Survey on Buying Local in Madison -- Click Now!

The shopping madness of Black Friday is almost here—perfect time to take a survey about your local shopping habits!

This "Buy Local" survey comes to us courtesy of a team of Madisonites taking the Madison Chamber of Commerce's leadership training course. They ask some simple questions about where we shop and why we shop there.

The Leadership Madison team also asks what "What type of new business/service/product would you most like to see in Madison?" Perhaps they would like to include in their calculations the results from this January Madville Times survey, which found 38% of you eager readers craving another big grocery store, followed by 26% angling for a Wal-Mart or similar big discounter and 16% looking for a clothing store.

I picked "grocery store" on the Chamber survey, and even recommended three prime locations: right between Lewis and Montgomery's Furniture, between the Bethel home and Doug's auto lot, and that old farm lot across from Pizza Ranch at the 34-81 intersection. Another dream retail development: bring in a Hy-Vee or Wal-Mart to finally come in and get serious about developing the gravel lot where Nicky's, the bowling alley, and the movie theater sit. Those establishments have sat there for over thirty years with no exterior physical improvements. Let's bring in a big retailer, pave the lot, redo those three aging buildings, add a couple new shops, and make a Lousie-Avenue-style commercial complex.

The survey also asks "Why do you enjoy or not enjoy shopping in Madison?" That's an easy one: my enjoyment comes from riding my bike to shop. My disenjoyment comes from the knowledge that my sales tax dollars are funneled to support a Chamber of Commerce and a Lake Area Improvement Corporation that face no public accountability for their use of my tax dollars and which waste my tax dollars on silly things like banners, slogans, and Dwaine Chapel's $100,000 salary.

The survey lists no closing date, so go there now and tell the Chamber and LAIC what you think of shopping in Madison!

Miller Facebook Page Shows Promise

Earlier this year a commenter went ape over the idea that an adult might be on Facebook. What on earth is a grown man doing on that website? the commenter asked.

Mike Knutson at Reimagine Rural shows us what a growing community might be doing on Facebook. He points us toward Miller, South Dakota, whose economic development people dig how Facebook can promote a small town. Less than a month after its creation, the page has 550 fans. Miller has just 1500-some residents. Compare that to the Madison Chamber Facebook page, which has 85 fans. The Miller page actually invites conversation and draws a fair number of comments. The page is less worried about branding the town; it's about creating a public space for building and sharing ideas among residents and even ex-pats. The Miller page is partnering with the local newspaper as well, creating a connection between the online and offline worlds.

Meanwhile, I read in the Madison Chamber newsletter that our chamber proudly notes that in response to the "thousands" of calls it receives each year inquiring about local businesses, the Chamber only refers callers to its members. Hmmm... the Chamber survives on a tax subsidy from the City of Madison... don't they have an obligation to serve every business in Madison?

City to Buy New Chamber/LAIC Sign; Streets Still Gravel

Ah, that special funding request from the Chamber and LAIC that popped into last night's City Commission agenda? It's for a big new sign out in front of the Depot. That sign is the one thing on the railroad depot renovation proposal that the federal stimulus handouts won't cover.

Of course, I'm still wondering how this stimulus money, distributed by the state Department of Transportation, is being used to fund fixing up a building whose museum function is at best tertiary instead of a more direct transportation use, like paving Madison's gravel streets, a project I'll bet our residents, looking out their monsoon-streaked windows, would love to see done.

Oh well. For $4,000, that new sign had better have a waterfall.

Chamber and LAIC Requesting More Mystery Money?

The Madison City Commission hears from the Chamber of Commerce and Lake Area Improvement Corporation at tonight's meeting. The agenda refers says the appearance is "regarding special funding request." So I guess our capitalist organs are asking for even more taxpayer dollars to subsidize their efforts.

I'd offer details, but that one line is all the city agenda has to offer. No copy in the agenda packet of a letter or memo from either organization outlining what this request is about. Boy, the Chamber and LAIC sure don't like operating in the daylight, do they?

More Pork for Madison: Rail Depot Gets Stimulus Money

Hooray for the stimulus! That's the cheer we should hear from all the Republicans who work at Madison's old railroad depot. The City of Madison has received a $158,700 handout from the federal stimulus program, via the South Dakota Department of Transportation, to fix up the 104-year-old building on South Egan Avenue.

Lake County Republican Party chair Julie Gross will surely have good things to say about all this federal money coming to refurbish her Chamber of Commerce office. Expect similar positive words from LAIC director Dwaine Chapel, who will surely tell his Republican friend Russell Olson that the federal stimulus program is much more blessing than curse: after all, just look at those nice new planters Uncle Sam is buying us!

