Greene County Chamber & Tourism wants to hire a fulltime executive director, with the county, the city of Jefferson, and Grow Greene County sharing the cost with the Chamber.
The proposal was part of a presentation Michael Reese, interim Chamber director, and Chamber president Mike Holden made to the board of supervisors Monday.
Reese is currently being paid $1,500 a month to provide services to the Chamber, although he said he spends 40-50 hours a week on “Chamber-related topics.” He said that starting in April, that $1,500 monthly payment will go toward the salary of a tourism and events coordinator. Some hours will also be taken from the office manager to put toward the new hire.
Membership dues and event revenue are not enough to cover staff, he said. The Chamber has done “great things with tourism” in the past year, bringing $50,000 in spending to the county in just two of the bus tours that came. The Chamber received none of that money. “We need to figure out a way we can keep doing what we’re doing well, but find a way we can get compensated at the end of the deal,” Reese said.
He then segued to proposing the Chamber hire an executive director with a salary in the $40-$45,000 salary range.
Current Chamber president Mike Holden was with Reese. He suggested the county and the Chamber collaborate, with the city of Jefferson putting more money into Tier One of the hotel/motel tax fund. (Tier One is automatically allocated to the Chamber for promoting tourism.) At that point the group would ask Grow Greene County for funding. “I know they’ve stated they won’t pay for any salaries or wages, but I think there’s one position they’re direct beneficiaries of, and that’s at the Chamber,” Holden said.
Supervisor John Muir bluntly asked about the Chamber’s track record. Reese answered that the Chamber has proven itself as able to promote tourism, and he thinks the Chamber does well at promoting businesses, too. He suggested a sunset be placed on county funding, “and then if we have a sunset, and we’re not fulfilling what our obligations are, we’re not carrying our weight, I’d recommend you light a match and burn the whole damn thing down.”
Muir told Reese and Holden, “there are a lot of pieces to this, and I’d prefer to be the last piece. There’s a lot of collaboration to happen if its going to be successful.”
Reese then asked the supervisors to at least provide a letter of support for the concept of collaborating on funding the position. The letter would not be a commitment, but could be used to help secure the other partners.
Muir said the supervisors would consider doing that. No other action was taken.
