PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce has made “tremendous progress” in its transition from a tourism and marketing organization to a business support group, chamber members were told.
Chamber Executive Director Marc Abshire on Wednesday presented a glowing status report on the chamber’s long-range strategic plan, which was adopted in July 2016.
“I guess the message here is I think you can be proud of your chamber of commerce,” Abshire said in a “State of the Chamber” address at the Port Angeles Red Lion Hotel.
“I also want you to know that we’re not even close to being done yet. We’ve got so much work to do. So you can feel good about that.”
The four goals outlined in the chamber’s strategic plan are to become a sustainable organization, engage businesses, bring value to the community and foster economic development.
In the 19 months since the plan was adopted, the chamber has made progress in 13 of 16 topic areas within those four main pillars, said Jim Haguewood, chair of the chamber’s strategy committee.
“Tremendous progress has been made,” Haguewood said.
Abshire was hired as executive director of the chamber in January 2016 as it was shifting from tourism and marketing to a business-focused organization, Haguewood said.
The chamber once promoted tourism on behalf of the city of Port Angeles under a $175,000 contract that ended with former Executive Director Russ Veenema’s retirement in 2015.
In Abshire’s tenure, chamber revenues have risen from $281,000 in 2016 to $311,000 in 2017 to a budgeted $390,000 this year, the audience was told.
Expenses also have increased in that time from $263,000 to $309,000 to a budgeted $377,000, according to a slide presentation.
“Financially we’re very solvent,” Abshire told about 60 attendees at the luncheon.
“We’ve got a great finance committee and we’re doing really well financially.”
The chamber had 407 members as of Wednesday, mostly small and medium-sized businesses.
“I really have as a goal to get this chamber back to where it was about 100 years ago as an economic driver for this area,” Abshire said.
“That’s going to take a little bit of work.”
Chamber Board President Robert Utz, general manager of the Red Lion Hotel, encouraged the audience to “get involved” and “get engaged” with the chamber and its events.
He said the chamber has been paying down debt since Abshire’s tenure began.
“It’s not a millstone around our neck at this point,” Utz said.
“Maybe it was at one point, but it’s a little bit more of an ankle weight.”
Abshire said he planned to publish a chamber newsletter later this year and post business metrics on the chamber’s website, www.portangeles.org.
Abshire opened his presentation by describing Port Angeles as a “functional island.”
“I think we’ll find that just about every rule that applies to island economies also applies here,” Abshire said.
“It’s just a different way of thinking. It’s something to consider.”
Abshire, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who worked as Greater Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce executive director before moving to Port Angeles, said Clallam County is catching up to urban areas in its rebound from the 2008 recession.
Based on the cyclical nature of the economy, Abshire said another recession is inevitable.
“It really isn’t all doom and gloom,” Abshire said.
“I just think it’s important to recognize that as a business economy we have to be deliberate about our planning and the decisions that we make.”
Abshire used examples from Port Townsend’s Victorian seaport to Leavenworth’s Bavarian village to highlight opportunities for Port Angeles to establish a post-timber town identity.
“One of the things that we really lack here in our community is a well-defined, well-understood and then, of course, well-communicated identity of who we are and what we are,” Abshire said.
“We haven’t really had the opportunity as a community to really define what that is.”
Abshire said the chamber has made “great strides” in fostering partnership with groups like the Clallam County Economic Development Corp., Port Angeles Business Association and Port Angeles Downtown Association.
“Rather than operate in silos, really the secret to success is working together,” Abshire said.
“We’ve started doing that quite a bit more over the last couple years, and I think that’s going to just continue.”
In other news from the meeting, chamber members voted to amend bylaws.
The changes were introduced by Kaj Ahlburg, who made the motion to approve them.
“Overall, what we did was try to clarify the bylaws,” Ahlburg said.
“There were a couple of places where they were contradictory. We tried to streamline them.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
