Following a strong 2023, the Jackson County Chamber has a bold agenda for 2024.

Last year, the chamber gained 59 new members, bringing the total to 419. Director Dan Robison said it’s the first time in more than a decade that membership has topped 400.

This year, the chamber hopes to build on that momentum by growing the member experience, expanding community development and gaining bench strength.

Those three items were detailed during the inaugural Jackson County Chamber Preview Luncheon on Jan. 31 at The Pines Evergreen Room in Seymour.

Grow member experience

One way to grow the member experience is through a small business development series.

Robison said most of the members are small businesses with 50 employees or less, so a lot of them don’t have internal training and development networks and resources like large businesses and industries.

Details will be released soon on the eight-week series that will be on Wednesdays in March and April.

“We feel like that’s our place to step in and help grow those opportunities for development,” Robison said. “It’s just free resources for small businesses to help you come in and flex your muscles a little bit, work on some things you want to, everything from insurance to taxes to business finances.”

Another way to grow the member experience is through pulse surveys. The idea from chamber board Chairman Eddie Murphy involves listening to members on a more regular basis and getting their feedback on how the chamber is doing as an organization.

The recent Preview Luncheon was another way to grow the member experience, giving members a chance to come together, cast a vision for the year and share how the chamber is doing.

Also, a wage and benefits survey will go out for small businesses to have good local data in those two areas.

“This is something we’re going to work on this year and launch next year to get that data collected and distributed out to everybody so we have a comparison to see what’s going on in the local community,” Robison said.

Finally, the chamber is partnering with Leadership Jackson County to develop a leadership series with two or three events throughout the year.

“Just a time to get together, have a meal and have someone challenge us as leaders,” Robison said.

Expand community development

Robison said the chamber believes there’s a gap in economic development locally in the areas of entrepreneurship and retail development, so the organization wants to help Jackson County attract retail partners that help improve the quality of life.

One way to do that is through a Latino business initiative, bringing that population into the broader business community in the county.

“That’s what we do at chambers. If you ask me to describe the chamber in one word, we’re connectors. That’s what we do pretty much. We connect,” Robison said. “We want to help plug these folks into the local economy and our business environment here in Jackson County. We want to continue to find ways to engage them, equip them and build some targeted programming to help pull them in.”

The chamber staff also wants to continue be present at events already happening around the county and be supportive of them.

Plus, they will participate in Chamber Roadshow, where they hang out in a local community for a day, visit schools and businesses, eat at a local restaurant and build relationships.

Robison said they also will work on a countywide shared vision around the chamber mission touchpoints.

“What can we do as a community together in Jackson County that we couldn’t do as well individually is the question we want to answer,” he said. “What do we want Jackson County to look like in 20, 25 years, build some things to get to where we want to be as a community. We feel like we are uniquely positioned to just foster those conversations, to bring everybody to the table and just take notes while they talk about their ideas and their vision for Jackson County.”

Gain bench strength

In 2024, the chamber is looking for ways to leverage the operating budget to have more resources to put toward initiatives within the community.

Work has been done to develop the chamber’s foundation that was started in the early 1990s and create a mission statement: To financially support and promote initiatives that enrich and advance the community. The pillars of focus are to promote culture, education, entrepreneurship, leadership and quality of life in the county.

Robison said the chamber will continue to find opportunities and things to fund and support through the foundation.

Another way to gain bench strength is through the SPARK Jackson County program that launched in 2023 to create an ecosystem to help support entrepreneurs, innovators and remote workers in the county.

In September, the chamber received a $40,000 grant from Indiana Economic Development Corp. to develop the program and then contracted with county native Joe Rust to help get it going.

The chamber learned there are nearly 1,000 people in the county who work remotely on at least a hybrid basis, and the organization has connected with more than 60 people who are entrepreneurs or innovators. Four programs already have been developed.

One is SPARK Tank, where those people had an opportunity to meet with a coach, develop their idea and present to a panel of judges for a chance to earn money. Out of the 17 applicants, the final six were chosen to pitch their idea Feb. 1, and the winner received $10,000 and the runner-up received $5,000 as seed to grow what they are doing.

The second is SPARK Amigos to connect with Latino entrepreneurs in the county. The chamber is going to run a pilot on that for the state later this year.

Another program is SPARK Challenge. A local business leader will present a problem to a group of big thinkers, and they will form teams and have two to three months to work on proposals of how to solve that problem. The group with the best idea will receive prize money.

The fourth program is SPARK Club, a social network for entrepreneurs and big thinkers to connect in the county and have a supportive group to look to as peers.

Robison said he also is seeking funding to make SPARK Place a reality.

Forbes Magazine rated Indiana as the No. 1 place in the country to start a new business, and the chamber wants Jackson County to be the No. 1 place in rural Indiana to start a new business. Robison said large urban centers in the state and the surrounding communities have cool places where cool things happen and entrepreneurs are equipped and trained to share resources.

“No one in rural Indiana is doing this,” he said. “Well, guess what? We’re going to do it. We’re going to figure out a way to create a space, a place for entrepreneurs, innovators and remote workers in Jackson County.”

Robison also has gained community interest in SPARK Fund, which would provide money to help people take their ideas to the next level. After talking to key stakeholders in the community, he said that was increased from $250,000 to $400,000.

“That’s a big number, and so I think we have people in our community who are never going to show up for SPARK Tank, they are not going to come work in a coworking space, but they see the vision for this and they want to help support it and they want to help support entrepreneurs in our community,” Robison said. “We’re super excited about that.”

At a glance

The Jackson County Chamber is at 105 S. Chestnut St., Seymour.

For information, call 812-522-3681, email [email protected] or visit jacksoncochamber.com or facebook.com/jacksoncountyinchamber.