PORT TOWNSEND — Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce board members wished departing chamber General Manager Tim Caldwell well on Tuesday, and plan to take their time finding the right successor.
While losing a key chamber manager is difficult, the chamber’s 2008 board president said it also opens a new door.
“We recognize it as an opportunity for us to move forward with an entirely new vision,” said Kim Jons, who is also Centrum marketing director.
“I’m very happy for Tim. He has poured his heart and soul into the chamber and given us so much of his life, and I really want to support him.”
Caldwell is joining Puget Sound Energy on June 30 to run the company’s new downtown Port Townsend customer service office.
Jons and 2007 chamber president Jennifer MacGillonie — a bookkeeper, business owner an innkeeper who has been on the board for six years — learned the news during a lunch meeting with Caldwell a week ago Friday.
They took the matter to the chamber’s executive board last Friday.
Although she was initially shocked by the news, MacGillonie agreed with Jons, saying, “This is going to be a huge opportunity for the chamber to get some new blood, some new energy, to go in a new direction.
She added, “I just loved working with Tim. He was the reason I joined the board.”
The executive board in learning about Caldwell’s departure “was really speaking with one voice about how much we have appreciated all of Tim’s hard work,” Jons said.
