CAMARILLO : Executive Director of Chamber Is Fired

Camarillo Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Evie Bystrom-Herrera has been fired from her post after three years.

“I was caught absolutely without warning,” Bystrom-Herrera said Tuesday, a day after her dismissal. “I’d had a staff meeting, went out and sold a membership, came back and was told to clean out my office.”

Chamber Communications Manager Joan Kryshak will manage the chamber office until the board finds another executive director.

Although board President Douglas J. Rosecrans declined to discuss the reasons for the board’s decision, he said that since Bystrom-Herrera was hired in June, 1991, membership in the chamber has fallen by nearly 30% from 696 to 498.

The membership decline may partly reflect the recession’s impact on some businesses, Rosecrans said. But he said the chamber has not been as aggressive as it could be in recruiting new members.

“Camarillo has many businesses (that) would like to become chamber members and just need to be asked,” he said.

Bystrom-Herrera said the chamber actually had far fewer members in 1991 than the reported 696. “That’s a bogus number to begin with,” she said.

Some companies had been listed twice because they had more than one mailing address, she said, and other businesses that had been on the list were far behind in their dues.