Two Albany area chambers of commerce consider partnership

Oct 22, 2014, 3:07pm EDT UPDATED: Oct 22, 2014, 3:26pm EDT

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Donna Abbott-Vlahos

Mark Eagan is president and CEO of the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber.

Krystle S. Morey

Reporter-Albany Business Review

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The Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber and the Chamber of Schenectady County are exploring a joint partnership.

Mark Eagan, president and CEO of Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber says the partnership would function more as two affiliate organizations under one parent chamber, rather than a merger.

"Our discussions are a natural progression in our ongoing partnership," Eagan said. "We have done as much as we can do as separate legal entities."

Board members of both chambers voted to form a joint task force Wednesday.

The task force includes six members from each of the chambers' boards. The group is working with The New York Council of Nonprofits Inc. to determine the sustainability of an integrated organization.

The chambers would maintain offices in Albany and Schenectady counties. 

"We want to integrate without losing focus on local, county-based issues," Eagan said.

Both chambers have partnered with several business groups and events in the past including Leadership Tech Valley, the Tech Valley Nonprofit Business Council and the Tech Valley Young Professionals Network.

The Schenectady Chamber has 1,000 members and the Albany-Colonie Chamber has 2,200 members. Two hundred and twenty are members of both.

The task force will meet over the coming months to evaluate the sustainability of an integrated chamber. It will share its findings to members of both chambers and put the partnership to a vote in the spring.

Arts and Cultural Council is at a financial crossroads

Every year, the Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester administers tens of thousands of dollars in grants for financially struggling artists and arts organizations.

These days, the council could count itself among those in need. Six consecutive years of operational deficits have the council on the brink of insolvency on paper, with its assets barely outweighing its liabilities as of its last tax filing.

The circumstances have forced the council to cut staff from four to three positions, outsource some functions, rely more heavily on volunteers, tap a line of credit, and delay projects, according to board members and public financial records. The result is fewer resources for the region’s arts community.

“Things that may be wonderful to do, we may not be able to do,” the council’s board chairwoman, Grace Tillinghast, said in a recent interview at the council’s North Goodman Street office. “We have to be realistic. It’s going to be a realistic budget that will allow us to move forward.”

Leadership change

The grim financial outlook coincides with a transition in leadership at the council, which announced in December that its longtime executive director, Sarah Lentini, would step down in January after 14 years to “pursue new professional opportunities.”

That has left some artists to speculate on what the change means for the council’s future. “We’re wondering where it’s going next,” said Shamira Nicolas, whose pen on canvas work hangs in the council’s gallery.

“Sarah was devoted to the whole organization and when she left, no one told us why. A lot of people are in the dark.”

Lentini did not respond to a message seeking insight into her departure and the future of the council. She has been temporarily replaced by the council’s director of grants, David Semple.

Current and former council board members and artists in separate interviews cast Lentini’s resignation as a surprise. They were effusive in their praise for her tenure, crediting her with overseeing the building of corporate office and gallery space, creating a legal assistance program for artists, tirelessly advocating, and founding Metropolitanmagazine, a glossy quarterly publication.

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