On behalf of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce it has been our pleasure to represent your interests locally, regionally and nationally - and we would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for your continuing support. The Chamber is membership driven, the more members - the stronger our voice.
We are here for you! Our mandate is to support local businesses and organizations by promoting economic growth and positive business conditions, actively marketing Whitehorse, providing business development seminars, workshops, and courses, facilitating commercial development and providing key contacts and networking opportunities.
We are proud of our accomplishments this past year and the dedicated volunteers that occupy positions on our Board of Directors - Board members that unselfishly give of their time and energy and bring their expertise to the table. They have been amazing; with the hundreds of hours they have dedicated to the Chamber, to the business community and to Whitehorse and Yukon – THANK YOU!
There is value in your membership … please read below.
So what were our priorities for 2017/2018?
Reviewing and Modernizing our Bylaws and our Systems – We have been working on revising our Bylaws to bring them into the 21st Century and keep our Chamber accredited. We are the only Chamber in the North that is accredited by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. As a matter of fact the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, for the past 6 years, is recognized as being in the top 18% of all Chambers across the country. In order to keep that level of recognition and professionalism we completed updating our Bylaws and have started our re-accreditation work.
SME Training and Development – We continued our seminars, workshops and courses in 2017/2018 starting with Financial Tax and Accounting Considerations for New Businesses; Marketing / Social Media 101 and introduced Digital Media 202; then we have HR 101 and 202 and Advanced Financial Management for established businesses. Thanks to our funders, the Yukon Government (Department of Economic Development) and CanNor, we are able to offer these courses at a drastically reduced rate of 10% of the actual cost. Thanks to our partners Crowe MacKay, Aasman Brand Communications, Visionary Seeds and BDO Canada. We also introduced a new “Succession Planning” workshop and we are working on a new workshop series for the Fall of 2018 on Service and Customer Satisfaction. This past year we had more than 130 businesses participate in our seminars, workshops and courses.
Through our partnership with the Department of Economic Development the Yukon Business Development Program (YBDP) is back in full operation.
During the 2017/2018 fiscal year we worked hard on our BUY LOCAL program that we call “Look Inside”. This program deals in part with procurement at the municipal and territorial levels, as well as educating locals on the benefits of local purchases by emphasizing - “Your Business Builds Community”. We have plans to continue this activity in the 2018/2019 fiscal year.
By renewing your membership you get a $100.00 gift certificate from What’s Up Yukon – now that is added value!
We have our very successful Business Connects Conference – this year it featured a Trade Show with 29 booths, breakout sessions with speakers focusing on SME issues and keynote speakers from the City, during a luncheon on day one, and the Yukon Government on Day Two.
And our Business Awards Banquet, with our keynote speaker – the Man in Motion Rick Hansen – was an amazing evening and congratulations to all of our award winners:
Volunteer of the Year Award went to Lars Hartling
Service and Customer Satisfaction Award went to Air North, Yukon’s Airline
Giving Back to the Community Award went to Trinity Technology
The New Entrepreneur of the Year Award went to Winterlong Brewing
And the Business of the Year Award went to What’s Up Yukon.
Our Highway Signs and Planter Box programs continued again offering a reasonable advertising tool for members. We also have reduced advertising rates for our direct mail e-blasts and our bi-weekly newsletter (which gets over 500 hits after 2 weeks) and we use a full-page ad in the local media offering very low advertising rates to our membership.
Working with the City is also a priority on issues such as parking, land development, recycling issues, housing, property tax and the Budgeting processes to name a few issues. The Chamber Board and City Council meet quarterly to discuss issues.
In dealing with these priorities we work hard at developing relationships, partnerships, and completing research so we have accurate stats to communicate with governments at all levels – and we represent you, our membership, by bringing business priorities to the table at all levels of government.
Every day we respond to questions about Whitehorse, questions and visits from government, and requests to have brochures sent to places all over North America. We refer clients to businesses, business-to-business, as well as referring enquiries from outside of Yukon to local businesses.
Many times during a week or month we will have people just drop in, call or e-mail asking about starting a business, our economy, moving to Whitehorse, seeking information on labour standards or Human Rights issues and programs such as the Foreign Worker Program or the Business Nominee Program. We offer support and referral services to our members.
Looking forward to responding to your needs and building an equally exciting and productive 2018-2019 year.
Thank you,
Rick Karp
President
Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce
There are many other benefits to be gained by joining the Chamber. If you would like to know more about the Chamber, please contact us at 667-7545 or by e-mail at [email protected]. You can also check out our website: www.whitehorsechamber.ca.