This comes after 49 applications were received and five were identified as viable candidates. Those five were interviewed via Skype.
The two finalists are William C. Clow and Jim D. Trzinski.
The chamber has provided opportunities for interviews of the two finalists.
A decision on the position could come next week.

Today’s interview was with Trzinski, the current pastoral director of St. Paul Catholic Church in Plainfield, Wisconsin, who has been in that position since 2012. He was previously the executive director of the Waushara Chamber of Commerce in Wautoma, Wisconsin from 2010 to 2012 and for nine years was the owner of Jim Trzinski Photography. He has worked as a sales manager and fleet coordinator.
His education includes the Diocese of LaCrosse Deaconate Formation Program and the Continuing Formation Education of Diocese of LaCrosse.

What attracted you to this job?

In some ways I always thought North Carolina was a beautiful state. When I worked at H.O. Wolding Trucking I was the director of the intermodal operations where we put our trailers on train cars and Charlotte was a big hub for that particular railways.
I was privileged to come down here a couple of times to visit the Charlotte area, visit customers down in this particular area and my wife and I have been down here to visit our son a few times who is at Fort Bragg. He served in the United States Army and our daughter is in the Navy and she is stationed in Jacksonville, Florida. She quite frequently comes up to the Virginia Beach, Norfolk area to work and pick up her fleets.
I always told people when I was visiting down here this is really a Wisconsin type atmosphere without the winters.
I was also really drawn to the area here with a lot of tourism and the economic development that you have here. The Lake Gaston area is a very large area, recreational type area, and I also understand Halifax County is one of the top counties for hunting in the state of North Carolina. My wife and I are very big outdoor enthusiasts including biking. That certainly has drawn some attention to the area as well.
I think the area here has a lot of great potential for growth as I see it just spending some time here in the Roanoke Valley, that there is a lot of dimension here that could really be strengthened through a strong chamber and economic development.

What do you see as the potential for the area?

I see a lot of potential especially through the chamber here to help really support all of the work of economic development here, especially being in the same building, working hand-in-hand with that.
I see a lot of potential from my background in logistics with the corridor, the highway, interstate right through here where there’s definitely some room for industry.
I see the potential of the newly developed industrial park area that is here. I also see a lot of potential for the college that is here to help our young people.
I’ve really been impressed by some of the chamber programs that are directed towards our youth, in helping our youth that are school age to help them prepare themselves for business. I think that’s a big key when you look at a chamber that has a program that is willing to devote time to the youth because that’s our future, that’s our future business owners, our future business leaders and also that is the connection between the businesses in the area of future employees that they’re going to have.
I also see potential here to really develop tourism. I notice the area isn’t as well advertised as it could be on the interstate on things like that from a tourist standpoint. I think there’s a lot of opportunities for that, especially coming from a state where tourism is big and hunting and the outdoors, where Wisconsin really promotes the outdoor activities so I think I could bring some knowledge and some background expertise into that.

What do you want to build on what has previously been done at the chamber?

I think one of the first things to do would be to look at all the programs in general and get a little deeper feel of what’s really been working here at the chamber and what needs to be built on and what needs to be enhanced.
I go back to the youth programs and school programs. I think I have seen that there’s a few other things I see to add on to that.
I think one of the big things to really build on is the networking amongst the businesses. I come from a background of helping chambers. The past two chambers that I’ve worked on I’ve developed networking groups within the chambers.
I was the educational coordinator in our local area. I think that networking groups are a big thing that we could help to develop, to help grow the chamber, businesses and things like that and I think to also grow membership.
A lot of times we look at how some businesses look at a chamber as being a magic bullet, I’m just going to pay my chamber dues and everything’s going to fall into place where I think it’s an educational thing where we need to say, yes, the chamber can be a valuable asset, but you need to become a part of the chamber and the chamber can help educate you on how to do some things.
I also see that I could help to develop some cross marketing things with some of the businesses which I have done in the past with chambers I have worked with.

What do you do to serve these members?

The important part about it is the duty of a chamber executive director should be to be out on the pavement, to go and to really start to understand the heartbeat of the community, start to understand the needs of the people out there.
Serving can come in many various ways depending on the needs. I think sometimes we can come in with an agenda that has a set of ideas that maybe isn’t going to conform to what the area needs or what the businesses in the area are yearning for so I think to serve them would really be to understand them and also to help understand where the board is coming from as well as serving the needs of the chamber.
The board should really be a cross-representation of the businesses in the area and I think that when you look at learning about the businesses, hearing from the board of directors, I think that serving the members will vary in different ways and as the chamber grows and as the needs of the area grow I think that serving would come in different ways.

Do you see the role of a chamber president as someone who is actively trying to recruit new business and industry here?

I would see that as a definite part of it. I think that with economic development being housed in the same building here I think that the chamber and economic development have to work on it as a team.
I found it crucial when I was director of the Waushara Chamber of Commerce to actually be on the economic development committees, to know the direction they were going with, to know some of the businesses they were trying to attract to the area so that we could help them along the way. I think working together as a team we would certainly be stronger than trying to work things on a separate, individual basis.
I think communicating with the economic development program here (is key) and seeing where the chamber could help to add to the strengths of what they’re looking at.
I think the other thing with the chamber director is to be the head cheerleader, to be passionate about businesses and to really get them excited about their own area, about their own businesses and to help them with the aid of promotions, to help them with the aid of events in the area and to really again be that motivator in the business segment of the area.

What person, book or experience has inspired you the most in life?

Obviously, with my Catholic deaconate background I would say first and foremost the Bible if you were looking at a book because I think it really shows us how to live with the morals, the virtues, the integrity.
And some of the people I would say have had an influence on me, of course one, being from Wisconsin, the Packers and all that, is Vince Lombardi.
One of the things with Vince Lombardi, and I still use a lot of his quotes today, is first of all he was a man of deep faith which a lot of people don’t know.
He was passionate about what he did. He showed that passion and he lived that passion. He lived what he said he was going to do.
The other person that probably comes to mind and more from the deaconate church standpoint is Mother Teresa. She was one that lived her life with passion and dedication and I’ve really put my passion into my work.
I think that’s always evolving, too, that as I see people live with more passion in their lives you have a tendency to look at them and be attracted to them by the way live out their lives.

Why do you feel you are qualified for this job?

I think the thing I believe that I’m qualified for is truly my experiences in working in the day-to-day operations of a chamber.
With the Waushara chamber I was the director for three years full-time and I was able to see all of the different aspects of the chamber and work with chamber members on all their challenges and all their goals.
I was also able to grow that chamber by about 40 percent over the three years that I was there.
There’s still a lot of new programs which are still going today which I’m still very excited about.
Some of the things I started at the chamber, such as the networking groups, have actually expanded in those areas.
I started a music in the park venue which expanded to a lot of different things.
I started different events in the chamber. We tried what we called a sportsman's triathlon.
It was different types of things that I was able to do working as the director of the chamber and also in the Waupaca area, previous to that, to work my way up through the entire board of directors to become the president of that particular organization.
I think my track record and the experience I have in actually being a director for a number of years and seeing all the challenges helps me to understand the role in the chamber and makes me feel I really have the qualification level to have the position.