Swift Current business community holds virtual AGM
The annual general meeting of the Swift Current & District Chamber of Commerce provided an overview of activities during the past year, but the virtual format of the meeting served as a reminder of how much the situation has changed for the business community due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting on April 30 took place via video conference, which was a first for the chamber. The virtual format required a change in procedure to accommodate voting by voice, rather than by a show of hands. Instead of asking for a vote on a motion, the chairperson asked if anyone was opposed to a motion.
There was a virtual round table discussion after the meeting with municipal, provincial and federal elected representatives, and all questions were related to the pandemic situation.
“We are currently faced with likely the most challenging environment our business community has ever faced before due to COVID-19,” Chamber CEO Karla Wiens said during the presentation of her report to the annual general meeting.
“Your local chamber, on behalf of our members, is collaborating very closely with provincial and national chambers and government officials to address your concerns, provide suggestions, distribute information, and help you navigate through this challenging time.”
She provided an overview of the various events and activities hosted by the Chamber during the past year.
She referred to the different benefits that membership provides to businesses.
Members receive access to networking opportunities, educational and professional development opportunities, and a chance to connect with other businesses. The chamber provides a stronger, unified voice to advocate on behalf of the business community, and members have an opportunity to benefit from the chamber’s promotion and marketing initiatives.
Wiens spoke about the Chamber’s new shop local initiative, Live Here – Shop Here, that started last year. It initially took place in July and August 2019 and it ran again in February 2020.
“Live Here – Shop Here highlights our local businesses, the importance of supporting local in various ways, which I’m certain we can all agree is more important now than ever before,” she noted.
There was a great response to the Live Here – Shop Here initiative, and it will again take place this fall. As before, participating businesses will be featured through videos that are created about each business.
The Chamber developed a strategic plan in 2018 after consultation with members.
The plan identified various targets in four priority areas (membership, communications, administration, finance). Wiens said the Chamber has been very successful in achieving the objectives of this plan. A new membership survey will assist the Chamber to develop a new strategic plan for 2021-2023.
Karen Richmond, the chair of the 201920 board of directors, provided more details about the success of the current strategic plan in her report to the meeting.
The plan established a target of 5-10 per cent net growth in annual membership, and the Chamber has been on target with six per cent growth in 2018 and seven per cent growth in 2019. The plan’s membership strategy includes a target of retaining 98 per cent of members. “When we consider attrition of businesses over the course of a year with closures, retirements and relocations, this is a high standard and we were able to maintain a retention rate of 97 per cent in each of the past two years,” she said.
“One of the keys to retaining members in any organization is engagement. When members are active in the life of the organization, they tend to stay around. We strategize every year to have meaningful contact with at least 50 per cent of members where we initiate the contact.”
The 2020-21 board of directors and executive were approved during the meeting. Ken Linsley, a division marketing manager at Nutrien Ag Solutions, is the new board chair. He and Wiens spoke to media during a conference call after the annual general meeting.
He felt the COVID-19 pandemic will have an impact on the way the Chamber conducts its activities, but not on their priorities.
“I think ultimately our priorities will be very similar to what they have been in the past,” he said. “The big change is going to be how we deliver the message. Obviously, a lot of what we do is in person and network sessions and lunch and learns, all of those things as groups. So how we deliver those things is going to change, but as far as our engagement with our membership, I think we’ll continue to do that as we always have and it would just be how we deliver it relative to the pandemic.”
He expected the advocacy role of the Chamber to interact with different levels of government on behalf of members will become even more important during the pandemic and also afterwards during the recovery period.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of value in that going forward for our membership,” he said.
“We’ll continue to do that, and being the collective voice for the businesses is also going to be very important so we can get decisions and answers, and help with the flow of the information.”
Wiens felt positive about the Chamber’s membership growth. There are currently 394 members, and the Chamber’s goal is to develop a relationship with members and to provide benefits that will help them to thrive.
“We like to talk to our members, we’re very active on social media, and we’re very active at community events,” she said. “I think it’s a matter of spreading the word and I hope that our reputation as adding relevance to our business members is growing, but I believe the increase in membership is simply due to showing interest. We are genuinely interested in bringing new members on and helping them thrive.”
Linsley added that their success to increase membership was also due to efforts last year to engage with different business sectors.
“We looked at oil and gas, and farming, and entertainment, and hospitality, all of those different sectors, and we’ve tried to really be present in all those sectors,” he said. “I think that has generated some additional interest in the Chamber of Commerce and we’ve been very active. So I think we can attribute some of it to that as well.”
Wiens acknowledged the pandemic’s impact on businesses might make it more difficult to achieve their retention goal in 2020.
“When businesses are suffering, they’re looking to cut their expenses,” she said. “From a chamber’s perspective, we have strived hard to demonstrate our benefits to our members. It’s an expense, but it’s not a huge expense, and we want to be able to help our members bounce out of this into the recovery phase. … We are definitely recognizing this is a very emotional time for our business owners, and we want to be respectful of that and treat our business members with compassion. So when people are struggling, we certainly would like to have a discussion and make arrangements as necessary.”
Linsley felt ongoing collective action by the business community will make a difference to deal with the current pandemic situation.
“We’ve seen our local businesses really rally around alternate ways of conducting business, and we’ve tried to help them as much as we can from that side of things as well,” he said. “I think if we can continue to be a collective voice, it’s going to make us stronger and we’ll come out of this better. For sure, we’re approaching the memberships with some flexibility and we encourage the discussions, but I think our plan is to continue to encourage people to stick together and we’re going to come out of this OK.”
The members of the Swift Current &
District Chamber of Commerce board of directors and executive for the 2020-21 term are: Ken Linsley (chairperson, Nutrien Ag Solutions), Shaun Hanna (1st vice chairperson, Nightjar Diner Co), Mark Clements (2nd vice chairperson, Innovation Credit Union), Chance Chickoski (treasurer, MNP), Karen Richmond (past chairperson, Karen Richmond Consulting), Kelsey Adam (Kelsey Adam Real Estate P.C.), Brock Friesen (Rittinger’s Men’s Wear), Lindsay Gates (Kanuka Thuringer LLP), Lindsay Gerbrandt (Living Sky Casino), Warren Hope (Value Partners Investment Counsel), Nathan MacDonald (Swift Current Broncos Hockey Club), Vim Parmar (Wheatland Machine Shop), Leanne Tuntland-Wiebe (Bumper to Bumper – Great West Auto Electric).