Guest Column by Randy Kehr

As you may have read, the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce was recently awarded accreditation status with four-star distinction by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. This recognition speaks directly to the local chamber’s sound policies, effective organizational procedures and positive impact on the community.

“Accreditation validates a chamber as having programs that benefit their local economy and for positively influencing action in their community,” said Raymond P. Towle, U.S. Chamber executive director of political affairs and federation relations.

Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U. S. Chamber said, “Accreditation is one of the highest honors bestowed on chambers that support pro-growth and economic policies at the federal, state, and local level. This distinction honors your commitment to helping advance the principles of free enterprise — the bedrock of our great country.”

Of the more than 7,000 chambers in the U.S., only 204 are accredited and even fewer are four- and five-star rated. This elite group represents the top 3 percent of chambers nationwide. So how did the chamber receive this honor and what does it mean to the local community?

The “how” seems, on the surface, to be simple in the sense that the chamber completed an application and submitted it to the U. S. Chamber.  In fact, the process is anything but simple.

In June of 2013, the chamber board of directors approved moving forward with seeking reaccreditation. Since the chamber has been continuously accredited since 1969, the board felt that it was important that we pursue renewal. The board saw the advantages of showing our membership that we were having a larger body oversee our operations and programs.

Beginning in July, the chamber staff, along with the board of directors, began this extensive review process. The review consisted of in-depth analysis of nine separate areas of our operation. Board members, led by 2012-2013 Chairman Jim Krueger and 2013-2014 Chairwoman Stephanie Haedt, agreed to take one of the individual sections which included governance, finance, human resources, program development, technology, government affairs, facilities, communications and benchmarking.  The finance section also required a full audit. As you can see, this covers all aspects of the day-to-day operations of the chamber.

Each section required the answering of specific questions and inclusion of support documents for each. Staff and board members went through the sections with a fine-toothed comb. It gave the chamber a chance to update important parts of the operation while making sure that it was compliant with all the legal changes that have been made over the last few years.

This process culminated with our submitting our application on Dec. 30, 2013. The final determination was made by the accrediting board, a committee of U.S. Chamber board members and, at their March meeting, the board of directors of the U. S. Chamber awarded us the four-star rating.

The four-star rating tells us and the community that your Chamber of Commerce, thanks to outstanding volunteers who serve on our committees and board, is performing at a very high level. It acknowledges that it continues to meet its mission statement by continuing to “promote and develop a healthy and positive business climate to improve the quality of life in the Albert Lea-Freeborn County area.”

It also validates our chamber as having programs that benefit the local economy and for positively influencing action in our community.

This rating could not have been achieved without the dedicated service of staff, past and present. The positive changes that we made since our last accreditation review did not happen in the last six months but over the course of five years. The two-level increase in our rating was directly aided by the efforts of Sue Axsmith, Tami Jensen, Geri Jensen and, most recently, Amy Gauthier. Their dedication to our members has borne fruit in the recognition we have received.

Local chambers are rated accredited, three-stars, four-stars or five-stars.

 

Randy Kehr is the executive director of the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce.