Chamber HQ - to be sold?

The Woodstock Chamber of Commerce held a membership meeting at 6:00PM at Marian Central. Where was everybody???

It was a good thing that 11 of the board members showed up. And a few non-board members. But where were dozens of business owners who could have been there - if they cared?

I guess I don't want to be unduly unfair to the 275 business members of the Chamber who didn't bother to show up. It's summer; it was Thursday evening; there had been a storm in McHenry; it was dinnertime. Ho-hum. Maybe they just didn't want to hear the bad news. Maybe they figured they couldn't make a difference.

OK, I'll keep you in suspense a little longer. The purpose of the meeting tonight was to give members the required "opportunity" to vote on whether the Chamber Board could explore selling its headquarters on the Square at 136 Cass Street. The emphasis tonight was on "exploring" the sale of the headquarters. At least until Arlene Lynes, owner of Read Between the Lynes Bookstore, asked the critical question about the extent of the authority being requested by the board.

Arlene asked about the language in the Motion or Resolution (I didn't get a copy of it) that would allow the board to sell the building, if it so decided. And that's exactly what the vote was going to allow, if a sufficient number of Yes votes were made.

Just how precarious is the Chamber's financial position. Ex-officio Board member Tom Landers, Chairman of the Chamber's Finance Committee, gave a clear presentation. The Chamber bought the building in 1987, and the original mortgage was $87,500. Today, 22 years later, the mortgage has been refinanced six times, and the Chamber owes $188,000 on the building.

Kind of going in the wrong way for paying off a 30-year mortgage; right? Many Boards and many Executive Directors have done an absolutely rotten job of running the Chamber. That's the bottom line.

The Chamber's budget includes nothing for building improvements and repairs.

How did it get in such a mess? I've written about that previously and may need to again.

Any business in town that was run the way the Chamber has been run would have been out of business years ago. But the Chamber kept borrowing money against its equity in the building, and it has reached the end of the line.

Can the Chamber building be saved? Or will there be a distress sale at 136 Cass Street. (Whew! Almost like the echo from "Can Grace Hall be saved?") YES, if it is properly run and if the Board LEADS. That's what a Board of Directors does. It leads. Or, at least, that is what is supposed to do.

This year's Board inherited a terrible mess. Hard decisions must be made. Of 31 present tonight, there were 25 eligible to vote. Fifteen voted to grant approval to not only explore the sale of the Chamber headquarters, BUT TO SELL IT, if that's what the Board decided. Ten voted not to grant that authority. Remember: eleven (11) Board members were present tonight. Did they all vote Yes?

The Woodstock Chamber has great potential, but it has been squandering it. Possibly a new Executive Director will be able to turn things around and attract new members AND retain current members. Members want something besides a canceled check. A golf outing at $140 is not what most owners of small business think of as a membership benefit.

It's going to take a lot more than just talk to solve this problem. The mortgage on the Chamber building should have been down to $10,000 by now. Instead, it's $188,000, meaning that equity is probably near zero.

The Chamber's annual property tax bill is nearly $6,400, based on a Fair Cash Value of $240,000. As a 501(c)(6) organization it is not eligible for any special property tax treatment. If there are 13 empty storefronts on the Square now, who would rush in to buy a building at anywhere close to market value. Severe negotiating would take place, and buyers would smell the blood in the water.