Blackstone Valley Chamber regroups
Deliso, principal of the Sutton-based turnaround firm Blackstone Management & Consulting, joined the chamber board in June before taking on the executive director role. He says he expects to bring the three-person chamber back into the black this month. He thanks " a small handful of well-intentioned executives" who he says have committed significant dollars to fund the chamber’s turnaround.
Former chamber Executive Director Jeff Ritter resigned in August "to pursue other interests," according to the chamber. He had been in the job less than a year, joining the chamber on October 17 of last year.
Deliso is getting to exercise his turnaround skills. This summer, the chamber incurred deep losses on its Celtic Festival, a major event in Sutton which got rained out. The insurer didn’t want to pay on the rain claim due to the wording in the policy. Deliso says the chamber is appealing the insurer’s ruling. The event also lost a $75,000 grant it had been expecting from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority after the management shakeup at that agency. Since then, the chamber has been able to bring in $25,000 of the proposed grant. But it’s still seeking donations to cover the shortfall.
Since taking over, Deliso has addressed the flagging membership head-on by focusing on increasing the chamber’s relevancy to the business community and by sharpening the chamber’s strategic plan. He credits Membership Coordinator Heather Elster with holding the ship on course, but says without a finished strategic plan, the chamber wasn’t attracting new members. "When you see your membership slipping, you know you’ve got a problem with your product," he says. "The board is very interested in improving the product, and that’s exactly why I’m engaged."
Christina P. O’Neill can be reached at coneill@wbjournal.com
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