After eight years as president and chief executive officer of the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce, Sheila Bowen is retiring on Dec. 31.

Kevin Gartland, clearly a people-person, will replace her, taking the title of executive director.

Bowen said that she has enjoyed getting to know so many people and having such an engaged role in the community.

“It’s one job where you’re out there every single day,” Bowen said. “To me that’s been the most enjoyable and the people I’ve had a chance to interact with.”

During her tenure, Bowen has increased chamber membership from 330 members in 2002 to 590 at the peak last year. Current membership is holding at 521.

“We have become a whole lot more visible,” Bowen said. “We’re the catalyst for the community between members and the city, between members and other members, and between members and the county.”

Bowen plans to travel with her husband for 18 months from Vancouver, Canada, to southern California.

GARTLAND comes to Whitefish from Tampa Bay, Fla., where he has lived since 1996. He is leaving a job doing Internet marketing for a company that creates Web-based estimating software for auto body shops.

Prior to that, he worked as interim president of the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce in Clearwater, Fla.

For a number of years he worked at a newspaper in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., where he started a chamber of commerce.

“Chamber work allows me to do all the things I love to do,” Gartland said. “I can do special events, work with the media and work with small business people. Small businesses are the backbone of America and they’re hard-pressed to make a living. They are the bread and butter of this country.”

But Whitefish is not Gartland’s first introduction to Montana. He lived in Helena in the early 1980s with his wife. The couple have three grown children.

“What made [Kevin] our primary pick is that he comes from a like community,” Bowen said. One of Gartland’s first goals with the chamber is to figure out a way to go to chamber members, instead of asking members to fit meetings at the chamber into their schedules, Bowen added.

OVER THE NExt few weeks, Gartland has scheduled about 60 meetings to get to know community members in Whitefish.

“Small towns are my thing,” Gartland said. “I like to know people walking down the street.

“My first goal is to get to know the community, to settle in and work with the board to understand what their priorities are and putting the action plans together.”

The new executive director said he’s proud to be coming to a community with a strong chamber of commerce. He said the chamber is built on a solid foundation and has reserves in the bank. Instead of rebuilding the organization, he can focus on moving forward and creating business opportunities in the community.

Additional goals that Gartland holds are to improve the local economy and promote businesses, to improve the quality of life in the area.

“Business people join the chamber of commerce because they want to see the community improve,” he said. “They want to make a living and they want their children to make a living.”

The Whitefish Chamber of Commerce is holding a “Hail and Farewell” reception at the Whitefish Community Center (121 2nd Street) on Dec. 2 so that community members may meet Gartland and bid Bowen a happy retirement.

Spirits and appetizers will be served at the event, which begins at 4 p.m. and ends at 6:30 p.m.

Reporter K.J. Hascall may be reached at 758-4439 or by e-mail at kjhascall@dailyinterlake.com