Feb. 24, 2020

There were 13 people in the room the first time Jeff Griffin interviewed for the job he ultimately would land – leading the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce.

That alone spoke to the role the business membership-based organization plays in this community, he said.

“I’ve been saying it over and over – how impressed I was with the process and the people, the leadership they had in the room for the initial interview and then the follow-up,” said Griffin, who began his role as president and CEO in January.

As he became a finalist, the chamber brought him and his wife, Rosy, to visit. There were tours set up for her. When he went to hotels and restaurants, an unknown from Illinois, people acted happy he was there.

“All this sounds simple, but the energy and the genuine interaction I had just feels different,” he said.

“I travel enough and work with other communities enough to know when something is pure and genuine and energized.”

At 49, he has spent the past decade in chamber leadership roles – a transition he made in Wooster, Ohio, near his hometown of Canton, after beginning his career in social work and evolving into nonprofit management roles. He served on the Wooster City Council and was encouraged to apply for the chamber president position there. He most recently served as president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce and CEO Council of Peoria, Ill., for five years.

In the chamber world, South Dakota and Sioux Falls have a reputation “in terms of how they have been hitting it out of the park with a pro-business environment and policies,” he said.

So when the recruiter came calling, Griffin was ready to listen.

And when he and his wife saw the type of community where they could raise their three children, who are in high school and college, they decided it was the right move all around.

“My job in Peoria was fine, but the employment opportunities for my kids to end up in an environment where good jobs are readily available and there’s a really high quality of life – I didn’t take that decision lightly at all,” he said.

“And I think that speaks a lot to how impressed Rosy and I were with this community. We’re all in. We’re invested in this community, and I plan to be here a long time and have great success.”

His predecessor, Jason Ball, spent a little more than two years leading the Sioux Falls chamber before taking a similar role in Texas.

Before that, Evan Nolte’s tenure reached 38 years before he retired in 2016.

Griffin and Nolte have met multiple times.

“I was really taken. He was so happy for me,” Griffin said. “He’s interacted with chambers all across the country and said how excited he was for me ‘because this community is fantastic and you’re going to have a great run here.’ That’s pretty powerful. I’ve taken over positions before where there hasn’t been that positive outlook.”

Take Peoria, for instance. When Griffin arrived, its chamber was dealing with declining membership and a concerning financial situation. Under his leadership, membership doubled, and finances subsequently rebounded.

In Sioux Falls, the chamber counts about 2,000 members, Griffin said. His goal is to grow that number, but he acknowledges the challenge that legacy membership-based organizations face nationwide.

“Businesses want tangible value, and they want to know what the chamber is doing for them,” Griffin said. “Future chambers have to have that in place. The chamber can’t sit back and say we will always exist. It’s important for us to quantify and to celebrate the services the chamber offers.”

The engagement in Sioux Falls is strong, though, he noted. His first mixer introduced him to new members and 40-year members. The chamber’s Young Professionals Network is approaching 1,000 members. Two busloads of people recently made the trip to Pierre for Sioux Falls Day at the Legislature.

“What stands out to me are the sheer number of volunteers this chamber engages with,” Griffin said. “If all we do is have committee meeting after committee meeting and check boxes each month, that doesn’t create the energy we need for the future. And I see a real contagious energy with our committees. They are working committees.”

His immediate challenge is “getting the team on the same page,” from new hires to longtime ones, he said.

“The staff here are fantastic, but I do really enjoy working with people, supervising people, coaching people,” he said.

On the policy side, he points to the chamber’s advocacy for a Spanish language drivers’ test as an example of how the organization can help support workforce needs.

On the membership side, he acknowledges “you don’t just drive numbers up without programming and planning behind it.”

That includes looking at ways to offer training, especially for smaller businesses that comprise the majority of the chamber’s membership and might not have access to certain needed resources.

“The more value we provide, that creates momentum where people want to be part of what we’re doing – giving people a good return and a positive feeling when they’re making their membership investment,” he said.

“And I don’t want this to come across as negative, because it’s not, but we need a more recognizable marketing plan. So when people hear ‘chamber,’ they know what we’re doing. This chamber has been pretty modest, which is good to serve with humility, but when we celebrate the success of the chamber, we’re celebrating the success of the community.”

Want to meet Jeff Griffin? The Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting an open house from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Betty J. Ordal Conference Center inside its office at 200 N. Phillips Ave.

Editor’s note: The hours for the open house have been corrected since the article was first published.