Byrdstown-Pickett Chamber of Commerce Director Bill Robbins will step down this week.
Robbins has served as the chamber director for over 12 years. Robbins said he started planning to retire last year.
“I really enjoyed the job, but you know it’s time to, it’s time for me to let go and do something else,” Robbins said. “My wife’s semi-retired, and we decided we need to do something else besides work, I mean work every day.”
Robbins said he will miss being an active part in helping his community grow. Robbins said one accomplishment he was proud of as a director was doubling the chamber’s membership from when he first started.
“The funding for the chamber comes from the county, and the city, and your membership fees,” Robbins said. “That’s where you get your funding from, so it’s very important to have as many members as you can. The other side of that coin is get as many people active in the chamber so they can see the benefits of what we can do and how we can grow the community, how you can help the businesses to have more of a clientele, and bring in as much as we can, sales tax and money that they get from goods and services they sell it just helps everybody.”
Robbins said part of being a good director is communicating with the city and county to see how the chamber can help. Robbins said he had plenty of experience doing that before becoming the chamber director.
“I was the first full-time mayor of Byrdstown for eight years, and I had a sense of what I wanted to see accomplished through that,” Robbins said. “You know, that helped me. I worked closely with the chamber then, so when I walked in here, I had a clear perspective of what needed to happen.”
Robbins said he hopes he has been a service to the community. Robbins said his advice for the next director is to continue the growth of the chamber.
“Grow the chamber the best you can and serve as many activities as you can to help grow the chamber membership and the benefits for them,” Robbins said. “Just take it and run, as might as well and tell you take it and run.”
Robbins will be replaces by Brian Arms.
