The Risk Hidden in Plain Sight

Protecting Institutional Knowledge Before It Walks Out the Door

 

Chambers of commerce are relationship-driven organizations. Much of their effectiveness comes from people who know members, understand local dynamics and can navigate complex networks of partners and stakeholders.

But that strength can also be a vulnerability.

In some cases, critical operational knowledge lives in individual staff members’ heads: how events are run, how invoices are processed, who owns key relationships and how decisions get made behind the scenes. When someone leaves, that knowledge often leaves with them.

The result is a risk that shows up during transitions. Operations are slowed, relationships are disrupted and new staff face steep learning curves.

Some chambers are now addressing this by building more intentional systems for documentation and cross-training.

Start with Continuity, Not Compliance

Whether called standard operating procedures (SOPs), playbooks or operations guides, chambers are capturing critical knowledge in shared systems so work can continue when staff are out, roles change or responsibilities shift.

“Over time, you begin to recognize the risk, not only during staff transitions, but also during vacations, illnesses, leadership changes or even day-to-day operational bottlenecks,” said Magen Samyn, IOM, president and CEO of the Bay Area Chamber (Mich.).

“Most chambers delay documentation because everyone is busy, but that is exactly why it matters,” said Dave Jochum, IOM, CCE, ACE, president and COO of the Longview Chamber of Commerce in Texas. “Waiting until a transition occurs is usually too late.”

For the Longview Chamber, the work began incrementally. The chamber first identified recurring operational processes, mission-critical responsibilities and areas where only one person knew how something worked.

“From there, we focused on creating practical documentation that staff would use rather than building overly complicated manuals that would sit untouched,” he said. “The goal was operational continuity, not bureaucracy.”

That distinction is important. The most effective documentation systems are practical, usable and shaped by the employees closest to the work.

“Staff ownership is critical,” Jochum said. “They are the ones best equipped to document the process, identify gaps and improve workflows,” he said. “Our role in leadership has been to create the expectation, provide structure and reinforce why the process matters.”

Like in Longview, staff at the Bay Area Chamber built their chamber’s playbook. Samyn acknowledged the year-long process was time-consuming, but said employees are grateful the documentation exists.

At the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce in Colorado, leaders encouraged staff to document processes in whatever format felt easiest to them, whether through written drafts, screenshots, videos or recorded walkthroughs before refining them into formal SOPs.

“The point was simply to get started,” said Dave Suss, the chamber’s senior vice president of finance and operations. “They didn’t have to have everything exactly lined up.”

That flexibility helped the organization gain momentum. Suss said it took roughly six months for departments to develop an initial set of SOPs and closer to a year to document and test the most critical workflows.

Make SOPs Accessible and Easy to Use

Continuity documentation varies widely by chamber size, staffing structure and technology. The common thread is access. It only works if staff know where to find information and trust that it is current.

At the Bay Area Chamber, documentation is presented as a playbook and saved in a shared drive. Files are organized by department and include chapters covering onboarding steps, detailed operational procedures and recurring program timelines.

The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce houses its SOPs in a centralized SharePoint site accessible across departments. The system also allows for ongoing refinement. Staff can leave comments directly within SOPs to flag issues, suggest updates or share real-time insights, rather than waiting for formal revisions.

In Longview, Jochum said the chamber relies on centralized storage, organizing information by functional area and role responsibility. “The expectation is that every document has a home on our server and not on someone’s desktop,” he said.

In addition to documenting operational processes, the chamber also captures the “why” behind certain processes. “Context matters,” said Jochum.

Looking ahead, Longview sees opportunities to incorporate AI tools, a searchable knowledge base and more structured onboarding systems.

Test the Work Before a Transition

Documentation alone doesn’t ensure continuity. As Jochum put it, the real test is whether another person could step in and continue the work with minimal disruption.

“We’ll jokingly say that an SOP should be clear enough to ‘hand to your mom,’” said Suss. The goal is to remove acronyms, assumptions and insider language so the process holds up even for someone unfamiliar with it.

To ensure that standard is met, chambers test their documentation. The Denver Metro Chamber conducts annual reviews of its SOPs, with updates made throughout the year as workflows change. The Bay Area Chamber takes a more hands-on approach, assigning staff unfamiliar tasks specifically to expose gaps, unclear steps or outdated instructions.

“We intentionally want to poke holes through it,” Samyn said. “If there’s a dead end or something missing, we want to find it before someone else does.”

Samyn added that she expects the playbook to be updated at a minimum twice a year, though it could certainly happen more often. “We also ask staff to update documentation in real time whenever processes change.”

All together, these practices build operational resilience.

Capture the Context Behind the Checklist

A significant portion of what keeps operations running smoothly is relational.

Jochum said one of the biggest surprises was how much unwritten “community knowledge” exists within chamber operations, including sponsor expectations, historical relationships, political sensitivities and informal organizational context.

As a result, chambers are beginning to document not just how things are done, but also who knows what.

For example, the Bay Area Chamber maintains shared vendor and contact lists that supplement information already stored in its CRM.

The Denver Metro Chamber uses Salesforce account teams to document which staff members hold relationships with specific member organizations, vendors and partners. The system especially helps newer employees quickly identify internal contacts who can assist with member communication, problem-solving or relationship management.

“We have really wonderful younger and newer people coming into our workforce, and they don’t necessarily know who within the organization already has relationships they can leverage,” he said.

Rather than forcing new staff to rediscover those connections independently, chambers are increasingly building systems that make institutional knowledge more visible and accessible across teams.

Build for the Member Experience

Chambers investing in process documentation are not just preparing for turnover. They are building organizations that can adapt, retain knowledge and continue serving members and communities effectively.

That requires leaders to treat documentation as an ongoing management practice, not a one-time cleanup project. Processes change. Programs evolve. Staff roles shift. The chambers seeing the most value are the ones that make updating, testing and using documentation part of regular operations.

As Suss explained, documentation is ultimately about delivering consistent results for members.

“We're doing it because the impact is on our end customer,” he said. “We're not trying to catch lightning, we're trying to generate consistently excellent results. So that's why you do this.”

 

Explore Further:

SOP and Checklist Samples from the Longview Chamber of Commerce (Texas)

 

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