'The chamber needed a hero'

Yvonne Schloss inherited an organization with no leader or permanent location and bloated expenses when she became chairwoman of the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce board of directors in 2013.
Still, Schloss saw something she believed was worth saving.

“I felt like the crisis deserved my attention because I worried about what would happen if the town didn’t have a chamber,” Schloss said. “It would be very sad for the tourists, the visitors, the residents and the businesses.”

Schloss’ two-year term ends Jan. 29. Longboat Key Club General Manager Jeff Mayers will take over the role of chairman. The organization he will lead has long-term space, a smaller budget and a new (but familiar to many) executive director: Gail Loefgren, who previously served as president of the chamber from 1993 through early 2008.

Many chamber members knew Schloss, who owns Sunglass Optical Express on St. Armands Circle, only casually when she became the board’s chairwoman, according to Jimmy Seaton, owner of Longboat Limousine/Suncoast Sedan, who served as the board’s chairman for the two years preceding Schloss’ term.

But Schloss, a member since the 1990s, credits the chamber with helping her forge many beneficial relationships.

“She got in, rolled up her sleeves and did what needed to be done even when her business was crazy busy,” Seaton said.

One of the most pressing needs was finding space after five years of operating rent-free out of the Longboat Observer’s office. Schloss negotiated a deal to rent temporary space beginning in March 2013 at Mediterranean Plaza.

Even more pressing was the need to create a budget. She and Seaton created one, starting with a blank sheet of paper.

“One of the things I’ve always said is, it’s real easy to grow, but it’s not easy to downsize,” Seaton said. “After the recession, we found ourselves as a smaller organization but with the overhead of a big organization.”

By scrutinizing each spending item, Schloss was able to “cut the fat,” according to Seaton. For example, she negotiated the termination of a lease the chamber had on an expensive printer the chamber no longer needed.

Schloss also persuaded Loefgren to return to the chamber and her fellow board members to rehire Loefgren — even though Schloss did not know Loefgren.

Loefgren remembers receiving a voicemail from Schloss and having no idea who she was. At the time, Loefgren thought Schloss wanted advice about running the chamber and did not know she was trying to persuade her to return — which she did in September 2013.

“She was very convincing,” Loefgren said. “She kept saying how we’ve got to keep this going.”

Schloss believed based on what she knew about Loefgren’s previous leadership that Loefgren could re-establish the chamber’s committees that had slowly dissolved and focus more on community service and governmental issues — areas Schloss believed were lacking.

“She saw its needs better than anyone,” Schloss said of Loefgren. “The thing that I needed her to do was to come in and work within the budget and form committees and just bring her knowledge to the table.”

Since then, the chamber has redone its website twice, partnered with the Sarasota Convention and Business Bureau, re-established its committees and moved to a new location at the Centre Shops that’s more visible than its interim space.

In the early days of her term, Schloss was at the chamber nearly every day, although lately, the job has required fewer hours.

“She literally did every job that needed to be done,” Seaton said. “From vacuuming carpets to smiling and greeting people at Business After Hours events, cleaning windows, moving stuff, looking through checkbooks and every single other thing you can think of.”

Schloss gives credit to many others who helped revamp the organization, including Executive Assistant Victoria Jacobsen, fellow board members and the chamber’s membership.

“When push came to shove, I got my hands dirty, and once I started digging in, there were many improvements to be done, one by one,” she said. “The members were the glue that held it together.”

Loefgren said that Schloss helped to turn around the chamber simply by paying attention.

“She just started raising her hand,” Loefgren said. “The chamber needed a hero.”

Room to grow
Gail Loefgren didn’t know how many members the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce had when she

returned as executive director in 2013 because its records were not up to date.
When Loefgren spoke to the Rotary Club of Longboat Key Jan. 14, she had a number to report: The chamber has 301 members.

That’s down from its high of 625 from the boom years. But now, the chamber is planning for slower but steady growth.

“We hope to grow by 50 to 60 members per year,” Loefgren said.