 hot and welcome to non-profits mean business on Think Tech Hawaii. Today we are so fortunate to have the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, Sherry Menor, Mackenor, Mackenor. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Mackenor. I had the Mackenor apart fine before. It's the middle I was worried about. I'm so sorry. Thank you so much for joining us and I just can't tell you what an honor it is to have you. We've been having quite a few guests excuse me our audience members putting in requests for information and interviews with members of our community related to the economy and what's happening especially with the COVID-19 pandemic and being that this is a non-profit show and you also happen to be heavily involved with that you're the perfect person to ask so I appreciate you accepting my invitation. We would love to I'd love to ask you a little bit about just briefly how you came about joining the Chamber of Commerce and how long you've been in Hawaii just a brief little rundown of some of the history. Well I am actually from Hawaii Island, Hilo and so I was raised in Hilo and then moved away to college on the mainland ended up staying on a mainland as well as moved to Japan so for a total of 10 years until I finally decided to move back to Hawaii and when I did move back I didn't have a job and so that's when I decided to go back to school. I went to get my law degree and business degrees and it was doing that time by work the state legislature and I really appreciated and developed a passion for the public policy making process and you know how bills became laws and how the laws impacted the livelihood of our communities and then it was doing that time that well once I graduated there was an opening at the Chamber of Commerce, Hawaii. Wow yeah yeah and you know the mission was to advocate for business. My mom has a small business on Hawaii Island in Hilo and so I've certainly seen what she had to go through growing up and the challenges and trials and tribulations of running a small local business in our state. Obviously the cost of doing business here is extraordinarily high the highest in the nation and so that's what drew me to the Chamber of Commerce and I've been with the chamber for 14 years and eight years of my current capacity as president and CEO. Eight years that's amazing you know I did a little research and watched some other interviews you had done you've done one with another think tech host Rusty Kamura before COVID-19 was even an inkling in any of our minds and it was so interesting because you had talked about taking a situation and making it an opportunity to grow from it and and to shine and make something good you know I can't imagine any of us would have ever thought this could happen in our lifetimes I mean you know something like this to this level yeah definitely I think it's our organization as well as all the businesses in Hawaii as well as the people of Hawaii we all had to adjust pretty much overnight it's a different situation that's been unprecedented and during uncertain times no one has gone through this and so with that we had to ask for the organization we have to pivot quickly we had to adjust what our normal business operations look like to one that could be done virtually from an internal standpoint so we had to adjust there and then for the chamber as a nonprofit organization our revenue comes mainly from events and and membership and so we had to think different we had to think different as to how can we continue to provide education and resources to our members but not in person so obviously many have already turned to these virtual learning tools such as zoom and other opportunities and so it's working out nicely but what we need to think is okay as we create a path forward in this new environment how are we going to change our program of work because events we can't go back to the way events were before at least for the next few years it's not going to go back to the way it was before in terms of the large gatherings and now you have the safety and health element to it so that's something that we are diving into and diving into quickly and hopefully we can come out of the waters you know in a in a new way of operating and stronger than before yeah absolutely I am fortunate enough to be a member of the Chamber of Commerce why and I receive your newsletters which is what sparked my thought of contacting you which they're so informational and cover so many things I I mean I'm sure there's a lot of work put into them I believe you put that out it almost seems like daily is it daily yeah initially we did two times a week but we felt that the information was changing so rapidly that with the risk of overwhelming our our membership that the more information at this time we thought was critical and so we do issue one at the end of the day on new information and updates as to COVID related matters just so our members know what's going on and we thought that was critical and you know right now we're not looking at we're looking at how we can support our members as well as the broader business community and we look so it's more of a service to that and we're not even we haven't even looked at the budget yet um and you know every we're not alone in this there's so many other nonprofits that are getting impacted significantly oh yeah everyone's looking at okay what is path forward gonna look like and so you know while we're on this in the same situation same boat uh it's quite a challenging moment but we need to pivot and look at this what are the opportunities ahead of us uh and how can we think different and how can we be more innovative in