In this third and final part of our year-end recap, we turn our attention to 2022 and the transformative year it will be.

Although we’ll have several new projects in 2022, I want to focus on just the two biggest ones this week. These two projects will quite literally change our organization more in one year than in the past decade and it’s happening at the precise moment it should. Our chamber is growing in impact, influence, and engagement, which makes it the ideal time to reevaluate our brand and to introduce programming that will set the course of our impact for the next decade.

Re-branding the chamber: New name/logo for 2022, survey open

We’re in the final stage of evaluating name suggestions and new logos, and your feedback is very helpful for our marketing team and board of directors. We have just released a branding survey that we encourage you to take. It’s on our Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber Facebook page. It closes on Jan. 19.

Before you take the survey it’s imperative that you understand why we’re changing our brand. The philosophical answer is that we are not the same organization we were five or ten years ago and with that growth, we need a name and image that represents who we are today. The practical answer is much more pertinent, in that, our current chamber name, the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber, cannot be found on a map. Tourists don’t know what “Southern Midcoast” covers, and honestly 4 out of 5 engaged chamber members can’t recite the name accurately (plus the acronym of SMMC is too close to the Southern Maine Community College acronym of SMCC).

Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber was name negotiated back in the mid-2000s after there was significant pushback from other Maine communities against the new name then of “Midcoast Chamber” (the claim being our region didn’t constitute all of the Midcoast). It was a worthy try, but in 15 years the term Southern Midcoast has not caught on. To be honest, any of us would have just as much luck guessing which communities are in the Southern Midcoast of Delaware as, as tourists would have of guessing which communities Southern Midcoast of Maine covers. Does it cover Portland? Brunswick? Damariscotta? Boothbay? Who knows for sure, and that’s the point.

Now saying we need a name that describes us better means though there are names that can describe us, that doesn’t make it a known name. For instance, the 16 communities we represent are in three counties: north Cumberland, Sagadahoc and parts of Lincoln County. Early on someone suggested “Tri-County Chamber.” Yes, that name is accurate in that we have communities in three counties, but no one calls this area “the Tri-County region.” it could mean any three counties.

The point is we need to tie it to broadly-known geographical names in our region that people can say quickly “I know where that is.” If we had a perfect name, we would already have it. We know not everyone will be happy with the name chosen, all we can do is our best, which is why your input is necessary. As with all public surveys, there’s room for open-ended responses. Please be constructive in your feedback. Acerbic commentary doesn’t really help our process. We will reveal the new name and logo at our Annual Awards Dinner in March.

2022: Introducing Chamber Works 2030

This is our much-anticipated brand-new workforce program. I’ve been hesitant to share the name, but we will be calling this Chamber Works 2030.

Chamber Works 2030 is a decade-long commitment to bring together the community stakeholders of business, education and workforce development to create new integrated programs that help solve our biggest issue: workforce hiring needs. The chamber has hand-selected an advisory council of approximately 30 business and community leaders to evaluate nearly two dozen potential programs, and that work began on Nov. 16. The work will culminate with two final meetings in January where the advisory council will select 2-5 programs that we will then run in 2022.

These programs will fall into one of three buckets:
Pathways and Partnerships: programs designed to connect schools and businesses
Barrier Solutions: selecting societal barriers to employment and convening creative subject matter experts to create new ways of addressing these generational needs
Community Elevation Projects: program creation for 21st century opportunities we are just beginning to understand

Chamber Works 2030 will redefine the role our chamber plays in this region and is completely governed by our team of advisors, meaning we can put the attention to the projects we think will work and not have to follow any other guidelines than what we make for ourselves. This program will have a tangible impact, and if we do it right, it should cultivate a new collaborative network to help solve problems for years to come.

The advisory team has already expressed how exciting and impactful they think this work will be. We’re meeting the moment we are in, but we will need your help to make these programs thrive. Once the programs are selected, we will announce them (likely in February/March) and we will be asking for volunteer support on the program work teams. Additionally, we anticipate that many of these programs will have expenses that need to be covered, so there will be sponsorship support needed for all Chamber Works 2030 programming.

The plan is to run these 2-5 new workforce programs for 2022 and reconvene the advisory council in November 2022 to evaluate the progress and select the 2023 programs. We expect this program to grow and that our region will become a blueprint for how all regional chambers of commerce can begin this grassroots workforce programming in their areas. It’s incredibly exciting, and very necessary that we begin working on solutions rather than only recognizing the problems. I will tell you more about it in the new year.

Cory King is the executive director of the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber.

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