Side note: the money is coming from the Department of Transportation. yet the depot serves no transportation function. How's that work?

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Update 14:55 CDT: Ah, the depot is also a transportation museum. Of course. (But what happened to the Coburn Amendment that Senator Thune voted for?)

If you're interested, here's how we plan to spend Uncle Sam's largesse (from last night's city agenda packet—click image to enlarge):
The $5,000 the city is kicking in of its own money evidently will go to pay for another pretty sign.

Chamber of Commerce Relies on Government Subsidy

Sibby thinks he's got news this morning, noting that the Cheyenne River Chamber of Commerce has received $37K in federal stimulus dollars. So much for the free-market capitalist Chamber of Commerce, right?

Obviously Sibby has forgotten an example much closer to home, the Madison Chamber of Commerce, which subsists on a regular subsidy of$60K or more each year from the mostly Republicans who run the City of Madison. Socialism? Fascism? Small-town hypocrisy? What say you, Sibby?

Chamber of Commerce Minute: Promote Your Town with Warm Showers!

Bicycling blogger Kevin Brady does the Lord's work and the Chamber of Commerce's by hosting some cross-country bicyclists over the weekend. He also points toward a tourism-promotion strategy that some Chambers of Commerce probably miss.

Mr. Brady's pedaling guests found his Vermillion home via an online service called Warm Showers. The website is mostly just a big list of hospitable folks across the world who are willing to give bicycle tourists a place to stay for the night. I know how happy a long-distance cyclist can be to trade the tent for a roof and a bed for just one night. A welcoming host and a safe place to sleep do wonders to recharge a cyclist for another long day of self-propelled voyaging. Such hospitality also gives tourists a chance to really connect with folks who live here and build fond memories, not to mention some good word-of-mouth that might bring future tourists this way.

Opening our doors to bicycle tourists isn't the big enchilada of tourism promotion. Hosting a cyclist here, and biking family there, won't bring in the sales tax dollars of a signature event like the Threshing Jamboree. But perhaps the Chamber could round up maybe a dozen members to volunteer to join the Warm Showers list. If each of those members manages to snag even one visitor, then heck, we've just brought another dozen tourists—nay, adventurers!—to our fair city... and we've done it without spending one thin dime on marketing or slogans or glossy brochures.

More free tourism consulting, courtesy of the Madville Times!

South Dakota Blogosphere Open House and Free Golf?!

...I'm not sure one town can contain this much excitement!

I get back from camping and find the Madison Chamber of Commerce trying to piggyback on my community boosterism: they're giving away a big Madison vacation getaway July 24–26, the same weekend as the South Dakota Blogosphere Open House! Instead of the Americinn, the Chamber picked the Madison Super 8 for the prize lodging... and the Super 8, of course, is two miles closer to the Blog Open House site—i.e., my house! Ah, synergy!

Seriously, go register! You could win lodging, food, and free golf! Plus, in addition to the Blog Open House, you can catch Madison's Crazy Days, the 10K and Egan Avenue Mile races, Mart in the Park, and the Miss Prairie Village Pageant! Holy cow!

(By the way, the Madison Chamber of Commerce is also on Facebook. Getting pretty trendy down at the depot!)

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Update 2009.07.03 13:06 CDT: Penni Groce at the Chamber corrects me: the big Madison getaway is coordinated by the LAIC, not the Chamber. And you know they read the blog down at the LAIC! ;-)

Penni also notes the Madison Chamber is on Twitter.

Hunter Backs Beer in Parks and Chamber Usurpation of City Power

First the city thumbs its nose at the garden club vote; now Madison Daily Leader Jon Hunter risks disagreement with a key subscriber demographic by coming out in support of a new permit process for alcohol in city parks:

Most people recognize that public intoxication is bad, and that we generally shouldn't allow alcohol to be openly consumed in all public places. But its reasonable to say that under the right circumstances, alcohol should be allowed.

The new policy will likely allow alcohol in park shelters with a permit that could be more easily obtained [Jon Hunter, "City's Alcohol Policy in Parks is Prudent Change," Madison Daily Leader, 2009.06.11].

I'm not sure how well "prudent" describes any action that makes it easier to consume alcohol.

Worse, our man Hunter expresses support for Commissioner Delzer's suggestion that the city should cede its authority over the city-owned railroad depot to the unelected Chamber of Commerce:

The Depot is owned by the city, but the old railroad depot building is used as offices for the Chamber and the Lake Area Improvement Corporation, and isn't similar to a public park. An occasional wine and cheese reception there would certainly be reasonable [Hunter, 2009.06.11].

