Jen Dart
Tofino Long Beach chamber of commerce
Here at the chamber, we are gearing up for our annual general meeting on Tuesday, March 26 at the 1909 Kitchen at Tofino Resort and Marina.
This is our chance to share with members what we’ve been working on in 2018 and to elect new board members for the coming two years. We also share our financial report for the last year for the approval of members.
We run our AGM in conjunction with Tourism Tofino. As many people know, Tourism Tofino was started as a division of the Chamber. In 2016, we separated administratively and now operate independently as two non-profit organizations. We are still closely tied, however, and share membership, so it makes sense to report back to those members together.
A couple of highlights from the chamber in 2018:
The chamber invited B.C. Housing Minister Selina Robinson to visit our community in January of 2018 to hear about our unique housing challenges. Robinson heard our concerns and those of other resort municipalities and the provincial government recently changed the regulations around the Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT). Now all rental properties are subject to this tax (previously only properties with several units paid the tax), but the funds collected from short-term rentals listed on Airbnb can now be used towards affordable housing initiatives.
We have now successfully negotiated a contract with the District of Tofino to provide business services to the Tofino business community. In 2019 that will involve consultation with select business sectors in the form of business roundtables, as well as maintaining and updating Tofino’s Community Profile—available on our website www.tofinochamber.org. These services will increase as our resources do, so please stay tuned to our website and social media channels for further updates.
At this year’s AGM, we will be electing two new board directors to replace outgoing directors Don Travers (Remote Passages) and Petra Hansman (Petrichor Hair Workshop). Don has served on the chamber board in many capacities for roughly 20 years. As our longest serving board director, we have relied heavily on him for his historical knowledge of our business community and organization and wish him all the best in his chamber retirement. Petra has been a director for several years and the board will miss her insightful questions and passion for the community of Tofino. We have three candidates vying for these two spaces: Amanda Moore (Pacific Sands Beach Resort), Stephanie Hughes (Tofitian Café), and Ryan Teremy (Jamie’s Whaling Station). The election for the new board members will take place at the AGM by ballot. We will also be updating our bylaws at the AGM so that in the future we will be able to do board elections electronically. A few other housekeeping changes to our bylaws, like removing the references to communicating with members by fax, will be up for approval at the AGM as well.
We are currently full for attendance at this year’s AGM, but are keeping a waiting list. Please email our office at info@tofinochamber.org to be added. We look forward to seeing you there.
Jen Dart is the executive director of the Tofino Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.
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