Richard Garber, outgoing chairman of the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce, will pass the torch tonight at the chamber’s annual meeting.
During his tenure as chairman, Garber saw many changes in Emporia as his year of service began with the massive layoffs at Tyson Fresh Meats in January.
Garber said the chairmanship is more than a one-year commitment.
“You’re chairman elect and then chair,” he said, “and then you have responsibilities after you go off the board if you so choose, if you want to do some things with the chamber. As past chair, you’re on some committees,” Garber said.
Garber sat down with The Gazette Thursday morning to talk about his term.
Q Are you going to serve as past chairman?
A Well no, as a matter of fact. ... I’m going to be leaving Emporia in April. My tenure with PrairieLand Partners will end the 31st of March.
Q Who is going to replace you at Deer Trail?
A They are actively searching right now. It hasn’t been decided yet who is replacing me. Prairie Land Partners will plan to continue to be a good corporate citizen to Emporia.
Q Are you retiring?
A No, I don’t plan on ever retiring. Actually I’m following my wife back west. I arrived in Emporia because my wife had a job at Emporia State University. She left Emporia State a year ago after acquiring two internationally published magazines that were published in Australia and moved that to the United States and moved that to Sheridan, Wyo., which is where we own a home and all our children and grandchildren are there. So that’s where we’re headed. Elaine is not living here full time and has not since the first of July, so this is kind of a natural.
Q How did you get involved in this position of chairman?
A I’ve been involved with the chamber for nine years. The involvement started out by being involved with the process of, at that time, Deer Trail and coming to town and buying the business. I started working for the Deer Trail organization before they purchased this location with the intent that they would purchase this location and I would manage it for them. And then as a result of that the commitment to build something new for John Deere Dealership in Emporia was actually made at the same time the commitment was made to buy the former dealer. We knew that facility wouldn’t work for what we needed to do down the road. With that involvement we were looking for ground and all the processes of that, the type of building, the location. It was a very easy thing to join and work for the chamber and help be a liaison for pulling that together. That’s one of the advantages to the chamber. It introduces you to all those entities that you need to network with when doing things like this both on a city, county and state level. Because KDOT certainly got involved with this and really still are with the access out here on the highway.
Q What were some of the issues that the chamber has faced in the last year?
A Every year the chamber has a retreat and the incoming chairman establishes an agenda in what they want to get accomplished in the ensuing year. We all know there were some pretty radical changes that took place in Emporia in 2008. One of them was the Tyson thing that took place seven days after I took chair. I always think of that song “You picked a fine time to leave me...” You picked a fine time to do this.
Q What were some goals you had for 2008?
A Some of the things that we had in our 2008 plans to do, workforce development, image campaign, Emporia Blueprint for Growth, be the number one voice for the Emporia business community and one of the last but certainly not least was ethnical diversity and that somewhat was dampened on what went on with the economy. There were some diversions there with what went on. We all know with the Somalis that we did really need to work on it. Of course, when Tyson closed the kill floor, they left. That’s not to say that we don’t care about our Hispanic community because we really do. They are a vital part. We need to continue doing everything we can to incorporate them in the chamber and in the Emporia Building Futures.
Of all those things I mentioned certainly we have worked on the chamber at being the number one voice for the Emporia business community. The mission for the chamber is “To be proactive and creating an environment for business and community success.” That’s the mission and I think it says it all. The vision is “Positive attitudes promoting positive action.” Those are two good statements. They are relatively simple and they’re to the point and if they are practiced I think success will follow.
I always like to talk about the law of attraction. We attract what we give and the other side of that is worry is wishing for what we don’t want to happen. I think both of those statements kinda follow the mission and the vision statement.
The other mix of things that I like to think about is we aren’t the only ones having problems. Yesterday Rubbermaid has a plant in Winfield and they announced that they are going to lay off some 80 workers. That kind of layoff in a town like Winfield has just as much of an effect as Tyson did in Emporia. We aren’t exempt.
The thing we have to do, in my opinion, the chamber and the citizens of Emporia, is just understand how we are going to change with the change in times because we are going to have to.
Q What do you see in Emporia’s future?
A ... I think what we need to keep an eye on in the Emporia area are tech business with today’s communication can locate anyplace. I’m telling you I don’t see how Emporia can not do well in the future if we just make it happen but we are going to have to make it happen. ... One of the requirements that people with that mindset has is to be within a hour or an hour and a half of a major metropolitan area and the same with the major airports and how can we miss where we really have that on both sides with Kansas City and Wichita and what other town in the state has two interstates running through it and an east-west highway that feeds the Kansas City market from all of central and western Kansas.
Q How do you think your administration did with the Blueprint Campaign?
A I think, very well, and I think that Emporia Building Futures spawned out of that. It is my belief that that is the single most important thing that brought about and is now bearing fruition that Emporia has done in the nine years that I have lived here and I think it’s just the beginning. It’s the first time that we can use it for our business in our logo and other businesses can but it’s got the whole community pulling together and it’s developing a community awareness that in my estimation we didn’t have before. The chamber, the city of Emporia and the major businesses that have financially contributed to the success of Emporia Building Futures is testimony to the commitment not to mention the many, many individuals that have committed time to it which equates to money to help it work. It develops a community attitude that is healthy.
Q What are the top five accomplishments this year that you and your board have achieved?
A A collective community thing is the Hills Pet Food is an Emporia accomplishment that everybody can be proud of. I think that is a good indication of location. They are located in Topeka. This is just the right distance away. It’s got easy access.
Again, Emporia Building Futures certainly is one.
The image campaign has been talked about. It created a stir but it’s a vital link in the chain. There is not a place that we go to visit that we in our mind don’t give whenever that is a visual scrutiny and right away quick-like form an opinion of what we saw. If it’s a garage that is being held up by vines or water squirting up out of the street we are going to remember that. ... These things are all visible items that have a great impact.
The Buxton Study. That probably has gotten some criticism maybe some just, maybe some unjust but still it is a blueprint and a reminder of what we need to do and where we need to go.
And be the number one voice for the Emporia business community. This is a tough one because the vast majority of membership in the chamber is made up of small businesses that are affected by bigger businesses coming into town such as a Lowe’s or a Home Depot and so that’s a tough one but the reality is think of all the bigger towns around to that we go to. And ask yourself this question: do you ever go to a Lowe’s or a Home Depot or Best Buy or a Target and I think if we all answered that honestly, we’d have to say yes.
We need all the membership’s input. We need additional members and that always takes good dialog and working together, teamwork.