2 - Chamber Q&A: Does the Chamber Do More Than Just "Help Business"?

Q: The Chamber's mission is helping the business community. Does it do anything beyond that?

A: When Tyson, the largest employer in the county announced their closing, The McDonald County Chamber rapidly called upon their massive network of employers to bring over 40 employers to town in a week. The Tyson closing didn't just cost a company its plant, it cost the county 1,500 jobs, roughly a quarter of the entire workforce. This is the equivalent of Detroit losing the auto industry. Nobody erased that hit. But the difference between a mass layoff and a free-fall into long-term unemployment is whether somebody moves fast, and the Chamber among many others moved quickly.

Q: What did the Chamber actually do?

A: Within days of the announcement, working with Noel Mayor Lance, the Chamber pulled employers from across the three-state area and beyond, those included Northwest Arkansas, Oklahoma, Southwest Missouri into a job fair that drew about 40 businesses, with a second fair at Noel Elementary before the plant closed in October. Other chambers and companies flooded in with openings close enough that people who owned homes here could commute instead of packing up keeping spending and kids in county schools instead of losing both to another county. The Chamber also pushed to get Missouri's rapid response team into Noel for resume help, health coverage, 401(k) questions, and real estate guidance for anyone who did have to move, serving as the local voice insisting the state show up here, not just send paperwork.

Q: Did it fix everything?

A: No, and pretending otherwise would insult everyone who lived through it. Sales tax revenue still dropped. Some families still had to leave. What the Chamber did was speed the rehire path so unemployment spiked and came back down instead of staying high.  The county was back near pre-close levels, around 4.3 to 4.4 percent, within a few months, mostly because people found other work or relocated through connections made at those job fairs. This is an example of the Chamber operating outside it usual mission to aid where it can help in a time of need and crisis. It may be unglamorous work, but getting the right people in the same room fast enough, that a gut-punch doesn't become a knockout.