PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend Marine Trades Association is on course for a growth spurt, association President Rick Petrykowski told Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce members Monday.
The association of maritime workers, businesses and nonprofit groups has launched a marketing effort to “enhance the value for our membership by applying more effort into bringing businesses in from the outside” while maintaining its local base, Petrykowski said.
“We’re at a really easily accessible spot,” Petrykowski told an audience of about 50 at the Port Townsend Elks Lodge.
“We’re at the turning point before you go out to the straits. We’re close to Canada, and we’re in a beautiful location, out of a metropolis.
“People are pretty much friendly here, and I think it has everything we need to be successful.”
The maritime trades association began as a small group of boat builders who wanted to open the lines of communications with the Port of Port Townsend and the local business community.
It has grown into 50-member organization with 12 business affiliates and 26 nonvoting, non-dues-paying members.
“We’re a diverse cross section of dedicated men and women who run businesses in the East Jefferson County marine trades,” said Petrykowski, co-owner of Taku Marine in the Port of Port Townsend.
The association provides a “collective voice” for those who work in marine trades, he added.
This year, the association added nonprofit groups such as the Northwest Maritime Center and Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding to its roster.
“It’s pretty active and it’s getting better,” Petrykowski said.
At a January members’ retreat, the board revamped its procedures to become more efficient and mapped out a marketing plan.
“We’re trying to reach out with this new marketing campaign to Vancouver [B.C.], over to Victoria, down the I-5 to Olympia, possibly into Oregon,” Petrykowski said.
“Those are targeted markets.”
The association plans to launch a new website before Port Townsend’s Wooden Boat Festival in early September.
“We came up with trying to try out new things, such as social media and a more powerful website in terms of what’s out there now,” he said.
Petrykowski described the association’s three-year-old website at www.ptmta.org as “pretty static.”
“It wasn’t getting many hits, so we’re trying to get it more interactive and accessible,” he said.
High on Petrykowski’s wish list is a study that would provide demographic information about the people who sail into Port Townsend.
“A direct measure of the expenditures related to the vessels that we work on would be a great aid for us,” he said.
“It’s a dream.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.