Moses Lake chamber hopes to lead growth

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce's new president hopes to continue the growth started by his predecessors.

Mark Fancher takes the presidency from Debbie Doran-Martinez during the chamber's annual banquet, taking place Thursday at the Pillar Rock Grill, located at 1373 Road F.2 N.E., in Moses Lake, beginning at 6 p.m.

The banquet is also the annual meeting for the chamber, Executive Director Bev Shuford said.

Tickets are $40 and includes a buffet menu. The event is open to the public, but has limited seating. To order tickets, people are asked to call the chamber office at 509-765-7888.

Association of Washington Business Vice President of Governmental Affairs Gary Chandler is the guest speaker at the banquet.

"I can't think of a better speaker who knows what's going on in our area than Gary regarding business," Shuford said. "That's what we're here for."

Fancher and Doran-Martinez have both been in Moses Lake for about 28 years. Doran-Martinez has served on the chamber board for five years; Fancher enters his third year.

"We had a great year; we had lots of stuff on our agenda, most of which we have seen to fruition," Doran-Martinez said. "There's still a few things we're working on."

She believes the biggest thing is working with other community entities to implement the plan presented by Destination Development, Inc., which recently presented to the Moses Lake City Council its marketing and branding plan to present the city as the water sports capital of the United States.

Fancher agreed, and said the plan is the number one thing on the chamber's plate.

"But also hopefully helping with the bridge between all of the governmental entities so their relationships can hopefully get stronger, working together to build this community," he said. "There's a lot of things on the plate for this community. We have an opportunity to rise to the top or sag in the middle, and hopefully we rise to the top."

As president-elect, Fancher echoed Doran-Martinez's sentiments and said he is excited about the opportunity to lead the organization.

"I think we made a lot of progress this year, and my theme is keeping the progress in motion," Fancher said.

Fancher pointed to the changes made under Doran-Martinez's regime, including the expansion of hours at the chamber office, and its being open on Saturday.

"My goal is to keep us moving toward the top," he said. "This community is probably going to see industrial and commercial growth like it's never seen in the next few years. The chamber has an opportunity to hopefully make it a good transition for that growth. I want to see us be the leaders and make sure this growth happens in a positive, upbeat way."

Fancher said he has watched other communities fail to keep up with their growth, and the growth fizzles.

Doran-Martinez said the growth is one of the reasons the chamber implemented a new dues structure, to enable the organization to grow with its members.

With some exceptions, most members pay their dues relative to their full-time employee count.

"Before, we had a member who would join when he only had two employees, and now he's got 22, and he still pays the same as when he did before, and that just wasn't working for us," Doran-Martinez said. "The bigger the entity becomes, the more need for us to do more things for them here in the office, so we needed to grow as our members do."

The chamber also implemented its educational event, the Chamber Day at Big Bend Community College, holding one free informational session a month to members at the college, Doran-Martinez said. Fancher expects the program to continue.