Chamber Summer Plans

Now that warm weather is upon us, I am often asked about the Chamber's work plans for the summer. Contrary to what you might think, the activity level in the Chamber office doesn't really slow down in the summer; however the focus of our work certainly changes. While we don't have committee meetings during the summer there are plenty of issues we are working on for our members.

From an events standpoint we continue to hold Business After 5 and Business Before 9 networking events in July and August. This was not always the case. Holding these events during the summer is in response to members' demands. While some people are on vacation, members tell us there is still a need to meet, exchange information and develop business relationships during the summer months. In response to this need, the Chamber schedules BA5s and BB9s in the July and August. Also on the event front, check out our event calendar for September and October. Our Fall calendar is chock full of education and networking opportunities for you and your employees and we are working on finalizing the details of all these Fall events through the summer months. In particular, we're really excited to be hosting our Small Business Week Breakfast event at the new McMaster DeGroote Burlington Campus on October 19.

From an advocacy standpoint we're currently working on a list of questions that will be sent to all council and mayoral candidates in preparation for the October 25 municipal election. And we're making arrangements for a special event with all candidates on October 22 to give you an opportunity to talk with them directly. Plus, the Burlington Chamber is one of a select group of Ontario Chambers that will be reviewing all national policy resolutions that will be up for debate at the Canadian Chamber conference in the September.

At a planning level we're working on updating the Burlington Chamber's strategic plan, we're updating our website, and looking at updating the Chamber brand; all of these are major undertakings. All of this work involves not just Chamber staff but also the work of our volunteers (who normally get a break during the summer). So, yes the Chamber will be busy working for our members this summer and somewhere during all this activity, I'll see you at a Chamber event this summer.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the highlight of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) conference is the policy resolution session. This is where Chambers from across the province submit, debate, and defend specific policies that they feel will enhance the business climate. Once a policy resolution is adopted by the OCC, it is their job to work with the provincial government to ensure the policy is enacted. This is a real grassroots process that get ideas from individual Chamber members onto the desks of provincial cabinet ministers.

At this year's OCC conference the Burlington Chamber of Commerce submitted a policy resolution that was written by our Political Action Committee. The resolution recommends ways to clean up the legislation development process so that businesses are not caught in the middle of confliction legislation. Our resolution was unanimously adopted by the delegates and is now official OCC policy. You can see the resolution on the Chamber website.

http://www.burlingtonchamber.com/resolution_regulations_impact_businesses.pdf

Burlington Chamber Wins Provincial Award for Seminar Series

We're fresh back from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce conference is Windsor. The highlight of the conference was the policy session but the highlight for the Burlington Chamber was the award we won for our Economic Uncertainty Seminar Series of 2009. The Economic Uncertainty Seminars were set up to help Burlington companies prosper through the economic downturn of 2009 and were very well received by our members. We're very pleased that the series was recognized by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce as well.