Business groups to share management
It’s not a merger, it’s just a ‘‘smarter’’ way of doing things, says business leader Nita van Grinsven.
The Marlborough Chamber of Commerce has revealed plans to share management resources with its Nelson Tasman counterpart.
The move would see Marlborough use some of the contract hours allocated to Nelson Tasman Chamber chief executive Grant Kerr, which van Grinsven called a possible ‘‘game-changer’’ for chambers across the country.
But it’s definitely not a merger, the Marlborough president stressed.
‘‘We definitely don’t want it perceived that way,’’ she said.
‘‘We’ll keep different boards - a Marlborough board and a Nelson board - and we aim to get more manpower on the ground for the local chamber and make sure there is a clear person driving the strategy for the separate boards.
‘‘We have an aligned strategy between us because we have the same challenges ... but we do have different concerns in our area and we want to make sure they are addressed.
‘‘The chief executive will follow the directives of both boards, and help manage the staff here.
‘‘We want to make sure we can excel at meeting the needs of our members by giving them relevant information, training opportunities and access to advocacy as well, and to do that strongly.
Van Grinsven said Marlborough would also make use of Nelson’s communications manager Megan Kitchener to ensure more effective communication with the chamber’s 385 members. Nelson Tasman has 540 members.
Van Grinsven would not disclose the salary Kerr was on at present, nor the contribution Marlborough would be making to it.
‘‘We’ll be doing some administration tasks for them so it’s worked out quite well,’’ she said.
‘‘We have a steering committee set up from both boards to make sure this arrangement works well for both regions. They’ve worked on it for the past few months.’’
Anthony Barnes, Simon Clark and van Grinsven would serve on the committee from Marlborough, with three coming from Nelson Tasman - president Lees Seymour, Peter Pattullo and Ru Collin.
‘‘In the past we’ve had a general manager, admin staff and a business adviser at Marlborough, and we felt we needed to break that general manager role up into more specific areas so we can get concentration and the focus we need on the strategy.
‘‘So with that we’re using some contract hours of the Nelson chief executive to manage the staff and drive the strategy alongside very clear business and events management.
‘‘It’s not a 50/50, it’s some of his time we’ll be using to help manage the staff in Marlborough on behalf of the board.
‘‘We’re trying to be smarter. We don’t have a lot of funds and we’re trying to do the best we can for the members across the region because there’s a lot of stuff we do the same.
‘‘We’ll use part of the communications person’s time to do it with a Marlborough flavour here, and we set up joint templates. It’s just smarter to work this way.’’
Kerr, a former Jetstar and Air Nelson chief executive, attended a Marlborough Chamber of Commerce meeting, at the Blenheim Club, on Thursday where the plan was introduced to members.
They also met the newlyappointed business development and events manager Hans Nielson who starts in mid-October.
Kerr stressed to the meeting the arrangement did not herald a merger of the chambers, and underlined the need for both chambers to determine how they could influence central government decisions.
‘‘A recent regional growth programme from Government has not included this region for the past several years,’’ Kerr said.
‘‘We’re asking questions about that, and waiting for some answers.’’
Neilson told the 40 members at the meeting he would focus on building membership, building networks and helping ensure members received value from the chamber.
Presenting her annual report, van Grinsven said the chamber was in a strong financial position with no long-term debt and strong cash reserves for future projects.
She told the meeting the plan to share resources with Nelson Tasman could be a game-changer for chambers elsewhere.
‘‘We want to drive change for chambers across the country, and to lead by innovation,’’ she said.