Chamber Matters - January 2007
Chamber's New Board of Directors
The Chamber's board of directors met recently to elect its 2007 executive. The new executive includes: President, Pat Fafard, Peninsula Co-op; 1st Vice-president, Joe Jansen, Captains on the Waterfront; 2nd Vice-president, Denis Paquette, Sidney Waterfront Inn & Suites; Secretary, Ginny Alger, Horizon Power Installations. Past-president Charlie Hodgins, CFO of Vancouver Island Helicopters, will also take on the duties as treasurer.
This year, Chamber committees will comprise the following: Economic Development; Fundraising; Events; Bylaw Review; Membership Development; Tourism; and Finance. Members at large are welcome to serve on Chamber committees. If you have a special area of interest and would like to serve the business community by serving on a committee, please contact the chamber office at 656-3616.
Volunteer Opportunity
Preparations have begun to get our Visitor Information Centres (VICs) ready for the coming tourism season. A group of volunteers is compiling a list of potential racking clients; another group will soon by busy putting the shine back on the centres.
The centres’ volunteers dispense information and run a busy reservation service. Their contribution is essential to the continued successful operation of the two VICs. Their dedication to their work is reflected on the comment sheets, where visitors consistently write remarks that are variations on “very helpful” and “great people!”.
More volunteers are needed for 2007. A free training program, developed by Tourism BC, and facilitated by our trained volunteers, will commence in March. The work of our VIC volunteers directly, and positively, impacts the local economy. VIC volunteers enjoy work that’s fun and interesting, plus, they get to meet people from all parts of the world!
If you, or someone you know, is interested in this volunteer opportunity to serve your community, please contact the chamber office at 656-3616.
Make Your Mark
Once again this year, the peninsula chamber will produce a locator map for distribution to VIC visitors, and for strategic distribution in the Greater Victoria region, as far as Mill Bay. The map will go to press in the next few weeks. One-line listings are available to non-members. If you’re interested in this opportunity to highlight the location of your business, please contact the chamber office for more information.
Networking and Website Launch
The next business-to-business mixer will be at Thomas Cook Travel, 2468 Beacon Avenue, Sidney, on Thursday, January 25, 5:30 – 7:30 pm. This is an 'open house' mixer, so non-members are welcome to come and find out what the chamber’s all about: we'll have information on hand. We'll also launch our new website that night. The site is currently in development by Ryan Leinweber of UrbanRoute Marketing. Plan to be there for this exciting evening! RSVP to the Chamber office.
Keys to Success - Education and Training
Leadership, community and partnership, these are the three elements that define a chamber of commerce. Individually they are important, taken together they are the foundation for transformative change in the future of the community.
Despite this strong foundation the role of Chambers of Commerce remains poorly understood and appreciated in many communities. In an effort to address this lack of understanding “Chamber of Commerce Week” was established as a way of raising the profile of the role of the chamber movement.
At a basic level the Chamber exists to make any community a better place to live. Period. A Chamber of Commerce provides an avenue for the business people to play a leadership role in building a healthy, vibrant community. It is a partner to every community, every business and every citizen. While many may not realize it, every business and every citizen benefits from the role their local chamber plays.
It is this reality that should encourage chamber members to not think of Chamber of Commerce Week as simply a celebration of the network, but rather a celebration of what makes the chamber movement so special; our members. In short Chamber of Commerce Week is a celebration of the individuals who make our community such a special place to live, work and do business in.
Communities are increasingly looking to take advantage of our strong economy to build a foundation for intergenerational growth. Chamber of Commerce Week can play a critical role in allowing the Chamber to engage the community in how they can distinguish themselves as somewhere to live and invest. Through the promoting of a greater understanding and appreciation of the community, Chamber of Commerce Week also offers an unparalleled opportunity for chamber members to engage community and business leaders to support and enhance the betterment of the community for all.
Chambers members owe it to themselves, their businesses, and their community, to ensure that Chamber of Commerce Week provides a platform that allows the wider community to gain awareness of the importance of the Chamber of Commerce to the civic, social and business climate of the community.
