SOOKE – As I look at our calendar of events coming up this fall, I am finding it hard to believe that we are fully three quarters of the way through 2015. Summer is long over, the kids are back in school and fall is shaping up to be an extremely busy time. Certainly, for the Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce, the calendar is already full, culminating with our Annual General Meeting in early December. Between now and then, we have a variety of other events planned. Fresh off the successes of our annual golf tournament and our economic development symposium in September, we will host an all candidates meeting on October 6th. We anticipate a large and well-informed audience in attendance to hear what the Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke candidates have to say only two weeks before the federal election. The format will include a moderated question and answer period as well as opportunities for each of the candidates to speak on a variety of topics.
Our Newcomers’ Club will continue to meet each month at new and interesting businesses around Sooke. This club has grown to about 70 members in a little over a year and continues to attract interest from new residents looking to learn about their community. At the same time, our monthly business mixers will kick off again after a short hiatus and many of our 165 members will enjoy taking advantage of the networking opportunities.
Anyone that has visited Sooke in the past two months will know that we have an incredible amount of road construction underway in our town centre. Improved traffic flow, beautification and enhanced pedestrian access are starting to take form and everyone is looking forward to the project’s completion later this fall. Although, the Chamber has worked hard to try and reduce the impact of the road work on affected businesses by promoting our Better Buy Sooke shop local campaign, it will be good to put the delays and the dust behind us.
On November 29th, the Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce will once again host the annual Sooke Santa Claus Parade. A tremendous amount of work is done by volunteers in making the parade a success and we are proud that we can coordinate their efforts and help ensure the event runs smoothly. As I said, our calendar if full and before we know it our AGM will be upon us in early December.
– Sean Dyble is the President of the Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce and the owner of 120 West Management Consulting. He can be reached at 250-642-6112.
