Tiffany Menke began as the Urbandale Chamber of Commerce’s executive director in June 2004. She came to Urbandale with six years of experience as the vice president of marketing and tourism for the Newton Chamber/Alliance. But while attending Grand View College, she never anticipated that one day she would be in this line of work. In fact, if it wasn’t for a rainy day while working at a Casey’s General Store, she could have gone down a completely different path.

What originally got you interested in this line of work?

That is kind of a long story. It started when I was at Grand View and one of my part-time jobs was to work at Casey’s General Store. There was something like 14 days of rain, and everyone was grumpy. There was a gentleman who came in to get a cup of coffee and I asked him, just making small talk, if he was the one who prayed for all this rain, because before then it had been a drought. We just kind of got to talking when he said I was just what he was looking for. He owned a company and was looking for someone to head up customer service. At this point I was studying photography, but I started working there, and through that, I met two people who took me further down this path. One was the head of the Jasper County Alliance and the other was the owner of Cyclone Illustrated [magazine]. I left the company I was working for to go to Cyclone Illustrated because for about a year the owner was had been trying to recruit me. Finally I ended up going, and after a year there was an opening in the [Newton] Convention and Tourism Bureau. The head of the Jasper County Alliance remembered me, and even though I had no tourism background, he asked them to interview me and give me a chance. So, this is a good example of how you never know when opportunity will present itself. Always put your best foot forward. It all started at Casey’s in Johnston.

What was the program you recently graduated from?

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce puts on an educational training program called Institute for Organizational Management. It’s a four year program held across the United States. This particular one started out in Colorado and then they outgrew that facility so they moved it out to Loyola Marymount University. We were the first class to graduate in Tucson, Ariz.

Why did you decide to get involved with the program?

I got involved when I was in Newton at the Convention and Tourism Bureau. Other chamber directors had told me how great this program was, so I gave it a shot. When I came here, everyone was really excited that I was going through the program.

What does it bring to your job?

Every year I must come back with 20 new ideas to implement within the chamber. Some of them came from the course work, but a lot of them came from networking with other chamber directors across the country. That’s probably one of the most valuable things is having the opportunity to talk to other directors who are very successful and discuss new ideas or things that worked for them. Or for that matter, things that didn’t work for them. And we still keep in touch. A lot of times if we have an idea, we’ll test it by e-mailing it out to them and asking them what they think.

How did you decide to come to the Urbandale Chamber of Commerce?

The short answer is that there was an ad in the paper. But I really credit the Institute for my interest in this line of work. My first year there was an instructor who said “If you don’t aspire to one day take over your boss’s job, you need to get out of the way.” For me, that started a thought process. I never really thought of myself as running a chamber, but that started the wheels turning of where I wanted to go.

So, what is so great about Urbandale?

It has the small-town feel. It truly is a small community with big-city amenities. We have a fantastic board of directors and we’re always looking to take the next step and we’re always looking to see what we can do to provide more benefits for our members and to the community as a whole. There is this synergy with the chamber, the city, the development corporation and the school corporation all sharing the same brand and logo. That is something that is very unique to this community: that we all work together and strive to take the next step. It’s a community that embraces change.

Are there any drawbacks to such big growth in Urbandale?

The city leaders have really planned for this growth, and as long as you plan for the growth and have that big picture, it’s not as frantic as if you’re trying to react to the growth.

After spending time in Newton, what is your reaction to what has happened there in the past year?

I think they have an exciting opportunity. The community dynamic is going to change. I grew up in Newton, and it was a primarily a white-collar and blue-collar community, and that will shift to a tourism community. They really have an opportunity to embrace change and shape what they want Newton to be for the future, and now is really the time. It is a great time for Newton.

What do you do in your free time?

I play with my three kids. We like to boat, which is probably our biggest pasttime. And we go to football games. My husband and I are big Iowa State fans.

-Jason Hancock