In the past month, Amanda Brandon left her job as the executive director of the Haines Chamber of Commerce and moved over to the executive director position at the Southeast Alaska State Fair.
Over her two and a half years working at the chamber, Brandon focused on rebuilding membership, reconnecting with businesses, bringing back events and creating new ones. This process included starting a coffee and commerce event as well as reviving First Friday. She said some events, like the two car shows, were not as successful.
Before Brandon stepped in, the chamber job saw rapid turnover after Tracey Harmon left.
“It was empty in a way,” Brandon said. “It was kind of like taking notes that Tracey had left and somebody had kind of rustled up, then somebody else came, rustled those notes up and so, breadcrumbs of figuring it out.”
Her transition to running the fair has gone more smoothly, Brandon said, thanks to the institutional knowledge brought by fair employees Kayla Yeoman and Madison Harvey. Yeoman said that much of the job includes a lot of community knowledge, something that a paper trail cannot always help with.
President of the Chamber of Commerce and small business owner Travis Kukull said he joined the chamber about the same time as Brandon. At that time, he said the chamber was getting political pressure from different sides to take stances. The chamber’s goal, Kukull said, is to support small businesses, not grand schemes. Support comes from resources, marketing and “day-to-day help with their business struggles.”
Brandon said that owning a business in Haines is really hard. Her goals were to connect businesses in town with one another instead of outsourcing work as well as helping them update their technology and improve their accounting systems. Being at the helm of the chamber, Brandon realized one collective struggle businesses in Haines are facing: getting positions filled.
The board’s goals are less directed towards creating jobs and instead what the chamber can do to support current businesses. As a business owner himself, Kukull said his personal goal is focused on creating more year-round income. Currently, his peak business months are June and July, with August through October having a drop-off in revenue. Kukull said Brandon’s community outreach has done a lot to get people excited about what is happening in town. Kukull said he thought the position would be filled faster, but it is still vacant, leaving it up to the board to organize all of the Fourth of July festivities. Typically, Fourth of July events are organized by a town’s visitor center, however the Fourth of July in Haines is “community business funded,” Brandon said.
When the fair position became available, community members encouraged Brandon to apply. She said she was happy at the chamber and wasn’t looking to leave because she was excited with the direction the chamber was going. At the chamber, Brandon said she was working with “really big ideas from both sides 24/7.” Her job included looking at every opinion and making decisions that would be best for the overall business community. At the fair, her entire job is to bring fun to the community, while supporting the economy of Haines at the same time, she said.
One of the biggest challenges the fair is facing is a declining number of volunteers.
“The volunteers that make this place happen are phasing out,” Brandon said. The core group of volunteers are aging, so one of Brandon and Yeoman’s goals is to connect with the younger community, something that has been quite an obstacle. Yeoman estimates that there are close to 250 volunteers who help with the fair each year, with attendance reaching up to 2,600 people. She estimates that it takes around two weeks to set up the fairgrounds but it is very weather dependent.
This year, fairgoers can expect to see pig races twice a day Thursday through Saturday and one pig race on Sunday. This will be in addition to typical events like wearable arts, the disc golf tournament and the talent show.
“The community really shows up for the fair,” Brandon said.