Yachats chamber names co-directors to oversee its operations as Price prepares to take city job

 

BY GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews

YACHATS – A tandem team has stepped into the breach at the Yachats Area Chamber of Commerce to fill the vacancy left by the departing executive director.

Mindy Parsons and Nichole Lippincott will collaborate to cover all things chamber as they move the organization into the future on the heels of director Bobbi Price, who begins her new job as Yachats’ city manager Dec. 1.

“I’m just going to keep the progress that Bobbi has made, the growth of it, just keep it going,” Lippincott said Monday during a joint interview with Parsons.

Lippincott will act as chamber director, meeting with business owners, recruiting new members and assisting current members with benefits while Parsons steps in as tourism director.

“I am going to be running mostly the tourism promotion side of the things, helping boost events that are going on in town, running social media, keeping kind of a hands on the website,” Parson said. “Then we’ll be collaborating to run the chamber events in Yachats.”

The chamber has a contract with the city of Yachats to operate the visitor center, which will continue to be overseen by Joan Davies.

Price, who worked 13 years at the Newport Chamber of Commerce, became the Yachats chamber’s executive director in September 2022. She revitalized the group by  rebuilding the board, adding quarterly meetings, updating its website, expanding tourism promotion, winning grants, and growing business and individual memberships from five in 2022 to 91 currently.

Lippincott and Parsons have kept a foot in the business world while also supporting their families as stay-at-home moms.

Lippincott, who grew up in Pendleton and has lived in Yachats 14 years, has a 7-year-old son and 4-year old daughter. She also does the bookkeeping for her husband’s construction company.

“So I know a lot of people in the community, I’m friends with a lot of the business owners,” she said. “To me it just kind of goes hand in hand — helping businesses with their knowledge of chamber stuff.”

Parsons is from Sitka, Alaska, grew up in eastern Washington and has lived in Yachats for 10 years. She works as a massage therapist while also being home for she and her husband’s 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.

“My top priorities are to continue the trajectory the chamber has been going,” Parsons’ said. “And I love the things we have coming up … the View the Future (Yachats Ridge) project and the net zero (resiliency) project, which focus on sustainability. Those are really exciting. I also really love the mushroom treasure hunts we have going on right now.”

• Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com