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Chamber Year in Review 2019

By December 10, 2019December 13th, 2019Uncategorized

Chamber Year in Review 2019
CHAMBER YEAR IN REVIEW
The Voice of Business
For those Chamber Members who were not able to join us at the Christmas Social, here is a recap from Chamber President, Tammy Leslie of what has been happening with the Chamber in 2019.

Ladysmith Chamber Year in Review 2019

Major Projects:
1. Ladysmith Investment Attraction Website and App
a) Big project with contributions from many community partners.
b) Website and App will be launched early in the New Year.

2. Tourism Cowichan
a) Staff represent Ladysmith on the Marketing Committee for Tourism Cowichan
b) Andrea Rosato-Taylor represents the 4 Cowichan Chambers Alliance as a voting liaison on the Tourism Cowichan Board of Directors.

3. Policy Development
a) The Ladysmith Chamber have cowritten 3 policies over the past 2 years that have been submitted and unanimously accepted by the BC Chamber of Commerce at their AGM in May. Policies have dealt with WorkSafe BC surplus, impacts of fishing closures on recreation fishing industry, and derelict vessels (2018).
b) In July the Chamber President participated in a face-to-face conference with provincial representatives (primarily deputy ministers) to discuss Chamber Policies.
c) Dec 4th….off to have lunch with the Premier! Chamber President assigned a seat at the Minister of finance table and was asked to be the host for the table. Tammy reports that this was an amazing experience and Minister James was so interesting to talk with. They discussed efficiencies around the PST system and Tammy will be sending her an email with at least one suggestion for now.

4. Relocation and Resource Guide
In partnership with the Ladysmith Chronicle we produced a new Relocation and Resource guide – a publication for those newly relocated and those considering relocation. It’s been a big hit!

Events:
1. Business Mixers held at Ladysmith Museum, Waypoint Insurance, Left Coast Fashions and Ironworks Café & Creperie. If you would like to host a mixer in 2020, which is a great way to showcase your business, please contact Mark or Jacquie.

2. Lunch and Learn hosted by Tammy Leslie on the implications of new tax rules

3. Supervised and administered the Food Truck program at Transfer Beach in partnership with the Town of Ladysmith over the summer months.

4. AGM in April at the new Microtel at Oyster Bay featuring guest speakers Amy Melmock, Economic Development Officer for the CVRD and Jason Michel, VP with the Nanaimo Port Authority.

5. Golf Tournament in June a huge thank you to our two tournament sponsors Re/Max and Nanaimo Airport and an even bigger thank you to our Title Sponsor Ladysmith & District Credit Union

6. Fall Speaker Series featuring 3 excellent presenters: Val Litwin, CEO of the BC Chamber of Commerce; Mayor Aaron Stone; and Colin Sprake, business coach and mentor.  Proudly sponsored once again by the Ladysmith & District Credit Union

7. Hosted the Federal All-Candidates Meeting at Aggie Hall in early October.