Brenda Crawford, president of the Princeton and District Chamber of Commerce opened the Annual General Meeting by presenting a bit of history on the chamber.
“The chamber began in 1913 as the Board of Trade with 31 businessmen and was located 20 miles from the post office—we’ve come a long way since then,” said Crawford.
An overview of the chamber accomplishments for the past year followed.
The chamber held social media workshops for local businesses in order to enlighten them on the benefits of using the internet to promote their business. (All businesses were encouraged to check themselves out on google monthly, and to look at sites such as trip advisor and yelp to see what others thought of their business.)
World Host Workshops were officiated by the chamber with 33 people participating. (Jobs Trade participants)
The chamber participated, organized or assisted with the following; the PXA presentation at the Kamloops Cowboy Heritage Festival, the Christmas Light Up, the first annual Business Christmas Dinner, the Community Health Consultation, the All Candidates Forum and Princeton Mining Day.
President Crawford has also been working with the Business Advisory Group to the Town of Princeton.
More recently, thanks to the expertise of Spencer Coyne, the chamber has a new website http://princetonchamber.ca and is in the process of developing a tourism site. A shop local awareness initiative is in progress— “Think Shop Local” has been running for a few months and has proven to be successful.
Two weeks ago, the “Business Walk,” another chamber initiative, began with the Mayor and CAO of the Town of Princeton visiting businesses with the chamber president. The walk is to provide the opportunity for business people to discuss their highlights, concerns and offer suggestions to the chamber and town.
Director Barbara Bushewsky (Coco’s Bistro/Cowboy Coffee) announced that due to the fact the Christmas dinner was such a success, she would be planning a Business Summer Barbecue, to be held at the chamber property.
Crawford was also pleased to announce that the RDOS has offered to provide some financial assistance to the chamber (amount not decided at this time). Members of the board were excited with this news.
Councillor Doug Pateman was present to officiate the election of officers for the 2014/15 year.
“This has been an absolutely stellar year,” said Pateman, “there have been lots of new ideas brought forward and council is eager to get on board.” He also said that “the website looked great and that things just keep getting better.”
He then went on to officiate the Election and Installation of Officers.
The board of the Princeton and District Chamber of Commerce for the 2014/15 year consists of;
President - Brenda Crawford of Royal Lepage West, Vice president - Spencer Coyne of Coyne Operated, Treasurer - Eileen Erb and Secretary - Keith Olsen.
Returning to serve as directors are; Barbara Bushewsky - Cowboy Coffee/Coco’s Bistro, Joyce Edwards - Winking Pedlar, Nancy Gibson - Teepee Lake Resort and Sweet Sensations and Beryl Mullin - River’s Edge Camping & RV.
New to the Princeton Chamber are directors; Kim Vokey - Copper Mountain Mine and Susan Robertson of Fletcher Building Supplies.
Both Vokey and Robinson have previous chamber experience and the board is looking forward to working with these ladies.