It’s wedding season and three Sunshine Coast organizations have just announced an engagement.
The Pender Harbour, Sechelt and Gibsons Chambers of Commerce plan to merge by the end of the year and have signed letters of intent.
Merger discussions have been under way for some time, said an Aug. 14 press release from the joint task force managing the melding, with the decision resting “mainly around enhancing member benefits, services, and sales.” This would mean one chamber board of directors and one membership.
The volunteer task force – made up of Doug Marteinson from Gibsons, Gaetan Royer from Sechelt and Ron Badley from Pender Harbour – will take up the business of merging, engaging with its members and its work will culminate in a membership vote by November.
While the idea of a Coast-wide chamber is nothing new (it's at least more than a decade old), discussions heated up in true about a year ago at the prompting of Community Futures Sunshine Coast executive director Morgan Beall, Marteinson told Coast Reporter. Beall wrote a note to the chambers asking why they hadn’t yet merged. “When our customers are asking that, we need to be listening,” said Marteinson.
It was also a matter of timing, with the era of online collaboration making the differences in geographical area “so much less,” said Marteinson.
When letters of intent circulated to the three chambers, each board supported the merger unanimously, said Marteinson. The one consistent concern raised at the board level was the different community interests in each area. “So we need to pay attention to that.”
However, “The big issues of the Sunshine Coast affect all the chambers, they affect all business,” said Marteinson. “This way we can act, and we can speak, with a more unified voice.” He also pointed to benefits in increased reach, a shared volunteer pool, cost savings, improved collaboration and stronger advocacy.
"We understand that most of our businesses on the Sunshine Coast aspire to promote their services and engage customers from across the region, beyond the confines of their individual towns,” said a joint statement from the three board chairs in the press release. “The evolution of online meeting tools, workshops, and the robust reach of social media have bolstered our capacity to connect without barriers. It's a unanimous feeling among our Boards and staff: timing is optimum for this pivotal union."
Ultimately, the will-they-won’t-they vote will come down to the members. “Even though the directors feel this is a very positive step and feel that we're really doing service to the members by making this effort to become one, we want the voice of the members to be the final [decision].”
This said, so far, the feedback has been positive, said Marteinson. “It’s things like, ‘About time,’” and, “Congratulations! Finally.”
The chambers’ combined membership is more than 500 with revenues of $170,000, said the press release. More details about the merger process are to come at the end of the month.
