Dear Visit Sun Valley members,
As expected, Visit Sun Valley Director Arlene Schieven spent her last day on the job with us on July 31st. We have been very fortunate to have such a savvy mountain-destination marketer lead this organization over the past five years and the Visit Sun Valley board is extremely grateful for her service.
Since Arlene announced her impending departure, the Visit Sun Valley board has been working diligently to find a quality replacement to fill her shoes. The board strongly feels that hiring an exceptional candidate to fill the position of executive director is of the utmost importance to our economy and each of your businesses! Therefore, we have expanded our search to make sure we find the right person who understands how to drive visitors to our unique destination at the sophisticated level required in today’s competitive tourism market.
Because this may take some time, we are taking the following temporary steps to make sure Ray, Aly, and the rest of the Visit Sun Valley team have the support they need to continue doing their jobs at a high level. These steps include additional day-to-day involvement from the board, consulting services from Arlene Schieven, and contracting with Sally Gillespie on a part-time basis to facilitate the search for a new director and to cover some core administrative functions. Sally has served in senior leadership roles at various nonprofits in the Valley and has over 25 years of experience performing the types of tasks we need to cover on an interim basis. She has also been on the board as a representative for the City of Sun Valley and understands the organization. She has stepped down from the board in order to be able to play an interim role as a contractor.
Ray, Aly and the Visitor Center team are excellent at their jobs and the board is very confident in their abilities and professionalism as the organization moves through this transition. Further, it is worth noting that with the biggest decisions of the Winter 16/17 campaign behind us, and a general road map for Summer 17 already in place, Ray and Aly are in a position to continue the successful practices and strategies that have been working. All of this allows us to make sure we find the best possible executive director to take this organization into the future.
Sincerely,
The Visit Sun Valley Board
Kristin Poole, Tim Silva, Olin Glenne, Diann Craven and Peter Hendricks