what our current resources are and take it up a notch are you this isn't something we had planned to talk about but it just sparked the question are are you feeling like there's a certain industry um I mean I can guess but that we just may see for everyone that was out there closed closed closed open closed closed that are just not going to be able to reopen I mean is there a particular industry that you're feeling like is going to be heavily hit in that regard yeah no business has been immune to COVID-19 obviously the tourism industry has been significantly and devastatingly impacted and as we know the tourism dollar goes a long way supply chain and so many all businesses have been impacted in varying degrees uh we did do a you hero we partner with a hero on a survey uh as to what is the current status of business and what will they do once we are able to open doors and turn on our lights and uh it's kind of um it's yeah it wasn't encouraging uh one out of four Hawaii businesses reported that they will permanently close if they do not get additional relief uh PPP funding helpful uh but we are coming to find out that it's the intent is a lot thought it was good the implementation is a lot more complicated than expected so there's still many many many questions as to whether or not they should use it um or or did not use it um and so that's why for the chamber we've been advocating since March um that we need additional relief from the state to help business sustain during this time so that when we are able to get that to commerce that business can sustain themselves and uh continue commerce um in this new situation I'm curious if you're familiar at all with any um regulations or what's happening as far as I'm very familiar with the residential management side and what's going on related to that but with with actual storefront leases and rents that aren't being paid is there any legislation related to having some type of relief to them or deferring the rent yeah that's a that's a uh you know I think with the landlord-tenant relations uh we had a webinar on that and that's usually private sector situation uh and we've been encouraging landlords to help tenants and tenants provide tools to tenants as to how to work with the landlords because as much as the landlords uh you know they have everybody has bills and so we encourage that kind of helping each other out during this time and what we've been hearing most of the landlords have been working one-on-one with each tenant because each tenant is in a different situation so blanket legislation uh you know it wouldn't be as uh it may not solve one tenant and situation but we'll solve another tenant situation so there's been a lot of 10 one-to-one tenant and landlord uh working together and resolving the issues whether it's deferring rent or um you know whatever it is but that's why we've been asking the state to provide some kind of immediate relief you know whether it's state loans or grants or deferment of GET to so that business is one less thing to worry about and that could mitigate the financial impact that small businesses are facing because really if they close their doors and as you know Hawaii's many local and small businesses that will change the landscape and fabric of our communities and we don't want that absolutely yeah I mean I my concern is you know I have this desire to have them at least open things up for us in the islands and not necessarily still having some controls over who's coming in from the mainland or internationally but letting us start have commerce amongst ourselves and open up selfishly open up inner island travel so I can go back and forth as I do pretty much every week which I haven't been able to um so my concern with that however is because we're all so financially strapped right now or the large majority there isn't there aren't going to be a lot of people spending yeah so even if it opens up just within the state I know all of us are going to want to run out and have a nice dinner somewhere and have a drink somewhere because we're so excited to do that but there's just it's not going to be enough to cover some of these huge leases rent payments and some of these you know huge department stores and restaurants that are waterfront that's going to take some time for that really to come back it definitely well you know it's going to take a good year at least to get back on um close to track uh and because business have to now adjust their work environment restaurants you know there has to be this physical distancing and that cuts down on the capacity of the number of people that can fill their restaurants uh retail same thing so it will definitely reduce the revenue that they were getting from before uh and so that's why I think for many local and small businesses they they need to use this opportunity now to think what can they do that they haven't now that haven't done before so for example um e-commerce you know many of them we found out that they don't have kind of a website or some kind of online ordering system so that's something that they will need to think about restaurants think more creatively and on top of that uh encourage the government agencies to be more flexible and adaptable to the rules and regulations because it's no longer the way it was before and so we believe they need to be more flexible in the way things are being handled that it's going to be handled in the future for example restaurants perhaps expanding the space to use sidewalks because physical distancing or Maui Brewing for example they got fine for promoting a the anti they made anti sanit uh antibacterial sanitizers and they use as a promotion