While putting together this week’s Chamber of Commerce special section (Pages 17-19), the Gazette phoned several business owners in order to gather their opinions around their thoughts on how the chamber is doing.
Although all of these off-the-record comments will remain off-the-record, they did leave an impression.
Perhaps this is needless to say, but these off-the-record comments, made by more than one business owner, are not positive ones. Some people polled spoke against the Chamber of Commerce, while others spoke against the town’s elected officials, or the citizens of the town itself.
The main thing these comments left this reporter wondering is, why don’t these business owners speak up to the community’s movers and shakers? Where are these business owners when public meetings take place? Where are they during Chamber of Commerce meetings? They’re certainly not there.
It’s easy to complain about something, but doing something about it is much more constructive. If you feel the Chamber of Commerce is doing a poor job, rattle the cage. The chamber’s there for you. As such, your input is valuable. The same applies to the area’s elected officials.
If these naysayers spoke up and made an effort to improve things, after a while, they’d have nothing to complain about.
To quote Homer Simpson, the king of what-not-to-do-or-think, “The whole reason we have elected officials is so we don’t have to think all the time.”
Although there were a few negative comments, a large majority of the comments business owners provided the Gazette about the Cowichan Lake District Chamber of Commerce were positive, as the article on Page 19 illustrates.
