The Winkler & District Chamber of Commerce held its annual general meeting luncheon Thursday, gathering together business leaders and chamber members from all sectors to celebrate another year of growth.
Chamber President Hank Froese said it was a good year marked by several achievements.
"One of them was the Business Awards Gala where we again celebrated the excellence of our local businesses and entrepreneurs. We had a lot of positive feedback on that. Membership retention and growth have been going well, we're back to pre-pandemic numbers. It's a testament to the strong relationships we've built with the businesses."
The chamber moved to a new location in January.
"Another new thing we did this year is conducting a Regional Manufacturers Wage Survey. Survey results are shared with the participants in the manufacturing sector and then provide some insights into the compensation trends in that sector for this area. We're looking to expand to some other sectors going forward based on the success of it."
Froese highlighted one of the questions the chamber is hearing from its members.
"What kind of value is the chamber bringing to the members? That's something that we're working on, and that's part of our strategic plan going forward in the new year, to improve the membership value. By doing that we're going to establish a task force to look into that and we'll get that going in the next few months. And how are we representing the different sectors of the business? There are many different types of businesses we represent."
He said looking back at his first year, it's been a good one and he is looking forward to working on the next one.
"We just finished our strategic planning, so that's going to be our focus coming up, to increase our membership value and get representation, diversify our representation and relationships for all the different sectors that we represent, and also work on organizational sustainability to have a good funding model and look at some alternative funding and revenues as well."
Outgoing chamber executive members leaving, with the thanks of the Winkler Chamber, after 3 consecutive 2-year terms are Ken Reimer, Katelin Letkeman, and Erin Plett. Jeffrey Klassen, Doug Eidse, and Melissa Doell are joining current members, Keith Gislason, Hank Froese, Ryan Hildebrand, Leah Klassen, John Elias, and Chris Graham in serving the membership this year.
With files from Pam Fedack