Why I Am No Longer Participating in the Lead Hill-Diamond City Area Chamber of Commerce
I have thought for quite some time about whether I wanted to say anything publicly about my experience with our local Chamber of Commerce. I have no interest in suing anyone for money, even though it would be quite easy. I never wanted a payout or a public feud. What I wanted was very simple:
I wanted the Chamber to do the right thing.
Alex and I were not strangers. We had known each other personally before this change, which is part of why the situation was so disappointing to me and why I have thought about it and quietly documened for some time. I tried bringing up how I felt more than once, but was always met with excuses, accusations and approximately ZERO willingness to listen. I am not publishing our entire personal history or every disagreement we ever had. My concern here is limited to what happened once personal religious judgments appeared to affect the treatment of my business through an organization I had paid to join.
I joined the Lead Hill-Diamond City Area Chamber of Commerce in good faith and remained a paying member into my second year. I supported Chamber activities as often as I could and believed that membership meant being part of a local organization whose purpose was to support area businesses. My own experience was very different. The Chamber was not present for either of The Herbal-Tique openings and no invitation was responded to when I sent them. To my knowledge, no Chamber representative, or even business member has come here even once as a customer.
That alone would not have caused me to write this. I get it, people are busy. Volunteers have lives. Not every organization can attend everything…or can they? I have yet to see another businee opening that they haven’t attended, but whatever. I thought it was possible at the time that they confused the public opening to my gardens with my current business. What changed the situation for me was learning that the lack of support was not simply an oversight.
The “Witchcraft” Conversation
In May 2026, Chamber President Alex Jagneaux sent me written messages discussing her unwillingness to support my business and stating that I had “leaned into witchcraft.” I am including those messages below so nobody has to rely on my interpretation of them.
For the record, the issue for me is not whether someone personally approves of my perceived spiritual beliefs. People are free to believe whatever they wish. The issue is whether the president of a Chamber of Commerce should allow her personal religious opinions about a paying member to influence how that member and her business is treated.
That question became even more significant after I finally received the Chamber’s own bylaws. Article 2, Section 3 states that the Chamber, “in all its activities, shall be nonpartisan, non-sectional, and non-sectarian.” Those are not my rules. They are theirs.
I Never Resigned
I paid my second-year membership dues. I never requested that my membership be terminated and I never requested a refund. Yet in July I received Check #1048, marked as reimbursement of my membership.
There was another problem with the refund: the check was made payable to “Ozark Nature.” Who is Ozark Nature? They don’t know my name anymore? lol Clearly, that is not my name, and it is not the name of my business. My business is Ozarks Church of Nature, and the Chamber already had that information as it was posted on their site. Even during the time of this, “dispute?” The image below was taken on July 20, 2026.
As written, the check was not payable to a name under which I could cash or deposit it. Was that simply an administrative mistake? Was it an abbreviation someone chose without thinking? Or was removing “Church” from the name intentional, particularly given the written conversation about my alleged spiritual beliefs?
I don’t know. And I am not going to claim that I know someone else’s intent. I can only show what was written on the check and let people decide for themselves.
When I began asking why, I received different explanations. CJ told me in writing that the check was related to “a conversation with Alex.”
Then I never heard from CJ again. Which was weird, cause she was pretending to be my friend and even apologized for being a “bad friend” in our last conversation a couple days before this AND in text…..but that’s not the point of this post, so I’ll hold on to that information…for now.
In one email, Alex told me, “We aren’t terminating your membership.” However, in a follow-up email, she acknowledged that she had previously recommended refunding me and described it as a decision that had been delayed rather than recently made. Rather than paraphrase that exchange, I am publishing the correspondence below in its entirety.
Readers are welcome to read those communications and draw their own conclusions.
Then I Read Their Bylaws
This is where I became less interested in personalities and much more interested in process. The Chamber bylaws say membership is continuous, while their specific forfeiture provision addresses failure to pay annual dues. I had paid my dues. The bylaws also require the Board of Directors to meet monthly and say that rules adopted for conducting Chamber business must remain consistent with the bylaws. Most importantly in relation to the refund check, Article 6, Section 3 says:
“Expenditures shall be authorized by the Board of Directors.”
It goes on to state that no appropriation or expenditure of Chamber money shall be made or authorized except by the Board. Article 7 repeats the requirement. The Treasurer is responsible for accurate accounts and reports to the Board, and expenditures other than contractual obligations require prior Board approval. The Secretary is also charged with preserving Chamber records and recording proceedings and minutes. So I asked a very straightforward question:
Where is the Board record authorizing my refund?
I requested the meeting minutes, voting records and other records that would show how this decision was made and whether the Chamber followed its own governing rules.
Again, I am including their responses rather than telling anyone what to think about them.
If the Board properly considered and authorized the action, the records should resolve the issue easily. If it did not, that raises a very different question.
This Was Never About 50 Dollars
I want to be very clear about this. This was never about recovering my $50. I never wanted to sue the Chamber for money. I wanted to know why a local business organization I had supported appeared to treat my business differently after its president expressed religious objections to what she believed about me. I did try to share my feelings about some obvious to me changes that were going on, which are perfectly acceptable grievances and questions that anyone should be allowed to have. Those questions were not answered. Did they choose to punish me over having these feelings and questions? I can’t tell you what was going on in their mind, but what I do know is that after my next request, I received a facebook, “unfriending” from her on or about that same evening I sent my second request.
Once I received their bylaws, I wanted to know whether the organization had actually followed its own rules. That is still what I want. I believe organizations that ask local businesses for membership dues and support from the community should be willing to follow the same rules they expect their members to respect. I also believe people should be able to read the documentation for themselves. That is why I am publishing the texts, emails, check, bylaws and records requests together. Nothing here is edited into sound bites or reconstructed from memory.
These are the actual correspondence.
Since her last response, I have sent 2 more requests, clear about the information I was seeking, that according to non profit laws should be available to anyone who requests them.
And her response……. no words, just an automatically generated cancellation from their site. 🙂
Where I Go From Here
At this time, I am choosing documentation over litigation. I have no desire to spend my life in court over a Chamber membership, however I reserve the right to change my mind based on the actions of the Chamber.
I have a business to run, gardens to tend, animals to care for, people to serve, and apparently a book to write. 😂 I am, however, preserving the entire record, and I may submit the matter to the appropriate Arkansas agency so that the Chamber’s compliance with its nonprofit obligations can be reviewed independently. My purpose in publishing this is not to encourage harassment, retaliation or personal attacks against anyone involved. Please do not do that. My purpose is and has always been, transparency.
I asked privately for accountability. I gave the Chamber an opportunity to explain its actions. And now I am simply placing the documents together so the community can see what happened and decide for itself. I never wanted their money.
I only wanted them to do the right thing.
To me, the right thing would have been to hear my concerns and address THEM, not redirect it into a he said/she said. For now, those texts and other evidence of retaliations from her close associates and financial sponsors will remain in the vault. It was more than obvious she no longer wanted me there and I personally don’t like to be in places where I am not wanted, respected and appreciated. She could have followed through and I would have resigned.
And for now, I am comfortable leaving it there.