– RJ Senko is a Vice-President at the Esquimalt Chamber and President of RJStrategies. He can be reached at 250.888.3534.
ESQUIMALT – As one year ends and another begins, it’s a chance for us to look back at our actions and accomplishments during the year gone by as well as look ahead at our challenges and opportunities in the year to come.
At the Esquimalt Chamber we are proud of the work we have done advocating on behalf of businesses in our community. For example, through our member, Mark Eraut of Merdyn Group, we are contributing to the Township’s Official Community Plan review.
While members Chris and Helen Edley from Sharkzcoins are taking part in the Township’s Esquimalt Road Urban Design Guidelines project. Thanks to those members your Chamber is working to ensure the Township is aware of the needs of business as it plans for the future of our community.
We are also pleased with the many networking opportunities we have provided to our members over the past year, including our recent Christmas Mixer. Special thanks go out to the sponsors of that event: Black Press, Gorge Pointe Pub, Chateau Victoria, Apple Tree Family Restaurant and Victoria Harbour Ferries.
As we look ahead to 2017, we want to ensure efforts such as the ones described above are in fact what our members want from their Chamber. That’s why we are now surveying members to get a better idea of where we should focus our efforts in the year ahead.
For example, do members want more networking opportunities or would they prefer business seminars, such as the small business fraud workshop we held with representatives of the Royal Bank? Should we be advocating strictly with local government or are there issues at the provincial and federal levels, which our members feel we should be pursuing?
There is also the matter of building stronger ties with other like-minded organizations for a more regional approach to economic development versus continuing to be an Esquimalt-centric Chamber?
The survey has been emailed to all members and takes less than five minutes to complete. If all members can take a few minutes to provide their input, then you can be confident your Board will have a strong member-focused mandate for what we hope will be a prosperous New Year for all.
