Tough Sell for Chambers of Commerce : Hard Hit by Recession and Quake, Booster Groups Seek New Ways to Stay in Business

Chambers of commerce: Their very name calls to mind permanence and bedrock conservatism. But with membership on the wane due to recession and the Northridge earthquake, many chambers in the San Fernando Valley are being forced to find new ways to stay in business.

While some chambers are laying off staff to cut costs, others are casting aside a tradition of do-goodism in favor of a more hard-bitten, pragmatic approach--from taking part in neighborhood crime watch programs to teaching members about workers’ compensation laws.

“A couple times last year we came very, very close to closing our doors,” said Aline Hausman, executive director of the Canoga Park/West Hills Chamber of Commerce. Her membership has dropped to 280 from about 325 in 1990, while annual revenues--three-fourths of it from membership dues--dropped to $55,000 last year from $75,000 in 1990.

In tight times, many small businesses can’t afford a couple of hundred dollars per year for chamber memberships, said Hausman, who has worked for the chamber seven years. Hausman is the chamber’s only full-time employee. Her part-time assistant has been cut back to as few as eight hours per week from 20, and the chamber’s monthly newsletter has shrunk from 12 pages to four.

While a few of the largest of the Valley’s two dozen chambers are growing, most smaller chambers report shrinking rosters, a trend that is reflected in chamber membership nationwide.

Hausman said the Canoga Park/West Hills chamber could lose an additional quarter of its members this year because so many small firms were severely damaged by the earthquake. To raise money, Hausman said, the chamber has started gift fairs and other fund-raisers in addition to the chili cook-offs it has always held.

These cuts have occurred despite a recent merger that united the 40-member West Hills chamber and the 240-member Canoga Park chamber. The merger was approved because West Hills’ had exhausted its ability to stay afloat with volunteer labor, and Canoga Park needed to bolster its membership to survive.

Other chambers report similar troubles: The month after the quake, the Granada Hills Chamber of Commerce collected not a single payment from members whose fees were due, said office administrator Maria Casal. Even before the quake, Granada Hills’ chamber membership was down to 280 from about 450 three years ago. A full-time position has been cut from the staff, and now only Casal’s part-time post remains.

The lesson is clear. These days, chambers can no longer count on people joining just because it’s “the American thing to do,” said Jan Sobel, executive director of the Encino Chamber of Commerce, one of the few Valley chambers that is growing, having gained 75 members in the past 12 months for a total of 640.

The Encino chamber has been successful because it concentrates on helping members cope with financial problems--offering services like worker’s compensation clinics, and help with zoning and other regulatory issues, Sobel said. “Back in the ‘70s, being in a chamber was giving back to your community, pancake breakfasts, education committees, parades. . . . We don’t do that anymore,” she said.

Hard times have prompted some chambers to take radical measures. The Tarzana Chamber of Commerce, where membership in the past three years has shrunk by nearly one-quarter to 350, now participates in a year-old crime-watch program coordinated by local police in which its members prowl Ventura Boulevard rooftops at night to spy for drug dealers. Encino chamber members also take part. Tarzana chamber President Sandy Miller said she promotes the crime watch to potential new members, who want to know how the chamber can help with their graffiti and crime problems.

In Reseda, recruiting new Chamber of Commerce members has meant reaching out in new ways. The chamber has started printing its newsletter in four languages: Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish and English. Chamber President Tom Hilborn said the chamber has had trouble recruiting immigrant-owned businesses and hopes the new newsletter will “let them know we will go the extra mile for them.”

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Membership in the Reseda chamber, now 200, is slightly down from 1990. Annual revenues last year were $45,000, down slightly from an average of $50,000 or so in the late 1980s, said chamber Executive Director Ann Kinzle, the agency’s only employee. Kinzle has raised four children in Reseda and was a volunteer for the first 10 of the 20 years she has worked for the chamber.

The Reseda chamber has always gotten by on dues, donations and the sweat of volunteers. But since the earthquake, dues collections have become “small to nothing,” said Hilborn. The chamber is planning its first “casino night,” a faux-gambling event with prizes, to help make up money lost from the earthquake, he said. The Tarzana chamber has also recently established a casino night to raise funds.

Just what chambers do now depends on whom you talk to. Their role evolved considerably from the early part of the century, when chambers--voluntary, nonprofit associations supported by members’ dues--collaborated closely with the federal government.

During World War I, chambers of commerce curbed business competition by parceling out government contracts. Later, Herbert Hoover, as secretary of commerce, used them to implement federal programs aimed at curbing waste and stabilizing the economy, said Ellis Hawley, an Iowa professor of business history.

Those origins have been long forgotten by most chamber loyalists today, who are more familiar with chambers’ anti-government and anti-regulation stance. Small, local chambers are better known for community boosterism and an endless stream of identical business breakfasts, luncheons and mixers that keep area banquet halls in frequent use.

But many are now finding that is not enough. Although most chamber officials say they still get new members, keeping them is difficult.

“The world has changed. Most business owners don’t have time for social events. They have to keep their nose to the grindstone,” said Hilborn, the Reseda chamber president. Hilborn, who is not paid for his chamber work, owns an automotive restoration shop on Reseda Boulevard.

Business owners who join chambers want to know it will help them make new contacts and increase sales, said Hilborn. Fewer now see chamber social functions as valuable for their own sake. And even as social organizations, chambers fight a reputation for being rather stuffy.

“Have you ever been to a chamber mixer? They are hell,” said Neil Eisenberg, president of KidsLimo in Tarzana. Eisenberg nonetheless recently joined the Tarzana chamber and has begun attending the mixers. His forbearance has paid off with a handful of new jobs. But the 40-year-old Eisenberg found the crowd a bit too old.

“I joined primarily to promote my business. In fact, it’s only to promote my business,” he said.

“An old boys’ clique club,” is how Rich Peter, president of Richard C. Peter & Co. of Northridge, described the Northridge Chamber of Commerce, to which he belonged for one year. Peter said he quit because he didn’t make any contacts that helped his business.

Confronted with this hardheadedness, more successful chambers have become aggressive marketers, educators and political advocates for members. The Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce, with about 400 members, added about 10 new members a month last year. Part of its draw was a plastic discount “gold card” honored by 250 local businesses that belong to the chamber. The cards were created as a marketing gimmick to encourage those employed in Chatsworth to shop and eat at nearby businesses, said former chamber President Gary Thomas.

And increasingly, chamber officials are quick to distance themselves from social clubs and charities in hope of revamping their image.

The Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce has 945 members, up from 744 a year ago. Chamber executive Evia Phillips said the chamber offers various educational workshops and advocacy services in response to members’ requests. “This is not like a party,” Phillips shot back when asked about the chamber’s growth. “We are strictly business.”