Cashmere business community convenes amid chamber’s uncertain future

CASHMERE – Faced with dwindling leadership and mounting challenges, Cashmere’s business leaders gathered on Dec. 11 to explore the future of the Cashmere Chamber of Commerce and its role in supporting the local business community.

The Cashmere Chamber of Commerce has struggled to maintain a full board in recent years, with only four out of the eleven open seats currently occupied. At the start of the new year, the chamber will only have one board member remaining, and no employees.

After learning of the chamber’s state, Andy Thomas of Side Street Cashmere invited local businesses to come together to discuss solutions. The main discussion proposed during the meeting was whether to reinvest in the chamber, or transition into a downtown business association.

“We want the community to keep going, whether it's a downtown association, whether it's a chamber…We need community support and people to step up,” said Chamber Board President Kevin Carney. 

According to Carney, the chamber relies on memberships, fundraising, and the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) for funding, which can vary each year. The downtown association was proposed in order to access additional funding through the Business & Occupation (B&O) tax. The Washington State Main Street B&O Tax Credit Incentive Program allows businesses to make a donation to a specific downtown association in a designated Washington Main Street Community and in return, earn a 75 percent state B&O tax credit on that amount. 

However, those in attendance expressed frustration over lack of transparency and communication from the chamber, and expressed doubt that a downtown association would change the problems at hand.

“I will 100 percent admit that as a board president that I have failed in that aspect, in communicating to the businesses…I am a farmer, and I had the worst year I've ever had. And so excuses don't really matter at this point in time,” said Carney. “Going forward…We need board members.”

Rather than voting on the two options, attendees agreed that more member participation in the already established chamber was the first priority to revitalizing the business community.

“I don't think we need to [vote] at this point in time. I think what we need to do is meet and decide to try to keep the chamber as it is now. We can transition out of a chamber to a downtown association, should that end up presenting itself at this point in time,” said Aaron Todd, owner of Downtown Bike.

Many of the meeting’s attendees agreed to attend the chamber’s January meeting in order to vote in new board members, hire a chamber employee, and further discuss a potential transition. The Cashmere Chamber of Commerce typically meets on the third Thursday of each month from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. at 103 Cottage Avenue.

“This was just a matter of, like, let's get everybody in a room together, and let's find our strengths and let's grow collectively. And I don't think that that's an overreach or an over-ask of a community to do, because I do believe that we all want to grow. So, that was my intention of the meeting, and I think that it served its purpose,” said Thomas.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media