but this is a time where we needed anti sanit sanitizing you know us um hand sanitizers rather uh and at the same time they need to stay afloat too so you know I think those are the discussions and actions that need to be taken as we move forward with this health and safety element to it that will that will impact revenue for businesses and when it impacts revenue obviously it cuts jobs and that we don't want I mean 200 over 220 000 on an employment insurance yes when the doors open uh you hear estimates still about a hundred thousand will be out of a job and so we need to work collectively and collaboratively and be flexible and adaptable during the situation absolutely me every everyone needs to be able to think outside of the box and I know some of the small businesses have done that really well all across the country I love to hear those stories um we're going to take a little break and when we come back I've got some more questions to ask you and um just first off when we get back I'd like to talk to you about some of the programs I've been reading about in your newsletter some of the programs you have in place so we will be back shortly please join us Aloha I'm Kisha King host of Crossroads in Learning on Think Tech Hawaii on Crossroads in Learning our guests and I discuss all aspects of education here in Hawaii and throughout the country you can join us for stimulating conversations to enrich and liven and educate we are streamed live on Think Tech biweekly at 4 p.m on Mondays thanks so much for watching our show we look forward to seeing you then Aloha Aloha I'm Kili Akinah the host of Hawaii together on the Think Tech Hawaii broadcast network Hawaii together deals with the problems we face in paradise and looks for solutions whether it's with the economy the government or society we're streamed live on Think Tech biweekly at 2 p.m on Mondays I want to thank you so much for watching we look forward to seeing you again I'm Kili Akinah Aloha Aloha and welcome back to non-profits mean business too on Think Tech Hawaii we are here with the chamber of commerce of Hawaii's president and ceo sherry manor mac demura and sherry I think we had a question from one of our viewers that came in did you want to read that question and let us know how you'd like to respond sure and excuse me if I pivot this way it's because my work screen is here so there's been a couple of questions about the chamber in terms of raising money during this crisis as well as are we under financial pressure as well well I think as I mentioned earlier no business or nonprofit has been immune to COVID-19 and so we certainly had to look at our FY 20 budget and see where we can reduce expenses the fortunate part is we had most of our larger revenue generating events towards the beginning of the fiscal year and we just had one more remaining and as well as we or the FY 20 budget is somewhat conservative and so from that sense it from a operations standpoint knock on woods I think we're in an okay situation we will expect loss I'm sure but with that said you know we need to everybody's in a similar situation and that's why it forces us to think different and see what kind of opportunities are going to be on the forefront for us and change you know whether or not we change our business model change our program of work because again we're so heavily relying on events as well as membership and for memberships on the membership side we know many of our members will be challenged by the expenses and so you know we want to help we want to work something out as much as to extent possible with those members because we're strong as we're a strong organization because of our members and so we want to make sure one that they continue to stay as a member and also that we can support them through our resources whether it's virtual learning opportunities or being a one-stop center or have being a resource where we can connect a member to an appropriate person that can answer their questions find resources for them that is our that is what we do and we advocate for business and so we have to stick to that and regardless of you know what our budget may look like and it's right now I'm still closing April so we'll see I suspect it will be somewhat intact it but again everyone's in the same situation and we just have to move forward and think different do you want to take an opportunity to tell us about some specifically a few of the programs you do have in place sure so during this time we had to quickly as many others change to the the virtual tools and so one from an internal standpoint our team started working from home since March 17 and it's actually worked out pretty well we have twice daily check-ins one in the morning one the close of the business day although I don't think there's the close of business day anymore I think we all lost track of what day and what time it is and so to ensure that we're all on the same page so it's worked out nicely and for our events we had to quickly come up with a program a list of virtual learning opportunities opportunities that we believe will help businesses whether it's e-commerce how do you how do you manage teams during this time how do you market yourself during this time the tenant landlord relations uh and um so those different types of topics and they're all listed on our website coc hawaii.org we also have business after ours what we used to and so we had to take change out into a virtual opportunity so we had our first business after hours a couple of days ago so that was interesting but oh yeah it worked out well we it was on single-day miles so we all had our drink at our hand and toasted to single-day