Volunteers make our City the great place it is .....

I was privileged to attend a portion of City Council Meeting yesterday where Mayor Jeff Mulligan recognized Marlene Schonheiter for her long service to Streetscapes Co. Marlene was involved with Streetscapes from the very beginning, even before the bylaw was adopted by the City making it a self supporting entity that works to market and beautify the downtown. Marlene has participated in all aspects of the work of Streetscapes chairing the Marketing & Beautification committee for many years. Marlene has been a passionate supporter of the organization encouraging her colleagues to participate in the downtown clean-up each year.

the root, emporium was the location for this years Streetscapes AGM. This new eclectic restaurant downtown was also chosen as the recipient of the Best Interior Renovation when the Pride Awards were handed out. There were about 40 downtown Streetscapes members on hand to review the annual report and the financial reports as well as recognize Larry & Rob Olynyk for their work on restoration project for the clock on the heritage building at the corner of 50th AVe. and 50th Street.

Lloyd Wine Outfitters received the award for Best Exterior Renovation. The Furniture Clinic received the

Best Seasonal Display award

The Chamber of Commerce has taken on the challenge of continuing the dialogue on "Shaping Alberta's Future" that began with the Premiers Council on the Economy luncheon hosted by the Chamber in Lloydminster last June. The full document can be found at www.alberta.ca/premierscouncileconomicstrategy.cfm

The students of the Lakeland College Business Class - Speical Projects assisted the Chamber by producing a website which will be going live in the next week and by presenting this information to about 125 of their fellow students. The challenge of the premier to the council and the council to communities was:

> What must Albertans begin to do new to sustain prosperity through the next three decades and beyond

> How can we ensure our children and grandchildren enjoy even greater opportunity than we have - that we hand future generations a legacy of "a better Alberta".

> What will it take to  make the Alberta of 2040 the place for creative and committed citizens to live, work, raise families, contribute to and enjoy society.

I hope that you will contemplate these questions and consider how you might participate in "Guiding the Future" of Alberta right here in Lloydminster. Check out the website at  www.guidethefuture.net   any time after April 16th.

Till next time .....

Pat

At the Annual Meeting of the Chamber today, Corine Price was recognized for her five years on staff at the Chamber of Commerce. Corine has been involved in almost all aspects of the organization and is appreciated for her willingness to assist wherever needed. Corine contributes to the over all decision making with enthusiasm and thoughtful consideration and her creative talents are used to produce the e-newsletter each week.

His Worship, Mayor Jeff Mulligan swears in president, Leana Ross and
vice-president, Michael Holden. Other members of the board include past president, Kevin Lundell, Wendy Plandowski, Chris Parsons, Linda Rutley, Marlene Fithen, Angela Rooks, Rob Saunders and Dabir Naqvi.  The board meets monthly and governs the organization by providing a strategic framework within which the staff carry out the operational functions towards the goals of the Chamber.

Amanda Mazzei from the firm of Wilkinson Livingston Stevens presented the annual financial statements at the AGM. The Chamber finished the year in a solid financial position. The Chamber board thanked the membership and corportate members for their tremendous support of the Chamber. 45% of the Chamber revenue is provided by membership with 28% raised through management contracts such as the Travel Alberta Centre, Streetscapes Co. and the management of the Community Services Centre. 27% comes from fundraising and Afinity Programs.

Amanda Mazzei with assistance from board member Marlene Fithen draw the name of the winner of $1,000. from the names entered into the draw from all the nominees for the the Gold Star Service with a Smile award whose employers were members of the Chamber in 2011. The lucky winner was Myrna Jalbert from Radiology Consultants Associated. Congratulations to Myran and to all of the nominees who received recognition for providing exceptional customer service during 2011.

The small chamber that I joined 15 years ago is not so small anymore. Working with a knowledgeable and supportive board and skilled and loyal staff makes my job very enjoyable. I have been blessed to hang out with this Chamber team this past year. If you are a Chamber member you can rest assured that this Chamber is one of the strongest in the country due in large part to the boards that have striven to do what is best for our business community. Every major decision that is made is carefully talked about and thought through with an eye to the future.  I look forward to working with our new president, Leana and with our new and returning board members and of course with our steller staff. For a look at the Annual Report check out the Chamber website later this week.

Till next time,

Pat



What's in it for me? ......

Business owners often wonder what the Chamber really does and how they can get involved. Here are some suggestions.

Participate on a committee. Political Action or Membership Relations.

Meet and work with some knowledgable people, opportunities to learn from seasoned business people, have a say in how your chamber operates. And it's fun. Fill out one of the surveys sent out from time to time or just give the Chamber office a call to relay your suggestions or concerns

Attend one of the Noon Hour or After Hour Chamber Connects. These networking opportunities are informative, beneficial to your business in terms of getting your name, product and service out to the community. If a business is a member, all employees of that business are welcome to attend as well.

