Quite simply, the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020 ranks as the most-challenging of times over my 22-year tenure as ECCI’s President and CEO and three decades of Chamber service—more so than the Great Recession of 2007-09 or even the 9-11 terrorist attacks of 2001, which unfolded while our Board of Directors were attending their regular monthly meeting in Community Bank of Elmhurst’s Hammersmith Community Room.
Speaking for both the Elmhurst Chamber and myself, we feel blessed to be relatively healthy when so many businesses and individuals have not survived this economic and medical crisis.
Although ineligible for federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable loan assistance in last March’s $2.2 trillion Coronavirus, Aid, Recovery and Economic Security (CARES) Act, ECCI has kept its door open for business during regular office hours throughout the pandemic, and no full-time or part-time staff members were furloughed or fired.
By comparison, some 25 local chambers within my West Suburban Chamber of Commerce Executives (WSCCE) peer group—covering all of DuPage County and communities in four adjacent counties—determined it necessary to cut staff and close their offices starting as early as last spring, and many of them are still operating short on staff and for limited office hours.
Striving to comply with ever-changing federal, state, county and city mandates, our Chamber has worked tirelessly (and safely) during this 102nd year in operation to help ANY AND ALL Elmhurst businesses to both sustain operations financially and keep their workforce employed.
Since March—when the distressing depth of the virus first revealed itself—ECCI has advocated on our member’s behalf to assure that federal, state, county and city governmental agencies and elected officials understand the economic damage that COVID-19 and related public policy restrictions have inflicted on the Elmhurst business community, not just our members.
Our Chamber has both supported the efforts of and shared vital information from the federal government, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE), American Society of Association Executive (ASAE), State of Illinois Governor’s Office, Treasurer’s Office and state departments such as Commerce & Economic Opportunity (IDCEO), Employment Security (IDES), Natural Resources (IDNR), Public Health (IDPH) and Labor (IDOL), Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (IACCE), Illinois Restaurant Association (IRA), Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA), Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, West Suburban Chamber of Commerce Executives (WSCCE), DuPage County, City of Elmhurst and more.
In fulfilling our Chamber’s role as a business educator, ECCI members have consistently received e-mail updates on federal, state and county financial assistance programs available to small businesses and not-for-profit organizations. That vital information also was uploaded to ECCI’s website home page (archived in News under the Community News tool bar link) and shared community-wide via post to our Chamber’s Facebook and Twitter social media pages.
Developed last March, ECCI’s special “Dine Out” From Home website page has constantly marketed some 90 Elmhurst restaurants and bars which are “open for business” via walk-in takeout, curbside pick-up, drive-thru and/or delivery options for patrons during Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s multiple Pandemic-related bans on indoor dining. The page features the name, address, phone number, hours of operation, both menu and online ordering (if an option) hyperlinks, and service delivery options for each of the participating restaurants and bars.
It comes as no surprise that “Dine Out” From Home ranked as the No. 1 visited page among ECCI website users first last April and again in November and December immediately following Governor Pritzker’s initial and current bans on indoor dining, respectively. It also has consistently ranked among our website’s top four visited pages over the past 10 months.
Also, ECCI advertised “Dine Out’ From Home statewide as part of last April’s ‘IL’ove Local campaign organized through the Illinois Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (IACCE) in an effort to rally consumer support of small businesses, as well as in conjunction with the City’s Elmhurst Loves Local Contest that ran throughout December.
During the past 10 months, our Chamber waived annual and monthly dues payments for nearly 10 percent of our membership, while we shared news about the good works of our members and promoted the importance of local shopping and dining in numerous Facebook and Twitter posts.
When a mid-summer window of opportunity cracked open, our Chamber was the only WSCCE member to resume in-person monthly networking events, safely conducting outdoor Membership Breakfasts and Business After Hours for up to 50 members throughout the Third Quarter. In September, “Networking on the 9s,” our Chamber’s 72nd Annual Golf Outing, became the first golf outing (and remains the only) staged at Sugar Creek Golf Course since the pandemic’s start.
Against all odds, but compliant in the face of mounting state-mandated restrictions, our Chamber served as an organizing partner of the October 30 Inaugural Nashville Songwriter Fundraiser, which netted more than $13K for the benefit of Elmhurst American Legion THB Post 187. If conditions allow, ECCI and Post 187 hope to partner on a monthly concert series next summer.
In the midst of this pandemic, ECCI collaborated with the City’s “Everyone Counts Elmhurst” Committee to promote resident participation in the 2020 U.S. Census. As of the October 15 deadline, 84.3 percent of Elmhurst households self-responded (a higher rate than in 2010), as compared to 80.8 percent across DuPage County and 71.4 percent statewide. The Census Bureau reported a 99.9 percent completion of households that required physical enumeration.
Mandated by the U.S. Constitution for every 10 years, the Decennial Census provides the federal government with population data used to appropriate some $700 billion annually in state, county and local funding for public education, transportation infrastructure and healthcare programs—worth an estimated $180 per resident to Elmhurst.
In addition, the number of seats proportioned to Illinois’ delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives is dependent on these census figures. With a population of approximately 12.63 million (200,000 less than in 2010), Illinois will be forfeiting one of 18 Congressional seats and now stands only 126,000 above the threshold for losing another Representative.
