Sparks chamber chief sets goals

Three weeks into his new venture as executive director for the Sparks Chamber of Commerce, Len Stevens finds the position has plenty of responsibilities.

Stevens, a former head basketball coach at the University of Nevada, Reno from 1987-93, returned to northern Nevada after several years of coaching in Switzerland and California.

Barely settling in as executive director, Stevens already has a number of items on his agenda for immediate attention.

The chamber is an active partner in promoting and managing events such as Farmer's Market and the John Ascuaga's Nugget Best of the West Rib Cook-off and is looking into developing new activities.

Another of Steven's responsibilities is improving ways the chamber can serve its members and attracting new members.

A priority, Stevens said last week, is to keep the community abreast of political and social issues and act as a third-party facilitator between local and state governments and the community.

"Our responsibility is to gain as much knowledge as we can about the potential of what could happen in our city and make people aware of those potentials," Stevens said.

One of the changes is updating the chamber's web site to inform

residents of government issues.

The web site also will soon include information on topics such as new business start-up and management.

"We need to rededicate ourselves to our members," Stevens said.

"The biggest thing is for businesses to support one another and bring these businesses together."

The chamber also aids the community scholarships to area high school students are one recent example and works to attract individuals and businesses to move to Sparks.

After his stint at UNR, Stevens most recently was an assistant coach at the University of California, Irvine.

In between, he owned and operated Len's Pizza in Sparks.

Deciding that he had enough of coaching, he began searching for a new endeavor.

Although he had little idea what that would be, he knew his family wanted to return to the Reno-Sparks area.

From there, finding the position of executive director was just a twist of fate.

Stevens stumbled upon the opening of the executive director position at the chamber.

Although this is an entirely new field for him, Stevens found in research that the skills required for the job are similar to that he needed as a coach.

"I went to Barnes and Noble and started reading books on it.What I found out is that I was very compatible with what this job requires," he said.

Being an executive director involves strong work relationships with a variety of individuals and organizations the same situations faced by a coach.

Stevens will enlist the help of others who have experience in the position.

One is chamber office manager Lynn Tackman, a veteran of 15 years within the organization who has helped him get acclimated in his role.

Stevens said Sparks is a prosperous community with such assets as the Sparks Marina and Victorian Square, but has the potential to do even better.

To accomplish this he noted that all aspects of the community must become a large family.

"If we're going to be a really outstanding community, there needs to be relationship of togetherness," he said.