Cheese and wine at the Chamber is certainly reasonable. But it is also perfectly reasonable that the Chamber, which receives public funds and enjoys the constant and exclusive use of space in a publicly-owned building, should have to follow rules set by the city. If it is reasonable that the city expect you and me to plan ahead and request permission to serve beer at a family picnic in Baughmann-Belatti Park, it is equally reasonable that the city expect the Chamber to plan ahead for its little functions and request permission to serve alcohol in the public space we taxpayers so graciously permit them to monopolize.

Delzer's Municipal Organization Chart: Chamber of Commerce, Then Elected Officials

As a city commission candidate, Scott Delzer famously declared that he wanted to be "your representative on the Madison Chamber of Commerce." At Monday's Madison City Commission meeting, Commissioner Delzer showed what he meant. In the continuing discussion of changing our hooch rules in our city parks and the city-owned depot and armory (as if there aren't enough other places in Madison to get schnockered), Delzer suggested ceding municipal authority to the Chamber of Commerce:

Commissioner Scott Delzer suggested that the decisions about serving alcohol at the old railroad depot should reside with the local Chamber of Commerce, since the Chamber's offices are in the building. The Chamber has hosted events in the depot and could perform some caretaker duties.

City Attorney David Jencks expressed concerns about the city relinquishing its oversight duties at the railroad depot by giving too much authority to the Chamber [Chuck Clement, "City Agrees to Changes in Consumption Policy," Madison Daily Leader, 2009.06.09].

Thank you, attorney Jencks, for gently reminding the commission of the proper role of local government.

The commission did authorize Jencks to spend the week writing up a new ordinance laying out a permit process to allow limited alcohol consumption on city property. The new ordinance might actually tighten our alcohol regs by following Mayor Hexom's recommendation that the new ordinance ban alcohol from Westside Park during swim season and limit alcohol to the picnic shelters. I say make those rules as tight as possible. Every public space in Madison should be as family-friendly as possible. You can have a perfectly enjoyable picnic or dance or even a Chamber mixer without alcohol.

Chamber of Commerce: Public or Private?

Here's a morning coffee question for you: Why does the Madison Chamber of Commerce receive public funding? I wondered about this last year, when the city denied the Chamber's request for a 30% increase in funding from the sales tax kitty. I'm led to wonder again as I read at KJAM that the City Commission last night heard Chamber Interim Director Julie Gross's request for a slight bump in city funding for the Chamber, from $62,300 to an even $63,000.

A little Googling reveals that a number of Chambers of Commerce receive no tax support for their operations:

• Las Vegas
• Las Cruces, NM
• Green Oaks–Libertyville–Mundelein–Vernon Hills, Lake County, IL
• Chelsea, MA
  
• Tuscon, AZ
• Southfield, MI
  
• Bradenton, FL (well, at least its Manatee Better Business Council)
  

Now as I understand it, a Chamber of Commerce exists to promote, well, commerce. Its members pay dues for the organization to promote its interests. And sometimes (Scott Delzer's memorable Freudian slip notwithstanding) the Chamber's interests will not coincide with those of the local authorities or the community at large. The state Chamber of Commerce doesn't receive funding from the State of South Dakota (at least I hope not); why should a local Chamber receive funding from local taxpayers?

And if the local Chamber of Commerce does receive public tax dollars, does it not then have an obligation to open all of its meetings, operations, and records to public participation and scrutiny?

Madison Chamber Director Albrecht Resigns

Madison Chamber of Commerce Director Sascha Albrecht has notified members that she has tendered her resignation, effective June 4. She thanks her constituents for a wonderful experience, but says she has an offer she can't refuse, an opportunity "to travel abroad for an extended period of time." Sounds like an adventure!

But back here at the ranch, Madison will need a new Chamber director. Marketing gurus, now's your chance! Expand Crazy Days! Spearhead the downtown revitalization movement! Heck, if you're good, Dwaine Chapel might even let you see the LAIC housing study so you can help your member businesses plan for Madison's future growth.

The Chamber is taking apps for interim director and will start reviewing those May 9; no word on the timeframe for selecting a new permanent director, but go-getters don't wait! Send your résumé today:

Greater Madison Area Chamber of Commerce
315 South Egan Avenue
Madison, SD 57042
voice: 605-256-2454
fax: 605-256-9606

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Update 2008.05.06: MDL's Jon Hunter notes in his Monday editorial that Albrecht is leaving for the chance to travel with Action in Africa, a group that raises money for orphanages. A reader heard the trip itself is three weeks. Albrecht's next move after that trip? Hard to say... maybe she'll win a gig as the next young and adventurous present on Globe Trekker!