Chamber protects against collusion

This letter to the editor is in response to a letter published on Tuesday headlined “Profit or nonprofit?”

The author suggests “what happens if he [Marty Metiva; candidate for Wasilla mayor] should be elected mayor?” This infers that Metiva and his wife, Cheryl, executive director of the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce and the Wasilla Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, could possibly be culpable of providing these groups “direct access to the mayor’s office, unlike the general public.”

Dear sir:

The Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce (GWCC), like chambers of commerce throughout our nation, is a membership-driven not-for-profit organization. The seven members of the membership’s board of directors are elected by more than 460 private sector small business representatives who are part of the GWCC.

In 2004, the GWCC board of directors adopted the Carver model of governance, which explicitly holds the executive director accountable to the governance board. The GWCC actually has a contracted a bookkeeper (wholly accountable to no one but the board of directors) who submits finance reports to the board monthly.

The GWCC has two specific subcommittees made up of members who are accountable to the board of directors. One subcommittee is designed to work with the city administration on issues that are directly related to enhancing the relationship between the city of Wasilla and the small business sector of Wasilla. The other subcommittee is designed to work directly with the Wasilla City Council updating the council on the progress of the Wasilla Convention and Visitors Bureau. Neither of these subcommittees are chaired by the executive director. The chairs of these subcommittees conduct the business of the meetings and report back to the board of directors.

In conclusion, the GWCC has a very long-standing mandate to work with the city of Wasilla in order to grow and diversify the economy of Wasilla. It is a mandate that is passed on to the executive director as part of his/her job.

We hope this clarifies the role and the mechanics of governance that relate to the GWCC. We also hope that in the future the author of this referenced letter to the editor might take it upon himself to contact any of us for further clarification concerning the GWCC, its mission and its values before insinuating that there might be collusion between the executive director of the GWCC and her husband in relationship to the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce.

Chas St.George, past president

Erika Bills, president

Cheryl Combs, president-elect

GWCC