– Jen Dart is Executive Director of the Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at 250.725.3153. www.tofinochamber.org.
TOFINO – The Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Tofino held their joint Annual General Meeting on March 29th at the Best Western Tin Wis Resort. Nearly 100 members and guests were in attendance to hear the annual reports, approve financials, and elect new boards of directors for 2017.
On the Chamber side, we had to say goodbye and a huge thank-you to outgoing board members Michelle Hall of Surfrider Pacific Rim and Cameron Young of Sea Monster Noodle Bar. We welcome Laura McDonald of Pharmasave Tofino and Petra Dish of Petrichor Hair Workshop to the board for 2017.
Tourism Tofino, under its new independent Destination Management Organization structure, has expanded its board to up to 12 members. New board members include: Chelsea Bauer from the Tofino Consumers Co-op, Michele Dimitrov from Tofino Resort and Marina, Jason Mitchell from Tofino Air and Marcus Puharich from Jamie’s Rainforest Inn.
We thank all board members for their willingness to volunteer with our busy organizations. It represents a significant time commitment for business owners and managers, most of whom are also running their own businesses.
We were especially excited to celebrate our AGM at the Tin Wis this year as it is the 25th anniversary of the resort on MacKenzie Beach. Congratulations to John Robertson and his team on this milestone, and a big thank-you for a great evening and wonderful dinner.
At the Chamber we are focusing on the goals of lobbying, member engagement and organizational development for the next two years. Our ‘Try Local Tofino’ program, a buy local program supported by the District of Tofino, will be at the forefront in the coming months, as will the 2017 launch of the Tofino Ambassador Program this month. We are also looking forward to our second annual Business Excellence Awards, scheduled for April 27th at the Shore.
We have many new members to welcome: West Coast Weddings and Events, Octopus Event Promotions, Adam Chilton Productions, Hello Nature Adventure Tours, Cindy Howard Mortgage Broker, Laurie B Design, Lovesea Photography, Bradshaw Sportfishing, Palma Photography and Videography, L’AFFUT (L’Association de Francophones et Francophiles de Ucluelet et Tofino), Tofino Cleaning Company, Wyatt Visuals and AV Financial. Thank-you for joining the Chamber and we look forward to serving your businesses and organizations!
Tourism Tofino recently launched its Tofino Footprints video series, highlighting some of Tofino’s unique businesses and makers. The first video features our members Dan Harrison and Ariane Batic from the Raincoast Education Society and describes the amazing programs this non-profit organization delivers.
The second video, ‘Crafting Legacy’, details a surprising synergy between Tofino Cedar Furniture owners Daniel and Barbara Lamarche and Wolf in the Fog mixologist Hailey Pasemko. The final video, called ‘Harvesting Passion’, features Tofino Brewing Co.’s Neil Campbell and Tina Windsor from Picnic Charcuterie and how Tina is able to use TBC’s beer in her own products.
