that urges consumers to support GSDBA-member business because in doing so, they’ll be rewarding LGBT and allied business owners who share their values. “Like it or not, in the world we live in, money talks,” says Blake. “Nine billion dollars of LGBT buying power can say a lot. But we need to ask, who are we giving our power to?” She believes that generating mindfulness among
LGBT and allied consumers via a GSDBA-branded “visibility campaign” will lead to a San Diego con- sumer marketplace where pro-equality companies, i.e., GSDBA-member businesses, will be rewarded with increased sales. “Instead of withholding our money in boycotts when someone ticks us off, now we’re using our economic power on a daily basis to further our shared values,” she adds. The program launches in February. Blake is also revitalizing the GSDBA by expand-
Science To Save The GSDBA
accurate membership information that will allow the GSDBA to grow and flourish more deftly by leveraging data about how members engage with the chamber. But a solid database is just the beginning, she says. “Once we got some incredible systems in place, I got to look at our basic business model,” says Blake. “The model was broken.” Blake has set 2018 as the year for GSDBA’s turnaround to manifest fully. She’s relying on a new model to grow the organization into one roughly double its current size in terms of membership. Her strategy to remake San Diego’s LGBT chamber of commerce is based on turning the GSDBA into a social-and-business advocacy organization. Her plan will require generous helpings of patience and political support from her board of directors. Blake says she’s confident she has the 10-member board (a more manageable number, she says, than the 15 directors that used to comprise the board) fully committed to the plan she’s spent many months researching and developing. All that’s left now is hitting the start button. “We’re ready to create a GSDBA for the next generation,” Blake tells The Rage Monthly. Adding that there’s room in her vision for the chamber’s longtime members as well as for Millennials, who more than past generations, tend to look for social responsibility as a “value adder” to any endeavor or investment. “We’ve done due diligence to understand the problems and challenges GSDBA
faces” she says. “I have a strategic plan that we’re ready to execute.” A key component of that plan is to reorient the GSDBA away from traditional chamber networking breakfasts and mixers. She aims to make the organization one where small business owners don’t just rely on small gatherings that were once used to exchange business cards and occasionally, customer referrals. In coming months and years, Blake will introduce
new programs, including an online jobs board that matches local employers in need of fresh talent with prospective new hires. The employment service won’t compete with Monster or
Indeed.com, but it will be local, LGBT-friendly and to a large degree focused on Millennials. “I want the Millennials to think, ‘GSDBA: it’s a great organization,” Blake tells The Rage Monthly. “They do great work; and it’s where I can find a place to spend my money.” That’s where another major new program comes in. Blake and crew plan to leverage the San Diego region’s estimated $9 billion in LGBT buying power toward establishing loyalty and affinity for GSDBA-member businesses among LGBT and allied consumers. In what may turn out to be a stroke of genius (or
a waste of precious chamber resources should the effort fail), Blake plans to marry buying power to the desire to do good in the community among the Millennial generation. The campaign will include advertising on billboards, online and elsewhere
ing strategic partnerships with other chambers and other business and civic organizations. Still another new program she plans to launch soon is a new referral network. “Right now, we have a group of about fifteen health-and-wellness members work- ing on our first health-and-well referral network,” says Blake, adding that GSDBA president, Jeri Muse, Ph.D connected the effort with a prestigious resource focused on LGBT health. “Working with the Fenway Institute in Boston, they have a way in which members can commit to a standard of care specifically for LGBT patients and clients.” Having first come to LGBT activisms in the
1980s when she helped build AIDS Walk and San Diego Pride, Barbra Blake ultimately went back to science and science-organization leadership. Now she’s back in LGBT leadership as GSDBA’s new CEO after serving as director of communica- tions and marketing at the UCSD Rady School of Management and as an assistant dean, also at UCSD, before that. “I guess you could say I’m both an analytical person and a people person,” she says. Blake’s analytical and management bona fides
are unquestionable. The only question remaining is whether her approach to reshaping GSDBA into an organization that has relevance in the 21st century will work. Blake, who hopes to grow GSDBA to 1000 members, says the numbers will answer that question. “Numbers don’t lie,” says Blake. “That’s the truth. Numbers will tell the story of whether we’re succeeding or not.”
For more information regarding the Greater San Diego Busi- ness Association, the organization’s many events, programs and the benefits of membership, go to
gsdba.org.
JANUARY 2016 | RAGE monthly 11
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