The Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce is calling its more than 400 member businesses to a special general meeting this Monday that will approve a subtle, but long-overdue name change – and set into motion new terms of office for board directors.
The Oct. 5 meeting is in advance of the business organization’s upcoming annual general meeting the following week, when board elections take place.
Item one on the agenda is to approve a resolution changing the name of the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce to the Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce.
The name was officially changed back on Sept. 17, 1997, when the Cloverdale Board of Trade became the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce but the change was never reflected in its bylaws.
It’s a bit of housekeeping that won’t change the focus of the organization, but will bring it up-to-date.
Chamber members are also being asked to support a change in the term of office for its board of directors. If approved, only six directors would be elected annually, meaning the second half of the board would be elected the following year.
If approved, the changes mean the executive can change every year, but half of the board will remain in place from the previous year, providing stability, president John Gibeau said.
“Currently every director is up for election every year, and there’s no mechanism for electing an executive within the board,” he said.
The changes to the chamber’s constitution and bylaws will help ensure the organization’s goals and objectives are maintained from year to year.
“You could have up to 11 brand-new people every year,” he said, adding the directors are then expected to decide who will serve on the executive as president, for example. “So, we’ve clarified that,” he said, explaining the board will be elected internally by membership at the first meeting following the AGM.
“To me, that was the last bit of clean up,” he said. “The first one was two years ago, to get the financial statements in order.”
The Cloverdale Chamber represents over 400 businesses.
The chamber office worked to set up a new online database that simplifies membership tracking, invoices and payments, and its set up a new website, cloverdalechamber.ca.
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