By Linda Kor The Holbrook Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors is anticipating some changes to the organization in the coming fiscal year as the city considers whether to discontinue the existing memorandum of understanding it has with the chamber. The agreement has allowed for Kathleen Smith, the city’s community events coordinator, to also act as the chamber’s executive director, assisting the chamber organization with its daily activities and annual events such as Wild West Days and the Christmas Parade of Lights. In a meeting of the executive board held Jan. 8, the board discussed what impact that change could have on the chamber organization. If the decision is made by the city council to discontinue the agreement, Smith would take over the city’s annual events, leaving the chamber in charge of seeking sponsorships and organizing vendors for those events. While this would create a better opportunity for the chamber to focus on promoting business members throughout the year and building memberships, it would also mean that the chamber would no longer oversee events that board members have worked hard to promote. In addition, if Smith completely takes over the events as part of her duties, her department would also receive the lodgers tax funds, meaning that the city would no longer allocate funds to the chamber. While lodgers tax funds are used strictly for funding community events, the agreement with the city provided the full-time services of Smith, saving the chamber the cost of a full-time employee. According to Chamber President Yvonne Larson, if Smith should no longer provide services for the chamber, the city may consider providing the chamber some funding through a civic membership in the chamber. Those funds could, in turn, be utilized to hire a part-time employee to handle most of the needs of the chamber that board members themselves could not address. “Kathleen would not completely move away from the chamber, but she does have other responsibilities that she needs to address as a city employee,” explained Larson. “We have a vision of more business endeavors, and we need a clear separation of what’s done by a city employee and what needs to be done for the chamber,” she added. To emphasize that point, Larson went on to explain that the chamber is working on a membership drive, offering local businesses the opportunity to take part in a multi-tiered membership that will cater to their specific needs. By being able to provide additional services to increase membership, more funds would be available to hire a part-time employee for more hours. For Smith’s part, the change would allow her to promote the city as a whole. “(City Manager) Ray Alley wants the chamber to be OK with the outcome. Having to answer to so many people, I just wasn’t sure who was my boss anymore and was having trouble sorting out priorities,” explained Smith, adding that she will continue to serve the chamber by taking calls for the chamber, and handling reporting and elections. Chamber Vice President Steve Gallegos said his main concern was that all the success that the chamber has been building upon would begin to falter. “I felt we’ve come so far from a small event to a big event with Wild West Days. It’s been growing so well that I’m nervous it will fall back. But there is still a lot of gray area to work through,” he said. The final decision on defining Smith’s role and the disbursement of lodgers tax funds will be determined by the city council as part of the budget process. In other business, the board approved the purchase of 250 membership decals from Allegra for $247.72.