WEST SHORE – I joined the WestShore Chamber in January and while I’ve been in post some months now, in many ways I still feel very much like the new kid. Every day I have an opportunity to learn more about people, places and projects and it’s one of the things that I love about the job.
The other thing I enjoy is the diversity – West Shore Chamber members range from home-based businesses to big retail stores, from non-profits making a difference in our community to all five of our municipalities – Colwood, Langford, the Highlands, Metchosin and View Royal.
2015 has been a year of financial recovery for the WestShore Chamber, as we have worked through debts from 2014 and earlier. While we’re not at the end of this process yet, we’ve made a lot of progress. Side by side with this has been consideration of what the Chamber provides to our members and the role we play within the community.
We’ve continued to review and – I hope people feel – improve upon what we do and how we communicate. However these have mostly been smaller changes, bit by bit, rather than a significant grappling with the Chamber’s vision.
The WestShore Chamber’s current vision is to advance the growth, prosperity and sustainability of business and community life on the West Shore. The big question then is how do we do this? Where do we best put our efforts to support and promote a robust and healthy economy and community working from our members outwards, and from larger issues inwards to our members?
On the latter point, the WestShore Chamber has joined forces with all of the chambers and municipalities across the Capital Region in 2015 to consider a new model for economic development which will bring benefit to everyone. The completion of the WestShore Chamber Labour Market Partnership (LMP) study provides one piece of this, and is available on the Chamber website at westshore.bc.ca
I look forward to having many more conversations about the “how” of the WestShore Chamber in the weeks and months ahead, and welcome feedback in the meantime!
– Julie Lawlor is the Executive Director at the WestShore Chamber of Commerce. You can reach her at 250-478-1130 or jlawlor@westshore.bc.ca.
