The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Executive director Loughman resigns
The board of the Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association voted 8-2 Tuesday morning to change their bylaws to reflect requests made by the Local Marketing District board, which is the primary funder of the TA. TA executive director Pamela Loughman submitted her letter of resignation to the TA board at the same meeting.
“Unrelated to today’s board meeting, I did submit a letter of resignation to pursue other professional opportunities when my current contract concludes,” Loughman said. Her contract ends December 31.
The new bylaws will essentially pare down the board to seven members appointed by the Local Marketing District board (LMD). The LMD is currently comprised of the Gunnison County Commissioners. The new bylaw revisions also eliminate the layers of TA board bureaucracy that included not just a large 11-member board of directors but also an advisory board and an executive board.
As part of the decision, the TA agreed to ask the LMD to expand its three-person board to include an elected representative from each county municipality: Gunnison, Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte.
The LMD will appoint the board of the TA with the idea that the seven-member board will be comprised of people having substantial marketing and business experience and will always include the marketing executive from Crested Butte Mountain Resort and Western State Colorado University.
The shake-up move from current LMD members Paula Swenson, Jonathan Houck and Phil Chamberland arose with several ideas in mind. The process actually started in 2011 when the TA commissioned a study that determined there was a need for less fractionalization within the county and better organization. The county commissioners last year commissioned another study by the group Managing for Results which came to similar conclusions. So a TA subcommittee was formed this fall to draft new bylaws that would define the formation of a new organization. This TA subcommittee worked with county advisors to develop this new set of bylaws that was passed Tuesday.
The commissioners desired a more efficient and accountable TA that takes into consideration expert guidance, an in-valley marketing element, better alignment between the TA and the LMD and a move away from requiring Chamber of Commerce membership to be a TA member. The idea was to bring more bang for the county’s marketing buck. And the marketing bucks from the LMD can be substantial, with more than $1 million expected this year.
According to TA board members Scott Clarkson and Jeff Moffett, the changes were made cooperatively in the spirit of the new direction for a more marketing-driven TA board with more measurable results.
“The TA board is very aware that there needs to be balance from both the north and south ends of the valley on both the TA and on the LMD,” said TA board member Scott Clarkson. “The new board will be made up of people with marketing and business decision-making experience. They will rigorously review ideas researched by the staff and then implement them.”
“It will be run more like a business meeting and include holding public meetings for more transparency,” added TA board member Jeff Moffett. “We all agreed the north-south balance on the boards was important.”
Clarkson said the TA has followed through with the requests made by the LMD and he hopes they will consider expanding their board. “The TA has changed as a result of this vote. It is a new organization but built on the base of the old one.”
“We have a meeting next week and we’ll talk about the transition with Pamela,” Clarkson continued. “We’re not sure of the process we will use to replace her. It might be good to use her in a transition phase on a contract basis.”
The next step in the big picture for the TA is to meet with the LMD for ratification from them of the new direction.
