(Credit: Courtesy Cindy Wian, 2023)
A Community Conversation at Revibe Gifts and Wellness on Broad Street in Schuylerville.
The Schuylerville Chamber of Commerce has dissolved and reorganized, incorporating both their chamber and an unofficial small business association into one group that is under the umbrella of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.
The new group — it has been under planning and reorganization since 2021 — is called the Schuylerville Community Council of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. It acts as a sort of liaison between the much larger Saratoga Chamber and the local, grassroots Schuylerville “Community Conversations” group that holds meetings monthly at various locations in the village.
Kate Morse, the executive director of the Hudson Crossing Park and a co-vice president of the Schuylerville Community Council said this was an intentional decision on the minds of the people who organized the change.
"Our mainstreets are still the small independent businesses," she said adding that organizers recognized the beauty of that. If each of the businesses joined the Saratoga Chamber independently, they feared they would lose some of the sense of community in Schuylerville. This was echoed in another conversation with Dave Roberts, a commercial property developer in Schuylerville who was also integral in the changeover.
The way the new arrangement works is that the monthly Communcity Conversations are arranged and led by Chelsie Henderson, owner of the Rural Soul Music studio and school on Broad Street in Schuylerville. At the conversations, anyone in the community can participate in discussions ranging from upcoming community events, special events hosted by individual businesses or larger concerns such as public transit or parking in the community. Between a dozen and 30 people show up to the meetings each month.
"It's pretty much the one meeting I make sure I really never miss,” Morse said.
[See our earlier stories about Schuylerville here.]
Some of the events can be quick ideas that the Community Conversations group comes up with, and because they are grassroots ideas, that require little planning, they are implemented quickly, often with volunteers and sweat equity from those in the room.
Last fall’s “Scarecrow Stroll,” in which businesses and homes decorated their porches with scarecrows and then invited the community and tourists to walk through, is an example.
When needed, especially for larger events, the Community Council acts as a bridge to the larger Chamber. Members in the council may also be members of the Saratoga Chamber, and the council has access to the insurance benefits, marketing, publicity and other resources the chamber offers.
“We really gain from that affiliation,” said Cindy Wian. She is the COO of Ten80 Education, a company that produces and presents science technology engineering and math programs and events. The company has an office in Schuylerville but has a national and international reach.
Those interviewed said that the structure fits best for the village because the ideas and the needs start with the conversations.
“We [the Community Council] really are designed to support what comes up in those Schuylerville Community Conversations,” Morse said.
Henderson began the Community Conversations group about six years ago, and she sees that group as stirring the pot, and the council as then doing something with the information.
Some of the bigger issues come up every month, the ones covering parking and transit, and the conversations group will not always problem solve, but they will keep the conversation going until the council or others can take time to work it out. Often people from the village government are on hand to address issues, those interviewed said.
“There’s always a tension in something being formalized,” Wian said. The people who have been working at the grassroots level just putting together events and ideas quickly do not want the structure necessarily that comes with a formal organization like the Community Council or the Chamber. At the same time, Schuylerville is changing and getting new businesses and new families, and having a larger organization that can provide resources and infrastructure can be very helpful, she said.
“I think we’ve navigated it to a place now where there is leadership in both of those areas,” Wian said. “Folks who really understand the value of the larger chamber affiliation and folks who are really holding on to ‘But we really need to be grassroots, responsive and driven by what our community voices are saying’.”
For Dave Roberts, who made two careers of politics and then housing construction, and is now at retirement age the council gives the community its focus.
“If you want to have a community, you’ve got to have a focus,” he said. “So that’s what it does here.”
He said he likes what the new organizations have become. He had been president of the Schuylerville Chamber of Commerce for 16 years and helped create the Community Council as the chamber eroded.
“I feel like I’ve discharged my legacy,” he said. “It lives on in a much more refined and lively state.”
Editor's note: Hat tip to Saratoga Chamber President Todd Shimkus for alerting us to this unique arrangement.