ABOUT US
Incorporated in 1995, the Northern Ohio Area Chambers of Commerce (NOACC) was established
to provide tangible benefits of chamber membership to local businesses.
NOACC has now grown to 133 chambers of commerce--some volunteer managed, some county-wide
in scope--and some of the NOACC chambers have grown ten-fold with the adoption
of these benefits.
Click here for a short video, featuring
Vicky Hawke, Executive Director of NOACC
The genesis of NOACC started with a group of chamber executive
directors gathering on a regular basis in the late eighties. Chambers from
eastern Cuyahoga County, Lake County, Hudson and Parma were represented. The
directors met about every six weeks to discuss matters of common interest, such
as membership, programming, newsletter, and sources of revenue. These meetings
resulted in the Lake County Chambers forming a common association in 1991, and
other chambers partnering on revenue projects.
Early in 1992, Nancy Foreman (Euclid
Chamber), Ron White (Beachwood Chamber) and Mae Cisar (Solon Chamber) joint
ventured to produce a series of satellite seminars. Beachwood handled the
facility, Solon handled the printing, and Euclid handled the registration. The
work was shared, the risk was shared, and the profits were shared. In November
of 1992, Ron White of Beachwood asked Bill Ryan of Master Benefits to
participate in the development of tangible benefits of membership for the
Beachwood Chamber of Commerce. In April of 1993, Ryan presented the answer to
the Board: a Community Mutual Blue Cross Blue
Shield health insurance product that offered chamber members deep discounts off
standard street rates and standard commissions to agents. All licensed agents were eligible to represent the
product, hence attracting the immediate interest of dozens of local agents.
Within weeks the word had spread to other local chambers. They
saw the potential to compete for local members with real tangible benefits. They
saw the capability of growing their chambers through the health insurance agent
sales force. The Beachwood Chamber demonstrated no provincialism in electing to
share the product. Community Mutual agreed to extend the offering to other local
chambers.
In rapid succession Euclid, Solon, Mayfield Area, Heights
Regional, Westlake/Bay Village (West Shore), Chesterland and Warrensville/North
Randall/Highland Hills adopted the Community Mutual health insurance plan. Other
chambers, including Burton, Munroe, Stow, Tallmadge, Hudson, Nordonia Hills,
Cuyahoga Falls, Middlefield, Chardon Area, and Kent had also indicated interest
in the plan, but Community Mutual declared an underwriting moratorium on the
Beachwood plan. Some of the chambers were able to adopt lesser versions of the
original Beachwood plan.
In December of 1993 several chambers were invited to Beachwood
to discuss the feasibility of implementing a common workers' compensation group
pool plan. Euclid, Solon, and Parma had previously tried to implement such a
plan for their respective members, but had failed, due to a lack of critical
mass. Now, with eight chambers committed to the project and others vitally
interested, there was a new sense of enthusiasm.
The joint task force reviewed proposals
from Compensation Consultants, NFIB, Sheakley, PRM, and others, before settling
on the law firm of Ross, Brittain & Schonberg and their workers'
compensation service arm, Comprehensive Risk
Management (CRM.)
The May 1995 decision was based on a long-term
quality approach. Ross, Brittain & Schonberg represented direct, legal
management of claims, medical management of claims, some local influence on
which providers might be used in the eventuality of network direction in
workers' compensation claims, representative expertise involved in state
legislation, and a marketing partnership to grow the fledgling organization. In
September 1995, Alan Ross was given formal approval for the workers' compensation plan offered by the Northern
Ohio Area Chambers of Commerce (NOACC).
NOACC was incorporated by the three founding chambers:
Beachwood, Euclid and Solon, with Ken Kleinman of Kohrman, Jackson & Krantz
serving as legal counsel.
Ross, Brittain & Schonberg hosted
meetings, met with chamber boards and sent mass mailings, conducted an
aggressive direct mail/telemarketing campaign. Word of the workers' compensation
plan, the health insurance plan and the cooperative environment spread throughout Northern Ohio.
Ron White (Beachwood), NOACC's first chairperson, passed the gavel to
Nancy Foreman (Euclid). Nancy passed it to M.J. Neel (Lakewood
and then Hudson). M.J.'s successor was a Solon Chamber Board
Member, William (Bill) Russo, who served for two years. When Bill
accepted Solon's nomination for him to serve as their President, his successor
serving as the 2001 NOACC Chairperson was Vicky Hawke (Parma Area.) Vicky
served as the NOACC Treasurer for the first three years, then the Vice Chairperson
for one year prior to becoming Chairperson. When Vicky was offered and
accepted the position of Executive Director of NOACC in March 2002 the Vice
Chairperson, William (Bill) Ryan accepted the Chairmanship for the balance of the 2002
Calendar year. Tom Sudow, Executive Director for the Beachwood Chamber of Commerce was
elected to serve as the Chairperson for 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Mary Stamler, the Executive Director of the Garfield Hts Chamber of Commerce
was elected to serve as the Chairperson in 2006 and 2007.
