Southern Gold Coast chamber of commerce board in familiar hands
THE Greater Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce will remain in familiar hands with current board members being returned at their recent annual general breakfast at Currumbin RSL Club.
The chamber, which covers from Tallebudgera to the border, also welcomed Kate Cross as a new board member.
Chamber president Hilary Jacobs said the main strategies for the organisation in the coming year would be to have an even stronger engagement with local small and medium businesses.
“With that, we want a good understanding and to be voicing the business community’s position on things such as the light rail to Coolangatta and the Palm Beach Business Area Master Plan project, which seems to have stalled more recently,” Ms Jacobs said.
“We will also be involved with the Coolangatta and Kirra Core Business Centre Master Plan, which will be the topic of our breakfast in September at the Coolangatta Surf Club on September 13 and how we can improve economic conditions on the southern Coast to build the area and make it easy to do business here.”
Ms Jacobs said the chamber was looking forward to having greater emphasis on tourism as a big driver for growth on the southern end of the Coast.
“To support that, the new CEO of Destination Gold Coast will be a speaker at the breakfast in November. We’re also looking at a Buy Local campaign too,” she said.
The chamber is refreshing its website and looking for ways it can increase membership, by better relevance to its members.
“Over the last three years, the chamber has increased meeting attendance by improving the quality of the speakers,” she said.
“The chamber is about advocating for business, being in touch with the local community and maintaining an open dialogue with the local councillors, the mayor, the State members and Federal representatives.
“The next few months will see the chamber surveying our members and subscribers so that they can have a say on how we represent them.”
The board is Hilary Jacobs, president; Ian Grace and JoAnne Smith, vice president; Mike Remmer, secretary; John Forrester, treasurer; Joan Farmer, Kate Cross, Paul Guerin, Peter Doggett, committee members; and John Mitchell, committee member/website administrator.
For more information go to gsgc.org.au.