Stephen Caruthers has resigned as chairman of the Natchez Chamber of Commerce board of directors after only three months on the job.

The opening leaves the remaining board members searching to fill Caruthers slot and that of executive director, a position vacated by Laura Godfrey in the fall.

The chairman of the board will be someone currently serving on the board. The position is non-paying.

The director serves as a chief executive officer, and is a full-time paid position.

Caruthers decision to leave was effective last Tuesday, he said.

“I realized it was going to take more time with the search for a new director,” he said. “I just decided since it was taking so much time, to get back focused with my job with Entergy.”

Caruthers is customer service representative at Entergy.

“It’s better to be able to do one job good than several bad,” Caruthers said.

Millicent Mayo, who is vice president of membership for the chamber board, led a specially called meeting Monday to discuss plans for the future. Mayo will lead the group until a new chairman is named.

“We are trying to get somebody in place by the end of the week,” Mayo said. “We are trying to get somebody in Laura’s place soon too.

“We are moving right on.”

Natchez Community Hospital Administrator Tim Trottier is the chair of the chamber director search committee.

He said Monday the group hopes to have a director as soon as possible.

“The process is going well,” he said. “We’ve begun our phone interviews and from those we are scheduling site visits.”

Trottier said the group has applications from local and out-of-town candidates. The minimum requirement for the job is a bachelor’s degree.

“It’s been a committee effort,” he said. “We went through as a committee and we discussed every single candidate. We came to a consensus as to who was to be selected for phone interviews. We are being very diligent about the process.”

Though the set time to accept applications has closed, Trottier said they are not turning potential candidates away at this time. Ideally, the group is interest in seeing someone with Natchez connections in the role. Trottier said Caruthers departure has served to bring the board together.

“If anything it’s engaged the board even further,” he said. “We as a board are meeting more frequently because we have to address these matters.”

Caruthers began as board chairman in October, replacing Cynthia Parker Brumfield who served the previous year. The chairman changes annually.