Lake County Chamber: Meet the Director
Editor’s Note: What follows is a column which runs periodically in the Record-Bee introducing the directors of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce. This week’s column was penned by President Bobby Dutcher.
My great grandparents moved to Lake County in the late 1800’s and settled in Scotts Valley. My great grandmother was Lake County’s first female real estate broker, and also its first female insurance agent. I have a copy of notes she wrote for a business association in the early 1930’s. She was involved in many local groups, so I guess my involvement in the Lake County Chamber of Commerce is kind of hereditary.
Members of my family have owned and operated sawmills, ice plants, logging companies, and farms.
Like a lot of kids who grew up here, I was really ready for a change of scenery when I graduated from high school. I was too busy working in high school to get very good grades, so started college at a Community College (College of the Redwoods), then transferred to California State University in Sacramento with a major in Business Administration. After receiving my bachelor’s degree, it was back to Lake County. Like my great grandmother, I joined organizations related to the fields I was working in. I have been 2nd Vice President of the Farm Bureau, President of the Lake County Association of Realtors, and now President of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce.
As my term as President winds down, there are issues I will continue to stay involved in at any level I can. Our local youth need all of the help and support we can give them, so I plan on donating time and funds to scholarship programs, youth based organizations, and looking for ways to help in my day to day life.
Another immediate situation is saving Lake Pillsbury. Out of County special interest groups are lawyering up to destroy this lake in a misguided effort to help fish at the expense of the regions eco system. The Chamber has been involved in this for years and will continue to work toward a sensible solution.