Norwich — With membership at an all-time high and a desire to add a third paid staff position, the executive board of the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce voted Tuesday to promote Angela Adams to the position of executive director.

Adams came on board at the chamber as marketing coordinator in 2012. She then was promoted to director of membership services, and she has served as director of operations since 2015.

"She eats, sleeps, breathes the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce, so she really is as committed as anybody can be to our organization," said Chris Jewell, chairman of the board and CEO of Collins & Jewell.

He said the promotion will give her "a more active role in front of the camera," as opposed to behind it, making her more the face of the organization. She will do more with budgeting and with enhancing membership.

Some of Adams' current work will trickle down to the new full-time staff member, whose job title and responsibilities still are being determined. The only other staffer now is operations coordinator Jennifer Chauvin.

"I have been mentored by some of the most successful leaders in the greater Norwich area and continue to work with the best committee volunteers from all our amazing GNACC businesses and organizations," Adams said in a news release. "A chamber can only succeed and grow with their support and I can't thank them enough."

Jewell said the chamber has 477 members, compared to a count in the low 300s when Adams joined the team.

He said the last time the chamber had an executive director was in 2013 but the position was eliminated because "the justification for that position really wasn't there" at the time. The chamber had zero paid staff members at its founding in 2004 and at most has had 2.5.

e.moser@theday.com