Sandpoint Chamber Names Chief

Sandpoint’s new chamber manager is as comfortable in the pulpit as he is behind a desk.

Bill O’Connor - a former Nazarene minister, magazine writer and executive director of an Eastern Oregon chamber - is the new executive director of the Greater Sandpoint Area Chamber of Commerce.

O’Connor beat out 19 other applicants for the job.

“The thing that stuck out the most was the obvious - his experience as a chamber director,” chamber president Lisa Derr said.

Board members also were impressed with the scope of his experience and his communication skills, Derr said.

Before coming to Sandpoint, O’Connor spent four years as executive director of the La Grande/Union County, Ore., Chamber of Commerce. He also worked 3-1/2 years as office manager of the Newberg, Ore., chamber and visitor information center.

But chamber work is a second career for O’Connor, 56, an ordained elder in the Nazarene Church. The jobs have quite a few similarities, he said.

“The church is a volunteer organization, the chamber is a volunteer organization,” O’Connor said. Both depend on voluntary dues or contributions to run their programs, and both have strong emphasis on outreach.

“The difference is that I don’t get to preach sermons on Sundays,” he said.

O’Connor said the combination of a better economic climate and the beauty of the area drew him and his wife, Cheri, to Sandpoint.

His wife and their 17-year-old daughter will remain in La Grande until the school year ends. The couple also has a grown son living in Portland.

The chamber has about 725 members, a staff of eight and an annual budget of $500,000. In addition to Sandpoint, it covers the outlying communities of Ponderay, Clark Fork, Hope and Kootenai.

Chamber replaces Jonathan Coe, who left to become the Coeur d’Alene chamber’s executive director in January.