PORT ANGELES — An effort to merge three city business groups received another boost last week.
The Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce board of directors Friday voted unanimously — 21 of 23 board members were present — to move forward with what has become known as the PA United initiative in anticipation of the chamber’s membership making a decision by June 30.
The vote during the board’s luncheon meeting at Lake Crescent Lodge came three days after a unanimous vote of about 30 Port Angeles Business Association members — all those attending the group’s regular Tuesday breakfast meeting.
Don Roberts, past president of the business association, and Russ Veenema, chamber executive director, said Friday in separate interviews that the full memberships of each organization will be asked to vote on merging into one group.
The chamber has 490 members and the business association 71.
The same will be true for the Port Angeles Downtown Association — it has about 200 members — if that group’s board agrees to move forward with the proposal at a meeting downtown association President Bob Lumens expects will be held this week, he said Friday.
Veenema said the chamber board voted after 35 minutes of discussion and a presentation by business association member Ray Gruver and chamber President Todd Ortloff.
They have been part of a core of about 12 representatives of the three groups who have been meeting for almost four months in two-hour sessions that were facilitated by former county Economic Development Council Director Jim Haguewood.
PA United representatives have pledged to provide to the three groups a possible budget and other information on what forming a consolidated entity would entail by June 30.
The core group will hammer out those details in weekly public meetings from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays in the Smugglers Landing restaurant banquet room, 115 E. Railroad Ave.
Not a new idea
Consolidation is not a new idea to chamber board members, Veenema said.
“The chamber has been supportive of this occurring, not only these few months,” he said.
“For years, the chamber board has been wanting discussion about how business groups are structured.
“This has been great that it’s coming from several different entities.”
At the PA United meetings, a consistent theme has been the duplication of efforts and the money spent on staffing and facilities when three groups independently represent the business community and foster economic growth in the same geographic area.
The presentation Friday by Gruver and Ortloff was well-received, Veenema said.
“Overall, the board was very complimentary of how far the group has come and how much has been accomplished in the four months that these meetings have been taking place, and the board is excited to be a player and help move this along.”
Preliminary plans call for the three groups to operate under an organizational structure that would include a leadership group composed of three people each from five task force groups.
Those groups would focus on downtown-main street, promotions and marketing, government affairs, entrepreneurship and operations and business development.
“Now, we have a muddled business community voice,” Ortloff said Tuesday at the business association meeting.
“This will give us a single-focus voice that will represent a huge chunk of Clallam County.”
The downtown association, which manages parking in the city’s core, is constrained from consolidating with the other two groups because of its involvement with the Main Street program.
But the group still could participate in the new organization, Lumens has said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
