New Chamber President Building on Success

 

Date:   02 July 2001

 

 

Continuing development of the Chamber’s effectiveness and efficiency is one of the aims of Mary Reader, new President of Christchurch Chamber of Trade and Commerce. Mary thanked outgoing President Christopher Ratcliffe for his hard work throughout the year and outlined her plans for the coming year at the 70th AGM of the Chamber, which was held recently at the Waterford Lodge Hotel, Mudeford.

 

Mary, a partner at Highcliffe public relations consultancy Reader Communications, said that she had greatly enjoyed working with Chris, and that it was the aim of her Presidential year to develop further the successful initiatives started and progressed under his Presidency. The purpose of these was to develop the Chamber’s effectiveness in representing members’ interests, and in providing them with services and support.

 

In particular she would continue to foster constructive relations with local organisations, and to that end would consolidate last year’s restructuring of Chamber Committees to reflect current priorities.

 

These included:

 

Traffic and Planning: an area which involved much consultation and lobbying on behalf of members.

 

Business Promotion: this related to the overall promotion of business in the town, including the organisation of the Food and Wine Festival in close collaboration with Christchurch Borough Council and Christchurch Tourism Association.

 

Business Development: this included arranging open meetings for all Chamber members to help with development of business skills, networking, etc.

 

Town Centre: this Group would continue to work with the Borough Council to improve the face of the Town Centre, and would organise the Evening Opening in late 2000, in the light of the huge success of last year’s opening.

 

Communication: this included the regular Chamber Newsletter, as well as Bulletins to local media whenever the Chamber had anything to report or a position to advocate.

 

An additional objective for her Presidential year would be to re-establish some administrative back-up for the Chamber, so that the load did not fall too heavily on any one person. Mrs Reader emphasised that all Chamber rôles are voluntary and filled by busy people: the whole operation was a team effort, and she expressed great appreciation to all those whose efforts made the Chamber so successful.

 

Mary was speaking following the installation of herself as President, and Tim Lloyd of Splinters Restaurant as Vice President of the Chamber.

 

Her address was preceded by the Annual Report for 1999 from outgoing President Chris Ratcliffe.

 

Chris said that it had been a busy year, with over 1,200 letters written and many meetings attended. Notable successes for the Chamber included a seminar on Business Promotion, the thirtieth Snow Queen procession, the Christchurch Millennium Cinderella Stamp, the Christmas late-night evening opening, and the inclusion of Christchurch in the Sunseeker Rally’s itinerary.

 

Impending events to help raise the town’s profile included the arrival of Any Questions in Christchurch on Good Friday, and of course the Food and Wine Festival in May.

 

A range of planning and development issues continued to face the town, said Chris, and he would be supporting the new President in putting the Chamber’s position forward robustly and professionally.