By Brandon T. Bisceglia
Orange Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kathy Converse Charbonneau has announced that she will be leaving her post running the day-to-day operations of the organization effective Aug. 4.
Converse Charbonneau said that she made the decision to leave because she had accomplished her most important goals for the chamber to “get it back on track” and wanted to pursue other opportunities in her specialty of marketing.
Chamber President Ted Novicki said the organization would miss Converse Charbonneau and was better off because of her work.
“She has left the Orange Chamber of Commerce with a tremendous foundation that can continue to be built upon for the new executive director, the chamber and the community as a whole,” he said. “We at the Chamber of Commerce wish Kathy all of the best in her future endeavors and know that this is not goodbye but thank you for all you have done.”
She started at the chamber in 2021 in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a period during which businesses locally and across the country were trying to function through lockdowns, reduced customer traffic and supply chain snarls.
“The chamber had been basically almost shut down for the year of the pandemic because the businesses were struggling,” she recalled. “The last thing we wanted to do was put more of a burden with pushing them to pay chamber memberships when they were just struggling to survive.”
Since chambers of commerce generally pay for their operations primarily through dues paid by member businesses, Converse Charbonneau’s biggest task of trying to raise money without putting more pressure on businesses meant that she had to explore less conventional options.
The project that best represented this effort – and that she called “closest to my heart” – was the Bicentennial Bricks installation around the gazebo at High Plains Community Center.
“We have residents with bricks there. We have businesses with bricks there. We have nonprofits with bricks. It’s just such a great testament to Orange residents and businesses past and present,” she said. “I think it captures the personality of Orange.”
Throughout her tenure, Converse Charbonneau stressed that the chamber’s role should be about more than networking opportunities and technical support for businesses, but about making connections through all aspects of the community.
Though the bricks project was perhaps the most visible of this type of community effort, it was hardly the only one.
“Kathy instantly put her unique stamp on the chamber and created a plethora of value adding programs and events that closely tied the chamber to the community (and vice versa), including a community center brick project, a leads generating group, a community event at the Paugusett Club and a community arts project which is still on display at High Plains,” Novicki said.
Converse Charbonneau, who grew up in Orange, said she thinks it’s important for the town to have an independent chamber of commerce that reflects the community’s unique qualities.
It’s not an idle question. Even prior to the pandemic there were suggestions that the chamber might merge with one in a surrounding town. Next door in West Haven, that’s exactly what happened as the pandemic eased; that town is now being represented by the Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“We’ve been approached by other surrounding chambers, and we feel like we would just be swallowed up and lose our identity,” she said. “I think it’s greatest strength is being able to be part of the community fabric and bring the businesses, nonprofits and residents together.”
The chamber’s Board of Directors is expected to announce their pick for a new executive director soon. Novicki said more than 70 candidates had applied.
In the meantime, Converse Charbonneau said she intends to help her successor get situated – a luxury she didn’t have – and remain involved in the Orange community.