Wearing her president’s hat, Libby Park said a priority would be “building our membership and getting better at promoting the benefits of being a member of the Chamber of Commerce,” while reporting as the acting treasurer, she noted a problem with unpaid membership dues.

The chamber has 94 members, including those who have overlooked the annual fee of $120.

One strategy mooted to address this problem is to have memberships fall on a common date so the administrative overhead of sending reminder notices is reduced.

The other is to make membership a more compelling prospect.

To achieve this, the Chamber has developed a calendar of events, which includes:

 Replacing Crazy Day with six weeks of events in May and June, themed around celebrating everything about Bellingen –  local food, exceptional tourism, hospitality and shopping experiences, talented local musicians and arts and crafts people and the beautiful environment – which all add up to the magical Viva Bellingen experience.

 Two breakfast events and two evening events with guest speakers.

 Small events throughout the year, such as having a special experience at the end of the Camp Creative week so visitors stay and enjoy the weekend in town even though there will not be a market, and a Winter Solstice street party.

The new board members are Libby Park (Bellingen Kitchen Shop); Rod Keers (ilovebelloshire); Tricia Helyar (Tricia Helyar Architect); Paul Harper (Cedar Bar); Dion Harris (Manager, Bellingen Valley Lodge Motel); John Simon (OpenHomesOnline); Yvonne Wynen (Lilypad Luxury Cabins) and Dr Hilary Cadman (Cadman Editing).

The roles each will play will be decided at the next meeting.

After the AGM there were three guest speakers – Michael Grieve; Hilary Cadman and Rod Keers.

Michael Grieve, Manager of Economic and Business Development at Bellingen Shire Council, started his presentation by congratulating Yvonne and Frank Wynen from Lilypad Luxury Cabins for again taking out the best self-contained accommodation in the state award. 

Hilary Cadman spoke about how much she had enjoyed her involvement with a ‘citizen’s jury’ looking at Council’s policy on local procurement. 

Rod Keers reported on the Chamber of Commerce initiative www.ilovebelloshire.com, which in its first year has presented 105 stories about locals, added over 400 business and community listings to its directory and published over 4000 events to its What’s On calendar.