Published May 2001

Membership, activity up
at Marysville Tulalip Chamber

By John Wolcott
Herald Business Journal Editor

What a difference eight years can make.

Over the past few years, the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce has dramatically changed its image, goals, membership, services and involvement in the business community.

In 1993, when chamber President/CEO Caldie Rogers left a six-year stint with the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce to bring her professional training, natural enthusiasm and workaholic ethic to Marysville, the chamber was deep in debt, recovering from a staffer's embezzlement. In the search for stability, there was little time or energy for new projects or membership drives.

Today's picture is totally different, the result of not only Rogers' hard work and skills but also the active involvement of its board members, who take on a multitude of business issues with a task-force approach that produces results.

"There is so much activity and energy in the chamber now, that there is even a waiting list for serving on our recently expanded 28-member board," Rogers said, explaining the turnaround by praising the directors, the membership and her mentors.

"Early in my chamber experiences in Everett, I learned from some of the county's best leaders, people like Larry Hanson and Reid Shockey, what you can do when you bring people together," Rogers said.

"When I started out, the chamber had debt four times its annual income," she said. "We practically used milk money to keep the doors open. To become financially sound and a respected voice for business at local and national levels, thanks to the active involvement of our board and membership, is an amazing rebound for us."

Finances are in order, and membership is at 350, up more than 13 percent this year, due in great part to the hard work of a new volunteer-membership staffer, Yvonne Pettit.

In another positive move, Rogers has found a stalwart office manager and assistant-for-all-things in Lowell Dudley.

In addition to providing publications about the area's attractions, education forums on business trends, business networking events and support for economic development, Rogers and the board of directors have established the chamber as a reliable source of information about zoning, planning, transportation, infrastructure, work-force and economic growth issues.

The chamber also has been involved in U.S. Chamber of Commerce activities and recently established active memberships with the Snohomish County Economic Development Council and the Association of Washington Business.

Twice, in 1997 and 2000, the chamber has partnered with the Tulalip Tribes to co-sponsor a North Snohomish County Economic Summit. Invited to the sessions were the leaders of north county's communities, school districts and businesses, coming together to explore economic issues and develop common solutions.

Other activities include an annual golf tournament that is an opportunity for publicity, membership recruiting and fund raising for the chamber, whose services now include a popular health insurance plan for members. The chamber also has offered to share its health plan with smaller chambers of commerce in the north county area.

Although the Marysville chamber has been around for 93 years, it's probably never been as robust as it is now, partly due to the energy of the chamber's leaders and members and partly to the strong economic growth in and around Marysville.

The city is now the fourth largest in the county — behind Everett, Edmonds and Lynnwood — with a population last year of 21,170 within its 10 square miles, a population that more than doubles to 43,279 when another 9 square miles of unincorporated area around Marysville are included.

The proliferation of new businesses, shopping centers, schools and subdivisions in recent years boosted the city's total assessed valuation to $1.3 billion in 2000.

Much of the strength of the chamber has come from its affiliation in 1996 with the Tulalip Tribes, the Indian nation whose reservation occupies much of the land between Marysville and Interstate 5 and Port Susan Bay. The chamber added two seats on its board for Tulalip tribal members and added Tulalip to the chamber's official name.

Last year, Cal Taylor represented the tribes as Chairman of the chamber's board of directors, a post due to be taken over this year by Janet Duffy, President and Broker of Residential Management Inc. of Marysville.

Rogers recognizes that the tribes' casino and its new 2,000-acre, multimillion-dollar business park have become a giant economic force shaping the development of Marysville and the north county area.

"One of our most exciting changes this year will be the building of a new, regional visitors information center at the business park along with a permanent chamber headquarters and meeting rooms," Rogers said.

"We expect to have more than a million people a year visiting the business park when it's completed and thousands of people at our visitors center," Rogers said. "It's a very exciting time. We have to think 'out of the box' and stretch to meet our goals. This is a coming of age for our chamber."

For more information about the chamber, visit the office at 1326 Fifth Street, Suite A-1, call 360-659-7700 or send e-mail to ChamberPro@aol.com. General membership meetings are held on the fourth Friday of each month at 7:30 a.m. at the Tulalip Casino.

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