The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
RMBL bewildered by chamber giving up 40 percent of summer contacts
by Mark Reaman
The Crested Butte-Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce has decided to discontinue its presence at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) in Gothic during the summer. The move came as a surprise to RMBL officials, who felt the partnership was very effective, especially since a large percentage of summer visitor contact has come from the Gothic site.
Basically, RMBL provided space for the chamber at the RMBL visitor center and the salary of the information specialist position was split. Each entity paid about $3,000. The arrangement began in 2014 when then-chamber director Dan Marshal signed a three-year agreement with RMBL.
“The main concern of the chamber board at this time is that we are contributing to an hourly wage at the RMBL visitor center that is $4 more an hour than what we currently pay our year-round employees,” explained chamber executive director Eliza Cress. “That hourly wage is also $3 more than what was originally agreed upon in 2014. The chamber board was also never privy to this partnership with RMBL when it began in 2014. The chamber director at that time did not get the partnership approved by the chamber board.”
Visitor contacts at the RMBL site totaled 16,241 last summer between June and September. The majority of summer season chamber contacts were conducted at the main Crested Butte Visitors Center at the Four-way Stop, where 18,657 people came in. Up at the Mt. Crested Butte Chamber location at the Transit Center, 3,914 people were directly helped at the chamber desk.
“RMBL will continue running programs independently. There has been some confusion about how the contract has been executed since it was originally drawn up by Dano when he was still the chamber director,” said Cress. “The contract originally from 2014 was something the board was not comfortable continuing. The chamber board, recently under new leadership, is considering how to continue to collaborate with RMBL and their summer efforts in the future.”
RMBL’s executive director Ian Billick is perplexed by the decision, given the success of the numbers with the chamber visitor contacts.
“Whether you are a restaurant owner who wants to get information about your business out, or a resident who wants to manage backcountry impacts by helping visitors find bathrooms or trails, it’s unfortunate to see the chamber give up 40 percent of their face-to-face summer public contacts,” Billick said. “And because RMBL provided free space and paid half the costs of the chamber employees, those were highly cost-effective contacts.
“Because of the heavy tourist summer impacts, RMBL will continue the program, though with a different emphasis,” Billick continued. “But it’s sad to lose a win-win partnership, it will reduce our capacity to support tourism in other ways, and it’s a symptom that the community is struggling to implement an effective summer tourism strategy.”
The RMBL Visitor Center will open June 9 and run through September 30 and will be open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
