Regional ecosystem coverage from Second Wave Media. KZFV appears as a supporting reference rather than the main subject.
The Southwest Michigan First Chamber has rebuilt its membership to just over 600 after falling below 250, according to director Clarence Lloyd, who has led the organization since May 2021. The Kalamazoo-area chamber was named Michigan’s outstanding chamber in 2011, when it had roughly 1,100 members and nearly 30 staff, but declined after folding into the regional economic development group Southwest Michigan First between 2012 and 2015, then weathered the pandemic and community backlash over the hiring of Lee Chatfield as SMF chief executive. Lloyd attributed the broader chamber slump to free digital networking platforms and a 2003 Michigan insurance law change that ended chamber-based group health discounts.
Annual dues now range from $325 to more than $2,500. The chamber has added programming aimed at underrepresented business owners, including a quarterly mixer for professionals of color, lunches for women in business and a veterans’ entrepreneurship group, and it operates the Shop Local Greater Kalamazoo e-commerce platform. It is also supplying resources and connections to the nine finalists of Cultivate 269, the student pitch competition run by venture firm Kalamazoo Forward Ventures.