mile but those are some of things we had to adapt to quickly but again as we move forward we have to see what our events will look like what events we cannot hold at this time how do we make up for that lost revenue I think the biggest we can adjust is to find ways to strengthen our support for our local and small business community I saw it you even had assistance for people just helping them fill out the forms because they're so daunting and I thought well that's great yeah so we had essentially we had webinars on the whole PPE process we had a few of them already because it's such a complicated process and so we brought our member experts in to answer questions and it was just overwhelming number of questions we have we set up a special COVID-19 website dedicated to just COVID-related resources and a Q&A section where they can submit a question and we'll answer them or connect them to the right person that can answer the question but now we're pivoting from you know how to apply the loans etc to what's next what's what's next in terms of recovery and revitalization and resilience so we're coming up with a five-point plan uh and to you know to adjust our our work to this new environment and our path forward so it's been a definitely as with everybody else had to adjust overnight which I had two questions one is how do you do you partner with very many nonprofits and also how much communication or contribution or how often does the government reach out to you for input or do you reach out to them to give your input yeah so we have nonprofits as members as well and so as you know nonprofits while they serve a different function they still run as a business and so they have fixed costs they have programs and they're definitely being impacted and you know it's encouraging to see many businesses from the large to the small even those have been severely impacted such as restaurants and despite the losses they're still stepping up and contributing resources to nonprofits as well as those in the front lines and so that's been very um that that purpose of humanity and that collaborative spirit have been very encouraging so definitely nonprofits the virtual learning opportunities doesn't just apply to for-profit companies it's for nonprofits as well and for nonprofits if they do have something specific they need to have answered obviously we want to support them any way we can and then your second question was just in terms of your interaction with the government yeah so previously or I shouldn't say previously our main function one of our main functions is advocacy so we're heavily involved in advocacy at state legislature so pre-covid there are a number of bills that we believe would have increased the cost of doing business and the cost of living and so we advocated on those bills some in support and some not in support because that is our role and we continue to you know maintain communication with government so as I mentioned earlier we've been advocating from very beginning in March to provide some kind of state relief for small businesses we are working with the city and county of Honolulu on a program to support businesses whether it's through loans or grants and then we're involved we're involved on the house task force of economic recovery which turned out to have become a public private partnership effort and then also working with the economic recovery initiative led by Alan Ashima um that the governor had appointed him to lead so we're trying to get him uh stay involved in any way we can ensure that the small business voice is represented boy girl do you sleep I'm telling you that's a lot to be involved in how many people are in just it within the chamber how many staff do you have I know you have Laurie which I've spoke I've spoken with her and yourself yeah we have 10 we have 10 we do okay we had a couple unfortunately you know we had to reduce those positions uh but we are able to keep 10 and one of the uh so we have the events and uh department communications and public affairs department um operations uh and um education workforce development and so that's another area that we've been heavily invested in and building up that uh platform especially now as students are uh staying home and don't have that connection to be physically on campus so from the from the high school to the university level we are working collaboratively with the different stakeholders public and private to ensure that students can continue having these virtual learning opportunities um distant learning or work-based learning opportunities so from having businesses talk about their business how they started what that entails and get students engaged on what different businesses do and you know to see if that's something that they may be interested in yeah that's that's amazing I've actually owned a number of businesses I sold my business that's how I got to Honolulu and I'm now working for a company but I just want to thank you so much for participating and giving your time your all of your efforts are I'm sure just so uh gratefully welcome and um I look forward to getting more of your newsletters hope they'll get one today yeah and I would like to say whether you know whoever's listening whether your team member or non-member please feel free to reach out to our team our emails are on our website uh contact page about us page uh because we want to be here to support you during this uh challenging challenging times and connecting you to the right people to find resources thank you so much and thank you to our viewers for watching um and we will see you in two weeks on non-profits mean business two and think tecawai aloha