Spend a fun day networking at the annual Golf Tournament in May held at the Lloydminster Golf & Curling Centre or participate in the after hours Nine & Dine at the Rolling Green Golf Course in August. Attend one of the educational workshops sponsored by the Chamber during Business Education month



Nominate a business for the Business Excellence awards. There are many businesses in our community who deserve to be honored but that will not happen unless they are nominated by someone like you. Attend the Awards Gala and show your appreciation for those who have set the bar high and who the Chamber president recognizes with a life time achievement award. 

Promote your business by providing a prize for one of the many events and contests held by the Chamber. The Chamber Connect, Christmas Trade Show, Golf Tournament and many more. There are lots of ways to get involved. Check out the Chamber website http://www.lloydminsterchamber.com/ follow us on Twitter and Facebook and keep in touch with the work of your Chamber by following the e-newsletter sent out at least twice per month.

ACHIEVE RESULTS. A STRONGER VOICE.

Lloydminster will be in the spotlight again ....

Wow! Lloydminster has a Brier participant. Congratulations to Scott Manners and his team for their excellent showing at the provincial playdowns. They will be wearing our Saskatchewan green and white at the Brier in early March. I know it is a lot of hard work and sacrifice to get to this elite level and I wish them good luck as they represent our province and our City.

The Allen Cup is coming to Lloydminster in April and our City will be preparing for that event. Streetscpaes will be participating with daily game draws for Downtown gift cards, a street hockey game, decorating of storefronts and downtown promotions. I hope everyone will get involved and support this national event.

Business Education month kicks off on February 29ths with breakfast in coopertation with EARN.Check out the Chamber website at http://www.lloydminsterchamber.com/news_events/business_education_month/index_bem.html for all the events and workshops. The Impact Sales workshop is a special addition this year done in partnership with Relay Distributing. This excellent sales workshop can be offered to our members at an affordable price because it is held locally and sponsored by one of our members. Hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to train your staff in the art of sales.

Streetfest date has been set for June 9th. This downtown festival has been running for two years and has just gotten better each year. If you are interested in participating as a vendor or in organizing a part of the event call the Chamber office.

Our Chamber continues to be involved in the Health Care Community Engagement committee. It is important for our Chamber to monitor the progress of the Health Care Advisory Committee to ensure that our businesses are represetned. We know that Health Care issues effect our businesses and we will continue to work on your behalf to have a voice at the table.

Be sure to come out to the new "Noon Hour Mixer" which will be launched at the Lloydminster Golf & Curling Centre. Facility manager, Kyle Mulligan, assures us they have the best chef in town and he invites you to come out at noon  on Thursday, February 16th for lunch. At this time he will introduce the new golf pro and show off some of the Taylor Made Adidas & Ashworth 2012 product line.

Well I'm off to the Chamber Connect at Lakeland College sponsored by the College and the Lloydminster Rotary Club. This is a great opportunity to meet some of the students who may be your next employee or the next busness leader of this community. Hope to see you there.

Till next time...

Pat

Participants hard at work at the Policy Development Roundtable

We had a great turn out for our Policy Development roundtable on Jan. 17th. All ages were represented, with a diverse industry representation as well. These roundtables are valuable in that they assist the Chamber board and Political Action committee to get an idea of the issues faced by our business members. The PAC committee works all year addressing the issues raised by the members and seeking out policy areas that need to be addressed. I also sit on the Political Action committee of the Alberta Chamber of Commerce and have just recently begun dialing into the meetings that have been initiated by the Sask Chamber.

On January 18th, a team of Community Leaders lead by the Chamber ventured out in the cold to attend a meeting in Edmonton with the Deputy Ministers at Government House. Health, Education, Advanced Education, Seniors Care, Economic Development and City Government were all represented along with Chamber business members. This was a great opportunity to help the deputy mininsters to understand Lloydminster a bit better and to consider the challenges and complexities of our day to day operations whether that is City Council managing our City, businesses working in our bi-provincial environment, health and education trying to ensure equitable programs and services for all of the citizens who get those services in Lloydminster and emphasizing the "real" area served by Lloydminster as one city serving regions in two provinces.  I believe the meeting was successful and now we will begin work on phase III which will be to bring the Deputy Ministers from both provinces to Lloydminster for a special Lloydminster focused summit.


Mayor Mulligan, David Fan, Leanne Sauer, Brian McCook and Scott Musgrave in conversation as our team waits for the arrival of the Deputy Ministers.

Business Education Month will be holding a sales and marketing workshop in March. Normally to get this calibre of workshop, you would send your employees out of town for a day or two. What makes this workshop so affordable, is the workshop will be coming to you. For less than $300. you can have your employees attend a first rate workshop, with no extra travel and accomodation costs. Watch the Business Ed Month partner's workshops for more information on this workshop.