Community Mutual has now become Anthem Blue Cross and
Blue Shield, the only Blue Cross and Blue Shield domiciled in Ohio. Anthem Life
has offered
additional discounts on group life and disability products. Even though the
discount has stabilized for group associations across the state of
Ohio, it is now applied to all the available
Anthem insurance plans from the traditional to the newly established HSA's and the Consumer Driven
Health Plans. The Anthem program has been responsible for much of the growth
and success of the NOACC Chamber partnership, as chambers across the state
have sought membership to be able to offer the high quality Anthem plans exclusively
to their members.
The Wellness Council of
Northeast Ohio was a natural
evolvement for NOACC due to Anthem's
sponsorship and focus on wellness. The council was adopted in
2000 with a weight management program that now has expanded its
offerings to a walking program and a smoking cessation program
recently. The services of a website designer to create an Internet
vehicle for NOACC led to the acceptance of Evergreen Communications to provide
website design and emarketing assistance early in NOACC's
development. Their name change to GHI Internet Services
in 2003 more accurately describes their enhanced capabilities.
The need to offer Managed Care services due to workers'
compensation legislation passed in the 1990's brought the selection of University CompCare
(UCC) as NOACC's Managed Care Organization. Ownership by the
University Hospital Health System has assured employers the highest standards of
return to work care for their employees through UCC's services.
The Board adopted a retirement administration plan in the
late 1990's, offered by Certified Pension Services and funded by licensed
investments specialists throughout Northern Ohio. This benefit was
suspended in 2005. An association plan from Airborne Express was put into
place in 2001 and has since changed to the global operation known as DHL Express.
Employee Assessment Testing services through RKS & Associates
was added to the growing list of NOACC Enhancement Benefits around the same
time.
In January of 2001 the Board adopted a discounted rate plan and
the services of a top ranked credit card processing company, Heartland Payment
Systems, providing an opportunity for even the smallest business to offer an
additional payment option. When a Payroll Processing benefit was researched in
2003, after studying multi proposals, Heartland Payment
Systems was chosen again as the best option for both chambers and their
members.
By mid 2001 the lengthy discussions
over accepting a long-term care insurance program were finalized with the Board acceptance of
CNA Life to provide an outstanding program to all NOACC members, their
families and employees. The program was improved again when the NOACC Board adopted an
arrangement with Ohio Long Term Care Brokers (OLTCB) in February 2003. OLTCB
allowed access to various group discounts offered by the top carriers in long
term care insurance. And again, local agents and brokers partnered with a
NOACC provider to offer savings to local chamber members and their
families. The Long Term Care Insurance benefit was suspended in October
2006 for reevaluation.
A small freight provider, Jarrett
Logistics was selected early for NOACC's growing list of benefits, but when the
NOACC membership grew across the state of Ohio, the need to have a different
arrangement led to the selection of CT Logistics in 2004 offering an
online freight brokerage service through a discounted co-op program.
The most recent benefit was the most timely. With the
growing popularity of HSA's (Health Savings Accounts) the HSA Easy-Pak Tool Kit
was adopted in 2006 to provide administrative assistance to HSA managers to start
the 2007 year. A product that is unique to the market and competitively
priced to facilitate client proposals by agents.
Since 1995, several benefits have been added and removed, i.e.,
business plan development, D & O Insurance, gas,
telecommunications, etc., at the recommendation of the Benefits Task Force
(BTF.) The BTF works diligently to research and negotiate the best terms and
offers that can be made available regionally to the growing NOACC
membership. Potential benefits are constantly being studied.
Besides the Benefits Task Force, chaired since it's inception
by William (Bill) Ryan as NOACC's most diligent volunteer, NOACC has
several committees that fluctuate in status and leadership. An Educational
Programming Committee, organizes seminars, speakers and showcases
for members. The Technology Committee oversees the website,
video and tech training, research, etc. The Safety Committee covers
the requirements critical to the viability and performance of the workers'
compensation plan. The Marketing Committee works with NOACC's vendors and
the member chambers to coordinate and deliver the chamber/NOACC message.
Several Task Forces have handled projects like annual meetings and events,
appreciation activities, branding initiatives and others.
With the addition of the seven
Lake County Chambers and then the 31 chambers located in the Northwest Region of
Ohio in 2000, NOACC's service area expanded regionally across the state of Ohio.
Small and large chambers of commerce look to NOACC to provide benefits
and opportunities that make their chambers more valuable to their respective
members. In March 2003, NOACC celebrated the 100th chamber joining its pool
of members. In October of 2006 NOACC Celebrated it's 10th Anniversary with Governor
Bob Taft visiting to award membership plaques to 40 chambers in
attendance.
NOACC currently offers benefits to almost
35,000 employer groups through the membership of over 120 Chambers of Commerce in
Northern Ohio. It is now the largest independent chamber association in the
United States and is prepared to meet the current and future needs of this
expanded service area and membership. The NOACC events and meetings
offer chamber leadership--both staff and volunteer--many networking and sharing
opportunities. And the main purpose of NOACC's creation, to attract and keep
members in the local chambers of commerce by offering significant discounts and rates
on benefits and businesses want and to seek opportunities for non-dues revenue generation
for chambers--has been successful. Thanks to all NOACC Volunteers and Vendors--past, current
and future.
Revised 5-5-08
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