Munroe leaves Chamber for national job

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

When Susan Munroe became president and CEO of the Van Wert Area Chamber of Commerce in September 2011, the Chamber was struggling: membership was down, programs were stagnant, and finances were more than a little shaky.

“I was in a position of first having to rebuild relationships and to foster and encourage new growth,” Munroe said of her first months in office.

Today, Chamber membership is up 70 percent over that period, programs have increased and are more vibrant than ever before, and finances are stable, with the Chamber preparing to burn the mortgage on the downtown building it purchased under Munroe’s leadership several years ago.

Program development has exceeded all expectations. Every program has shown growth, with the former Home Show transitioned into the Biz Expo and Taste of Van Wert County event that has sold out both its original venue of Elks Lodge 1197 and its current venue, Wassenberg Art Center.

“We just took it and evolved it,” Munroe said, but is quick to add that it takes a team effort to get major change accomplished. “When I say ‘we’, it’s not me, it’s been our board of directors, our executive board, our chairs: they’ve been our stakeholders, our supporters, and part of this progress.”

And it’s not just the Home Show that has grown over the past seven years. The Chamber Annual Dinner had to be moved from Willow Bend Country Club to Wassenberg because of ticket demand, while the Chamber’s Leadership Program has more than doubled in class size under Munroe’s leadership.

But the program Munroe is proudest of is Leadercast, the national speakers event the Chamber began sponsoring five years ago — a program the Chamber at first thought was too ambitious for the local organization.

“We took a scouting team consisting of Cindy Hurless, Matt Braun, (then economic development director) Cindy Leis, and Jon Bagley to Defiance to see their Leadercast program,” Munroe said, noting that, after seeing that program, one of the other scouting team members looked at her and said: “we’re going to do this and do it so much better.”

The program has been wildly successful, with a packed house every year at its venue, LifeHouse Church.

The Chamber has also become more of an advocate for economic development and change, something Munroe said fits in well with the Chamber’s mission, and is supported by its organization as a 501(c)(6) entity.

In fact, it is the Chamber’s growing support of alternative energy, wind and solar, that led to her new position. While then-economic director Nancy Bowen was the first advocate for wind energy development in Van Wert County, turnover in the development office led to the Chamber becoming the county’s largest advocate for alternative energy development.

It’s a role that Munroe also embraced, supported by her board, even though it has led to pushback from those opposed to further wind energy development in the county.

But Munroe said the pushback only accelerated her personal growth, while testifying on behalf of wind energy at the state level gave her a platform to support alternative energy and promote its development across Ohio, not just in Van Wert County.

The local Chamber CEO said she feels that, in partnership with her boards over the years, she has helped the Chamber evolve into the organization it is today.

“I don’t know what your typical grandfather’s Chamber is, but I don’t think we’re it anymore,” Munroe said. “We have evolved to meet our Chamber’s needs — not (just) today, but tomorrow as well.”

She also said it has been the Chamber board’s support and focus that has allowed that to happen.

“We have had the fortitude to be laser-focused on our mission and not waver,” Munroe said. “Our leadership at the Chamber keeps me focused.”

While Munroe is saddened to see the opposition to wind energy here — especially since wind energy is the biggest economic development opportunity for the county — she noted that solar energy development is replacing wind as a possible development focus, which should benefit a number of local organizations, including Crestview and Lincolnview school districts.

Munroe said renewable energy is still important to Van Wert County, and Ohio as a whole, noting that young people and many companies like renewable energy, and that wind energy has been a “game changer” for Lincolnview and Crestview.

She did note she feels Van Wert County, with its location, its current alternative energy infrastructure, its industrial parks, and megasite development, could be one of the best prepared among Ohio’s rural counties to take advantage of new development opportunities, if political and development leaders get on board and support future opportunities.

Munroe said she wants the best for Van Wert County and hopes that local leadership will, in future, embrace changes and opportunities that come to the county, but also quoted something she heard years ago: “change is inevitable; progress is optional.”

Current Chamber Board Chairman Leah Treece praised Munroe for her leadership of the organization.

“During her seven years as our Chamber of Commerce CEO, Susan has produced not only an increase in membership, but also an increase in program involvement and added benefits,” Treece noted. “She has worked hard and passionately to ensure our Chamber is working to fulfill its mission to ‘aggressively promote the interests of the business community’.”

Munroe said that, while she’s proud of how far the local Chamber has come, it’s time now to move on to a new challenge. The Chamber president/CEO, who will be leaving that position, effective July 17, to become director of economic growth and engagement, a newly-created position under the aegis of the national Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy initiative.

Although the organization is headquartered in San Francisco, California, Munroe will be based here in Van Wert.

“I’ll be traveling all around the country working with different chambers, economic development groups, and development stakeholders with wind and solar development in their area,” Munroe said of her new job. “What an incredible opportunity for something I’ve grown to believe in and love.”

Treece noted that a search committee is being formed to find Munroe’s replacement, while adding that Office Manager Erika Wise will handle the day-to-day operations until a new CEO is hired. Those interested in the position can send resumes via email at chamber@vanwertchamber.comor mailed to Van Wert Area Chamber of Commerce, 118 N. Washington St., Van Wert, OH 45891, through Friday, July 20.