The new "Mix and Munch" noon hour networking events will begin in February. They will be held on the 4th Thursday of the month at noon and we look forward to meeting some members who are not able to make it out to the after hours Chamber Connect.

Till next time ......

Pat

Isn't this winter great ....

Wow! Who needs to go south with this kind of weather. Haven't even pulled out the winter boots yet. Sure makes the winter shorter.

The Chamber has been a strong supporter of the Regional Business Accelerator and it looks like they have an interesting workshop coming up - The Inventor's Toolkit, "Navigating to Commercialization"  I talked to Janet last night at the Chamber Connect and she let me know that it wasn't just for brand new inventors, but for those looking to move to the next level as well. January 19th is the date and more information can be had at events@smallbusinessinformation.ca.

The Chamber Connect held at Digital Connections last night was well attended. Troy and his staff were great hosts serving the wine and cheese. Congratulations to Michelle Duzchek on winning the "most frequent attendee" at the Chamber Connect in 2011. Michelle's prize was $500.00 in Chamber bucks to be spent at any one of our 580 Chamber members.

Congratulations as well to the Gold Star Service With A Smile recipients. Kayla Marcy from Fabutan Sun Tan Studio, Melinda Bottorff from Safeway Pharmacy and Vickie Lamb from Marketplace Solution were all recognized for giving exceptional customer service.

Next Tuesday, January 17th we will be hard at work developing the policy resolutions for 2012. Come out to the lunch time event and assist your Chamber to set the policy direction for the next year. Call the Chamber office to register. On Wednesday, January 18th our Community Leaders will be off to Edmonton to meet with the Deputy Minister. In September 2011, the Leaders Group met with the Deputy Minister's in Saskatchewan and Phase 3 will be getting the provincial DM's together in Lloydminster so that our Communnity Leaders can work together with them to solve some of the complex issues that we encounter trying to do business, run an organization or a municipality in this border city of ours.

 Business Education month is in March. There are several good speakers coming to town for both the kick-off event on Feb. 29th, the Women's wrap up event on March 28th and for the workshops in between. The Chamber will hold their annual Labour Standards workshop on March 8th. Stay tuned for the complete line up of events coming soon.

Dabir Naqvi has been working hard with his committee to continue the dialogue on the work done by the Premiers Council on Economic Strategy. A class of business students at the college will also be working with us on this project and we are excited to be meeting with them on Feb. 17th.

Perhaps I will see you out to the   open house at the new Thorpe Recovery Centre tomorrow. It looks impressive from the outside, and I am looking forward to seeing the rest of it. It is exciting that we will have a facility of this kind serving our community and our provinces.

Till next time....
Pat

Vacation was enjoyable ...

It has been over a month since I attended to this blog. My vacation to points south was very relaxing and enjoyable however the weather was not much different than here, in fact the desert between Vegas and Yuma had more snow that we have.  San Diego is one of my favorite spots next to Lloydminster and the weather lived up to my expectations. One thing about a road trip to another country, it makes you appreciate what we have here in Lloydminster Canada ... the very best place in the world to live. Our steady economy, great people, caring polititions, and an abundance of jobs makes us blessed indeed.

Speaking of caring people ... our Chamber has felt priveleged to participate with the Musgrave family for the past seven years in honoring the Emergency Services Workers .. the RCMP, Britannia Wilton Fire Department, Rescue Squad and Ambulance Workers as well as the Lloydminster Fire Department. These individuals put themselves out there on a daily basis to help to protect our community. The Musgrave family was also recognized this year by Synergy Credit Union for all that they, as a company, do for this community. We are pleased to have them as a Corporate member of our Chamber.

The Chamber is winding down for the year with the final board meeting of the year next week. The Chamber board, and in particilar our president, Kevin Lundell, has put in many hours this past year representing the Chamber and the interests of our Chamber members. Being a Chamber board member is an important job and these folks take their job seriously and share their time and talents without reservation. I personally would like to thank them for all of their support and encouragement over the year.

We also have an incrediable staff at the Chamber office. Their daily commitment to our members and our community is appreciated. Without their patience, skills, wisdom and knowledge our Chamber would not be able to function as one of the best in the country. They are a great team to be proud of. 

Our over 560 members is what makes this community rock. Your community support is what makes it possible for Lloydminster to have the sports, culture, recreation and social supports that we have. The standard of living in our community is directly related to the growing, innovative & dyanamic business community that we are pleased to represent. When we pair that up with a forward thinking, skilled and progressive City council and city administration, we can't lose.

I look forward to the new heights that our community and our Chamber will reach in 2012. I wish you all a relaxing, safe and blessed Christmas.

Till next year .....
Pat