QUINCY - The Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce found a new executive director.

Board member Kristin Yanik, of East Wenatchee, officially started as head of the organization last week, replacing former executive director Tia Tracy Majer.

Yanik has served on the chamber's board since last year, an experience she said helped her settle into her new role.

"It would have been a lot harder if I just came in here straight from Wenatchee, so it helped I knew some people and knew the chamber," she said. "But I'm ready to keep learning and I'm excited to move forward and get to know more people in the community."

Yanik said she has been a fan of the Basin for as far back as she can remember. Although she grew up in Wenatchee, she visited the area many times over the years.

"I would come out here for sports a lot, and Crescent Bar is awesome. I spent a lot of time out there on the family boat growing up," she said. "I know the area and appreciate the area and I think it helps in this position to be passionate about this area."

Yanik said so far she has been busy working on local chamber events, such as the upcoming Farmer Consumer Awareness Day. But she and the board are also going to start working on longer term goals.

"We want to get people excited about living and playing in Quincy, there's so much potential here and the community is going to see that in the coming years," she commented.

She said boosting the tourism industry, not only in Quincy but in neighboring towns, is one of the things they want to tackle.

"There definitely needs to be more awareness from outside the community to have this place be known as a recreational area," Yanik said. "We want to play a more active role with the tourism board as well as other chambers."

She said one of her goals is to get the chamber of commerces from throughout central Washington to work together and start promoting each other.

"We have to make sure we are supporting other communities and that other communities are supporting us and that we're all working together," she noted.