‘Did you resign or were you fired?’

Last week the Chamber of Commerce sent an email to members saying the Chief Operating Officer, Tammy Thurow, had submitted her resignation. The email went to area media except for one newspaper, this one. It came to us from other media.

Shortly after that, we got an email from Ms. Thurow saying she was available for an interview at our convenience. As luck would have it, our convenience was right then.

“It’s funny,” Thurow said, “the email said the Chamber was too focused on tourism and not enough on economic development. Economic development is exactly what tourism is! Look, I’m Chamber trained. I’ve taken the courses and seminars and spent my working life dealing with problems Chambers of Commerce find themselves in.

“I have no conflict of interest – I’m not a business owner looking to increase my share of attention, publicity or revenue. I was hired to do a job, had the background and training to do it, and went about doing it.

“When I was hired sixteen months ago, the Eureka Springs Chamber was broken. Membership was down, record keeping was not great, people who were dead were listed on the rolls, and the membership list was on a spreadsheet when a database was far more effective.

“So I changed it. I was told if I could find money to make changes, I should make them. I found the money. Events weren’t the best, but festivals are suffering everywhere. We could work with that, we could improve on that. We tried a new approach always looking for benefits for all the people of Eureka Springs. We rebranded with a fresh, inclusive outlook.

“I reached out to people in the community and listened to what they had to say. ‘How would you resolve this’ is a question I asked people who came into the office. They had thought about it, knew what a Chamber could and should do, and were grateful to have someone who paid attention to them.

“Engagement had been missing, and we provided it. More than a hundred names were added to the rolls. We could no longer be the Chamber of the past, we had to support all members in our community, all members of our community.

“It was imperative to bring this Chamber back into the Northwest Arkansas fold since the Eureka Springs Chamber had the reputation of being the hole in the donut. So I networked, contacted people I’ve known for years in NWA, and truly felt great things were happening. I had exceptional relationships with bank presidents, the mayor, the CAPC, commissioners and city employees and people all over the region who had an interest in our success. I knew this would work and that great things were about to happen for Eureka Springs.”

Which begs the question, what happened?

She laughed, then sighed. “Who knows? I was obstructed, my authority was diminished, I was told not to go to meetings. They didn’t want me out and about. I was grounded.”

But why? By whom? Who had more authority than you?

“Let’s just say I am not ever going to apologize for being a strong woman. Everything is a process, and I’m personally and perfectly fine with all of it, I’m a community servant and happy to be one.

“But I’ve got to tell you, as soon as that press release went out I started getting texts from all over Northwest Arkansas saying, ‘WTF?’ and “You lasted over there longer than I thought anyone would.’ The funny thing is, our board didn’t even know about this. Only select members of the executive committee knew.”

One last question – were you fired or did you resign?

“I was told I wasn’t a good fit and that if I didn’t resign I would be fired. I resigned. I had an agreement with the executive committee to say I was pursuing other business opportunities. They broke that agreement within two hours of the press release. Wonder why you didn’t get the press release?”