Chamber gets manager

Scott Swanson

Of The New Era

Sweet Home’s new Chamber of Commerce manager has never worked for a chamber but she’s got plenty of ideas to help Sweet Home’s business develop.

Michelle Anderson started work Monday as executive director at the chamber after being selected to replace Carli Erickson, who stepped down from the chamber position last spring due to health needs. Erickson continues to work for the Sweet Home Economic Development Group as an executive assistant, after splitting her time between the two organizations.

Anderson, 42, brings a background in office management and administration to the chamber, as well as having earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology last year from Oregon State University. She’s currently working on a master’s in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati for “personal reasons,” she said.

She has lived in Sweet Home for five years after moving from Mobile, Ala., where she’d spent most of her life, to marry Ken Anderson, a longtime Sweet Home resident.

“I can talk with a strong southern accent when I want to,” she joked.

She and Ken have a “blended family” of five children: Jordan, 8; Nathaniel, 9; Blake, 11; Chance 12 and Judah, also 12, and the only girl. They met on-line on eHarmony.com.

“We were one of their success stories,” she said. “They offered to let us do a commercial for them but with a blended family of five kids we have custody of, we decided not to.”

Her husband works as a salesman at Sunbelt Rentals, she said.

Anderson said she was interested in the chamber before her new job opened up.

“Having been in Sweet Home for five years, and wanting to raise our kids here, I wanted to get involved,” she said. “I had made several calls to the chamber over the years regarding ideas I had.”

She said she has several goals, one of which is to work to attract larger businesses to Sweet Home.

“We’ve had a lot of smaller businesses go by the wayside,” she said. “I think we should have a couple of larger businesses and have smaller businesses that complement them.”

She said she also thinks Sweet Home could serve as a satellite campus for OSU or the University of Oregon.

She would like to work with local police to help business owners thwart crime.

She said her family has been victimized by petty criminals and she thinks it’s a problem for businesses in Sweet Home.

“I just feel that we should not let it take over,” she said. “It’s her, but we should not let Sweet Home go by the wayside. I feel if enough good people get involved, we don’t have to let crime take over.”

Anderson said another idea she has is to play off the publicity and good will the Oregon Jamboree has generated for Sweet Home. She’s thought of having a series of craft fairs that would culminate with the one held during the Jamboree.

“People traveling at other times of the year could come to them and they might come back to the Jamboree,” she said.

She’s also interested in having a NASCAR driver make an appearance in Sweet Home to sign autographs, something she says could be tied in with the Jamboree and draw people to town, especially those who follow the NASCAR circuit.

“I’m bold enough to call NASCAR national headquarters and find out,” she said.

She’d like to develop a sister city relationship with one or more other cities.

“I’ve got lots of ideas,” she said. “You have to run these ideas past people and get them shot down. It’s important to have ideas. It’s important to get people talking. I’m excited.”

She said the chamber board has asked her to coordinate a volunteer program. She said the chamber needs volunteers but she wants people to “get involved on the level they are most comfortable with.”

“I won’t go to someone with no interest in education about a spring training site or a university extended campus here,” she said.

She said she’d also like to establish a job-training program in Sweet Home through Linn-Benton Community College.

A major emphasis for Anderson, she said, is to change perceptions about Sweet Home.

“When you look at the Chamber of Commerce Web site, it says we’re ‘nestled’ next to the mountains,” she said. “We’re situated. There needs to be a reason to come to Sweet Home to do business here instead of being on the way to Bend or somewhere.

“We need to have reasons why people need to come here, rather than being OK with being a grocery stop on the way to somewhere else. Albany doesn’t do this. They don’t say, ‘Gee, I really hope someone comes today.’ We need to stop doing that. We need to stop being happy with the crumbs.”

She says she knows the job will be a challenge. She said the chamber board has asked her to create a volunteer program and so she’ll be looking for people willing to help.

“I have my hands full,” Anderson said. “Everything right now is pretty seat-of-the-pants. I think the big thing is to get on the phone and start making calls.

“I want to leave a legacy of good things for this community, so our children stay in this community and don’t have to leave. Sweet Home doesn’t have to be one of those small towns.”

Total
0
Share