Chairman Elect Cindy Farless (right) Welcomes Executive Director Sue Gillingham at November Board Meeting
A year ago the Coronado Chamber of Commerce was down on its heels. Membership had shrunk and revenues had dwindled to the point that the 79 year-old organization wasn’t sure it could afford to replace its executive director. “Our financials didn’t look good,” said Phil Hammett, the chamber’s chairman.
Then he learned that Sue Gillingham was interested in the job. Suddenly the dark cloud that had engulfed the chamber had a bright silver lining.
“It was like a gift,” Hammett said. “Sue has a great ability to access the needs of the chamber and has given us a foundation to go forward.”
Gillingham is a long-time resident with an extensive and diverse business background, including six years at General Dynamics, first as an information systems manager in its space division and then as a service and marketing manager in its data systems division.
Along with her husband Dave and their partners, she turned a ramshackle boarding house built over a century ago into a tony boutique hotel.
As project manager for the 1906 Lodge, she supervised the construction and collaborated with the community and the city to ensure that the new hotel reflected the building’s history. After it was completed Gillingham spent five years as the hotel’s general manager.
Not only does Gillingham understand the business world, big and small, she knows Coronado. She first came here in the late 1950s, when her father was stationed here. She came back with her husband when he was stationed here for a few years in the 1980s. In 1999 the couple built a house here and stayed.
Gillingham became active in her church, a number of community organizations, including the Islander Sports Foundation, the Coronado Historical Association and Soroptimist International.
“The chamber is lucky to have Sue,” said Rita Sarich, Executive-Director of Main Street. “With their diverse board and sound leadership the chamber will be a valuable asset to the business community,”
Gillingham sees the job as an opportunity to help businesses prosper by giving local entrepreneurs the tools to succeed. These include education, networking, and political action. After only two months on the job, she has already taken steps in each of these areas, beginning with education.
“If you’re a small business owner in Coronado or anywhere, you spend so much time just running the business and try to seek out educational opportunities,” she said.
In January the Chamber held two programs. The first focused on basic management techniques. The second on how to create a dynamic business environment through collaboration.
Gillingham plans to continue holding networking sundowners; “We’ve done well with those,” she said, but plans to “look at some other networking opportunities with the focus again on education.”
She is also exploring ways to represent the interests of the business community at city hall, something City Manager Blair King had asked her to do when she met with him.
“A strong, active chamber of commerce can benefit the city in different ways. It not only serves as voice of the business community, but can also serve as a conduit for city staff when it needs to solicit opinions and communicate with the business community,” King wrote in a e-mail.
Taking a political stand has its risks. The Chamber receives a $100,000 community grant from the city each year and that may affect how some perceive the chamber’s positions. It’s an arrangement that some have called into question.
Gillingham is well aware of the controversy. One of the first things she did was copy the actual grant from the city to “know what was agreed to and to make sure we’re doing a good job with that,” she said.
She points to a number of annual chamber events that benefit the community: holiday parade; snow camp in winter. They also hold a military ball in the spring, an awards ceremony honoring a police officer of the year, a firefighter of the year, a junior entrepreneur of the year, among others. Members receive local discounts, advertising and referrals.
Benefits aside, Gillingham believes her role is to maintain a balance between the needs of the businesses and the community. As a resident, a parent, business owner, and a volunteer, she is well positioned to do exactly that.
“I’m lucky that I know all the players here,” she said. Soon after she was hired she met with many of them – Rita Sarich of MainStreet, Janet Francis of the Coronado Visitor Center – to see ways they could work together and not duplicate each other’s efforts.
She also met with current and former chamber members to find what that they wanted from the organization. “My style is one of collaboration and listening, before I go out hard charging” she said.
Reaching out to the business community as a way to strengthen the organization’s foundation had begun before Gillingham was hired. “We held meetings every Monday to try and figure out what to do,” Hammett said. “In April the chamber board met with current and past members to see what kind of a chamber they wanted. Already, those focus meetings and hiring Gillingham have paid off. Membership is beginning to grow,” Hammett said.
