Members of the Fulton Area Chamber of Commerce voted Tuesday night for the organization to move forward with an economic merger, which could potentially bring together the chamber, the Fulton Area Development Corporation and the Show-Me Innovation Center.
Of the 33 voting members present, one voted not in favor of the joint organization - circling "no" to two questions. Those questions were: are you in favor of a the Restated Articles of Incorporation and are you in favor of the amended bylaws? Answering "yes" to those questions signaled a member's approval of the joint organization.
The chamber needed a two-thirds majority favor for the ballot measure to go through. The Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors approved the implementation of the first piece of the merger plan at its May 5 meeting, leading the organization to take Tuesday night's vote.
FACC President Matt Gowin said the idea of a merger has been talked about on and off for the past 15 years, but serious action was taken in November when city of Fulton leaders and the Callaway County Commission requested a meeting with the three entities to discuss the possibility. The city of Fulton has historically gave $35,000 to the FACC and $53,000 to the FADC, Fulton Mayor LeRoy Benton said. The county budgeted $14,000 to the FACC and $10,000 to the FADC for 2015.
"The reason for that (first meeting) was the city and county are large donors to our efforts and they desire economic development, business creation employment base and they want what's best for our community as a whole - not just in the city of Fulton, but Holts Summit, Kingdom City, Mokane, Millersburg, every entity and township in Callaway County and for the 44,000 people who reside here," Gowin said. "We owe it to our residents to do the best we can in terms of job creation, employment opportunities, and products and services."
After the votes were tallied, Gowin said he was "very pleased" with the result.
"I'm excited to move forward," Gowin said. "It's been a long project and undertaking by all the parties involved and I'm very excited."
Now, the merger finalization depends on a vote from the FADC board, which will meet on Wednesday, June 17. In the Joint Committee for Consolidation's proposal, the new organization will be called the Callaway Chamber of Commerce.
"The reasoning behind that is we want to put an exclamation point behind inclusiveness," Gowin said. "We want all parts of our county to be involved in the economic development. We haven't been as successful of that in the past that we would like to be ... We want eastern Callaway County, western Callaway County, northern Callaway County and southern Callaway County to be involved and benefit from our efforts."
The merger plan includes a new 11-member board comprised of representatives from each of the three groups, some of which are current FACC board members. New board members would be: SMIC Director Kim Barnes, Westminster College Executive Director of Marketing Jenny Bondurant, Julie Uhls with Boyd & Boyd, Inc., FACC President-elect Mike Westerfield, Jamie Oestreich with Ameren Missouri, One Canoe Two Letterpress Co-Founder Beth Snyder, Champs Chicken CEO Shawn Burcham, FADC Chair Tom Howard, FACC President Matt Gowin, Fulton State Hospital Chief Operating Officer Marty Martin-Forman and William Woods University Human Resources Specialist Andrea Whelan.
Having board members from each organization, Barnes said, will allow proper representation of the various missions and expertise - FACC in networking, FADC in economic development and SMIC in small business startups.
"Each of us has knowledge and history from the organizations in which we came," Barnes said. "So, that will help us collaborate better together and make sure we're fully representing the mission of each because that's important to us."
Barnes, Bondurant and Uhls will serve three-year terms; Westerfield, Oestreich, Snyder and Burcham will serve two-year terms; and the remaining members will serve one-year terms.
The FADC will also change its name to the Fulton Area Development Foundation and will have a five-member board whose members will overlap those of the Callaway Chamber of Commerce.
In the end, Gowin said the merger proposal is a no-brainer scenario because of the overlapping missions and visions of the three organizations.
"As we continued to meet, we saw the viability of this process and what should be the final outcome," he said. "It makes sense to us as a group - personnel wise, goal wise, duty wise, and for the benefit of the whole community we saw the viability of it as an option and one that we should pursue."
The potential Callaway Chamber of Commerce could be formed as early as July, Gowin said. After the FADC vote, the board will be set and will then look for an executive director. FADC Director Bruce Hackmann will work under the new director. Staff from each organization, and leadership, will work in the current Show-Me Innovation Center building located at 510 Market Street in Fulton.