Editorial: As LVCC faces an uncertain future, last month's USDA funding presentation highlighted the need for a strong Chamber. There's no better chance to rebuild one.

The Lincoln Valley Chamber of Commerce meeting that is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., Thursday Nov. 10 at the Lincoln Library will center on how to keep the business organization viable for the future.

The future of the LVCC remains in doubt as the two current remaining directors - President Laurie Welty and Vice President Victor Johnson are set to leave when their terms expire at the end of this year. Former treasurer Erin Dey stepped back into the role on an interim basis, but only until the future of the organization is decided.

For the LVCC to survive, the organization will have to refocus its resources and energy away from events and turn its emphasis to marketing the community and providing more resources, like the Oct. 18 presentation, for the business community. The presentation made clear is that there is a desire for more information about the resources available to local businesses. It was one of the best attended Chamber-related meetings in a long time.

During the meeting, Justin McDonough of Donuts Tires expressed interest in taking a leadership role in the LVCC, but the future of the Chamber will also take more volunteer representatives from local businesses and organizations - it doesn't necessarily need to just be business owners - with a willingness to step up, look beyond the dreck generated by the rumor mill and to put differences with past iterations of the organization aside.

A question by Kenny Low with K Lazy Three outfitters during the presentation helped prompt a discussion about the role of the Chamber. Low said he would like to expand his business into the winter, but sees the need for better winter tourism in the Lincoln area. He pointed to the success Augusta has had in marketing and social media promotion and wondered if there were resources out there to help Lincoln in those areas.

"If we do that for the community, it's going to help every business in this town," he said.

His question highlighted a long-standing bugaboo for the LVCC Board of Directors. They haven't had the budget to hire a someone dedicated to marketing Lincoln as a destination, maintaining of the Chamber website and proactively managing its social media. Instead they've relied mostly on volunteers, many of whom have had their own business or organizations to worry about.

Lea McGiboney, the area specialist for rural development from the Great Falls USDA area office, said there are possible funding and grant options through Montana Tourism, the Big Sky Trust Fund and the Department of Commerce. "You can match those dollars with our programs, with other federal programs," she said.

She also suggested the Environmental Protection Agency's annual Recreation Economy for Rural Communities grant program to help the community market itself, help figure out what is needed and how to implement it."That might be something you want to look at, how are you gonna market as a recreational tourist attraction for your community."

She said the RERC grants generally rely on town hall meetings to discuss everything and find what everyone is comfortable with.

There have been occassional discussions about letting the LVCC fold and creating a new organization in its place, but Lad Barney, the business & cooperative programs director for USDA Rural Development, said its better for them to work with an established organization like the LVCC, rather than a brand new outfit without a track record that could run into the same issues a couple years down the road and find itself having the same conversation again.

Instead, he said a strong chamber of commerce is absolutely critical to Lincoln's efforts to find funding to promote the community and its businesses.

"We're going to need to see an organization that could manage a USDA contract. It takes some time, it takes some boots, it takes a good accounting system. Even with the assistance of Heart of the Rockies, which can provide that technical assistance to that strong chamber...without the strong chamber it's not going to go anywhere," he said.

He also raised a number of questions for the LVCC that need to be addressed, if it can survive long enough tackle them.

"What I would ask the Chamber is, what are you doing from a strategic planning (standpoint)? What are you doing as an organization that's a bare bones non-profit?" he asked. "How do you turn around and put that back out as a membership entity? What do you put on annually to sustain your membership? Fundraisers? Do you put on more workshops like this for technical assistance? What does that mean when I'm a Chamber member? Those are things you have to systematically identify through some sort of in depth strategic planning process."

Those are questions the LVCC needs to focus on, rather than organizing and funding events for the town. Aside from the Independence Day parade and fireworks show, the events they've hosted over the years always seemed like great ideas that would help the business community. But most of them were at the mercy of external forces like the weather, didn't provide lasting economic benefits and didn't last more than a couple years. In general, they just fueled volunteer burnout, led to financial losses for the Chamber and, since the road to hell is paved with good intentions, seemed to fuel criticism and mistrust of the LVCC and its volunteer board members. Sometimes that was for good reason, many times it was for petty ones.

If there is to be a future for the LVCC, it probably needs to even hand off the parade and fireworks to other organizations that have been involved in them. Instead, it should work on capitalizing on successes the Chamber has been a part of in the last decade, which have positioned Lincoln to take advantage of recreational economy.

For example, in 2013 the Chamber provided "community buy-in" to help get Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture on the Wild off the ground. Since then the sculpture park has attracted thousands of visitors a year. The LVCC could improve efforts to make sure those people know what else Lincoln has to offer.

In 2017, LVCC efforts led by then-President Laurie Richards saw Lincoln designated as Montana's first Continental Divide Trail Gateway Community. The CDT goes right around Lincoln with at least four trailheads in the area, at Stemple, Flesher, Rogers, and Lewis and Clark passes. We're the last accessible town northbound hikers hit before entering the wilderness, and the first civilization southbound hikers have access to when they come out of it. Could the LVCC work with the business community to find ways to take better advantage of that?

2019 saw Lincoln become the first unincorporated community in the state to be accepted into the Montana Main Street Program. The Chamber was instrumental in helping make that happen, and can be instrumental in taking fuller advantage of the resources and grants that program has to offer.

Most recently, the LVCC helped secure the grant for downtown master planning, with the long-term goal of improving Lincoln's downtown safety and improving the business environment. Despite the rumors about "plans to turn Lincoln into Whitefish," and some other frankly ridiculous conspiracy theories, it is something that is needed as traffic on Highway 200 continues to increase.

Finally, the Oct. 18 showed there is a lot of desire among local businesses and entrepreneurs for workshops that provide information on resources they can pursue, both to help their businesses and to make Lincoln a place where the younger generation can make a living. The Chamber should be at the forefront of bring more of them to town.

The Lincoln Valley Chamber of Commerce has been around since 1968. It's one of Lincoln's most established most established organizations. Over the years it's played an important role in the community, but times have changed. The LVCC doesn't need to die, but it needs to evolve and capitalize on the successful efforts it has been a part of in recent years. Maybe it's time for the business community here to leave old misunderstandings and grudges in the past, and devote some time to rebuilding the Lincoln Valley Chamber of Commerce into the organization it should be to meets the town's needs.