Agoura Chamber of Commerce enjoys a new lease on life
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

The Agoura/Las Virgenes Chamber of Commerce, pushed to the brink of extinction less than two years ago because of financial problems and lagging membership, has a new a name and it might as well be "the comeback kid."

Declining morale, a depleted bank account and even accusations of rigged elections on the organization’s board of directors sent the chamber into a tailspin during 1998 and 1999. The 50-year-old chamber closed out the millennium by firing its executive director and shutting down its offices in Agoura Hills.

Today, the health of the chamber has never been better, said Board President Alex Soteras, speaking at a recent mixer announcing the addition of the community of Oak Park into the fold. The chamber’s new name is the Agoura/Oak Park/Las Virgenes Chamber of Commerce and all told, it has 500 members, the most ever.

"There’s new excitement and new energy," said Don Dusablon, a chamber board member who gives credit for the turnaround to the 40-year-old Soteras.

Struggling with its identity and trying to stay afloat—former Board President Ed Kurtz once donated his own money to keep the organization in the black—the Agoura Chamber considered merging with neighboring groups in Thousand Oaks and Calabasas, but chose instead to stick it out on its own.

The acquisition of Oak Park comes on the heels of several, calculated moves that succeeded in breathing new life into the chamber.

"We’re getting new blood," said Soteras, who began serving as president in January. "Oak Park is an area that’s been ignored for a long time, but they’ve been involved for a long time in the community … There are positive, dynamic people here who want to serve."

Soteras’ mother, Pat Soteras, became the chamber’s new executive director last year and hired two part-time employees to help her boost membership. Soteras, meanwhile, made an art form out of the "mixer," those regular, after-work gatherings amid drinks and hors d’oeuvres in which new members are invited to attend and exisiting members are encouraged to network.

Special functions for the purpose of honoring local teachers, policemen and firemen added new luster to the chamber’s image. Hints that the Oak Park community was being courted came last December when the chamber invited several Oak Park Unified School District teachers to receive awards