Report: Carol Burdette to Join Chamber as Interim CEO

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

The Anderson Area Chamber of Commerce has reportedly offered the position of interim Chief Executive Officer to retiring United Way of Anderson CEO Carol Burdette. While the paperwork has not been completed, the deal is in motion.

The Chamber has been without a CEO since this summer when the board of directors accepted the resignation of CEO Pam Christopher, and is now down to a single employee, Vice President of Operations Brandi Noles Greer.

Update:

The Anderson Area Chamber of Commerce Board sent an email to chamber members late Friday after the Anderson Observer story was published.

The email stated the “board has been working diligently over the last two months with our contracted accounting firm to prepare the forms for filing” to restore the organization’s non-profit status and that “the necessary steps required in this process are nearly completed.”

The email also confirmed that Carol Burdette has been named ineterm CEO during the search for a new leader, and that she wil begin work at the chamber “before the end of the year.”

In May, the board’s executive committee received information suggesting that the Chamber’s nonprofit status may have been revoked because certain required filings had not been submitted to the IRS, which led to Christopher’s departure. More here.

It is unclear whether the chamber has reestablished its non-profit status.

Questions to the board from the Anderson Observer have gone unanswered.

Founded in 1903, the Chamber of Commerce has a rich history in Anderson. The original board included names of families still active in the area: F. G. Brown, R. S. Ligon, S.M. Moore, J.J. Fretwell, W.F. Cox, J.M. Sullivan, G.M. Tolly, W.R. Osborne, R.C. Laughlin, R.S. Hill, H.H. Watkins and G.W. Evans.

In the early days the chamber was a political as well as economic force, endorsing candidates and offering classes on how to run for public office, six-week programs on starting a local business and other long-term educational efforts.

It was a powerful organization and often led economic development efforts in the county.

Publishing giant and former U.S. Sen. Wilton Hall was active in the chamber, which he saw as a critical organization. Hall said in 1939:

"We are not members of the Chamber of Commerce because Anderson owes us something. Anderson owes us nothing. Has it not given us fire and police protection, good schools and churches, nicely paved streets and sidewalks, a public library, and a neighborly, friendly community in which we earn our livelihood? It has done this. And in return for what Anderson has done for us we become the debtor - we owe this city something, and your presence in the Chamber of Commerce reflects a sincere, earnest desire to discharge your obligations to this splendid community.”

Over the decades the chamber expanded to serve all of Anderson County, and shifted many of its practices, but still has the stated mission of helping businesses succeed. But the chamber’s economic development role has continued to erode in the last 40 years and its board, half of which is almost made up of members who do not live in Anderson County, has shifted in focus away from local leadership and those with deep generational roots in Anderson.

The chamber is at a crossroads, and decisions made in the next few months will chart the course for the organization, and its relevance, moving forward.

This story is developing…

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