Small business support: Downtown Carlisle Association, Carlisle Chamber of Commerce look ahead under new leaders

It’s no coincidence that the Downtown Carlisle Association’s annual Ice Art Fest, entering its seventh year in 2023, falls on the same weekend, bringing dozens of sculptures and hundreds of residents and visitors to town.

“Ice Fest is the most successful event we’ve ever witnessed,” Goss said. “It has completely taken off. It’s been not only successful for us, but for other businesses as well.”

As a business owner, Goss, who also serves as the Carlisle Chamber of Commerce’s board chair, knows what she talking about.

The association is known for organizing events to promote the downtown, including the Ice Art Fest, Harvest of the Arts and the Ford and Corvette parades.

And the organization is not alone — the Carlisle region has several entities that work to improve the community and support businesses, each with different approaches, all working toward a common goal.

New leadership

Within the last year, two of those local organizations — the Downtown Carlisle Association and the chamber — both experienced changes in leadership.

The association announced the hiring of Stacey Gould in April to fill the Main Street manager role left vacant after former manager Glenn White resigned in December.

Nicole Deary took over as the president and CEO of the Carlisle Chamber of Commerce in August after Michelle Crowley, who held the role for nearly 24 years, stepped down in June.

Gould and Deary have expressed interest in developing their individual organizations’ goals and working with their boards.

Deary expressed a desire to develop a strategic plan with the chamber’s board to carry out the entity’s “marching orders.”

“It’s the vision for the chamber,” she said. “It’s how we say yes or no certain things. I think it’ll be very intentional about how we collaborate based on what our goals and objectives are in that strategic plan.”

Collaboration

As both organizations move forward under new leadership, Deary and Gould said they’re working to gain their bearings in their roles.

However, cooperation seems in the cards.

“Collaboration, in essence, is kind of a definition of community, right,” Deary said. “It’s the idea that we’re all here for each other and we’re in it together. And for me as a chamber, collaboration is the only way to kind of build the sense of community that we want to build.”

Gould said the association and chamber partnered in the past to host Taste of Carlisle, an event that allowed attendees to purchase a ticket and sample foods from local restaurants at the Carlisle Expo Center.

She said the organizations are exploring the possibility of bringing back that event, something Deary said might have to look different if it returns due to factors like inflation, the cost of service and staffing issues.

Like Deary, Gould expressed an interest in working with the chamber when it makes sense to do so, though neither are sure of what that will entail.

“We really have had only a few talks about what the future might look like,” Gould said. “So I’m not sure completely what direction we’re gonna go.”

She said the two bump elbows frequently at events like ribbon-cuttings or meetings, and Deary said they plan to continue to meet to determine what work between their organizations could look like.

“We do try to keep each other in a loop of like things that are happening, even though we’re not the same type of organization,” Gould said. “We do impact some of the same players.”

Association vs. Chamber

The association focuses primarily on the C1 District of the borough, or as Gould described it, “where you see a parking meter, essentially.” Anyone within that district is automatically an association member, she said.

“In addition to doing the event planning to bring people to town and that type of thing, we are a revitalization program,” Gould said. “So we work on the Main Street approach, which has the four committees. So we focus on design, promotion, organization and economic vitality and that’s kind of where we follow the guidelines that are set forth by the National Main Street program.”

Gould said she is working to have Carlisle named a designated community through that program. She said the process is a lengthy one, involving the establishment of a five-year plan and a look at factors like the use of space and community input. Achieving designation would result in increased funding opportunities, Gould said.

On the other hand, the Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce reaches a broader area in Cumberland County, stretching toward Mechanicsburg and the West Shore where it partners with that area’s chamber, Gould said. The chamber is also membership-based, providing benefits for the organizations involved and hosting events like mixers to increase networking opportunities.

“The Chamber of Commerce, they look at you know, business advocacy and what they can do for our community as a whole, rather than the specific footprint of downtown Carlisle,” Goss said. “While that’s included, it really looks at a larger area, and how it can help our local economy, how it can help the local businesses, small and large. It does a really good job of connecting all of the businesses together.”

Deary said one of her focuses is supporting other organizations while avoiding overlap or the duplication of services.

She said the chamber is also looking into staffing and workforce development.

“It’s one of the things that keeps our members up at night,” Deary said.

It’s also a need Goss has seen in the community and experienced as a business owner.

“I know that workforce development is something that’s really important to local businesses, small and large,” she said. “We’re all looking for more employees on a regular basis.”

The chamber is coordinating a Career & Job Expo in the spring and also offers internships.

Natalie Dohman, the owner of nDesign Art Haus which opened on North Hanover Street in April, said she’s working with interns from Carlisle Area High School and Big Spring High School through the Art Exploration program formed through a partnership between the local districts and the chamber.

“They have benefited the business greatly in terms of being able to pass the knowledge to run the company, customer service, fresh ideas and the probability to hire them on full time in the future,” Dohman said of the students. “I am looking for specific roles to be filled here that will take someone who is artistic that also shares a business sense and I believe that some of the students definitely possess the skills and energy to come onto the team here full-time.”

Just as the association and the chamber operate differently, the manner in which they interact with and relate to businesses is also different.

“I feel like we have this ongoing kind of partnership with DCA and the chamber is just a really good source of support,” said Jim Griffith, co-owner of Create-A-Palooza. “It’s not less, it’s just different.”

He said the association tries to bring people into shops and restaurants and provide suggestions to help with that, whereas the Carlisle Chamber of Commerce doesn’t involve as much day-to-day interaction, but gives members the opportunity to network and attend events.

Moving forward

Griffith said the COVID-19 pandemic brought almost a fresh start to the downtown area.

“There was a several-months timeout, and then things got reset,” he said.

New leadership at the association and the chamber also contribute to that fresh start.

“I think, in the last year especially, and maybe it’s because we’re finally getting out of the COVID doldrums, but I’m seeing much more collaboration and much more trust and much more willingness to try a new approach than ever,” Griffith said.

He hopes to see an objective look at policies and programs over time at these organizations, with the inclusion of events and sponsorship opportunities that could benefit both small and large businesses.

Dohman said she’d like to see the introduction of a sort of database or foundation that spreads the word about all events across the community, something that could be achieved through collaboration of different organizations.

“There seems to be some gaps as to what is happening and how it’s happening,” she said, adding that she hopes a more organized presentation about events as a whole could lead to more successful businesses and ultimately a more successful city.

Goss said she has seen a recent increase in communication between downtown organizations, both with the association and the chamber and beyond.

“They seem to be working together a lot,” she said. “... Not to say that they weren’t before, but I’m seeing a lot of collaboration efforts among all of the organizations, and I think that’s key because the one thing that makes [the] Carlisle community so special is the fact that we all work together for the better of the community.”

From her role on the chamber’s board, Goss said that behind the scenes she’s seen email chains between multiple organizations as well as Zoom meetings that have included various leaders as well as plans to continue to meet.

“I hope that you know, that we could maybe have a story six months from now to talk about all the things that they did,” Goss said.