Chamber of Commerce holds AGM
Amy Gregson – Times Reporter
The Strathmore and District Chamber of Commerce held their annual general meeting March 15 to discuss the previous years activity and upcoming events.
Lin Walker also stepped up to become president of the chamber after being involved for five years and spending the last three years on the board.
“The Chamber has actually come a long way in the last three years,” said Walker. “We’ve more than doubled, almost tripled, our membership in the last three years.”
However, it was a tough year financially for the chamber, as they’ve had to close the office door and lay-off their administration assistant the end of December.
Walker doesn’t believe the closure of the office hurt the chamber, but slowed it down.
The office, opened for nearly a year, was the first time the chamber had a visible presence in the community, Walker said people were finally becoming aware of the office, when it had to close.
“I think it has slowed down our vision a bit, but we have some new board members that are very gung-ho,” said Walker. “We have some seasoned board members on the chamber that are on the board again this year. I’m really thinking it’s just onwards and upwards.”
One of the goals for the chamber is to have 210 members by the end of 2010. Currently, there are approximately 110 members, even though the Strathmore community has 804 registered businesses.
“We have a lot of Chamber members who are members and don’t know all of the benefits,” said Walker. “We have a lot of people who aren’t members because they don’t realize the benefits you can get through the Chamber.”
Walker said they are hoping to have an orientation night to attract new business to the chamber and explain to current members the benefits they can access when they are members.
Benefits, members can access through the Chamber of Commerce, include good credit card processing rate, the opportunity for smaller companies to get benefit rates that larger companies get, and fleet gas opportunities.
The chamber also has monthly luncheons during which speakers from local businesses do a presentation to the group, and people can network with others in the business community they may not have the chance to speak with otherwise.
The annual events the chamber is involved with are already in motion and include the annual Spring Fest, Heritage Days Parade and Christmas Parade.
SpringFest is already booked and the Chamber is looking at different ways to encourage people to shop local and have some kind of grand prize to be drawn at SpringFest.
“That will bring a few more people to the fair,” said Walker. “We always have a good turnout but hopefully we can do better.”
The Chamber has already selected the theme for the Heritage Days Parade, “All Fired Up”, to recognize the 100th Anniversary of the Strathmore Fire Department.
Another event the chamber is looking at adding is a Fall Trade Show, which fell through last year, but Walker acknowledges they would have to take on a corporate sponsor to make it happen.
Something else the chamber may look at doing is having an awards night to recognize different businesses for the work they are doing.
However, Walker first wants the new board to sit down with a trained mediator and choose three or four very focused ideas to spend their time on throughout the year.
“At the end of this year we can say this is what we’ve set out to do, this was our mandate and this was our accomplishment,” said Walker. “You can’t accomplish a whole lot if you constantly bring in new thoughts. I want us to have a focused agenda for 2010 into 2011 and set some goals.”
Walker said they want to bring in some money this year so they can set up an office again so that if people have questions, or need information there are set hours that someone will be there and anyone won’t have to wait for a volunteer to get back to them.
Walker also hopes the chamber can bring educational programs to Strathmore, that members can access to save them from driving to Calgary, and have speakers who are more familiar with rural issues.