Tracey Martin started work as the chamber of commerce executive director on Aug. 13 after 25 years of working in schools as a teacher and a counselor.
Tracey Martin wants to bring everyone together.
After working in classrooms for three decades, she found her way back to her hometown three years ago. She retired from teaching this past spring and began her new role as executive director of the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce on Aug. 13.
After working with students for 30 years, Martin hopes to apply what she learned in classrooms to her new role working with small businesses.
"There is so much planning that goes into teaching," she said. "I want the chamber to be just as organized."
For example, there is a large three-ring chamber binder that contains all the necessary information for planning the annual Fourth of July celebration. She picked it up to showcase how large it is and said, "I want one of these for every event we plan."
In addition to planning community events like the Fourth or the upcoming pumpkin patch ahead of Halloween, the chamber is also responsible for boosting Wrangell's small businesses.
For Martin, the way to do that is through a prosperous tourism economy.
"Tourism is going to be the lifeblood of Wrangell," she said. "Tourists come here and they love seeing a town that is filled with independent businesses. I want to keep it that way."
While Martin acknowledges the importance of the cruise ship economy, she believes there is an untapped tourism market in Wrangell: the independent traveler. She wants people to visit Wrangell not because their cruise ship is making port here, but because they are interested in what the town has to offer.
"Social media is a great way to get people to come here," she said. She hopes that by expanding Wrangell's social media footprint, there will be more interest in the island from folks who live far away.
But before she starts implementing new practices, Martin is approaching her first couple weeks on the job the way a teacher approaches the first weeks of school: She wants to figure out what her students need.
From her first job as an English teacher in the village of Nishiokoppe, in Hokkaido, Japan, to her final job teaching in the Wrangell School District, Martin looked to identify her students' strengths and find the best ways to utilize them.
The chamber's version of this, according to Martin, is a survey. This fall, Martin plans to send out a survey to all chamber members (businesses and individual supporters) to identify both helpful and hurtful policies.
"When I was a teacher, people who didn't actually spend any time in classrooms were often the ones making decisions about what happened in classrooms," she said. She hopes this ground-up understanding will not just allow her to make more informed decisions, but for the decision-making process itself to be more collective.
In addition to sending out the survey, she is also meeting with businesses individually.
From what she calls her "teacher brain" to her love of the three-ring binder, Martin is looking to take the chamber forward.
"We need to know where we're going," she said, adding that she is currently in the process of developing a five-year plan for the chamber. "We need to figure out how to grow the economy, and how to form partnerships not just with small businesses but with the borough and WCA, too."
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