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Debbie Stambaugh melds the efforts of what were once four chambers of commerce.
By AMY WIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 5, 2001
ST. PETE BEACH -- Debbie Stambaugh found her niche amid the warmth of beach folks.
Last summer, as a board member for the Gulf Beaches Chamber of Commerce, she went to the Treasure Island City Commission to seek a permit for the chamber's Taste of the Beaches event.
Mayor Leon Atkinson welcomed her to the meeting with a hug, and other commissioners also warmly greeted her. At that point, Stambaugh decided to make a much larger commitment to the chamber.
"I love this atmosphere. I love that everybody hugs," said Stambaugh, who left her job in marketing at The Pier in St. Petersburg shortly after that meeting to become executive director of the chamber. She is based in the St. Pete Beach office.
"This is home for me," she said. "I've got sand in my shoes."
The beaches chamber was formed in 1997, the byproduct of merging four chambers that lined the beaches, each promoting its own city. At first, members were skeptical and feared their businesses wouldn't get as much help from a united chamber.
When Stambaugh was hired, she was the fourth executive director in six months. Since then, she has become the face of the chamber, bringing credibility and stability to the group.
Today the chamber's 1,100 members are more receptive to the idea of working together. The chamber also has an 80 percent member retention rate."We've now gotten back to where we should've been in the beginning," said Stambaugh, 46, who lives in St. Pete Beach. She sees her job as "putting heads in beds," luring tourists who visit local businesses and pay the county tourist taxes. Stambaugh also sees the business owners' perspective from the trenches, as she and her husband, Bob, own Silas' Steakhouse in St. Pete Beach.
Now that she and the chamber board have made the chamber -- formed from fragmented, small-town business groups -- into a formidable force on the beaches, Stambaugh said her next goal is to get the cities themselves more involved in supporting the chamber.
"I live, breathe and eat this job," she said.
Name: Debbie Stambaugh
Job: Executive director, Gulf Beaches of Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce
Background: Stambaugh grew up in Pinellas County and graduated from Seminole High School, St. Petersburg Junior College and the University of South Florida, where she received a bachelor's degree in accounting. She lives in St. Pete Beach and about 10 yeas ago joined the board at the chamber, then known as the St. Petersburg Beach Chamber of Commerce. She was on the board when it merged with three other beach chambers. Stambaugh is married with one daughter and three stepdaughters.
Goals: "The priority, obviously, for the beaches is to make us a premiere resort destination so we can continue to be one of the top places people come for vacationing."