Waupun Chamber to join forces with Envision Greater Fond du Lac under new name

FOND DU LAC – Starting in 2023, members of the Waupun Chamber of Commerce will have to rejoin as members of the Waupun Business Alliance, which will replace the current chamber.

Envision Greater Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac County's economic development and chamber organization, has been helping the Waupun Chamber with staffing and resources since January, said Joe Venhuizen, Envision's senior director of membership and programs.

"But the Waupun Chamber has decided, in order to better meet their strategic goals and serve the community better, a fundamental change in structure is what better serves them," he said.

The chamber had been operating as a one-person staff for years, and its most recent director stepped away in May.

That led to a partnership with Envision, which staffed the office and carried out day-to-day tasks like running its website. Venhuizen said that partnership gave the board an idea of what a reorganization could look like, and conversations started about how to make it more permanent.

The chamber board, which Venhuizen is also on, voted in October to restructure the newly formed Waupun Business Alliance as an extension of Envision.

"This is a pretty big step to say we believe we can do this differently and effectively," he said. "We can create a lot of synergy by using a regional organization with a local arm."

Craig Much, president of the current Waupun Chamber's board, said Envision is able to help guide new businesses in a way that the Waupun Chamber simply does not have the resources to do.

"If there's one thing Waupun has going right now, (it's) the amount of growth and momentum it's had over the past three years in particular," he said. "It's hard to measure without being very proud of it, and we want to see that momentum keep going."

He cited the growth of new businesses in the past several years, including Wind and Unwind coffee and wine house, Stone and Suede boutique and K's Boutique, among others, as being crucial to the vibrant downtown.

Much, who is also vice president of Horicon Bank, said he knows through his work in commercial lending that the assistance Envision offers is part of downtown Waupun's successful retail revitalization.

"If it wasn't for the entrepreneur programs and assistance Envision offers, I can say with certainty there wouldn't be as much of those in Waupun," he said.

University of Wisconsin Extension conducted a study in fall 2021 on how to generate business development in downtown Waupun. Much said he received the results of that study in February and read about how there might be a benefit to further explore a partnership with Envision.

"That was the catalyst we all needed to see," he said. "I don't think there was much disagreement amongst the board."

Envision and the chamber have recently hosted a couple community listening sessions to explain the transition to the Waupun Business Alliance.

Kathy Schlieve, Waupun's city administrator and director of economic development, said she attended one of those meetings with roughly a dozen other people. Most people expressed positivity at the move for the business community and she said she saw "a lot of unity and alignment about the positive things this will bring to the community."

She said she thinks the partnership with Envision will allow the city to better address major issues with more resources for short- and long-term business success in Waupun.

"In particular, work to address workforce, childcare gaps and sharing of information and best practices are already in process (at Envision)," she said. "Our businesses can plug into those things immediately."

Additionally, the Waupun Business Alliance will have its own advisory board made up of local business members, which Schlieve said will allow for programming that's specific to the Waupun community's needs.

Much said the Waupun chamber's board will transition out in 2023. There will also be a new board for the Waupun Business Alliance. He said there will be some overlap between current chamber board members, but "we've been purposeful in making the initial asks for the Waupun Business Alliance."

This is the first transition of an independent chamber into Envision Greater Fond du Lac, Venhuizen said, but it's similar to the transition the organization made when it formed in 2017 from the former Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce and Fond du Lac County Economic Development Corp.

Current Waupun Chamber members will simply have to "opt in" to the Waupun Business Alliance when they renew membership in January, Much said. He's hopeful they'll realize all the additional benefits of membership.

"Learn what Envision has to offer because, when you're a member of the Waupun Business Alliance, you're a member of Envision," he said. "You make up for the cost of membership just by using your membership and all that's available through it."

Contact Katy Macek at kmacek@gannett.com or 920-426-6658. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMacek.

This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Envision Greater Fond du Lac creates new Waupun Business Alliance