While operating without a Director of Member Services since the October 30 resignation of Mariella Mastromauro (who moved to Florida to take a membership retention position with the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce), our Chamber anticipates filling that full-time position as early as the second quarter of 2021. Starting back in October of 2018, it was Mariella who oversaw our Chamber’s dues transition from employee-based to membership tiers.
Given that only 27 new members and a half-dozen reactivated members joined in 2020, ECCI’s year-end membership number fell from 2019’s count of 550 down to 477—the lowest total since 2000 (my first full year as President and CEO) when much-needed “house cleaning” of those “members” past due for one year or greater dropped total membership from 600 to 440. In the years following 9-11, our Chamber had reached an all-time high of 660 members before the Great Recession resulted in another economy-related decline in membership.
While 2020’s membership retention rate declined from an industry standard of 85 percent down to 80 percent, the vast majority of the 100-plus inactivated members came as a direct result of COVID-19’s financial impact on their business or not-for-profit operations, with additional casualties projected over the First Quarter of 2021. As the nation’s economy starts to recover, I am optimistic that at least 50 percent of those lost could rejoin before this year’s end.
At a typical chamber, membership dues revenue covers the cost of staffing, but not much more. Aside from the subsequent loss of some $50K in membership dues, our Chamber also endured non-dues revenue losses from the pandemic-caused cancellation of fundraising programs and special events—including the City’s Explore Elmhurst Summer Trolley, “Salute to…” Spring Luncheon, Pig Roast, and a handful of multi-chamber networking and educational luncheons. Non-dues revenue is essential for a chamber to keep its financial head above water.
The recently-enacted Emergency Coronavirus Relief Act (House Resolution 133) appropriates $900 billion in federal monies for small businesses and NFPs—including the long-overdue expansion of PPP forgivable loan eligibility to chambers of commerce, business and trade associations and other 501(c)(6) NFPs—and provides assistance to the struggling hospitality industry, along with more support for unemployed workers and individual income taxpayers.
Of the $325 billion appropriation for small businesses, $284 billion is for first and second rounds of forgiveness-eligible PPP loans, and increases individual loans from 250 percent to 350 percent of average monthly payroll for restaurants and hotels. Based on U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) requirements, ECCI anticipates eligibility for some $40K in PPP funding (or 2.5 times our Chamber’s monthly payroll times—all of which I am confident will qualify as forgivable under expense allowances of 60 percent in payroll and 40 percent for operations.
ECCI received a forgivable $15K County of DuPage-funded Reinvest DuPage Grant through Choose DuPage in November and a forgivable $3K federal Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Emergency Grant through the SBA last spring, but our Chamber’s November application with the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity (IDCEO) for a Round 2 Business Interruption (BIG) Grant was decline due to a lack of available funding.
In December, our Chamber began online monthly repayments on the $100,100 EIDL funding received last June, with a 30-year loan period at a NFP interest rate of 2.75 percent (3.75 for businesses). Half of those loan monies were invested in eight Certificates of Deposit that will come up for renewal throughout 2021 and in early 2022. Revenue freed up by the addition of any PPP funding can be applied to our EIDL repayment.
December also marked the successful culmination of a year-long process through which the ECCI Centennial Celebration NFP secured tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Our December-long Giving Tuesday appeal generated $6K in new donations to support the Ralph P. Pechanio Student Internship Endowment at Elmhurst University, ECCI Civic Hall of Fame public memorial destined for the new Metra train station in downtown Elmhurst and Second Century Fund. The Endowment Fund has grown to $250K and the Second Century Fund sponsored a donation of 50 of our Chamber’s Elmhurst-Opoly board games for the Elmhurst-Yorkfield Food Pantry to use as client holiday gifts.
By mid-January, some 19,200 copies of the 2021 Elmhurst Community Directory will be Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) delivered through the Elmhurst Post Office to residential, business and Post Office Box address across Elmhurst. The 68-page color publication also will be distributed via our Chamber’s New Resident Greeter Tote program, available at select locations such as Elmhurst City Hall, Elmhurst Public Library and Elmhurst Park District Administration Office, and accessible online in a page-able version via www.issuu.com.
This January’s scheduled 102nd Annual ECCI Awards Gala has been postponed until April at the earliest and will likely be rebooked for July as a mid-year celebration. That being said, I want to publicly announce for the first time and congratulate our 2020 business and individual honorees as follows: A.J. “Toche” Terrones Business of the Year—Edward-Elmhurst Health and Elmhurst Hospital; Ambassador of the Year—Betsy D’Onofrio, Inland Home Mortgage; Chairman’s Award—John Quigley; and Civic Hall of Fame—Scott and Charity Ahlgrim, Ahlgrim Funeral Home.
Finally, I would’ve preferred that it not take a world-wide health care pandemic and economic crisis to validate the indispensable role that our Chamber plays within the Elmhurst community.
It was legendary University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne (and not Animal House’s John “Bluto” Blutarsky) who is credited with coining the iconic American proverb of “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
And I can assure you that when the going got tough in 2020, the Elmhurst Chamber never once stopped going.