The Northern Ohio Area Chambers of Commerce (NOACC) was founded on a principal dear to businesses big and small: economy.
In 1993, the Beachwood Chamber of Commerce began offering its members a Community Mutual Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance plan that provided deep discounts off standard rates. All licensed insurance agents were eligible to sell it, attracting interest not only from local agents, but also other chambers. The Euclid, Solon, Mayfield Area, Heights Regional, Westlake/Bay Village (West Shore), Chesterland and Warrensville/North Randall/Highland Hills chambers rapidly adopted the plan.
But Community Mutual declared a moratorium on the plan, preventing other chambers from enjoying its cost-savings.
Undeterred, the Beachwood Chamber subsequently invited several local counterparts to participate in a discussion about the possibility of offering a workers’ compensation group pool plan — a plan the Euclid, Solon and Parma chambers each had tried to implement for their members but were unsuccessful. This time, however, the effort would not be stymied by provider moratoriums or lack of critical mass. In November 1995, the Beachwood, Euclid and Solon chambers founded NOACC. The workers’ compensation plan that resulted from that initial discussion became a benefit available to all members.
“It was an alliance [formed so] that we could push these savings off to other chambers,” says Cindy Holzheimer, NOACC’s executive director.
That incentive spawned an organization that, almost 25 years later, boasts 125 members, with chambers of commerce representing almost 30,000 employer groups from the Indiana to Pennsylvania state lines, some as far south as Tuscarawas, Carroll and Wayne counties. It’s the largest independent chamber association in the United States, according to the NOACC website. A number of those chambers have grown tenfold as a result of joining NOACC. Holzheimer notes that, unlike chambers that, say, primarily advocate for members in the development and modification of public policy, NOACC’s main focus is providing cost-savings programs.
“Our medical insurance is really what sets us apart from the other associations that are out there,” Holzheimer says.
Holzheimer explains that the two Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield discount programs NOACC offers help member chambers bring new employer groups into their folds, as well as send non-dues marketing dollars back to the chambers for promoting the products to those employer groups.
“We’re the only program[s] that [do] that,” she says. Those dollars, she adds, are particularly valuable as chambers look for other revenue sources — networking events, fundraisers, etc. — making membership dues competitive.
“With so many different types of membership-driven organizations and clubs … a lot of members will belong to multiple chambers, that type of thing,” she says. “You’ll see membership is going down. To really be competitive with other chambers, you have to lower your dues.”
NOACC just introduced a program that discounts annual membership dues based on the number of cost-savings programs a chamber is promoting.
NOACC member chambers also can accrue marketing dollars by offering its employer groups FedEx shipping and Community Energy Advisors energy aggregate programs. Holzheimer points out that the gas and electric programs offer the added perk of signing up residences, as well as business addresses, for the locked-in discounted rates — “and it doesn’t matter where you live,” she adds.
Other discounts are available on Heartland credit card and payroll processing, SLN Connect digital marketing, Paramount Preferred Solutions workers’ compensation and Wellness Council of North East Ohio employee wellness programs. Holzheimer and the NOACC board are considering adding discounts on cellphone services, office supplies and recycling to the list.
“We try to get those big benefits that a chamber would not be able to get on their own,” she says.
An annual NOACC spring meeting, which includes some leadership training, and biannual meetings in the organization’s four regions give chamber directors the opportunity to meet and get to know each other. The interactions have resulted in chambers promoting each other’s events, developing joint networking opportunities and offshoot networking opportunities, which resulted in new organizations such as the Power of MORE, an association of nine chambers primarily on Cleveland’s West Side, and Eastern Cuyahoga Chamber Alliance, an association of a half-dozen chambers on the city’s East Side. Holzheimer attends NOACC member chambers’ membership and board meetings to help participants tackle issues such as less-than-successful fundraisers and improve meeting attendance.
It is that opportunity to engage with other chamber directors that attracted Holzheimer to NOACC and her current position. As a former executive director of the Beachwood Chamber of Commerce, she harbored a desire to connect with other area chamber heads.
“I really wanted to collaborate with them, learn what programs they were doing that were really working — maybe some things that weren’t working that we were doing,” she says. However, it isn’t the main reason she cites for chambers to join NOACC.
“We’re able to offer those programs to the chambers that those members are at the end of the year going to say, ‘These are hard cost savings that we were able to secure because of our membership,’” she says.