HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 12/14/2021 - Memorandum From Jose Luis Ramos Re: Noco Latino Chamber Of Commerce- Summary
Economic Health Office
222 LaPorte Avenue
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.416.4349
fcgov.com
DATE: December 8, 2021
TO: Mayor and Councilmembers
THRU: Kelly DiMartino, Interim City Manager
Kyle Stannert, Deputy City Manager
Jacqueline Kozak-Thiel, Chief Sustainability Officer
Josh Birks, Economic Health & Redevelopment Director
Shannon Hein, Interim Economic Health Manager
CC: Travis Storin, Chief Financial Officer
SeonAh Kendall, City Recovery Manager
FROM: Jose Luis Ramos, Economic Health Bilingual Business Specialist
RE: NOCO LATINO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SUMMARY
This memorandum provides a detailed summary of the NoCo Latino Chamber of Commerce efforts
facilitated by the Economic Health Office (EHO). EHO is providing facilitation to Latino business
owners for the creation of a Latino Chamber in response to findings by businesses impacted by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
BOTTOM-LINE:
In , EHO provided support and facilitation services
to small businesses impacted by COVID-19 and the associated public health orders. This support was
key in the formation of a group of leaders that are moving forward with establishing a Latino Chamber
of Commerce in northern Colorado. A total of 56 businesses are on board today with a goal to get at
least a total of 100 businesses in the near future.
OVERVIEW:
The purpose of this program was to provide support to Latino business owners by stablishing a strong
relationship with them first and then learning about the needs and problems they were facing. These
businesses suffered disproportionally for the lack of resources, information, time, technology tools, and
networking opportunities and needed help to get organized and work together to address some of these
issues. Once we learned these needs and recognized the potential that this group has, we started the
process of helping them organize and start the conversation.
Below is a timeline of these efforts:
We brought a small group of 12 business owners together on September 2, 2021, to get the
conversation started.
We organized the second meeting on October 11 at a local restaurant where we had 14 business
owners to talk about the next steps and the pros and cons of forming a local chamber.
26 business owners attended the 3rd meeting on November 9th to talk about options to get the
chamber started. At the meeting we had Ann Hutchison (Fort Collins Area Chamber of
Commerce) and Berenice Tellez (Boulder Latino Chamber of Commerce) to come and talk to the
group about the options and to offer support to the group.
The group is now composed of 56 business owners that had a meeting on Tuesday December 7 th
to make the announcement and invite all Latino businesses in northern Colorado to join as they
are forming the NoCo Latino Chamber of Commerce.
Highlights of the meeting and next steps:
o The
o They have a seven-member board of directors, all volunteers
o They will work with the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce to form a partnership
(meeting for negotiations to take place in the near future)
o They will follow up with business owners that are interested in joining
o The Chamber will be a body representing all northern Colorado
Attachment:
21-23651 - Flyer for Latinx Chamber of Commerce Planning Mtg v8 WEB FILE.pdf