Meet the Lake Stevens chamber’s executive director

Published 10:04 pm Sunday, November 18, 2007

LAKE STEVENS — The Greater Lake Stevens Chamber of Commerce is 26 years old this year, and it’s growing up to better represent and respond to the expanding business sector in the community east of Everett.

Last month, the chamber’s first-ever executive director started his job, providing day-to-day leadership and advocacy for the organization.

Robert Legg, 48, was raised in Lake Stevens and returned to his hometown in 1990. Since then, he’s been active in the chamber, including as a board member. He’s been an active or reserve member of the U.S. Air Force since 1978, a church leader and a former Republican candidate for state Legislature.

Legg said he’s spent most of his first month on the job talking to past chamber presidents and local leaders, getting feedback and planning for the chamber’s future. A redesigned chamber Web site is coming in the near future as well.

But a big part of the job, Legg said, is simply being the “voice and face of the chamber.”

“When city politicians and business leaders want to talk to the chamber, they have to have someone to talk to,” he said.

He said the chamber will advocate on issues of concern to the city’s businesses when needed, but it wants to develop positive relationships with the school district and the city government.

Founded in 1981, Lake Stevens’ chamber previously was led solely by volunteers elected into the officer positions. The paid staff consisted solely of a part-time secretary.

The decision to hire a paid executive director started with some controversy in late 2006 when then-president of the chamber, Laura Buell, resigned to apply for the new job. Some in the chamber questioned the need for a paid director.

When Blair Anderson, who works for developer Barclay’s North, took over as the chamber president, he slowed the decision on a paid executive director.

But the chamber is no longer small, Legg said. It includes businesses in an area stretching from Marysville to Snohomish, east Everett to Granite Falls.

“Every week we get new ones, but I know we have over 200 business members,” Legg said. But that’s only a fraction of the businesses based in and around Lake Stevens, so there’s opportunity to expand the membership more, he added.

That’s one of the priorities the chamber board has given him. Others include developing and implementing a fundraising plan and “encouraging economic growth” in the Lake Stevens area.

That last mission may be the hardest to define, but it’s at the heart of why the chamber exists, Legg said.

“We’re not a service club,” he said. “The chamber of commerce is a business organization. Our role is to help businesses grow.”

Lake Stevens is in a good position in that respect. It’s in a county with one of the fastest-growing economies in both the state and the nation. Population-wise, Lake Stevens also is one of the fastest-growing areas in the state, he said.

With those circumstances, growth is a big topic in Lake Stevens and a potentially tricky political issue for the chamber. Legg said the chamber has fully supported the city’s push to annex neighborhoods all the way around the lake. That will give the city’s residents the best way to have a voice in how the area develops further.

“I think we want healthy, planned growth. I think that’s key,” he said.

Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.