provide details in follow-up with county staff. "We're here to carry out the efforts of your leadership essentially, to make sure that the business community feels valued and we can be the conduit to make that happen," Bailey said.

County participants asked about tactical services — for example, a clearinghouse for matching local capacity to short-term needs (such as stocking items during a fire ban) — and the chamber indicated some of those functions are already arising in the monthly leads meetings and through member onboarding. The presenters said a clearinghouse-style directory is not yet in place but could be developed as membership and capacity grow.

The presentation closed with county staff and the presenters agreeing to follow up about timing and scope for the proposed resiliency roundtable and other collaborative projects.

The session contained no formal action or vote on county funding or a request for direct county appropriation during the meeting.