Hanover
Rebman on Friday tendered her resignation as executive director of the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce, effective Feb. 3, telling the Chamber’s board she has acquired a company in the tourism industry.
“I had an opportunity to take all that I learned (at the Chamber), along with the opportunity to apply that which I know to the fast-paced, exciting travel field,” Rebman explained in an email to the Valley News. Rebman said she would remain available to the Chamber on an as-needed basis to ensure a smooth transition.
A former director of alumni events at Dartmouth College and meetings organizer with an organization representing state legislatures, Rebman joined the Hanover Chamber in 2006 and is credited with transforming the 350-member alliance from a typical small-town business booster group into an organization that offers innovative programs, education seminars and marketing help for members.
Rebman’s resignation marks the second turnover in recent months at the top of an Upper Valley chamber of commerce: In October, Plainfield dairy farmer Rob Taylor was named executive director of the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, succeeding longtime head Paul Boucher, who retired.
“I’m excited for her but I’m not happy about it,” said Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin, a member of the Hanover Chamber board, who said Rebman was “creative and developed lots of ideas for members to market themselves. … But I absolutely understand her decision when the opportunity presented itself to acquire her own business.”
Under Rebman, the Hanover Chamber launched such programs as Meet-Up Upper Valley, designed to facilitate members’ employees to make connections with each other through sponsored events such as glass-blowing workshops, seasonal cooking classes and birding expeditions; D’Perks, which makes available special discounts on products and services from Hanover businesses to employees of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth College; and the Hanover Area Farmers Market.
“I’ve worked with many (chambers of commerce) and Janet really made ours stand out,” said Jennifer Sargent, general manager of Six South Street Hotel in Hanover. “She had a whole different approach about building partnerships and relationships. She realized that no one wants the old sales pitch any longer.”
Sargent said one example of Rebman’s atypical approach was a Meet-Up Upper Valley “bourbon education event” that took participants through different bourbon distillation processes, advised participants on how to pair bourbon with food, and offered bourbon tasting.
“It’s a great way to meet people,” Sargent said of the events.
The Chamber also stepped up initiatives to motivate the public to spend money at Hanover businesses by organizing the town’s annual summer “sidewalk sales extravaganza” and December “celebrate the season” events, including “restaurant week,” which featured special menus offered by town restaurants, and “soup tasting with a purpose,” in which ticket purchasers sample different soups offered by Hanover business with proceeds benefiting area nonprofits.
The Hanover Chamber, however, recently parted ways with the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce over co-organizing the annual HomeLife Expo at Leverone Field House at Dartmouth. The March event is now run by the Lebanon Chamber alone.
Rebman said she acquired a “receptive tour operator” business that “creates tourism experiences” for visitors who are customers of tour operators. “It is a wholesale business so it is generally behind the scenes helping various travel groups to get unique experiences in local areas,” she said in her email.
Rebman said she will reveal the name of the company “when the ink dries on the paper.”
The Hanover Chamber had total revenue of $241,000 in 2015, the most recent year information is available, according to its 990 filing with the IRS, down from $245,300 in 2014. After expenses, the Chamber reported income of about $2,000, down from about $18,000 the prior year. Assets in 2015 inched up to a total of $198,000 from $196,000 in 2014.
Rebman’s 2015 Chamber pay totaled $107,000, including $83,000 in salary and $24,000 in “other compensation,” according to the filing.
John Lippman can be reached at 603-727-3219 or jlippman@vnews.com.
