The Polk County Chamber of Commerce was recently recognized by the Georgia Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (GACCE) on a monthly briefing to Chamber CEO’s around the state. On March 17, Polk County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Blair Elrod, presented her Community COVID-19 Response Plan to her board after the governor’s afternoon press conference on March 13. 

The plan presented was a three-pronged approach to help Polk County small businesses weather the storm. The overall purpose of the plan was to engage local entities in providing support to residents and community businesses in responding to COVID-19. The first prong was to establish an essential hub for flow of accurate and beneficial information for the community and businesses. To accomplish this goal Elrod set up an online album of topics on the Chamber’s Facebook page asking for information from citizens.

“This approach was extremely helpful in the initial days of our response plan. Community members poured in to tell us where you could find toilet paper, which restaurants were open and give educational ideas for those at home with students,” Elrod said.

The launch was so successful it also met prong two, a place for businesses to communicate to the public the services they were offering.

“People are more cautious than ever before and rightfully so. We wanted to provide a platform where businesses could explain the extra steps, they were taking to keep the public safe,” she added.

Steps such as available hand sanitizer, periodic wipe-downs of frequently used surfaces, distancing measures and curbside pick-up among others.

The final prong was to provide a collection of services, guidance and products to improve businesses’ ability to respond to the economic consequences of COVID-19. To date, the Polk County Chamber has provided over 47 different sources of assistance for the business community alone.

A small sampling includes the Small Business Administration Business Guide, CDC Business Recommendations & Guidelines, IRS Updates, GDOL Unemployment Filing Information, free webinars, podcasts and more.

“It is of upmost importance to me that I give Polk County businesses every tool possible to be successful, especially now. These resources can be the difference in closing the doors or keeping them open and in that, the difference in a Polk County citizen having a job or not. I take that very seriously,” Elrod emphasized. 

The plan went into effect on March 18 and Elrod has been working twelve to eighteen-hour days since, working into the early hours of the morning.

“Like many, I am inundated with information from the federal, state and local levels. It is my job to filter through it all and communicate to the community in a timely and effective manner, and that takes time. A good part of my day is sitting in on teleconferences and reading very long and detailed e-mails. The environment that we find ourselves in demands prompt responses. Any delay in information can be detrimental,” Elrod added.

However, when asked about the recognition for the Chamber’s response to COVID-19, it wasn’t the honor that Elrod was most proud, “for me this is reassurance that I am providing our business community with every tool, resource and opportunity that I possibly can to safeguard their survival.”

“We are a very small Chamber compared to the many around the state. We are a Chamber of one employee and many others are operating with six to ten full-time staff members. Even though I am an employee of one, my job is to give every business owner the same opportunity as the business owner being serviced by the six to ten Chamber employees a few counties over. Our businesses are just as important as those  thirty miles away. “