New Chamber Leader Keeps Pace

Chris Schnug will hit the ground running as incoming chairwoman of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce.

She will also hit it swimming. And cycling.

But more importantly for the organization’s 2,200 members, the triathlete-accountant takes over today with an understanding of their needs and a determination that the chamber meets them.

Three-quarters of the organization’s members employ fewer than 10 workers, she said. They are immersed in running their own shops, so they want the chamber to be their advocate in local government, and in the Legislature.

They also want the best information the chamber can provide on how to improve their business, Schnug said.

And they want it now.

“Ten years ago, the ‘when’ expectation was a lot longer,” she said. “We have restructured so that information goes through the organization more quickly.”

She said refocusing the chamber has been a combined effort of member leadership and President Rich Hadley, who was hired two years ago.

Schnug will become the first woman to chair the influential business group when she is installed today at the chamber’s annual meeting. Her active participation with the chamber began in 1981, when she joined the taxation committee. State officials were considering implementation of an income tax, and committee members were charged with assessing its potential impact on business.

Voters subsequently rejected the tax, but Schnug said she got a tremendous boost from that political undertaking.

A few years later, she stepped up to the chamber’s executive committee, becoming one of the first women to do so. Schnug attributes the breakthrough to the increasing number of women who were entering the business world, and to the chamber’s recognition that more leadership diversity was called for.

More than one-third of the businesses that belong to the chamber are women-owned, and women occupy almost half of the committee and other volunteer positions.

“There’s been a tremendous shifting of demographics,” she said.

Schnug has continued to work on tax issues, including the chamber’s opposition to a proposed city business and occupation tax that would have underwritten the hiring of more police officers.

Outgoing chamber chairman Larry Stanley, who co-chaired the anti-tax drive with Schnug, gives her much of the credit for the success.

“She’s one of those you really do enjoy working with,” he said, praising Schnug’s common sense and analytical mind.

Schnug, Stanley added, kicked off the chamber’s recent planning retreat in high gear, and gave another kick when the 80 participants began to lose focus.

“She has enthusiasm that is unbounded,” he said.

“She has a great ability to motivate people,” agreed Hadley.

Besides her duties on the executive committee, he noted, Schnug also worked on the chamber task force lobbying for retention of Fairchild Air Force Base.

She has also chaired the committee coordinating the chamber’s work with Spokane’s community centers.

That experience, Schnug said, opened her eyes to the vitality of grassroots organizing efforts.

She said one of her own goals is to instill a sense of Spokane as a neighborhood.

“I don’t think it’s altruistic,” Schnug said. “I think it’s doable.”

Schnug has been doing since her childhood in Toppenish where, she said, “I was princess of the rodeo. All that stuff.”

She started her college career at Brigham Young University because her father was a devout Mormon and admirer of the church’s patriarch.

He also wanted his daughter to become a lawyer.

“My interest was it had great skiing,” Schnug confessed.

But the Utah school was too far from home, she said, and the University of Washington, her next stop, was too big.

After a stop at the University of Hawaii, selected for its political science offerings, Schnug finally ended up at Gonzaga University.

“That was a wonderful match,” she said.

Not only did she get her degree in political science and English in 1966, she met her husband, George “Ted” Schnug.

She spent the next decade raising three sons - Ed, Matt, and Jody - and volunteering with such organizations as the League of Women Voters and the Junior League.

But Schnug said she never forgot the advice of her father, who had insisted she have a profession. She returned to Gonzaga to obtain an accounting degree.

In 1979. she was hired by McFarland & Alton, which took the then unusual step of allowing her to work on a flex-time schedule.

She is now a shareholder in the firm, one of the two largest in Spokane. Her 18th floor, corner office commands a 180-degree view of the city’s west and north sides.

Among the standard professional publications on a rack behind her desk is “Triathlete”, a magazine for contestants in the running-swimming-cycling competitions.

A longtime Bloomsday runner, Schnug said she made the jump to the triathlon last year. When a team she had put together to compete in the Coeur d’Alene event fell apart, she said she decided to try the 1.5 kilometer swim, 40-kilometer bicycle race and 10-kilometer run herself.

“For me, it’s been a very important, developmental step,” she said. “It was an easy thing to do.”

Schnug said she is now training for the longer Troika race held in Spokane each August. Her training regimen varies from two hours a day during the summer to six hours a week in the winter.

The time demands require tight scheduling, but her success as a late-blooming athlete has reaffirmed her determination to make the most of her abilities.

“Does there need to be an end in terms of finding out what your capacities are,” Schnug said. “For me, the answer is no.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: These sidebars appeared with the story: CHAMBER ESTABLISHES GOALS FOR 1996 President Rich Hadley said the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce has established six goals for the next year: Increase local government accountability through restructuring or reform. If a proposal to consolidate city and county governments fails, then officials should look at combining as many departments as possible. Implementation of the Growth Management Act. The organization wants a hand in determining urban boundaries. Business retention and expansion, a task that will be performed in conjunction with the Spokane Area Economic Development Council. “That is something that is extremely important to everyone,” he said. Elevate the chamber’s leadership on transportation issues. Hadley said the chamber needs to set priorities and develop a cohesive plan. Improve work force readiness. Among the possibilities are school district instruction on job-preparedness, and setting up a student employment program. Greater emphasis on developing quality leadership. Hadley said the chamber may conduct a series of visits to other communities to see how they have successfully resolved some of the issues facing Spokane.

PAST LEADERS Recent chairmen of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce: 1989-1990 - Ric Odegard, Seafirst Bank. 1990-1991 - J. Kingsley Novell, Alloy Trailers. 1991-1992 - Paul Redmond, Washington Water Power Co. 1992-1993 - Michael K. Murphy, Central Pre-Mix. 1993-1994 - John ‘Steve’ Herbison, URM Stores. 1994-1995 - Larry Stanley, Empire Bolt and Screw.