Support Your Local Vendors First
by John Weckerle
In the November 19 issue of The Independent, editor Wally Gordon showed support for an Edgewood Chamber of Commerce proposal that the Town of Edgewood “formalize an arrangement for giving a 5 percent preference to town businesses” – a proposal that we also support. Mr. Gordon also urged the Chamber to follow its own advice and support local business, citing publication of a recent magazine that was contracted to a Colorado business, Sixtus. In a subsequent exchange in the November 26 edition, Myra Oden, executive director of the Edgewood Chamber, stated that this was a tri-chamber publication, and that two local publishing companies – not including The Independent – were contacted and asked if they were interested in bidding on the project, but neither was interested. Ms. Oden went on to explain how she came to be familiar with the firm selected to do the work, and suggests that The Independent market the Chambers of Commerce throughout the entire state in order to business with the Edgewood Chamber and other area Chambers.
Ms. Oden’s arguments on this aspect of the situation leave us nearly speechless. As Mr. Gordon points out, The Independent is a member of all three Chambers. Why should a member of any Chamber, or group thereof, be required to market every Chamber in the state just to be considered for work with their local organization(s)? In this case, there is no doubt that The Independent was capable of doing the work, and should at least have been on the bid list. If, as Mr. Gordon indicates, The Independent has contributed substantially to the Chamber above and beyond merely paying its dues, why should it be necessary for it to incur the expense associated with “[making] arrangements to become an event sponsor or [renting] booth space” at some Association of Commerce and Industry function just to get an RFP (request for proposals) for local work?
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Last year, I received an e-mail message from Ms. Oden asking if my firm would be interested in producing a map of Edgewood. I responded that we would be very interested – but within less than a month, the contract went to an out-of-town firm. We were never contacted again or provided specifications or a project description on which to base an estimate. I find myself wondering which, if any, other Edgewood businesses were contacted before the map project went to the out-of-town vendor.
The Edgewood Chamber held its annual holiday party this year at the Moriarty Civic Center. We certainly have nothing against Moriarty or the Civic Center, but we’d be interested in knowing which, if any, Edgewood venues and caterers were contacted with requests to bid on the holiday fiesta. Ms. Oden might argue that the local venues aren’t capable of offering the type of services required, but I would counter that argument by saying that perhaps the Chamber should be holding events that fit within the context of its environment. I can recall several Chamber events, held in local venues, that were well-attended and very enjoyable. The tri-Chamber “Toast of the Towns” event some years ago was held at Alta Mae’s in Edgewood, and was a great success – and the food was provided by the restaurants for free. Wildlife West regularly hosts weddings and private parties, not to mention its outstanding Chuckwagon Suppers, and it is unclear whether they were contacted this year. The Chamber has, in the past, also held successful events at the Edgewood Masonic Lodge. Perhaps it is simply an issue of attendance vs. venue size, but if is anything else, then perhaps the Chamber should be rethinking its priorities.
In the current context, we side with Mr. Gordon and The Independent; we believe that The Independent – and the Mountain View Telegraph, if they were also excluded – should have been given the opportunity to express interest in and/or provide an estimate for the magazine project. Both are members of all three Chambers, and are among those local businesses most likely to succeed in pursuing the project. We have to wonder which two local businesses were provided the opportunity to participate and what rationale was used to select them – and on what basis clearly capable potential participants were excluded. If one or both of the area’s major publishers were excluded (and at least one was), one has to wonder whether the bid list was deliberately skewed to favor Sixtus. We believe that any Chamber should look first to its members, and then businesses (all of them) in the community it serves, before contracting with outside businesses for products or services.
2 Responses “Support Your Local Vendors First”
Oh John, you poor dear, as usual you have completely missed the point, and quite frankly it is a waste of my time to respond to you or Wally Gordon for that matter.
Nevertheless, here are the facts and nothin’ but the facts:
1.) Your response to being interested in producing our map came the day after we signed a contract with Community Link. I had done research for well over 30 days. YOU, my friend were the first person I contacted and YOU did not respond for over 30 days! I simply asked if you had the capablities to produce such a document and if so were you interested? A simple yes or no took over 30 days!
2.) As for the Holiday Banquet, our caterer is located right here in Edgewood and is an Edgewood Chamber member. Wildlife West cannot accomodate our event due to a lack of adequate heat in the Bean Barn in the month of November. Oh, and gosh darn – it just occured to me that JR’s BBQ, who is the caterer for the Chuckwagon Dinners at WLW, is an Albuquerque business! Neither the Bean Barn nor the Masonic Lodge can accomodate 174 people, which is the number of tickets sold to this year’s event and neither has a state certificed kitchen for our personal chef. If and when our Town governement sees fit to build a modern facility such as Moriarty’s with a certified kitchen, adequate space, tables, chairs, tablecloths, and a staff we will certainly hold our events there. Until that time we are forced to go elsewhere.
3.) And now for the Business Directory – the two businesses contacted were Accent Magazine and the East Mountain Directory. An employee of the East Mountain Directory sits on the Business Directory committee and commented that going with Sixtus was “a no-brainer”. Again, as I commented to Mr. Gordon, we were and will continue to seek profit sharing opportunities.
4.) Just so you know John, we spent over $3000 with Mail & Copy during this year’s Run, Rally & Rock. We spend with Walmart, Walgreen’s, Smith’s, Etchings & Engravings, Jeff’s Chef, Loose Shoe Embrodiary and many other Edgewood businesses.
It seems very odd to me that someone who is not a member of the Chamber is so concerned about how the Chamber spends its money.
For something you consider a waste of your time, you certainly seem to have put an impressive amount of time into it.
Your Board of Directors is quite aware of the reasons for my decision to terminate my membership in the Edgewood Chamber. I see no reason to repeat them here – at least for now.
As for the map correspondence, you received an immediate reply indicating that we were interested, and a follow-up message roughly 30 days later. In your response to that message, you apologized for not contacting me again. We remain interested in knowing which, if any, of the other businesses in the Chamber were given the opportunity to participate in the map project.
As for missing the point: You seem to have missed one of the major ones here: the fact that two of the Chamber members who were most likely to be able to do the work on the business directory under the terms you desired were completely left out of the procurement and given no opportunity to indicate an interest or provide an estimate. We eagerly await the explanation for that rather bizarre omission.
Wildlife West’s Bean Barn is heated by two very large pellet stoves. Wildlife West has expressed no opinion on the issue at hand to me or anyone with whom I’ve spoken, and their vendor selection is not at issue here, nor is that of any other business or organization other than the Chambers.
I will say that, in my opinion, the tone of your comment here is a poor reflection on the organization you represent. You should consider the fact that most people are not likely to be favorably impressed with the kind of snide remarks and arrogant comments that pepper this response. I certainly am not. When you speak – or write – as the executive director of the Chamber, the impression you make is not just yours, but the Chamber’s. Most Boards of Directors would not appreciate the staff expressing itself in this manner when publicly discussing issues of import to the organization. A more professional demeanor would be of greater advantage to the Chamber.
Had this kind of disrespect been directed at someone else, it would have been deleted out of hand. Be assured that any future display of this nature will be deleted. If you wish to be able to continue commenting here, you will need to be reasonably polite; otherwise, we will be forced to lock you out of the system. See the Editorial Policies, Items 1, 8, and 11.