As many of you will undoubtedly now know, the Chamber was not successful in its bid to retain the City of Penticton's Tourism Development, Economic Development, and Visitor Information service delivery contracts. The City decided on October 28^th to award those contracts to a new entity that will take over the management of these services as of January 1, 2012.

The Chamber has historically shown significant creativity in its efforts to drive economic and social growth and improvement in Penticton and while we are very disappointed with the City's decision we have our membership in mind as always, and are looking ahead to future program opportunities.

As a board and staff, and on behalf of our members, we are extremely proud of the many accomplishments made over the years with respect to the Chamber operations and the fee for service contracts. That creativity and quality of service delivery is attested to by just some of the more recent public accolades received:

• The Chamber was recognized by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in 2010 for using the fee-for-service revenues in a positive way to build the local economy and draw visitors to its community. An independent study by the District of Mission noted that Penticton had the most cost effective method to operate these services;
• Economic Development Officer, David Arsenault, received commendation this fall from The Economic Development Association of BC for his work increasing the profile of Penticton in a positive manner and for initiating best practices in economic development services;
• Tourism Penticton was recognized by the Tourism Industry of BC (TIABC) with the 2011 Sport Tourism Community Legacy Award for its efforts to promote and improve event tourism in the community and create a sustainable sport funding model;
• The Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) awarded Tourism Penticton a regional marketing campaign award for the recent 'Win A Dream Vacation' contest; and
• Under the stewardship of the Chamber the Penticton & Wine Country Visitor Centre has consistently performed in the top ranks of the provincial Visitor Centre network.

Moving forward, the Chamber will continue to focus on excellence in our activities on behalf of our members and the community.

Upcoming Special General Meeting

Our existing by-laws underwent a comprehensive review by the Board to ensure the Chamber had appropriate alignment with the governing Board of Trade Act and with the context of business today. The resulting draft by-laws will be presented for member vote at a Special General Meeting on Wednesday, November 23^rd at 5:00 pm. The Events Calendar has all the details and the draft by-laws are available for review on our website. I hope many of you will be attending to discuss and vote on this important framework for chamber operations.

Membership Holding Strong

Despite the less than stellar economy of this past year, I am pleased to report that our Penticton & Wine Country Chamber membership remains relatively stable. We have experienced a less than 5% decline since December of last year. This is an encouraging trend and we congratulate our member businesses on weathering these challenging times. The Chamber will continue to offer a wide variety of member services and marketing opportunities and to leverage our BC and Canadian Chamber affiliations to support our business community.

Board of Director Changes

Crystal Froese was recently hired by Mosaic Place Events Centre in Saskatchewan as Marketing & Events Coordinator. Mosaic Place is an events centre similar to the SOEC with a 5000 seat hockey/concert arena, conference rooms, full catering amenities, 8 curling lanes and an indoor soccer facility. Crystal obviously had mixed feelings about the move; "It is a bitter sweet decision and I will miss all the great friends I have made. It has been a pleasure serving the business community as a board member of the chamber of commerce and their excellent staff. Penticton is lucky to have such a great organization." Thank you for those kind words Crystal and we wish you much success!