Too Much of a Good Thing?

It's always difficult to get a real sense of reality when consuming information from what passes as today's news media. Does the reporter have an agenda? Is s/he sophisticated enough to understand the nuance of the situation? Can they ferret out a hidden agenda within a story? 

But, taking a story from Tuesday's Coos Bay World at face value, there are a lot of plates in the air in the wake of the recent departure of the community's longtime Destination Marketing Organization CEO.

From the outset of the editorial, we couldn't be more pleased that our friend (and departing DMO CEO) Katherine Hoppe is being described as being talented, high energy, social media savvy and pragmatic. We also couldn't be more startled that some members of the Board think hiring an ad agency to replace her would be a good idea.

How, after eight years of the Kat, could anyone think such a thing?

Or, is it that they believe she is simply irreplaceable...and their only alternative is an agency?

Not having been a fly on that Boardroom wall, I'll never know.

What I do know is that the Editorial Board at The World is bang on when it says, "the real challenge facing the Visitor and Convention Bureau Board right now isn’t finding a new director, it’s finding its focus."

For, without said focus, they'll never find the next Kat. And the community deserves no less.

Comments

[Liz Dodge]

I have worked with Kat over the past decade, and have never found a more dedicated, hard working, inspirational person in my 17 years with Oregon Coast Magazine. They will be hard pressed to find anyone you comes close to having their heart in their work as Kat did. I wish Kat the best, and I hope the Board someday realizes what they have lost.