Corowa Business Chamber AGM 7th August 2018

It is my pleasure to deliver a report for our Corowa Business Chamber 2018 Annual General Meeting.

 As Corowa Business Chamber works on a local level to protect, support and encourage business growth and opportunity in the Corowa Region, we once again set some challenges this year, to work towards these goals.

Through the formation of the Chamber’s Sub Committee Corowa Events we once again held a Christmas Festival in Sanger Street. This time the Christmas tree was positioned on the street and the road closure only extended through the weekend. The shop windows were decorated by school children once again, the streets were hung with garlands, Santa and the Elves attended, jumping castles, carols, dancing and bonanza draws were once again included. Food stalls from all the local eateries were bought out on the Street and retailers kept their doors open.

Many of the other achievements from Corowa Events will be outlined by the Committee Chairman Stuart Whisson.

March this year saw the bi-annual NSW Regional Business Chamber Forum being held once again in Wagga Wagga. Stuart Whisson and I, attended, as Corowa Chamber Representatives. It was an informative and inspirational day once again as twelve regional Chambers attended, presenting their achievements and stating their goals for the future. Ideas such as Gift cards, “Live Local Shop Local” signage, Business after Hours networking nights, Business Awards and Gala Nights were all discussed. State and Regional Managers were also there to reinforce what they offer in relation to Commercial Law, Marketing, Industrial Relations, HR and lobbying State Government on our behalf.

The Chamber also supported the Business Enterprise Centre once again who ran two very informative workshops presented by Steve Martin who is an Industrial Relations and HR Specialist with a Law/ Commerce Degree. The work -shops he presented were the Art of HR and Corporate Governance. These covered such items as recruitment, challenges of keeping good staff, performance management, law and regulations, liabilities and penalties. Everyone who attended felt it was an opportunity not to be missed.

The Chamber ran a Business after Hours networking night in June at the Royal Hotel. Guest speakers Sally Hughes and Anne Ovens from Boomerang Bags gave a prestation in the hope that retail businesses in Corowa will also take on replacing plastic bags. It was a friendly social Friday evening and the Chamber hopes to host more of these in the future.

The Corowa Chamber Federation Business Awards was a resounding success not only from the amount of entries we received but the generous Sponsors who supported us as well as the number of attendees at the Gala Dinner. We have taken on board suggestions on improvements for future years and look forward to implementing these for the next Federation Awards.

During this financial year the Federation Council was formed which has been an enormous overhaul for the entire Council area. Corowa Business Chamber sent a letter of congratulations to the new Mayor Pat Burke stating we hoped to have a strong working relationship with Federation Council for the benefit of Businesses in Corowa. We have always had good communication with the acting Economic development Officers and hope to continue this into the future with Peter Ilsley who has now taken this position. Federation Council was very generous in their financial support of our Business Awards and I would like to thank them once again.

I would like to thank the Executive Committee and Board Members for a very productive and prosperous year. Many thanks to Regional Design for their help with our webpage and social media, Stuart Whisson Vice President for his work with Corowa Events, Kay Fredericks our energetic Secretary and Treasurer Paul Schnelle who guards and manages our finances so well.

In closing I remind you all that Chamber Membership re-newels are now due to be paid if you have not already done so. We encourage you to join or re-new on our Corowa Business Chamber webpage:  www.corowachamber.net

Your local Chamber can only be as strong as its total members.

Help us to help local businesses grow and prosper, connect and encourage each other in our business endeavours.

Corowa Business Chamber – President