The Chamber’s 2020 AGM took place on Wednesday under the title Time to Reflect and Move Forward and it’s all change again. Members elected Richard Keel (The Swan Centre) as President and Kerry-Anne Kitson (Kall Kwik Leatherhead) as Vice President. Richard was on annual leave and the quality of the internet connection conspired against his planned attendance. I am sure he will have some thoughts to share with you next week. All the papers were circulated by email beforehand including my report and the accounts and commentary. These were approved, the Chamber name has now officially been changed to Mole Valley Chamber of Commerce Ltd and the number of Directors increased to nine - both by Special Resolution. We welcome Jackie Adams (Jackie Adams Consulting) to the Board and will be looking to find additional volunteers to fill the five available places in such a way that they represent all areas within the District and a wide range of sectors. If you would like to find out more about this please call me! We are also still looking for suggestions for further topics, and volunteers or nominations to lead on them!
The Member Survey can be accessed via the News Bar link below. Please do complete this and share your views to help us move forward. Members at the AGM shared some thoughts also.
Yesterday and today have been busy days with a number of new Members joining before the deadline of our join free for six months offer expiring!
Both the Artisan Market and the Saturday Market with French Pop-up Market last week were really successful, and we are signing up new traders for both. If you would like to try the market as a stallholder please get in touch and look at the details here. December market dates will look a bit different with pre-Christmas markets on 4 and 11 December and the Artisan Market on 18 December. The Christmas Lights Switch-On will be lower key than usual because of the Covid Self Distancing rules, but the Arts & Crafts Market and the French Pop-up Market will both be operating in addition to the regular Saturday stalls.
During October our events include a range of topics to help our Members and guests: ‘Keep Safely Connected: A Guide To Cyber Hygiene’ with Howard Hughes of Hughestech Ltd on 7 October, and ‘How professional do you appear to your clients when on screen? with Ges Ray of Speaking in Public on 14 October. Details to come on our Virtual Breakfast on 21 October and ‘Client Engagement’ with Daniel Plowright of Enquir3 on 28 October.
Everyone is reminded that some of the many benefits of Chamber Membership include the ability for Members to promote their business events, news, other items of interest, situations vacant and Members Offers & Discounts via the Chamber’s Website and Weekly Update Emails – so Members, please do send details to Melodie Hunt at the Chamber office.
There are some great offers currently on the Members Offers & Discounts page on our website. Surrey Hills Community Radio has an excellent free offer for advertising at the moment, and is open to interviews with our Members too! JP Leadership Coaching is promoting an excellent group coaching programme which offers extraordinary value for a small group as opposed to individual coaching.
Please do promote the benefits of joining the Chamber to your business colleagues and customers. If you have a window which needs one of our posters and a membership sticker do let us know, and we have flyers as well for anyone in a position to deliver some. Remember this is all about building the strongest possible business community to move forward together as we all come out of the current difficulties and current recession!
Finally, I would like to repeat the thanks in my President’s Report for the AGM: to all of the Board for their support and hard work during the year, in particular to Kerry-Anne Kitson for her continuing work on the website and marketing generally; to Tracey Holloway for her sterling efforts launching and then relaunching the Artisan Market and keeping our weekly markets running, and to John Howarth for his wise words and wisdom, and on his well-deserved retirement from the Board. Thanks also to Melodie Hunt who provides the support that keeps the Chamber running and all our admin.
