The Hollister Independence Rally Committee fired executive
director Bob Beals on Monday, and board members cited a need to
find a new leader with more experience in event planning.
The Hollister Independence Rally Committee fired executive director Bob Beals on Monday, and board members cited a need to find a new leader with more experience in event planning.
The board has no immediate plans to fill the role. HIRC wants to recruit for the opening and have a new executive director within about two months, according to board Vice President Dave Ventura.
“We just looked at the position and decided we were basically going to do a restructure of the job description,” Ventura said.
The executive director runs the day-to-day operations of the HIRC office downtown and acts as the manager and organizer of the annual July 4 motorcycle rally.
Beals had been HIRC’s executive director for 16 months. He took over when former director Ellen Brown left in March 2003 to take the job as director of the Paso Robles rally. Beals, at the time a HIRC board member, volunteered for the position on an interim basis before getting hired full time five months later.
Previously, Beals had spent 20-plus years working for industrial companies on environmental- and safety-related jobs, he said.
The bearded and long-haired Beals, known for his frenzied working style, reacted with understanding Monday about the decision.
“I think they’re just trying to save money and figure out how to keep it alive,” he said.
During Beals’ time in the role, the rally nearly dissolved in early 2004 when the city couldn’t find enough cops to man the streets.
HIRC also lost money in 2003 and had to more than double its revenues in 2004 to balance its checkbook. The board hasn’t concluded whether it made or lost money this year, according to Ventura.
“It’s been very stressful,” said Beals, who has no immediate job plans.
Ventura said HIRC won’t divulge the vote tally from Thursday’s decision to fire Beals; nor does it disclose the executive director’s salary.
Office manager Helen Nelson, the only other paid employee for the largely volunteer-run nonprofit organization, will fill the void until HIRC finds a replacement, Ventura said.
“The rally has grown significantly over the past several years, and we just want to try to find somebody that’s done this type of stuff before,” said Ventura, adding HIRC will recruit through advertisements and word of mouth at other events.
The Hollister City Council’s liaison to HIRC’s operations, Robert Scattini, was disappointed when he heard of Beals’ departure, he said.
“I worked very closely with him and I thought he was a very hard-working person,” Scattini said. “I don’t know where he got the energy to do the work he did. I think he’s going to be greatly missed.”
HIRC President Bill Rodgers, whose one-year term is up in early September, said he doesn’t expect the look and experience of the rally to change much next year.
Mostly, HIRC’s emphasis in the coming year will be on fundraising – so there’s no doubt from year to year whether a rally will take place.
Trying to make up an additional $220,000 in 2004, HIRC this year expanded its boundaries and tried charging $5 for parking bikes downtown. That charge didn’t go over well and likely fell far short of the goal, though a revenue amount hasn’t been announced.
“We tried some things this year,” Rodgers said. “Some of them worked. Some of them didn’t.”
