July2012 Inside this issue: GM’s Report New Members Event Reviews Calendar of Events Presidents Message Continued
CHAMBER at a glance
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Meet the New Board 7
a publication of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE A focus for the road ahead Let me begin by saying what a pleasure it is to be your President of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce for the 2012 2013 terms. As we enter the 130th year of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce, I am thrilled to be part of a board of directors and membership that will carry on and grow what has been and still is one of the most active Chambers in all the country.
why I see an even greater importance on cultivating opportunities to keep our youth right here in our own backyard. I want people to appreciate what we have here and see the opportunities for a well rounded lifestyle in our city. We need to boast to the world that we are the #6th ranked best city to live in all of Canada in reference to Money Sense Magazines recent rankings. More importantly we need to brand and market ourselves is as Looking at the road ahead, there are a the number #1 ranked city in Canada number of topics that I want to carry on ( same survey) with a population of and/or bring to the Chamber table. 50,000-100,000 people. That is Something I am very passionate about is powerful, but we have to sell and brand dealing local. Many chambers and that achievement and we need to look at various organizations abroad have had ways to improve upon our weaknesses different levels of success and ways of from the methodology used. Labor does promoting local shopping and shop local not end with youth, but branches in to campaigns. With the recent effectively using our 50+ demographic announcements of the federal with initiatives like the Third Quarter government to increase the cross border project. We need to look for duty free exemptions, our local opportunities with our aboriginal businesses need a voice more than ever population and of course to build upon to promote the diverse shopping our success with our immigrant opportunities we have right in our own workforce. When I talk with businesses back yard. they keep coming back and saying Another priority I would like to engage is “people, we need people and we need labor and specifically the shortage of. skilled people to grow our businesses”. This includes general labor and skilled What are we going to do to make people labor. I am very aware that this is not choose Brandon and say, "this is the only our issue, but a National one, and is place we want to be." Collectively we
Nate Andrews, Chamber President need to put forth ideas, strategically plan and get ourselves ready to battle for the future of an extremely competitive environment for human capital. We must continue to act as overseer on local taxation. We must talk openly and candidly with our school board trustees and city councilors as they look at their budgets every year. Last year was a year that created a great deal of passion and we know the budgets will be watched very closely next year. We must share and look for ways that our local boards can give us a balance of spending and quality of our dollar spent. We cannot continue with above inflationary increases. We expect the boards and councilors to look at past budgets and make sure past initiatives and programs are getting the measurable results they were intended to. If they are not they need to have the courage to change (Continued on pg 6)