How the Opelika Chamber of Commerce supports all businesses

The chamber, which was incorporated over 80 years ago, was named the Chamber of the Year in category one by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.

This was the first time the Opelika Chamber has ever earned the award and they became the third Alabama Chamber of Commerce to receive the honor from the ACCE, according to President and CEO Ali Rauch.

For Rauch, who was had a successful year of her own and was appointed to the ACCE Board of Directors in July, the Chamber of the Year award showed that the work they are doing at the Opelika Chamber is being noticed.

“We’re not doing this work to win awards, but it is really nice to be able to show our community that, ‘hey, we are leading not only in our community, we’re leading in the country by doing really incredible work on behalf of our community,” Rauch said. 

Rauch said when she arrived at the Opelika Chamber four years ago, the organization had around 713 members. They now have 989 member businesses which represent over 20,000 employees across the Opelika and Auburn area. In that same time, the chamber’s budget has nearly doubled as well.

What’s the key to that growth? Rauch said the chamber had a shift in its mindset about how they can support the businesses of Opelika.

“We’ve gotten really creative and really brought a business and marketing mindset to what it is that we do,” she said. “It’s the team that I’ve brought on. They’re all incredible, and they work hard. They believe in what we do. And so it’s all this collective effort that has helped us grow, which has also helped us achieve that incredible milestone of being Chamber of the Year.”

One of the businesses that has seen that growth firsthand is Lambert Moving Systems and its President and CEO Carlton Hunley IV. The local family business was started in 1925, and Hunley became involved with the company in 2004 before taking over as president and CEO from his dad in 2022.

Hunley first got involved with the chamber in a more direct way when Barbara Patton convinced him several years ago to serve. He eventually served on the Opelika Chamber Board of Directors as its chair and held that position when Rauch was hired. He said the chamber has always offered great programs and services, but over the years he has seen it adapt.

“I think one of the most unique things about the Opelika Chamber, and the reason for their success, is that they’re not stuck on doing things a certain way, just because we’ve always done it that way. They’re the opposite of stagnant,” Hunley said. “They’re constantly evolving with the community. As businesses change. As the makeup of the community changes, they change with it.”

Hunley currently serves as the chair for the Opelika Chamber Foundation board which helps with fundraising.

Hunley highlighted several initiatives started by the chamber that have helped his business and others, such as events like business after hours or connect over coffee, which he said brings businesses from across the community together. 

Rauch echoed that sentiment on change and said the chamber has had to evolve and be thoughtful about the programs and services it offers so it can fulfill the needs of businesses of all sizes. Rauch said around 80% of the chambers membership is made up of businesses that have fewer than 10 employees.

While Lambert Moving Systems is about to celebrate its 100-year anniversary, Golden State Foods broke ground on its Opelika facility just over eight years ago. GSF is one of the larger companies for the chamber with around 300 associates at its Opelika facility.

“GSF has been operating in the Opelika industrial park for 7 years, but if you ask around, very few people and businesses know about us. Through Chamber activities like Business over Breakfast, the Annual Meeting, and Snopelika, these activities provide us a platform to advertise our business to the community and other businesses that we normally would not have access to,” GSF Group Vice President, Operations–Protein Products Nathan Murphy said. 

Murphy has been with GSF for almost 6 years and he currently serves as secretary on the executive committee for Opelika Chamber. Murphy said he decided to join the board because he felt he really connected with the chamber and what they were trying to do.

Rauch said the chamber’s mission is to strengthen the community as a champion of business and that they have four pillars of that mission: achieve excellence, cultivate community, build bridges and elevate business.

Rauch said they support many of their businesses through educational events like Business Over Breakfast, which had recently speaker to deliver key information on the Fair Labor Standards Act, which will effect some of the larger businesses in the area. Then around one week later, they offered a free business seminar on the life cycle of employees. The event covered details on hiring, firing, retaining employees and what benefits employers can offer, and Rauch said it was targeted toward more of the mom-and-pop businesses as well as startups.

Rauch also referred to the chamber as the biggest cheerleader for businesses in the community due to the large social media presence and large membership that the chamber has. The chamber can be that cheerleader through initiatives like the Reach 2024 campaign or with the downtown Opelika tradition of Food Truck Fridays which averages 3,600 people per event.

Hunley said one of the more exciting recent developments from the chamber is the in workforce development which is helmed by Joel Alvarado. Hunley said he has witnessed Alvarado’s work firsthand when Lambert Moving Systems was needing summer employees, and Alvarado helped point him in the right direction.

“I would say that the vision has been there since the Forward Opelika campaign started. But we really put our resources to work when we specifically went out and started looking for a workforce development associate,” Hunley said. “He understood the needs of this community. He understands industry. He understands the absolute necessity of having workforce that’s ready to go to work.”

Rauch said the Opelika Workforce Council is a collaborative effort to address the growing employment needs of businesses in the area and involves major employers like GSF, Alabama Power, Point Broadband and others as well as the City of Opelika’s Economic Development team. Rauch said they started it in February and it was needed as there are over 1,000 open jobs in the community.

“A key thing when you think about the biggest problem most of our businesses face right now is a lack of people, resources. And so we formed the Opelika Workforce Council to really focus on how we can help solve those problems,” Rauch said. “This group are the leaders of these businesses who are going to kind of set the tone and the direction of how we as an organization, tackle workforce development and try and solve those open jobs.”

While that is a recent project that is just getting started, the chamber is nearing the completion of construction at their new building, which will be located where the old Opelika Public Library used to be. 

Murphy said that the new building and other campaigns that are coming up means there is a lot to be excited about with the Opelika Chamber.

“We are having an amazing year, and we still have a lot to look forward to with the launch of our REACH 2024 campaign and our Forward Opelika Initiative. We can’t wait to share the new facility and all the resources that will be made available to our community in the years to come,” Murphy said.

Rauch said they hope to open the new building this fall and have celebration and ribbon cutting on the new space in December. She said the building sorely needed and will allow the chamber to offer “bigger and better services to our business community.”