November 29, 2021 meeting
Pearl Lorentzen
Lakeside Leader
Event coordinator
The Chamber membership passed two motions which arose from the previous board meeting. The first was to hire an events coordinator. The second was to ask both the Town of Slave Lake and the M.D. of Lesser Slave River to appoint someone to the Chamber board. Both municipalities often make a presentation at the membership meetings.
Old business
Shop Local: Not much has changed regarding the campaign, but a top-up grant was applied for. This will pay for videos about local businesses and gift cards.
Customer Service Project: “It’s actually making progress, which is exciting,” said Josh Friesen, Chamber president. The project will provide affordable (possibly free) customer training to local businesses. The website to host the program is under construction. The teaching material has been purchased.
Board of Trade: This will be applied for once the new administrator has time.
Moonlight Madness
The Chamber organized the Santa Claus parade as part of Moonlight Madness on November 19th. It was also partnered with the Slave Lake Regional Arts Council to have a window decorating contest. Because of the cost of extra insurance, the Chamber encouraged other groups to organize events to add to the weekend.
The parade went well, with only two issues, said Ryan Burton, Chamber board member in charge of the parade. One was the RCMP drove too fast. Two was there weren’t very many floats. He classified it as “one of the smallest in the last quite a while.”
People were given very short notice, which was probably part of the issue, Burton said.
“There was lots of engagement, street-side,” said Robin-Lee Vance. The block she was on had at least 100 people. Everyone seemed very happy and impressed, she added.
Strategic planning
he Chamber of Commerce board developed a strategic plan. Friesen went over the highlights at the meeting. It includes five values: member services, advocacy, communication, community relations, and operations and sustainability. The full plan will be sent out to the membership soon.
Spring tradeshow
The Chamber is looking for volunteers to be part of a committee to run a tradeshow in the spring. The last one was in 2019. It will likely be a similar weekend. The hope is to get the details hashed out soon, so that people can have lots of notice. One goal is to lower the price to participate.
Business Excellence Virtual Awards
The Business Excellence Virtual Awards were going to be in October during Small Business Week. However, this was postponed. The launch should be in early December. These are a series of videos – one for each category.
Other news
The Chamber doesn’t have a treasurer and is looking for one. Therefore, there wasn’t a treasurer’s report.
“We don’t have any worries for the next year,” said Friesen, who had looked over the finacials.
Acting CAO Garry Roth reported for the Town of Slave Lake. M.D. of Lesser Slave River Lana Spencer reported for the M.D. Both had elections six weeks before the meeting and were going full guns on various projects.
Next meeting
The next Chamber meeting for the general membership will be in January. Details are TBA.