New Focus In The Workplace
From the Peninsula News Review
By Judy Reimche
Dec 13 2006
To say the workplace is changing would be an understatement. Ken Stratford, commissioner for the Greater Victoria Economic Development Commission, told Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce members Wednesday night that the traditional workplace is being turned upside down. Labour usually drives the economy, and the economy stimulates the need for labour, but presently in Canada, and particularly in BC, while there is a strong economy, with many unfilled jobs, there is less labour to fill the jobs.
He called upon groups such as the Chamber to become leaders in helping businesses change how they operate.
“There is a pressing crisis — and it’s here now, not just in the Victoria area but across the western world — that is a paradox,” Stratford said. “These circumstances have never been known in our lifetime. While the need for more people in the workforce is growing, the workforce itself is shrinking.”
There are several contributing factors, starting with the Baby Boomers. Many are retiring early, some as early as age 55, while others are staying at work far beyond the age of 65. “Companies can’t afford to let them go,” Stratford said. “There simply isn’t anyone coming up behind them with the same expertise and knowledge.”
And the Boomers are different from their parents. “We have the Zoomers — people who are 55 and think they’re 35. They will stay in the workplace.”
On the other end, Canada’s birth rate is the lowest in the western world, at 1.3 births per family. Stratford quoted the zero population growth rate at 2.1 births.
“So at one end we have the Boomers and Zoomers, and the other end — we’re closing schools. We don’t have enough of a population to draw upon.”
Stratford said business people need only look to Alberta to see their own future. “There are now ‘employee pirates’ in the marketplace. They join every organization they can, to meet as many people as possible. They tell employees ‘if you want more money, come and see me.’
“There are people who pull up at a construction site, pull out a bull horn and tell the workers ‘if you down tools, I’ll pay you $10 more than you’re getting now.’ And the workers will do it.”
He said job loyalty is all but gone. The older generation stayed at their jobs no matter what: ‘if [the job] has more that I like than I don’t like, it’s okay.’ The new generation says ‘If I think I don’t like [any of the job] I’m gone’.”
But that tactic only works for awhile, he said. The more important factor in retaining employees is how people are treated at work.
“Companies who only see people as units of labour won’t last. They don’t want to be in business, and they won’t be,” he said.
“This new generation is what we call the Starbucks generation.” That’s not about the coffee, it’s about the huge array of choices this generation has.
“More than ever, we need to know our market, and companies must become magnet companies.” He said companies who treat their employees with respect, and form a feeling of partnership with the employee, will retain people and attract new employees. Those are the ones who will survive the coming employee shortages.
“This isn’t just about construction workers, even though we’ve heard a lot about that sector. This is about teachers, too. School districts 62 and 63 are facing the loss of half of all their employees, all of whom are eligible to retire [over the next five years]. It’s about every sector.”
Charlie Hodgins, Chamber president and chief executive officer of Vancouver Island Helicopters, said his company put out a call for airplane mechanic apprentices, and didn’t get one application. He later learned that few people had gone in for the available training. Several other business people at the meeting said they, too, had advertised for employees and not had any applications come in.
It has been suggested that increasing immigration could alleviate the problem. Stratford said that could help infuse some trained workers, but couldn’t solve the problem. He quoted studies that say there are 233,000 people coming into Canada each year, but to fill the jobs, we would need 2.5 million every year just to stabilize the job market. “No country can absorb that many [immigrants],” he said.
After the Second World War, when the Japanese lost thousands of men, they offset some of their losses by automating industries. Some North American companies are now looking at using robotics to replace employees. For example a local Home Depot has an automated check-out; that eliminates 4.5 jobs. But Stratford says companies have to find more, smarter ways to get the job done.
“We need to put a carrot on the end of the stick to bring people in,” Stratford said, referring to both immigration and to attracting magnet companies. “We need organizations [such as the Chamber of Commerce] to find that carrot.”
He said the attraction to bring people into this area could be as simple as putting on a Sherlock Holmes or jazz festival. But there needed to be a lot more to retain people. He talked about the need to maintain the farm areas on the Peninsula, but to offer more options for new residents, as well as helping those who have been here a long time to “age in place.”
He said business owners needed to learn more about how to manage this new reality, and to learn more human relations skills. The excuse that people simply aren’t aware of the changing workplace is no longer an option.
“We can no longer afford the ignorance,” Stratford said.