PORT TOWNSEND — Heading up the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce is the dream job of nearly two dozen applicants.
Twenty-three applications for executive director of the chamber, which serves 420 members in a town of nearly 9,000 people, had been received from all over the country and Canada by Thursday, said Ryan Anderson, 2009 chamber board president-elect, who heads the recruitment effort to fill the job left open by Tim Caldwell’s resignation, which was effective a week ago.
The application period closed July 4, but because of the Fourth of July holiday, Anderson will accept those that arrive in Monday’s mail.
“I am shocked at the quality of these applicants,” Anderson said.
“We have got exceptional, exceptional applicants.”
Applications have come in from all over — Florida, Canada, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Lebanon, Ore., — as well as from places closer to home such as Sequim and Coupeville.
About half originate in Port Townsend or Jefferson County.
“Come Monday, the executive committee will start review of them,” Anderson said.
“We are going to individually review them through our point system, and sometime next week make the cut.”
Caldwell accepted a position from Puget Sound Energy to manage the electric power company’s new downtown Port Townsend office.
Past chamber president Jennifer MacGillonie, a longtime Port Townsend businesswoman, is acting as interim chamber executive director, taking care of financial and business needs.
Anderson, who is handling all applications through his office at American Marine Bank, said the chamber board hopes to have the position filled by mid-August, after conducting interviews of five finalists by July 14.
All resumes will be collected and scored by the chamber’s executive board, Anderson said.
The point system will deal with project management experience, local knowledge, computer and accounting skills, marketing and public relations skills, communications skills, entrepreneur experience and human resources management.
Pay will take qualifications into account, and be set at a fair market rate, Anderson said.
