We have had an extremely busy year here at the Chamber and while we cannot possibly speak to all of the work we have done, we wanted to highlight some of it and celebrate how far we have come in 2024.
Back to Basics
1) Board Recruitment – We saw some major changes in our board members near the end of 2023. As we moved forward into 2024 we saw our board of 3 members grow to 6. We hope to continue to add to this amazing group of forward thinking community members in 2025. If you are interested please don’t hesitate to connect!
2) Codes of Conduct, Role Descriptions, Policy and Procedures – We developed a code of conduct for board members, roles and responsibilities of board members and their respective titles, and are starting to dig into a stronger and more comprehensive set of policies and procedures.
3) New Bookkeeper – The Chamber brought on an external bookkeeper for our organization late in 2023. We have been working together in 2024 to create better systems within our financials and are continuing to streamline these processes in order to better understand and present our financials moving forward.
Forest Impact Recovery (FIR) Position
1) We were extremely fortunate to have received regional funding for a FIR position within the Chamber. We had one and only applicant for the position and he was an absolute star! If you had the opportunity to work with Jerry I am sure you will agree.
Through his work, we started a bi-weekly marketing campaign that focused on current and relevant granting/learning opportunities (Find Out Fridays), expanded our scope in the community through his outreach to a number of local businesses, secured funding for a number of these businesses with his expertise, developed a strong relationship with the Community Forest initiative, and so much more! Jerry sees so much potential in the Chamber, our membership, and Golden and Area A to grow and thrive even with the current economic climate – and we are hoping to keep him working with us in a consulting capacity moving forward!
Youth Workforce
1) Youth in Trades – We worked with the College of the Rockies, SD6 and other community partners in 2024 to try and secure enough funding to offer the Youth in Trades Sampler program here in our community. Unfortunately, you can’t win them all and we fell short of our mark to run this joint program between COTR and SD6.
While this was disappointing, we are continuing conversations and looking to source funding to get this program happening! It is extremely successful in Invermere and consistently has a wait list – and we know that the youth workforce here would benefit greatly from it. We haven’t given up!
2) Youth Mentorship Funding – We secured funding through ETSI – BC to create a Youth Mentorship program in 2025. We have distributed a survey that asks which industries are top rated by interest with students and Golden Secondary School.
With these results, we plan on creating different videos with local businesses that outline the opportunities for potential work and mentorship. We will be reaching out to businesses in these industries early in the new year to connect and get this process rolling. The top 4 industries by interest were…. drumroll please….
Trades, Film/Media, Food and Beverage, and Adventure Tourism.
3) Youth Entrepreneur Table at Market – The Chamber hosted a table at the Farmers Market over the summer months for young entrepreneurs to showcase their skills, products or services to the community. It was a lot of fun seeing what these young entrepreneurs came up with and we cannot wait to do it again next year!
Emergency Response and Planning
1) Community Roundtable – The Chamber was an active member of the Golden and Area A Wildfire Roundtable in 2024. This group met a number of times and there was much to discuss in terms of mitigation, communication and resiliency. The experiences in our community over the summer months have given us a lot to think about in terms of what we can do to better protect our land, businesses and people.
At the Chamber, we certainly had a lot to reflect on as to how we can better support the community in these situations and are working towards creating a more comprehensive communications plan in order to not be caught without one when this (or other emergencies) happen.
2) Business Continuity Planning – We have attended a number of workshops on Business Continuity Planning for businesses and have so many resources available to you if you would like to dig into creating your own plan. The Golden and District Community Foundation is also offering in person workshops in 2025 to get this done before a situation occurs.
If you would like to take part, please get in touch with them (admin@goldencommunityfoundation.ca) Business Continuity Planning is ESSENTIAL – please don’t wait until a disaster hits to try and create a plan… let us help you be prepared so that things are lined up if and when disaster strikes.
Immigration Advocacy
1) Local Immigration Committee – The Chamber created a Local Immigration Committee in the spring of 2024 in response to the opportunity to apply for the Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP) program. As conversations started we realized that we would need to apply on a more regional level – but this group has been working together to address immigration issues here in our community and are continuing to convene and look at ways that we can better support newcomers in our community. Stay tuned in 2025 for more updates and events from this group!
2) Regional Immigration Committee – The Regional Immigration Committee came together to apply for the RCIP program. Members of this committee hail from all across the East Kootenays (Chambers of Commerce, COTR, Economic Development Offices, Kootenay Employment Services and Community Futures East Kootenay).
The application process was fast and furious and we managed to fundraise and submit an application on an extremely short timeline! Just this past week, we received the news that our regional application was not successful. While this news was disheartening, there are still many advocacy efforts that are ongoing to address community concerns over the new policies coming from Ottawa – and we will not give up!
Networking
1) BC Chambers – The Chamber attends monthly meetings with BC Chambers. Each month, we have opportunities to share additional benefits and resources to our business community, create policy that can be brought forward to legislature, collaborate on similar initiatives, and learn more about what BC Chambers is doing to advocate for the business community provincially. This network is a POWER HOUSE and we are proud to be a part of their membership.
2) Regional Chambers – The Chamber works with other Chambers in the region on a number of initiatives. Keeping the lines of communication open helps us to understand where our common goals lie – and how we can pool our resources to better serve our memberships.
3) Local partnerships & TOG Council Meetings – The Chamber is always looking to partner with community organizations that align with our strategic plans. Most notably in 2024, Local Food Matters and our local farming community have been front of mind. You will be seeing more “support local” campaigns (from both an agricultural and small business perspective) from us in 2025.
If you think Golden and Area A doesn’t have what you need, you just might be in for a surprise! We have also attended a large number of Town Council meetings in 2024. The number of topics that are of importance to us are too vast to share here – but know that we are keeping our finger on the pulse of local government and will continue to work with the Town to best serve our business community needs.
Business and Community Excellence Awards
Our BCEA’s event is always a highlight of the year here at the Chamber! We hosted a great night of celebration with our community and we are already looking forward to the event next year. Thank you to everyone who supported us through sponsorship, sharing their nominations, and purchasing tickets. It was a lot of work from start to finish, especially without additional staff this year, but the event committee was incredible and we want to give them a big round of applause for their efforts!
Moving forward, we are looking to secure additional non-dues revenue sources in order to expand our capacity at the Chamber. We would love to be able to dive into more policy/advocacy work at both local, regional and provincial levels – as well as expand our events and outreach within the community and redevelop our website. Capacity with one staff member can be extremely tight and we have a few asks and applications on the go that will hopefully give us the jump start we need to continue to expand and evolve our services.
We wish you all the very best as 2024 comes to a close and are looking forward to what 2025 will bring!
As always, if you have any concerns or want to connect about your business needs, we are here to help! Don’t hesitate to reach out and we would be happy to connect with you and find resources that can help you and your business thrive.
Visit our website or social media channels (Facebook and Instagram) to stay up to date on what the Kicking Horse Country Chamber of Commerce is working on!
