SEQUIM — The firing of executive director Lee Lawrence was “the tip of the iceberg,” according to the latest letter from a group intending to reshape the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce.
On Thursday, the Concerned Chamber Committee, a coalition of 15 chamber members, will join the chamber’s interim board of directors at the Guy Cole Convention Center in Sequim.
Together they will move through an agenda that could produce an all-new business organization.
The road to this meeting began Jan. 18, when the chamber board abruptly fired Lawrence; later board president Joe Borden said Lawrence had behaved unprofessionally with other business people and inappropriately with women.
Soon after, Sequim Village Glass co-owner Gil Simon and Clift Mortgage loan officer Ron Ferre formed the Concerned Chamber Committee.
They and other chamber members, including John L. Scott real estate broker Linda French and Robin Ferre of Latte 101 Espresso, called the board of directors to task.
At a Feb. 12 chamber forum, the committee members demanded the directors’ resignations.
All stepped down except Hattie Dixon and Ron Gilles, and a few days later those two had installed an interim board. Sequim City Councilman and former mayor Walt Schubert is president.
One member of the old board, Sequim School District communications officer Annette Hanson, was asked to serve on the new board.
