New Chamber Exec Focuses On Chatham’s Business Development, Quality Of Life: Brewster Native Angela Bucar Takes The Helm

CHATHAM – Angela Bucar grew up on the Lower Cape and knows the challenges associated with maintaining the special quality of life here while encouraging strong business growth. As the new executive director of the Chatham Chamber of Commerce and Merchants Association, she says she’s eager to bring a new perspective and new ideas to the job.

Bucar’s professional background is varied. A Brewster native, she holds a degree in biopsychology and studied industrial psychology, which focuses on how to help teams perform more effectively based on the attributes of each team member.

“I worked in the mental health field for a long time in Hyannis,” helping psychiatrically disabled clients find employment and advance their education. Bucar is proud of the work she did and the people she helped, but eventually felt symptoms of burnout, which is not uncommon in that field.

She joined the for-profit world, taking a job with the home decor retailer Claire Murray, helping develop that company’s brand and setting up new stores. She got married and has two children, a daughter studying biology at the University of Massachusetts and a son who graduated from Cape Tech and is now working with a local plumbing contractor. She took a job working in the wholesale distribution business for a spin-off of the Christmas Tree Shops, then worked in interior design before taking a job with the Cape Cod Times as a digital strategist. She helped build the newspaper’s online presence and was then recruited to the chain’s parent company, now USA Today-Gannett, doing promotions and events. When the business contracted, Bucar fell victim to corporate layoffs. She spent a year volunteering for the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, Mass Audubon and LiveLoveLocal.

When she was ready to rejoin the workforce, she thought about taking a similar executive position and working online, “but I said, you know, I want to be contributing to the place I live. I want to help small businesses, I want to be part of the community. I want to be a changemaker.” Bucar saw the job posting at the Chatham chamber and was eager to apply, having worked closely with the area chambers when she was with the Times. Was it daunting to take the position held by Mary Cavanaugh, who was so well loved and respected? Bucar said she feels a responsibility to continue the work that Cavanaugh had underway when she passed away suddenly last year, honoring “all of the wonderful things that she had in motion, and then of course, building on that to just make it a really fantastic place.”

Bucar is still in the process of introducing herself to the community, and has already met with many member businesses and nonprofit groups like the Chatham Garden Club and CARE for the Cape and Islands. “There’s a lot of collaboration that can happen,” she said. Work is well underway for this year’s special events and making sure member businesses know the resources the chamber and merchants’ group has to offer. One of her key goals is to “put a megaphone” in front of member businesses.

“Our largest segment is the services industry, and when I speak of that, it’s your landscapers, your plumbers, the folks that are actually boots-on-the-ground” in supporting the year-round economy and the services residents need. That means supporting sustainable year-round housing for workers, among other things. It’s a topic she’s discussed with other business leaders around the region.

“The biggest takeaway for me is that the town of Chatham has not invested in land banking. The town of Brewster, we own a ton of acreage. We’ve been banking land for 25 years,” she said. More land will mean more housing can be created without excessive density, she said. When subsidized housing is created, a strong preference should be given to applicants who live or work in town, she added.

“I don’t have the answer, but it is difficult to bring in quality professionals and workers where they are scrounging to live,” Bucar said.

The days are gone when the chamber of commerce’s sole focus was on bringing more summer visitors to town. “From a tourism and a destination [standpoint], I think Chatham, being world renowned, they’re going to come,” she said. Those 13 or 14 weeks of peak summer season are reliably busy. “It’s really about what can we do to maintain year-round business?” she said. A number of local businesses are finding unique ways to attract customers in the off-season, from art shows to culinary events, Bucar noted. In some cases, it’s about balancing the needs of peak-season businesses with those of the increasing number of year-round residents, supporting strong business districts but keeping the town’s unique residential feel, she said.

“One of the other major topics for me is the blue economy, really understanding what it means for the local fisher families, what is happening with aquaculture,” fish farming and other industries tied to the water.

“It’s part of who we are. I think it’s visceral to each and every one of us, being around the water. There’s a reason why we live here, and there’s a magic of why we are here,” Bucar said.