The Chamber has relocated to 100, 166 Main Street Penticton (directly across from City Hall) and is open between 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. We are still working on finding a new permanent location for our offices and large meeting room facility. We have a boardroom here that seats 12-14 and we are happy to make alternative arrangements for any meetings that our current boardroom space won't accommodate. Just call our office.

Chamber Representation on City Advisory Committees

Your Chamber is hard at work both in public and behind the scenes. The Chamber applied for a representative position on each of the recently announced City of Penticton advisory committees. We are happy to communicate that Council agreed to our involvement on five. These committees and our current Chamber Director appointees are as follows:

• Community Business and Development Advisory Committee - Jon Milligan
• Airport Select Committee - Rick Riddall
• Downtown Revitalization Committee - Deborah O'Mara
• SOEC Select Committee - Elizabeth Cucnik
• Waterfront Enhancement Select Committee - Lauren Cornish

We will provide updates as these committees get underway and we encourage our Members to let us know if they have input, questions, comments, etc. regarding committee activities. It is yet unclear how the proposed Penticton Business Development Group advisory committees for tourism and economic development will complement these City committees once they are implemented, however, as a key voice of the business community in Penticton, the Chamber looks forward to active involvement in these as well.

Get Involved! Make a Difference!

The March 1^st deadline for Director nominations is fast approaching. The Chamber Board is looking to fill 14 seats this term. The Chamber is focused on supporting our Member needs and the business economy as a whole through a variety of activities and services. If you are interested in learning more about being a Board member or wish to put your name forward for election, please give our office a call and download the nomination form off the website. The Annual General Meeting will be held March 15^th at the Ramada Inn and Suites Courtyard Ballroom starting at 5pm. Members are reminded that voting will take place at the meeting by secret ballot so please plan to be there to vote your choice. RSVP is requested. Please contact Lisa at admin@penticton.org or 250.492.4103 to RSVP.

Survey Results

Thanks again to all who participated in our survey to determine how Members felt with respect to the allocation of the new City of Penticton electrical rate increase. As a recap, 35% of respondents felt the increase should be shared equally across residential, commercial and industrial classes, while 59% felt the increase should be rebalanced to mirror the FortisBC rate class structure. The Chamber represented these results to City Council at the public input session on January 18^th and we are pleased to advise that Council chose a strategy of rebalancing to mirror the FortisBC rate class structure. This will provide considerable relief to large commercial and industrial Member operations which require vast amounts of power.

Business After Business Networking

Join us Thursday, February 23^rd from 5p to 7p at Windward Software for our next Business after Business networking event. Windward is located at 200, 3547 Skaha Lake Road. It should be a fun event and we look forward to seeing lots of members out!